Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Isn't asking Pixar to demo and give reactions to a machine akin to a father asking his favorite child what the child thinks of him?

I'd say what the computer was actually able to do during the demo spoke for itself.
 
5870s can run OpenCL. On Windows it was always CUDA based, or at least required an NVidia card.

Oh no, what I meant was the a 5870 probably could not produce this sort of experience. So I'd still expect this machine to be way faster than the current.
 
Proprietary Software...

What software are pixar using? Maya? Really excited to see the video.

Pixar uses many different software suites but on the whole they use their own proprietary software and have since the company was started by my now retired boss George Lucas...

Both company's Pixar & Lucasfilm is now owned by Disney and its a great union no matter what anyone says!

Also, the proprietary stuff is built off of Maya...;)
 
I'd say what the computer was actually able to do during the demo spoke for itself.

I think we can all agree the demo was impressive, but again, this was a software demo.

Until we see the Mac Pro put through some tests against other hardware then I wouldn't put too much stock in it.
 
I'd say what the computer was actually able to do during the demo spoke for itself.

This.

I don't think a majority of the people who were unimpressed realized what exactly they were looking at and how much information was being hauled around the screen.
 
This.

I don't think a majority of the people who were unimpressed realized what exactly they were looking at and how much information was being hauled around the screen.

On top of that, didn't they say something about the software being ported to OS X/OpenCL 8 days before the demo?
 
I think we can all agree the demo was impressive, but again, this was a software demo.

I'm not sure what people are expecting to accomplish by benching it against other machines. I'm guessing it'll run just like any other 12 core Sandy Bridge Xeon with dual FireGLs and a gigabit PCI Express SSD.

What surprise are you exactly expecting to see when benching it against other hardware?
 
I think we can all agree the demo was impressive, but again, this was a software demo.

Until we see the Mac Pro put through some tests against other hardware then I wouldn't put too much stock in it.

I think this viewpoint is a shame. Moving over 20 GB of data around in a 3D shaded environment in real time in a software that was ported in 6 weeks and probably never optimized for the hardware is a shocking demonstration. To me, anyway. I'm not sure how anyone who understands what is being demonstrated can say that this is a software only demonstration. You can't have this kind of a demo without some serious firepower under the hood.
 
I think this viewpoint is a shame. Moving over 20 GB of data around in a 3D shaded environment in real time in a software that was ported in 6 weeks and probably never optimized for the hardware is a shocking demonstration. To me, anyway. I'm not sure how anyone who understands what is being demonstrated can say that this is a software only demonstration. You can't have this kind of a demo without some serious firepower under the hood.

Right. I think a lot of this was to counter the trolls who were screaming about this being a bigger Mac Mini or something. No way a Mini could operate like that. Definitely pro level hardware. The scene was 20 gigabytes worth of data.
 
I'm not sure what people are expecting to accomplish by benching it against other machines. I'm guessing it'll run just like any other 12 core Sandy Bridge Xeon with dual FireGLs and a gigabit PCI Express SSD.

What surprise are you exactly expecting to see when benching it against other hardware?

We will have to wait and see.
Apples "all flash" architecture (more than just storage) probably adds some performance benefit.
 
I think this viewpoint is a shame. Moving over 20 GB of data around in a 3D shaded environment in real time in a software that was ported in 6 weeks and probably never optimized for the hardware is a shocking demonstration. To me, anyway. I'm not sure how anyone who understands what is being demonstrated can say that this is a software only demonstration. You can't have this kind of a demo without some serious firepower under the hood.

A shame? Really? How can you call it anything other than a software demo, especially since that's exactly what it was? Of course the hardware is powerful. We already know that based on the specs Apple has listed. But unless you see this against some other hardware you cannot possibly know what to contribute to the hardware or software.


I'm not sure what people are expecting to accomplish by benching it against other machines. I'm guessing it'll run just like any other 12 core Sandy Bridge Xeon with dual FireGLs and a gigabit PCI Express SSD.

What surprise are you exactly expecting to see when benching it against other hardware?

Uh, how else are you going to value it? On its size and looks alone? You're saying there's nothing to gain from comparing to competing products?
 
On top of that, didn't they say something about the software being ported to OS X/OpenCL 8 days before the demo?

Yes, if I remember right they got the machines 6 weeks ago, and the final demo-ready build was ready a week ago, and its not even optimized for Mac OS yet. Jack Greasley is always on the Luxology forums talking about Mari which is cool. He gave us the scoop on it.
 
A shame? Really? How can you call it anything other than a software demo, especially since that's exactly what it was? Of course the hardware is powerful. We already know that based on the specs Apple has listed. But unless you see this against some other hardware you cannot possibly know what to contribute to the hardware or software.




Uh, how else are you going to value it? On its size and looks alone? You're saying there's nothing to gain from comparing to competing products?

Emotions have taken over and all sense of scientific comparison are gone.

If you were shooting a commercial for the 2014 Camaro and wanted to make sure everyone knew it was X% faster than 2013 Camaro would you:

A. Show a 2014 Camaro streaking around a racetrack by itself.

B. Show a 2014 Camaro showing it's tailights to a 2013 Camaro as it whips past in full throttle glory on the same racetrack?

I could shoot a 1985 Hyundai zipping around corners and it would look fast. It's only when you have something else to compare it to that you can judge actual speed.

If you genuinely want to impress people with how fast something is, you don't ONLY TEST 1 thing.

Imagine how pointless Barefeats.com's tests would be if he only gave you one item tested with no yardstick to measure against.

"The New Mac Pro can compute at 1.8 Gigawatts"
 
Emotions have taken over and all sense of scientific comparison are gone.

If you were shooting a commercial for the 2014 Camaro and wanted to make sure everyone knew it was X% faster than 2013 Camaro would you:

A. Show a 2014 Camaro streaking around a racetrack by itself.

B. Show a 2014 Camaro showing it's tailights to a 2013 Camaro as it whips past in full throttle glory on the same racetrack?

I could shoot a 1985 Hyundai zipping around corners and it would look fast. It's only when you have something else to compare it to that you can judge actual speed.

If you genuinely want to impress people with how fast something is, you don't ONLY TEST 1 thing.

Imagine how pointless Barefeats.com's tests would be if he only gave you one item tested with no yardstick to measure against.

"The New Mac Pro can compute at 1.8 Gigawatts"

Huh?

This demo was for Mari users. Mari users (if you haven't been paying attention to the thread) are impressed because they know how fast Mari normally runs. They don't need to see a side by side, they're already seeing a side by side with their own machines.

You don't normally see car commercials with another car, because again, you already know how fast your car goes.

It would be like if Barefeats only posted the scores of the new Mac Pro, while you still had access to the scores of every single prior benchmark.

This requirement for a bakeoff is totally artificial. Strangely enough this artificial requirement is coming from someone who's side business might be broken by the new Mac Pro. Huh. Fancy that.
 
Huh?

This demo was for Mari users. Mari users (if you haven't been paying attention to the thread) are impressed because they know how fast Mari normally runs. They don't need to see a side by side, they're already seeing a side by side with their own machines.

You don't normally see car commercials with another car, because again, you already know how fast your car goes.

It would be like if Barefeats only posted the scores of the new Mac Pro, while you still had access to the scores of every single prior benchmark.

This requirement for a bakeoff is totally artificial. Strangely enough this artificial requirement is coming from someone who's side business might be broken by the new Mac Pro. Huh. Fancy that.

I respectfully say that you are selling Kool Aid.

Good luck with it.

I'm sure the new iCan is faster than the old one. I & others look forward to when Apple has the courage to show some actual numbers. (speed & $$$$) People like comparisons. It's why a bar graph needs at least 2 bars.

I have been in Film Biz for some time. Why I live in Hollywood. I'll be fine. Made a small fortune on VidCon 2012....YouTube videos, who knew what kids watch there could be so easily monetized.

If you have a brain, there is no end of ways to make money. And I don't even have to be a sycophant selling Kool Aid to do it.
 
Oh no, what I meant was the a 5870 probably could not produce this sort of experience. So I'd still expect this machine to be way faster than the current.

Oh yeah I would agree with that. Even the Firepro designation is supposed to indicate that the drivers have been tuned for this kind of work. It is what the application was designed to do. It's just that it's the same kind of thing companies like Boxx do. They demo an overbuilt spec so people can marvel at how fast it runs. If it's an extreme price point system running next generation hardware, it should be extremely fast. I'm just skeptical when they don't provide any amount of repeatable measurement or test.
 
This demo was for Mari users.

I don't think so, the demo time was spent showing dumbed down 3D animation work which Mari users certainly know. Additionally I asked a friend who works in this industry and he says that Mari is for a small, specialized group of people (who charge a LOT). The bread and butter is elsewhere. In other words Apple isn't going to sell a lot of boxes for Mari.

The story is (as I read it) that even Tim was impressed with Mari on the Pro, so it seems reasonable that they just liked it because it was a good story about video work that needs horsepower, that would show well (because it's animation and so easy to grasp).
 
I don't think so, the demo time was spent showing dumbed down 3D animation work which Mari users certainly know. Additionally I asked a friend who works in this industry and he says that Mari is for a small, specialized group of people (who charge a LOT). The bread and butter is elsewhere. In other words Apple isn't going to sell a lot of boxes for Mari.

The story is (as I read it) that even Tim was impressed with Mari on the Pro, so it seems reasonable that they just liked it because it was a good story about video work that needs horsepower, that would show well (because it's animation and so easy to grasp).

It was. The entire demo was billed as a story of a developer porting a specialty app to the Mac. The Mac Pro was a side bit. The Mac Pro thing was barely mentioned on the conference schedule.

This was a conference for developers, remember? None of them were interested in the app, only the porting process. I can tell you no one in the room was complaining that they didn't benchmark the Mac Pro because that's not what this event was expected to be.

The launch event will likely be full of benchmarks. But this wasn't a launch event. It was a developer aside focused on porting software, with a demo on a machine that won't even be released for months. This video isn't even supposed to be available to non developers.
 
It was. The entire demo was billed as a story of a developer porting a specialty app to the Mac. The Mac Pro was a side bit. The Mac Pro thing was barely mentioned on the conference schedule.

This was a conference for developers, remember? None of them were interested in the app, only the porting process. I can tell you no one in the room was complaining that they didn't benchmark the Mac Pro because that's not what this event was expected to be.

The launch event will likely be full of benchmarks. But this wasn't a launch event. It was a developer aside focused on porting software, with a demo on a machine that won't even be released for months. This video isn't even supposed to be available to non developers.

I think that's exactly what we're trying to say. It was an impressive demo that happened to include the Mac Pro. It's the reaction of some people in these forums that seem to be using this as some sort of Mac Pro hardware demo instead. We're just saying, hold up, don't dwell on this too much.
 
I think that's exactly what we're trying to say. It was an impressive demo that happened to include the Mac Pro. It's the reaction of some people in these forums that seem to be using this as some sort of Mac Pro hardware demo instead. We're just saying, hold up, don't dwell on this too much.

OK, it was a software demo...and they couldn't find any computers around, so they ran it on a iBin Mac Pro as there was one sitting around backstage? (And they were getting tired of the stagehands tossing empty coke cans and chewing gum in it) A complete coincidence and had nothing to do with iBin Mac Pro? Or were they just trying to show that it isn't vapourware and that there is at least 1 actual iBin.

So in reality, it was software that doesn't exist yet running on a computer that doesn't exist yet either.

So what was purpose? It was one of the better Infomercials I've seen. The smiling audience shills were even better than the "MagicJack" spots I've seen.
 
Chill out bro. You can always hit back at Apple by not buying the new MP or anything that had anything Apple on it.

I think this hate about anything apple and on this new MP particular is way over the top and unnecessary. It only shows what kind of people we are.

I understand why most people here act this way, most of your businesses will be affected the next time you buy or upgrade your equipments, work flow, etc.

But, hey there are still other alternative.

It is like this, if this vendor will not serve my any longer, I will find for one that will serve my needs. Its not that there are no other options. There as HP's and Dells out there. There is still Windows and Linux.

If Apple will not serve your interest, then why the continuous patronage?

If you don't like your wife anymore, file a divorce and swallow any consequences that will come out from it.
 
This was a conference for developers, remember? None of them were interested in the app, only the porting process. I can tell you no one in the room was complaining that they didn't benchmark the Mac Pro because that's not what this event was expected to be.

Probably not actually. I'm a software engineer and go to WWDC, Google I/O, etc. Nobody probably cared about the port because that's dirty work we're all used to* - all of them probably were there to see the Pro get a workout. Which we didn't see, but learning how the rendering guys work was entertaining.

It was a lunchtime event so I doubt anybody had high expectations, I would have been satisfied if I went.

* Anyhow OS X is POSIX so who is surprised it took a week? They came from Linux after all, which surely was because originally they were on OS X. Windows to Mac is a bigger problem.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.