If Apple does update the Mac Pro, can we all just agree to have a week of quiet before the next "Is the Mac Pro dead?" thread pops up? I just foresee the Mac Pro being updated and two seconds later a "IS THIS THE LAST MAC PRO EVAR!?!" thread appearing...
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If The Mac Pro is Dead - What next?
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Think it will take that long?
Seriously.... I think it's a credit to the Mac Pro that there are so many of us that feel this strongly about it. It's almost... dare I say it? ... approaching cult-ish.....
Many pros, especially on Pro Tools HD, NEED a mac pro update. PC on Pro Tools is NOT cool.
Tell that to the "iMac is fast enough for everybody" crowd.
I hate the imac. Regarding that crowd, they never bother to think it through. It's always a reference to thunderbolt or X hardware should be good enough for anyone. I see it this way. Even if the raw power available was enough, the imac was never really designed for someone like a video editor, photographer, graphic designer, colorist, illustrator, etc. Some of those guys use them, but the machine isn't designed as it would have been if they were the target market. Display is glossy and very very very very difficult to profile properly. It uses LED which is inferior for any of those guys. The hard drives are not readily accessible, and at least the 3.5" sata drive isn't user serviceable (sucks having to take the machine in just for a dead drive if it happens). I should also mention that not everything has a thunderbolt equivalent. While that may change in the future, it definitely hasn't yet. Anyway... point being it's not just speed.
I think it'll get one. As others have noted, the Windows side hasn't really seen any updates either, and before anyone says it, there isn't any real evidence that Apple gets an automatic first priority. They do have purchasing contracts, which obviously gives them higher priority than non contract purchasers. Everyone should be prepared for a disappointing refresh cycle even beyond this revision. Ivy Bridge E isn't expected until Q2 2013, and that's assuming there are no further delays. It's currently scheduled after consumer (for lack of a better word) haswell, and it could end up like Westmere as a partial lineup. I can't find a full lineup for it. At least through Haswell it looks like we're not seeing mac pro cpu variants until the following year, which is somewhat annoying.
Some designs allow for more drives if 2.5" drives are used. There's no real reason to force it though, and the installed hard drives aren't what keeps the machine big. It actually has a fair amount of space in some areas as it is. If they wish to change the case, they will, but I wouldn't count on such a shift drastically changing sales.
I don't want to go the hackintosh route. I would probably max out the RAM in a mini (OWC sells a 16 gb kit) and then see what thunderbolt storage options exist at the time.
I have an Apple Cinema Display, so an iMac is not something I'm considering.
But I think the Mac Pro line has life in it yet. Maybe we'll see a refresh as Mountain Lion draws closer.
I have an Apple Cinema Display, so an iMac is not something I'm considering.
But I think the Mac Pro line has life in it yet. Maybe we'll see a refresh as Mountain Lion draws closer.
I guess to get back on topic, depends on the performance of Thunderbolt GPUs. If I could get a pro card working at similar performance to if the card was built in, I'd actually consider some sort of currently mythical quad core Macbook Air. Just dock it to the GPU when I got home.
If Thunderbolt can't do that... I don't know... Panic? I might consider an iMac. But I'd be kicking and screaming the entire way.
If Thunderbolt can't do that... I don't know... Panic? I might consider an iMac. But I'd be kicking and screaming the entire way.
Of course not ... but are you claiming that the two are the same speed? I don't think that's correct either.
From a benchmarking perspective, I don't necessarily believe that the iMac is appropriately compared to any of the dual-CPU Mac Pros. Yes, there's a lot of "howevers" in here that depend very much on individual specifics of one's applications and workflows ... so picking the simple base single CPU is a pragmatic simplification when trying to avoid narrow specifics and generalize.
True, but since the iMac hasn't yet been equipped with high performance I/O hard disks that are equivalent to the SATA HDD slots in the Mac Pro, the basic comparison isn't yet complete. That's where the $1150 chunk of change for the Promise R4 via Thunderbolt comes in as the "iMac Tax".
And I'm running a Synology DiskStation NAS which I find isn't anywhere near fast enough for performing routine work I/O to, so it is relegated to be the "third string" backup that's IMO only really suitable to run in the background overnight, since my full backups are currently around a TB.
PS: I did some checking yesterday on current hardware performance and found that SmallNetBuilder's "best NAS" performance ratings right now are hitting around 100MB/s with a RAID5 type configuration. In contrast, Dave's Hardware was reporting that current individual (non-RAID) 3.5" drives are now benchmarking at 150MB/s, which means that they're roughly 50% faster than a NAS RAID...before they've even been put into a RAID. What this is basically illustrating is that a NAS over Gigabit Ethernet is capped by the host protocol, which is slower than SATA-I.
-hh
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Its not about speed.
I can buy PC workstations/servers with 512gb of RAM today, and no imac is going to touch that.
Just because YOU don't need that much RAM, it doesn't mean that there are not tasks out there that can make use of it.
The iMac also doesn't use ECC memory, which makes it totally unsuitable for various purposes, such as scientific research.
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Because they've announced so much about the replacement MBA, MBP, iPhone 5, etc?
I could not agree with you more. I am a mac pro user and hope to god they do not kill this line.
I am not mac pro user, but have talked to those that have to have the pro to do their jobs. When the rumors of the Mac Pro being EOL'ed came out they were very seriously upset.
I mean they were "WTF OMG BBQ" for about month. A few have went to Avid. All that do Photography that needed an Updated machine went to iMac. They seem happy with TB. One avid guy tells me all the time. He would switch in a minute if had a real updated MP. Those that have stayed had some serious fun with the new FCX although most are happy now.
ALL tell me if the MP is dropped Apple corporate might as well go outback and off themselves, ala Jonestown Jim Jones in mass, in the parking lot. It would be a Serious, WTF were you thinking boy, moment.
If it were me I would kill the mini dead and drink a fifth of scotch to celebrate its death.
Build only 22" iMacs, with BTO options, great screens, real graphics cards and Blade SSD and HDD.
Then tell the design team to have fun and make a true headless mac (Small Tower). One triple wide graphics card slot with a REAL graphics card, one optical drive bay, one SSD blade drive (for main OS) and one 3.5 HDD Bay, Expandable to 64 Gig memory, keep the same ports number and placement. Finally add the biggest processor the thing will hold without going thermonuclear. Add in some BTO and sell it WITHOUT a keyboard or mouse. Just the computer, power cord, and printed and electronic documentation.
Oh it would sell you know you would buy one.
I mean they were "WTF OMG BBQ" for about month. A few have went to Avid. All that do Photography that needed an Updated machine went to iMac. They seem happy with TB. One avid guy tells me
all the time. He would switch in a minute if had a real updated MP. Those that have stayed had some serious fun with the new FCX although most are happy now. ALL tell me if the MP is dropped Apple corporate might as well go outback and off themselves, ala Jonestown Jim Jones in mass, in the parking lot. It would be a Serious, WTF were you thinking boy, moment.
If it were me I would kill the mini dead and drink a fifth of scotch to celebrate its death.
Build only 22" iMacs, with BTO options, great screens, real graphics cards and Blade SSD and HDD.
Then tell the design team to have fun and make a true headless mac (Small Tower). One triple wide graphics card slot with a REAL graphics card, one optical drive bay, one SSD blade drive (for main OS) and one 3.5 HDD Bay, Expandable to 64 Gig memory, keep the same ports number and placement. Finally add the biggest processor the thing will hold without going thermonuclear. Add in some BTO and sell it WITHOUT a keyboard or mouse. Just the computer, power cord, and printed and electronic documentation.
Oh it would sell you know you would buy one.
Paraphrasing myself from another thread
Last week I bought & watched "A Scanner Darkly".
One special feature was on the rotoscoping process; interviews, footage, 30+ animators for 15 months.
Big fat shiny Mac Pro on every desk I could see.
It was beautiful!
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... of course, they were using custom software updated from an earlier film, ie not available on other platforms without an agonizing rewrite.
I imagine Linklater might want to use the technique again some day....
Last week I bought & watched "A Scanner Darkly".
One special feature was on the rotoscoping process; interviews, footage, 30+ animators for 15 months.
Big fat shiny Mac Pro on every desk I could see.
It was beautiful!
==========
... of course, they were using custom software updated from an earlier film, ie not available on other platforms without an agonizing rewrite.
I imagine Linklater might want to use the technique again some day....
A lot of software companies have spent millions of dollars to make Mac versions of their apps - and an awful lot of these pro-level apps just won't run on an iMac - or at least not very well with the crappy GPUs in there. I for one don't want to render CG on a quad-core iMac; not while I can do it on a 12-core (or 16-core) MacPro...
If Apple just turned off the tap for these developers, they wouldn't be very happy I don't think. They've already taken a gamble on supporting a small market - a gamble that for most devs seems to have worked out. So I for one really hope Apple keeps this pro market going. Or at least look at making some really, really high-end iMacs!
If Apple just turned off the tap for these developers, they wouldn't be very happy I don't think. They've already taken a gamble on supporting a small market - a gamble that for most devs seems to have worked out. So I for one really hope Apple keeps this pro market going. Or at least look at making some really, really high-end iMacs!
the longer apple don't announce anything, the longer it becomes clear the Mac Pro is dying.
If we were to be positive however, perhaps the designers at Apple might be looking at how to innovate desktop computing for everyone that needs to do more than iMovie or email. Surely its what Steve would have wanted?
What would that new computer look like? Slimmer? Faster? Retina Displays? Touch? Siri? What would you like to see in a £5000 personal computer that changed the game?
If we were to be positive however, perhaps the designers at Apple might be looking at how to innovate desktop computing for everyone that needs to do more than iMovie or email. Surely its what Steve would have wanted?
What would that new computer look like? Slimmer? Faster? Retina Displays? Touch? Siri? What would you like to see in a £5000 personal computer that changed the game?
If I'm being honest the purchase of my Mac Pro was, if anything, a little bit overkill for what I use it for (some Logic Pro), but I'd been used to regular PCs for so long I liked just being able to open it up and swap the hard drives around etc.
I still love my Mac Pro. It looks cool. Nice to be part of the cult, LOL.
I still love my Mac Pro. It looks cool. Nice to be part of the cult, LOL.
I thought the same thing about Mac Mini. Remember it was almost 2 years once before they updated it. Heck there pages and pages on here that routinely implied that the Mini was dead due to it being a switcher machine Apple at the time had already went intel years before.
God I hate that little computer.
My fear is Apple will release a new MP but it will be a Mac Pro-X machine. All dumbed down and features removed in the "interest" of appealing to greater masses of people. Less is not more when it comes to Mac "PRO"!
Boy, that prompted a bizzarre vision:
A matt 27" retina display whose cabinet is ~8" thick.
Yeah, its an iMac with a Mac Pro glued on its back
-hh
My issue is that the Mac Pro hasn't been updated in nearly two years and the price is still the same as when it came out.
They should have at least reduced the price just over the one year mark.
Dell and other PC vendors drop the prices on their machines over the course of a year as new models are released, I think Apple should do the same.
Not every update to a Pro machine needs to be some revolutionary event, it can be small spec bumps or price reductions.
They should have at least reduced the price just over the one year mark.
Dell and other PC vendors drop the prices on their machines over the course of a year as new models are released, I think Apple should do the same.
Not every update to a Pro machine needs to be some revolutionary event, it can be small spec bumps or price reductions.
Lol at these threads. The OP specifically said he didn't want this turning into a debate on whether or not the MP would live, but a discussion on what you will do assuming it's dead. There's probably 2 people who addressed that topic.
After page 2 no one cares what the OP wants. You didn't address anything either.
At the level of Xeon workstation, prices still fluctuate, but not as much as consumer lines, and they're floating in that regard. If you look at resellers rather than Apple, some of them do offer price reductions late in a cycle.
I haven't seen Apple do what you're suggesting since the PowerPC days on any line. I get it. You're annoyed with the price of an aging machine, but at this point I don't think it's a bad idea waiting for the next one. If you buy one of these today, it may be moved to legacy hardware faster than you'd like. It's hard to predict which way Apple will go at times.
If Apple announces that the Mac Pro is EOL, I will buy a 2010 MP from the refurb pages, and continue using that unit for a minimum of 3 years (AppleCare) and probably 5 or 6 years.
After that I suspect the iPad v8 will have the same processing power as my current 2008 MP.
I just hope I can scoop one fast enough (from the refurb site) before they're gone.
After that I suspect the iPad v8 will have the same processing power as my current 2008 MP.
I just hope I can scoop one fast enough (from the refurb site) before they're gone.
I don't think so. If they wanted to kill it, they'd kill it. There isn't any reason to wait on a discontinuation announcement.
I'm also waiting on an announcement of when WWDC is. Last year they announced it by now. Am I supposed to assume because they haven't announced it WWDC is dead?