Just like GCD in Snow Leopard.. it never caught on and I assume the same will be with the firepro drivers. Software always trails the hardware.. Hardware is there, but drivers aren't which take advantage of it.
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FirePro in New Mac Pro is FirePro W9000
- Thread starter Amethyst
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Beyond not needing them, they're actively bad for my workflow. I'm really hoping that they're talking about the "Break the bank!" level configuration.
As far as I know, most software does not know how to take advantage of more than one GPU.
With dual GPUs installed as default, does this imply that Crossfire will be part of 10.9, or simply that one GPU will be wasted for the vast majority of applications?
With dual GPUs installed as default, does this imply that Crossfire will be part of 10.9, or simply that one GPU will be wasted for the vast majority of applications?
We wil have to wait for OS X 10.9's specs.. if OS X supports crossfire, this will be the 1st time.. but I highly doubt it. OS X has never supported hard core gaming with SLI or even crossfire. Your best bet is under Bootcamp. There it is possible that crossfire can be realized with the FireGPU.
I am expecting some form of Crossfire. Whether or not it will work in OpenGL games in OS X? Don't know. It'll work in Windows most likely which will be very nice. Aside from micro stutter. At least now you can actually game on 2560x1600 or 1440p Apple displays with all the bells and whistles. Assuming way too much though. It has been a long day.
The design of the new Mac Pro is very interesting... I actually kind of like it. But...
1. The lack of CUDA-enabled graphics options would be a deal breaker for me. Adobe CS apps and DaVinci Resolve both rely heavily on CUDA for optimal performance.
2. The only thing that looks to be internally expandable at all is the memory. No internal hard drive expansion and no PCIe slots. Thunderbolt only. Not only does this make accessory hardware unnecessarily expensive, but power users and pros will have to deal with a rat's nest of cables like one would on a laptop.
Clearly, the new Mac Pro is designed for FCP X. Maybe it'll grow on me once it ships, but for right now, I think I'll stick with my tower.
1. The lack of CUDA-enabled graphics options would be a deal breaker for me. Adobe CS apps and DaVinci Resolve both rely heavily on CUDA for optimal performance.
2. The only thing that looks to be internally expandable at all is the memory. No internal hard drive expansion and no PCIe slots. Thunderbolt only. Not only does this make accessory hardware unnecessarily expensive, but power users and pros will have to deal with a rat's nest of cables like one would on a laptop.
Clearly, the new Mac Pro is designed for FCP X. Maybe it'll grow on me once it ships, but for right now, I think I'll stick with my tower.
OS X already supports using more than one GPU at a time for OpenCL. That's what I'd expect.
Huh? Most apps use GCD. GCD is for more than just multithreading, you know. It's hard not to use GCD these days.
Huh? Most apps use GCD. GCD is for more than just multithreading, you know. It's hard not to use GCD these days.
There are no 12 core IVB-E. An IVB-EP (Xeon E5) , but no -E (Core i7 4xxx ).
At least $1770 but yeah $2500 would be surprising if the base clock rate was also boosted close to 3.0GHz. More likely mid 2's (and the lower end of that range. )
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if sticking with the FirePro line up then either
W5000 (probably around $600 each after Apple non-standard customization tax factored in.)
or
W7000 (probably around $800 each after Apple non-standard customization factored in. )
probably whichever they need to start base configuration prices at over $2,000 mark.
No. That's is partially what is driving having two customized daugthercards mandatory weaved into the design to feed the 3 Thunderbolt controllers.
No.
If Apple had backed off to Xeon E3 but I think they are trying to show they aren't backsliding and want to throw a 12 core into the BTO mix.
I heard him say two GPUs "as standard in every mac pro". I missed some other sentence?
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yes.
There are a couple things you should note. One is workstation gpus are not constantly rebadged with adjusted clock rates like gaming gpus. You don't have as much change across static price points outside of major generational gaps such as changes in chip architecture. For cpus you wouldn't have many options either way. It will ship with Ivy. Your only options would be Ivy. I doubt they will be soldered. Some of those cpus are extremely expensive. I'm not sure they would want to eat those costs if a logic board goes bad, but you are unlikely to have much in the way of great cpu upgrade options. I'm more curious what it will cost for at least a 6 core, decent gpus, and thunderbolt DAS. I also want to see what happens in terms of software developer support. Paying for 2 expensive gpus is expensive if you can't really put them to use. I am glad to see workstation gpus.
I suspect this one is designed to sit on top of a desk. Using short cables and some cable management, it might not be too terrible. I agree with you on FCPX. AMD cards have supposedly better OpenCL performance on OSX than NVidia. If they're going this route, they will need developer support. I don't think FCPX alone is enough to support the platform. The Pegasus raid is also not such a great solution as the only prominent thunderbolt DAS. I do not think anyone should expect massive adoption from day 1. Of course that means some ridiculous article followed by fanboy comments about how mac pro users don't deserve Apple's attention
.It is heavily skewed to those who work in groups and store data on SAN/NAS networks. Also to users who do alot of sneaker net data transport ( data on drives that physically move).
I don't think that is necessarily FCP X. Avid solutions have centralized storage options too. in fact almost any high end video system allows for that.
What is seriously missing with this new Mac Pro is a JBOD oriented device that is much more affordable than the RAID boxes that are more prevalent now.
I also think that some folks aren't counting the mutiple of cables coming out of their GPU/Video cards when labeling this Mac the "Octopus" or unmanagable cable management. For better or worse it moves more cables ports into a smaller amount of space. Folks who have multiple montir set-ups , a keyboard , and an external drive are alot closer to six than zero when it comes to cables.
What if you can take out one gpu and put in a CPU instead then you make it a dual processor. Some people might not need two gpus.
You could might be able to use Xeon E5 "v1" but why would you want to. If Xeon E5 v2 ( "Ivy") is the lastest out why would someone want to use something older. I could see if there was something newer than v2... but there isn't going to be for over a year.
That v2 is at the dead end of a Intel tick-tock cycle and there will be socket update on the next iteration.... that has exceeding little to do with Apple or this (or any other) Mac Pro.
When show up late to a tick-tock cycle that is what happens for any vendor.
Which 6 core is probably a pressing question too. If it is a E5 2600 v2 ... may be trading off more base clock speed than you think.
Adobe has already been transitioning to OpenCL support. It isn't 100% done right now but it isn't zero either ( and neither is this Mac Pro released right now either. Thunderbolt v2 is probably going to slide this past the arrival of Xeon E5 v2. Wouldn't be surprising if a speed bump on the video cards too. )
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If you look close you will see a PCIe slot for the flash storage.
Attachments
What if there were tiny little people living in my pocket instead? Then I could just make them do all the work producing my magic hats.
He did say hard drive expansion.
Most likely the required capacity is in the > 1TB range which is a "no fly zone" for that PCI-e slot, small card storage option.
Hard to tell, but maybe there's a second slot available behind that current one? Here's hoping.
Now bring on the 4K retina Cinema Displays!!!
Yup. GCD totally never caught on and has gone the way of the dodo. It's not used at all in OS X or iOS.
There are a couple things you should note. One is workstation gpus are not constantly rebadged with adjusted clock rates like gaming gpus. You don't have as much change across static price points outside of major generational gaps such as changes in chip architecture. For cpus you wouldn't have many options either way. It will ship with Ivy. Your only options would be Ivy. I doubt they will be soldered. Some of those cpus are extremely expensive. I'm not sure they would want to eat those costs if a logic board goes bad, but you are unlikely to have much in the way of great cpu upgrade options. I'm more curious what it will cost for at least a 6 core, decent gpus, and thunderbolt DAS. I also want to see what happens in terms of software developer support. Paying for 2 expensive gpus is expensive if you can't really put them to use. I am glad to see workstation gpus.
I suspect this one is designed to sit on top of a desk. Using short cables and some cable management, it might not be too terrible. I agree with you on FCPX. AMD cards have supposedly better OpenCL performance on OSX than NVidia. If they're going this route, they will need developer support. I don't think FCPX alone is enough to support the platform. The Pegasus raid is also not such a great solution as the only prominent thunderbolt DAS. I do not think anyone should expect massive adoption from day 1. Of course that means some ridiculous article followed by fanboy comments about how mac pro users don't deserve Apple's attention
All good points. There needs to be more TB based storage solutions.
Well, I also meant PCIe expansion, as in full-sized cards, not just a proprietary miniature slot for flash storage. TB PCIe card enclosures do exist, but they start at around $400 each (for a cheap Sonnet enclosure that will only support a single half-length card).
What concerns me is the price of the dual GPU setup. MSRP is $3,999 each for those cards. While I'm sure Apple will be able to get some sort of a deal on them, they'll still cost at LEAST $3k-$4k. Add a Xeon to that, a proprietary SSD from Apple, and you're looking at a starting price of at least $6,999.
Not to mention the TDP of those GPUs is over 500W already. Plus the CPU. You're looking at decent sized PSU in that little machine. I hope it holds up well under load.
Not to mention the TDP of those GPUs is over 500W already. Plus the CPU. You're looking at decent sized PSU in that little machine. I hope it holds up well under load.
I don't see any other options that provide exactly the specs of the new MP.
- 4096 Stream Processors
- 6 GB VRAM
- 384 bit mem bus
- 528 GB/s total bandwidth
It matches EXACTLY.
But just by looking at the cards it's clear that they are not off the shelf versions of anything. Thus MSRP of some other card doesn't mean that much even though they may be equivalent spec wise.