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Next nMP Update

P

prowlmedia

Suspended
Original poster
Jan 26, 2010
1,589
813
London
Ok, Just for fun... anyone got any guesses on the specs of the next version and a release date? Think we might get yearly updates? So December!?

Based on possible graphics card / CPU chip availability or Roadmaps etc.

2TB internal drive?
Minor CPU bump?
GPU compared to AMD 9100?
 
If they update it this year, it will be to Haswell (likely same core counts as pricing is unchanged), DDR4 (likely similar configs/options due to cost), possibly down-clocked and/or highly binned Hawaii and Tonga GPUs (W9100/8100/7100 variants), and possibly dual SSDs (but identical capacity/performance to current parts which are still top end).

On a spec sheet it sounds good, but benchmarks of these parts or their equivalents show virtually nil to modest gains depending on workload.
 
I'm disappointed that the company that brings such devotion to watches and phones can't get it up for the Mac Pro.

I was waiting to buy and am still waiting.
NMP is a fine thing, but so far below what they could have done.

Can you imagine what the NMP would look like if they considered it a top priority?

I was hoping for that.

Imagine what it would be if Apple gave it their best shot.
 
rueyloon said:
Is Haswell on the same socket as the current 2013 ?
Click to expand...

As far as I know, Haswell will have a new generation of socket. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1689984/
If I recall it correctly, it was mentioned in this forum that the CPU socket in the current 2013 nMac Pro is the last generation. Probably Mac users who skipped on buying the 2013 nMac Pro have more flexible options in looking forward to the 7.1 Mac Pro. Apple may try to improve, make better adjustments on the new 7.1 model upon seeing the bugs and glitches in the 6.1 nMac Pro. Probably on paper, Haswell presents minimal gains, but other new adjustments like maybe users have the option of a second flash SSD storage or other options not present in the 2013 nMac Pro.
 
Last edited:
Mactrunk said:
I'm disappointed that the company that brings such devotion to watches and phones can't get it up for the Mac Pro.

I was waiting to buy and am still waiting.
NMP is a fine thing, but so far below what they could have done.

Can you imagine what the NMP would look like if they considered it a top priority?

I was hoping for that.

Imagine what it would be if Apple gave it their best shot.
Click to expand...

LOL... Last year it appears to have been a pretty high priority given the design effort that went into it.

So, what is your imagination telling you it should be?

I have a feeling you might be waiting for a very long time.

----------
Macsonic said:
Probably on paper, Haswell presents minimal gains, but other new adjustments like maybe users have the option of a second flash SSD storage or other options not present in the 2013 nMac Pro.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I think the most interesting potential update to the nMP is the possibility of a second SSD slot. A pair of those 1TB Samsung blades in RAID0 would be wicked fast.
 
I don't think yearly updates. Based on the history of the Mac Pro, if you need one, buy one. Get to work. Playing the waiting game is just a dicey proposition.
New socket, new ram, high power draws on the the CPU and GPU. Custom mobos and video card designs. No way they update this thing every year.
 
My guess is that if they do update the Pro they will do it for 1 reason. Power savings, which leads to better cooling. The performance may not improve by much with the Haswell Xeons (a thought they do come with up to 18 cores in the server world), and the same has been said of the new AMD GPUs, but the performance per watt of both has improved greatly. That means cooler, quieter, and less throttling.

Or I suppose instead they could just make it thinner......which is more apples style.
 
scotttnz said:
My guess is that if they do update the Pro they will do it for 1 reason. Power savings, which leads to better cooling. The performance may not improve by much with the Haswell Xeons (a thought they do come with up to 18 cores in the server world), and the same has been said of the new AMD GPUs, but the performance per watt of both has improved greatly. That means cooler, quieter, and less throttling.

Or I suppose instead they could just make it thinner......which is more apples style.
Click to expand...


From what I've seen power consumption of Haswell at idle and light work loads is down, leading to longer battery life in mobiles, but desktop CPUs under load are actually running hotter than Ivy.
 
VirtualRain said:
From what I've seen power consumption of Haswell at idle and light work loads is down, leading to longer battery life in mobiles, but desktop CPUs under load are actually running hotter than Ivy.
Click to expand...

You are probably right, there are small gains in efficiency on some of the CPUs, the big improvements will come with the broadwell process shrink. But the latest AMD GPU architecture (R9 285) does seem to make some significant gains, not in performance, but in lower power consumption at similar performance.

It wouldn't suprise me if they waited for broadwell Xeons to update the Mac Pro though, especially if you look at the update history....
 
scotttnz said:
You are probably right, there are small gains in efficiency on some of the CPUs, the big improvements will come with the broadwell process shrink. But the latest AMD GPU architecture (R9 285) does seem to make some significant gains, not in performance, but in lower power consumption at similar performance.

It wouldn't suprise me if they waited for broadwell Xeons to update the Mac Pro though, especially if you look at the update history....
Click to expand...

They only skipped one architecture, which caused mass confusion, speculation of discontinuation, and many people to go to non-Mac workstations as they could no longer rely on Apple to provide them the hardware they need. Moving to Haswell-EP and new graphics cards should be nothing more than standard procedure for Apple.
 
scotttnz said:
You are probably right, there are small gains in efficiency on some of the CPUs, the big improvements will come with the broadwell process shrink. But the latest AMD GPU architecture (R9 285) does seem to make some significant gains, not in performance, but in lower power consumption at similar performance.



It wouldn't suprise me if they waited for broadwell Xeons to update the Mac Pro though, especially if you look at the update history....
Click to expand...


I agree.
 
Issue with a second SSD is if there are enough PCIe lanes for the fast storage we expect. I've seen some minor contradictory stuff on whether or not it would be feasible. I guess it's nice that there's room in the case for the option somewhere down the road.

For me the DDR4 RAM and possibility of higher core counts, plus GPUs based on new tech rather than year+ old at time of announcement is awesome. Of course even if there's an update it's still a question of whether to jump... my 3,1 might be "slow" on paper but aside from renders it's quite zippy still.
 
scottrichardson said:
Different socket unfortunately. But it does bring with it DDR4 RAM. Apparently the Broadwell XEONS will share the same socket design. So IF Apple releases a Haswell Mac Pro, we should be able to drop Broadwell XEONs into it in a year or two's time :)



Scott
Click to expand...


You would need a firmware update to enable Broadwell CPUs in a system designed for Haswell. And Apple hasn't historically provided this although someone hacked it for the Nehalem systems to allow Westmere.
 
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