They also don't realized that 99.9% of software can't even utilize a 12-core system with 96GB of RAM. You can put 128 but even the OS can't recognize that much RAM.
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Mac Pro alternatives
- Thread starter starkrayz
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They also don't realized that 99.9% of software can't even utilize a 12-core system with 96GB of RAM. You can put 128 but even the OS can't recognize that much RAM.
Yes but the 1% that do are the ones people buy the Pro's for. Cinema4D, Logic Pro, Lightroom (maybe 6 or so cores), Photoshop CS5 in certain actions, Handbrake, Compressor, Final Cut X (not really pro), Maya, Smoke, Painter, VM's can have more cores thrown their way, Lightwave, even iPhoto... If your SW does not use the cores then don't buy the Mac Pro.
As far as pure desktop machines go the Mac Pro is the best built desktop ever made imho.
There is no alternative to the best.
There is no alternative to the best.
After more than a year I am obliged to agree. Never had a machine so rock solid in my life. Super cool, super quiet, just nails. The extra cash for me was well worth it. I like messing around with PC HW as much as the next geek but not needing to mess around with and tweak is a nice change for a while.
That's kind of the rub with the Mac Pro with all this talk about cutting it. Those 1% that buy a Mac Pro need the processing power of a Mac Pro. It's not a "but I'd be able to fall back to a Mac Mini." It's an all or nothing situation.
This talk about Apple cutting the Mac Pro is so scary because there really wouldn't be a suitable backup machine to purchase instead.
^^. You know if you've been in the business long enough not to worry too much about all the tech drivel. They need clicks for their wallets, little else. Wait till it is official. Apple kept promising me "something special" after the Xserve death. I am keeping the faith, for now.
I'd be less worried if I was hearing things from inside Apple that weren't so focused on moving all resources to killing Google. I'm pretty sure the iOS/Android spat has driven Apple over the edge. I'm pretty sure Apple has the resources to both sustain pros and effectively fight Google, but they've kind of been blinded by the entire thing.
While I USE all available cores and RAM I have in my pro, I still think the lions share of people who buy their mac pros don't have the need, know how, or ability to harness the power.
I loved just a few months back before FCPX came out all these editors just HAD to have a pro even though they were cutting P2 footage with no capture card, esata card and running loading them with RAM thinking they were making their edit faster.
I always think the exact same thing!! Interestingly enough I was on apple.com/pro today and noticed that next to the ad for "The All New Mac Pro" there is one for Final Cut Pro which still features the old Studio box. I got excited, Apple gets it!!
Even without new Xeons available, during the last 1.5 years Apple could have done a lot to improve the Mac Pro or at least keep up the value in relation to the adamant price point. The next revision better be more than just an evolutional CPU spec bump...
Yup. X79 was just released and a bit hobbled. So even small features were not available till very recently.
More to the point, they only upgrade the mac pro when there are new CPUs for it. They just don't alter the product at all until they can make the full upgrade. That's the way it's always been, and that's why all this rumbling about canceling is just noise until we hear otherwise. Intel has not upgraded the platform, and therefore cannot upgrade the mac pro.
I'd recommend you upgrade. Even the base macpro will blow your g5 out of the water. The base model is fine. If you can I'd go for the 3.2 quad. Buy your RAM and HD from the aftermarket.
Nobody knows what is going to happen. If thunderbolt takes off, and portable CPU and RAM capacity continues to increase, I can see the day when some Macpro users might be more than happy with a laptop and
thunderbolt dock/display.
In the mean time if you upgrade you'll have a machine that will likely
last you years - just like your g5 did. There will be some software upgrade costs, but you will face these no matter what apple does.
Seeing that the 2010 is basically a 2009 with new firmware, it's rather 2.5 than 1.5 years and i could see various options Apple could have chosen (besides generally lowering the price, which Apple unfortunately does not do except on product changes/transitions):
- Upgrade to better CPU within existing Xeon series
- Replace entry-level single-core CPU with cheaper / more powerful i7 (lower price point)
- Upgrade GPU
- Upgrade memory
- Upgrade Ethernet to 10GigE
- Add 3.5"/2.5" options for optical bay(s)
- Add SSD options / better SSD support (e.g. blade SSD's as found in the MBA, PCIe card or direkt slides for 2.5" drives)
- Add SATA-6G
- Add internal Raid-5/6 options
- Make hard drive bays hot-swapable
- Add high-power USB e.g. for iPad charging
- Add USB 3 (/eSata)
- Redesign case before CPU switch (Tick/Tock: smaller, rack-mountable -> see rumors)
The list is probably not even complete (namely there may be special pro requirements i'm not aware of). Some points could've been pretty easy to accomplish (if only by putting in an additional PCIe card by default), others may have required a little more effort - but still significantly less than doing a full redesign.
Apple is known for being pretty sensitive when it comes to product maintenance and market requirements and not being shy to EOL products they don't see a viable future for. I'm sure they have precisely noticed that the niche of behemoth machines like the MP has significantly shrunk since consumer-grade CPU's went multi-core. Therefore i do believe that the whole line (in its current incarnation) has indeed been questioned as rumored - and that the decision took quite some time, thus preventing any resource dedication at all for that time.
After all it's still Apple's product and design, so they _could_ have done quite some things without Intel - chipset and CPU are only some components Apple has integrated into the MP design that they gave Foxconn for production.
A lot of those things you've listed (such as SATA6, USB3, 10gig ethernet) do not have built in support in the current Xeon's chipset.
In addition there are some weird things on your list. (Blade SSDs? In a Mac Pro? Why on earth?) Hot swappable drives are a very odd choice for a workstation tower.
The GPU is about the only one that should have been upgraded, along with a possible price readjustment.
In addition there are some weird things on your list. (Blade SSDs? In a Mac Pro? Why on earth?) Hot swappable drives are a very odd choice for a workstation tower.
The GPU is about the only one that should have been upgraded, along with a possible price readjustment.
It looks like the global hard drive shortage is effecting the ship times for some models with certain HD configs. I don't see it possible for Apple to cut the Mac Pro with no x serve they need some sort of system to use servers themselves.
Yeah, they're called HPs + Red Hat Linux, which is what a significant portion of Apple's data centers are run on (well that and Amazon's cloud storage).
New Mac Pro is important to Apple and their own engineers, who are busy building all their other shiny sh1ny magical iCrap using those boxes ... but not as servers.
I believe Jester is poking at Final X not really making the Pro name real...
The shipping times are 1-3 weeks for any CPU upgrades as well. So it does appear appple is drawing down supplies of their bto options.
If you loaded a iMac or Mini with LOTS of ram, you should be okay for Photoshop. Don't know about AVid or FCP. I think there you are on the hook for the extra power a MP provides.
Myself, my MP is vastly under-used but ask if I will give it up.
The initial release will include just the Core i7-3960X and 3930K processors as the third member of the family, the quad-core Core i7-3820 will apparently make its entrance into the market in February of 2012.
The Core i7-3960X and 3930K processors are released. Why they are taking so long is beyond me. The Core i7-3820 will be released in a few weeks.
Ivy bridge is right around the corner and will be faster clock for clock than sandy bridge. I quad core imac i7 ivy bridge or ivy bridge quad core Server Mini could be as fast as a Quad core Mac Pro with a Core i7-3820.
Intel is way late on these processors.
Apparently they are fixing the SB-E chips that they prematurely released as i7-39xx. The stepping and VT needed work. So they said they will fix for the Xeon variants. Consumers to them do not care of such things.
Ivy Bridge does not seem all that awesome right now. 5% increase maybe clock for clock. But higher clock overall so maybe 10%? Whatever is after Ivy will be even faster so really no quantum leap. The leap happened with i7. The rest is just little bumps.
If you loaded a iMac or Mini with LOTS of ram, you should be okay for Photoshop. Don't know about AVid or FCP. I think there you are on the hook for the extra power a MP provides.
Myself, my MP is vastly under-used but ask if I will give it up.
I cut feature length HD television shows using FCP on a mini loaded with RAM. It isn't ideal but it certainly will work fine.
Not every feature has to be part of the standard chipset - just think of Thunderbolt or USB3 (in the PC world) - but instead can be a separate chip or even an extension card (the graphic card is not part of the chipset, either).
To keep the standard bays free for standard drives (storage!) and to have synergies with other Mac lines (economies of scale!), to name just two. Space would be another, if Apple e.g. chose to redesign the whole thing into a smaller housing. For me not weird, but reasonable enough to mention it as a possible alternative.
Imho that would be a logical consequence if you would have Raid-5 available. Heck - even for the currently available Raid-0/1 options it could be useful.
I still believe that my options list is valid - and the assumption that Apple simply does not change it's price points unless a device gets upgraded is unfortunately a given, considering how Apple has acted over the last years.
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