Refurb Mac Pro now? Or wait for WWDC?

[td2243]

They clearly came close to killing it off altogether before moving forward with the nMP.

If they wanted to kill it off, why even bother with a new design? I agree it is a LOW priority for Apple, but geez, they put all this effort into it and then just ignore it. Just seems like a weird business move. If they want to sell it, update it. If they don't care about it, don't bother designing it.

 

[Stacc]

Apple has as much interest in the Mac Pro as any other mac. Once Apple committed to thunderbolt, the cMP days were numbered. You can't implement thunderbolt on generic video cards. No matter what form factor the nMP came in, it was going to have custom video cards.

On the technical side, There hasn't been a compelling reason to update it since the current model came out at the end of 2013. Haswell-EP has only slight speed increases compared to Ivy Bridge-EP. On the GPU side, AMD came out with the 290X (hawaii), but that GPU is very hot, and likely would have thermal and power constraints. NVIDIA's 900 series (Maxwell) is a great gaming GPU, and I expect we will see that in a mac somewhere, but probably not the mac pro. Apple likes to use AMD because they tend to be better for compute workloads, and AMD is much more willing to make custom designs than NVIDIA.

Besides, 1.5 - 2 years has always been standard for the mac pro. Updates to these higher end components just don't happen as often as other consumer parts. Not to mention that the last couple years has seen progress stagnate in trying to shrink down the transistor size.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a new mac pro at WWDC. Apple could throw in new Haswell-EP processors from intel and new GPUs (Fiji) from AMD in there. Although, I think the only way it warrants stage time in a keynote is if they can get thunderbolt 3 on it and introduce a thunderbolt retina display.

Unfortunately the rumors regarding macs have become more sparse. The fun part about iPhones and watches stealing the Apple rumor limelight is that now the mac releases are a bit more secretive.

 

[ixxx69]

If they wanted to kill it off, why even bother with a new design? I agree it is a LOW priority for Apple, but geez, they put all this effort into it and then just ignore it. Just seems like a weird business move. If they want to sell it, update it. If they don't care about it, don't bother designing it.

I obviously wasn't there, but I'm pretty certain this is how it went down circa 2010 - there was general apathy toward it - that it no longer figured into Apple's future. They were just going to let it die of old age. But it still had its champions. They made a deal: make it "fit" into Apples product strategy - make it feel like a computer appliance (compact, energy efficient, internally non-expandable, and very slick looking).

It presently still does fit a specific niche, it's a halo product, and it importantly keeps the die-hard Mac "power users" in the fold (I know a lot of people here don't like it and now consider themselves outside of "the fold", but that doesn't change the fact that Apple offers a slick and powerful Mac Pro in their lineup).

However, Apple feels they're well past critical mass with iOS devices that it doesn't matter what happens to the Mac. While Apple is certainly happy to be selling a lot of Macs these days, they know that desktop-based computers in particular are an evolutionary dead end.

Apple's now chasing the next 20 years of "computer" dominance. Their entire focus over the next 5-10 years is making your iPhone the power-plant of your digital life.

 

[agazoo]

thanks for all your input everyone. Possibly against my better judgement I picked up an nMP refurb (from Apple) a few days ago, 6 core/512 SSD/D500/16 GB. The timing was right for me,. I do still hope they release something new at WWDC for anyone who is waiting for upgrades. I'm very happy with my machine.

I live in a small apt in nyc and space is a premium. The fact I could put this on my desk rather than have a cMP tower take up space on my floor was actually a big factor. Loving it so far. Only imperfection i've found on this refurb unit is a small defect in the metal casing (paint chip?). I wonder if that's why this one got sent back. It's very minor and absolutely worth the savings, even for me who tends to irrationally obsess about these kinds of things.

I have been using a 4GB MBA for photo editing over the past year (bought it two years ago before i got into photography). Lightroom/Photoshop on this machine is an absolute dream compared to what I was using!

Grats on your purchase!

I did the same thing too ... updated version will come out eventually (maybe tomorrow) ... I would rather enjoy the thing today.

And I can throw it into my carry on bag and take it with me if I need too ... (fits Goldwing side case nicely too)

I did order D700 cards off eBay for a better gaming though (hope it will last for a few years at least).

 

[mikeboss]

I did order D700 cards off eBay for a better gaming though (hope it will last for a few years at least).

does this make sense, from an economical point of view?

 

[agazoo]

does this make sense, from an economical point of view?

Makes no economical sense at all. One of the stupid things I do from time to time after midnight ...

 

[AppleDroid]

It was my mistake giving a rational response to someone's post. I forgot this has become "Piss and moan about the nMP" forum.

Since when is it news that complex leading edge processors slip the schedule a bit?

Blame Apple for not anticipating the norm.

And, pray tell, why not blame Apple for not adopting Haswell-EP processors?

Why not blame Apple for not adopting Maxwell GPUs that spank the ATI GPUs and OpenCL - plus offer CUDA?

Why not blame Apple? Why not blame Apple for withholding some real advancements just because something better may be coming? (Unless Intel realizes that its T-Bolt strategy has been flawed from the beginning, and T-Bolt3 never ships.)
___

Or, would blaming Apple be tantamount to admitting that Apple doesn't care about the Mac Pro?

 

[Moonshot]

I doubt that Apple will announce a new Mac Pro at WWDC. There is no compelling reason to go for a small (in terms of real world performance) incremental upgrade, as the cost of developing new hardware just to accommodate DDR4 and a new socket that has the same pin count as the old one but is electrically different cannot be justified, as it won't sell any better than the current Mac Pro.

I think that the cylinder can't die soon enough. Maybe we can all sign a petition or something for Apple to bring back an updated version of the cMP, or something similar. Ignoring the enthusiast and prosumer markets is not a good idea.

 

[Synchro3]

Maybe we can all sign a petition or something for Apple to bring back an updated version of the cMP, or something similar. Ignoring the enthusiast and prosumer markets is not a good idea.

Let's hope so, by goodness. But I doubt. Apple is far away from listening to the prosumers. It began with the iPod and became clear with the iPhone, they enjoy working on gadgets as well as low energy consumption for the spirit of our times, but no more on compute machines with maximum possible oomph for enthusiasts and prosumers.

 

[poematik13]

I think that the cylinder can't die soon enough. Maybe we can all sign a petition or something for Apple to bring back an updated version of the cMP, or something similar. Ignoring the enthusiast and prosumer markets is not a good idea.

Listening to JUST the vocal minority of online forum "pros" is also not a good idea. If you want a massive box with slots, go back to PC land.

 

[tomvos]

Listening to JUST the vocal minority of online forum "pros" is also not a good idea. If you want a massive box with slots, go back to PC land.

Well, I think it's not so much about the form factor. It about the lack of flexibility. I still have my cMP which I really like a lot. However it's a design from the time when 3.5 inch HDD where the standard and you'd put many different PCIe cards into your box.
But today with the tiny size of SSDs and the shift to external add-ons—whether it's thunderbolt, usb3.1, firewire or whatever you like, I agree with the notion that the cMP and the "massive box" seems to be outdated.

Nevertheless, I disagree with the lack of modularity of the nMP. Why are there not two or more internal SSD-Blades connectors? Really, I like lots of space and I like it fast. I would gladly trade one of the GPUs and it's PCIe lanes for additional fast storage options.
Or perhaps add some different IO-Boards to choose from. One which emphasises USB3 over Thunderbolt, another with more thunderbolt connectors than USB3, etc. I would prefer if Apple dropped the forced dual GPU for everyone and use the free space of add different options instead.

I think the problem with the nMP is not so much its size, but it's distinct lack of modularity.

 

[vladi]

nMP right now is limited to people dependent on Open CL framework, Logic X and ProRes. And even they have to buy TB2 storage bay if they want to use some quality HDDs and not those portable repackaged leftovers.

nMP will make a lot more sense once storage becomes cheaper and bigger and CUDA option is available alongside ATI.

 

[poematik13]

It was my mistake giving a rational response to someone's post. I forgot this has become "Piss and moan about the nMP" forum.

They should really just split this forum up into "nMP" and "Legacy", because I too am tired of the constant barrage of negativity and luddite-ism in all threads (and its always by the same 3-5 users, one of whom does it to protect his obsolete business) that discuss the new mac pro.