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h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
A new Mac Pro would support GOP cards

This is just what we "want", not really a fact yet.

Nvidia may be working with Apple, and Apple want to make the 7,1 so "special" again by keeping it with EFI UGA but not UEFI GOP. Therefore, even give us PCIe slots (this will be an extremely good news), and we still can't installed whatever graphic card we want (without breaking boot screen).
 

goMac

macrumors 604
Apr 15, 2004
7,663
1,694
This is just what we "want", not really a fact yet.

Nvidia may be working with Apple, and Apple want to make the 7,1 so "special" again by keeping it with EFI UGA but not UEFI GOP. Therefore, even give us PCIe slots (this will be an extremely good news), and we still can't installed whatever graphic card we want (without breaking boot screen).

Modern Mac firmware does GOP. But no modern Mac has a card slot.

It would be totally bizarre to see Apple fork their firmware for the new Mac Pro and not do GOP. Especially with Apple already recommending PC Cards for the 5,1. I don't think Apple really cares about making the Mac Pro incompatible with UEFI, despite the hand wringing here. The reason the 5,1 doesn't support GOP is because GOP wasn't really on the market when that board was designed.
 
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bookemdano

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2011
1,514
846
Modern Mac firmware does GOP. But no modern Mac has a card slot.

It would be totally bizarre to see Apple fork their firmware for the new Mac Pro and not do GOP. Especially with Apple already recommending PC Cards for the 5,1. I don't think Apple really cares about making the Mac Pro incompatible with UEFI, despite the hand wringing here. The reason the 5,1 doesn't support GOP is because GOP wasn't really on the market when that board was designed.

Agreed. I can see them deciding not to bother updating the 5,1 to UEFI/GOP, but it would be very strange to release an EFI 1.10-based Mac in 2019. But he's right none of us know for certain.
 

goMac

macrumors 604
Apr 15, 2004
7,663
1,694
Agreed. I can see them deciding not to bother updating the 5,1 to UEFI/GOP, but it would be very strange to release an EFI 1.10-based Mac in 2019. But he's right none of us know for certain.

If Apple wasn't interested in standards they also never would have done UGA in the first place. They would have done some Apple thing to really force the incompatibility instead of using a standard at all.

It's just that the standard Apple picked didn't end up being the winner.
 

crjackson2134

macrumors 601
Mar 6, 2013
4,847
1,957
Charlotte, NC
B5CC6F33-4E3C-4D07-A71C-711912F8D8E1.jpeg

[doublepost=1539826382][/doublepost]
Updated post with new video and further information.
Looks all but confirmed guys.

Indeed it does...
 

crjackson2134

macrumors 601
Mar 6, 2013
4,847
1,957
Charlotte, NC
Well... Time to save money... or write a letter to Santa Claus... :p

It’s nice to have, but nothing I’d ditch my 580 for. Just way to expensive for the addition of a Boot Picker. We alread have free and/or cheap workarounds that are good enough for most of us. If I needed a card in that price range anyway, then this would tip the scales. I don’t, so it doesn’t for me.
 
Last edited:

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,455
13,601
It’s nice to have, but nothing I’d ditch my 580 for. Just way to expensive for the addition of a Boot Picker. We alread have free and/or cheap workarounds that are good enough for most of us. If I needed a card in that price range anyway, then this would tip the scales. I don’t, so it doesn’t for me.
Don't say this! People need to buy the RTX2080 and sell the Pulse cheap to me… :p
 

bookemdano

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2011
1,514
846
Only interesting to me if the drivers get integrated in macOS. I've already been through a couple of years of the web driver rigmarole and it sucks, even with the benefit of having the EFI driver to install them with.

What's more interesting than the reality of the card itself is what (if anything) it means--both for the cMP and the 2019.
 

namethisfile

macrumors 65816
Jan 17, 2008
1,190
176
MacVidCards seems to indicate on Netkas forums that nVidia has snuck this feature in "while no one [was] looking".

He is verifying the EU reports, but seems ready to declare this a victory for cMP users!

Maybe it's not permanent. But, something that didn't get snuck out before final release of RTX cards? Boot picker screen would be more important for users who use Bootcamp and Windows with their cMP....

This. Super interested in finding out what drove this!

Well, the RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti benchmark of Metal or CUDA in Geekbench 4 compared to Pascal are off the chart... even compared to Vega64...

I don't know what it means. It could just be just that... that for some reason or other, RTX cards have native capability for boot screens.

I don't think I will need it for editing, though. So, my Pulse RX 580 is good enough for me.
 

thornslack

macrumors 6502
Nov 16, 2013
410
165
This bodes well for the 7,1 Mac Pro having full pcie slots I would think. After all, even a modular thunderbolt 3 connection couldn’t provide the same capability as an actual slot.

And I hope hope hope that rumor about the AMD contract ending with Apple is true and we start seeing NVIDIA dGPU back in MBPs as well.
 
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namethisfile

macrumors 65816
Jan 17, 2008
1,190
176
This bodes well for the 7,1 Mac Pro having full pcie slots I would think. After all, even a modular thunderbolt 3 connection couldn’t provide the same capability as an actual slot.

And I hope hope hope that rumor about the AMD contract ending with Apple is true and we start seeing NVIDIA dGPU back in MBPs as well.

That would be cool to have PCIe slots in Mac Pro's again. But, I also sort of like how the trashcan Mac Pro is unlike Apple's nemesis, Windows PC's....

And although people say if it ain't broke, don't fix it or just give us a box with PCIe slots... I would prefer Apple do something else. I mean, wouldn't you? Just to have something to aspire to? Like the trashcan Mac Pro is aspirational. Or, the cMP before it was aspirational.

If, Apple brings back PCIe slots and just makes a box tower like the cMP, it would mean Apple gave up.

This is where the modular in the modular Mac Pro comes in. PCIe slots will exist in a modular way. Meaning, an eGPU like box with room for two RTX 2080Ti's with NVLink can be linked or connected to the Mac Pro with some kind of connector that offers full PCIe bandwidth....

And, the way the RTX 2080 is designed in such an elegant industrial looking way with Dual fans for quieter operation might be intentional with Nvidia since the Apple modular GPU-box will compliment it giving the user a way to admire their GPU's via gorilla glass... Apple will do something with the glass, maybe add touch bar functionality to it.

Mark my words.
 

thornslack

macrumors 6502
Nov 16, 2013
410
165
And although people say if it ain't broke, don't fix it or just give us a box with PCIe slots... I would prefer Apple do something else. I mean, wouldn't you?

No.

That said, I’d be ok with some innovative daughterboard placement. The cMP was a great example of this. But there is no replacement for lots of pcie lanes and physical slots for expansion.
 

crjackson2134

macrumors 601
Mar 6, 2013
4,847
1,957
Charlotte, NC
That would be cool to have PCIe slots in Mac Pro's again. But, I also sort of like how the trashcan Mac Pro is unlike Apple's nemesis, Windows PC's....

And although people say if it ain't broke, don't fix it or just give us a box with PCIe slots... I would prefer Apple do something else. I mean, wouldn't you? Just to have something to aspire to? Like the trashcan Mac Pro is aspirational. Or, the cMP before it was aspirational.

If, Apple brings back PCIe slots and just makes a box tower like the cMP, it would mean Apple gave up.

This is where the modular in the modular Mac Pro comes in. PCIe slots will exist in a modular way. Meaning, an eGPU like box with room for two RTX 2080Ti's with NVLink can be linked or connected to the Mac Pro with some kind of connector that offers full PCIe bandwidth....

And, the way the RTX 2080 is designed in such an elegant industrial looking way with Dual fans for quieter operation might be intentional with Nvidia since the Apple modular GPU-box will compliment it giving the user a way to admire their GPU's via gorilla glass... Apple will do something with the glass, maybe add touch bar functionality to it.

Mark my words.

Okay, the cMP is a beautiful piece of engineering and a good example of something done right & different at the same time. Although dated, it’s the PC I always wanted (so to speak).

Meanwhile back at the Ranch... A nice box is fine. Pros need a workhorse not a beauty queen. Something that can grow with the needs of the user, and keep up with the newest tech. as it comes to market. Let’s see what happens (dreams aside).
 

kings79

macrumors regular
Sep 16, 2015
227
105
And although people say if it ain't broke, don't fix it or just give us a box with PCIe slots... I would prefer Apple do something else. I mean, wouldn't you? Just to have something to aspire to? Like the trashcan Mac Pro is aspirational.

Thats what the trashcan was. Trash. o_O I use one everyday at work and I prefer my cMP 5,1 in my home studio..

If, Apple brings back PCIe slots and just makes a box tower like the cMP, it would mean Apple gave up.

Apple has given up. What inspirational gear have they made in the last 2-3 years? :D

This is where the modular in the modular Mac Pro comes in. PCIe slots will exist in a modular way. Meaning, an eGPU like box with room for two RTX 2080Ti's with NVLink can be linked or connected to the Mac Pro with some kind of connector that offers full PCIe bandwidth....

We'll see.

Considering all the PCI cards out there I'd prefer PCI slots. Gives me more options. I F$#@%^ hate how Apple makes their own propriety peripherals so you have to 'buy into' their eco system.

IMO....
[doublepost=1539835200][/doublepost]
Meanwhile back at the Ranch... A nice box is fine. Pros need a workhorse not a beauty queen. Something that can grow with the needs of the user, and keep up with the newest tech. as it comes to market.

Well said Jackson.

If I want something beautiful I buy some Art..
 

namethisfile

macrumors 65816
Jan 17, 2008
1,190
176
Thats what the trashcan was. Trash. o_O I use one everyday at work and I prefer my cMP 5,1 in my home studio..

Hmmm... yeah, it's known as the trashcan mac pro. But, a trashcan is not necessarily trash. It holds and keeps the trash in, so your office or room may not be full of actual trash.

I have a cMP 5,1 and I like it too and recently gave it a Pulse RX 580. But, the trashcan Mac Pro is like so small compared to it and it kick its butt. Even tho it has older dual GPU's. The Ivy Bridge Xeon architecture in the trashcan Mac Pro was the breakthrough. It's still a very relevant machine to this day. If, it had been updated with a Vega64 GPU, it could be a cheaper iMac Pro. But, Apple didn't feel the need to do it for one reason or other. Perhaps, just focus on a total re-design of the trashcan Mac Pro into being more modular.

This is where I wanna continue to point out that Apple could go back to cMP or re-design the trashcan Mac Pro into being more "modular." Hypothetically, say Apple did do a Vega64 update with the trashcan Mac Pro. They might have been able to only put one Vega64 GPU in it due to thermal limits. And, it would have to be completely redesign. So, it needed to be re-designed anyway. A better way of re-designing it in the future is to design it so that one doesn't need to redesign the whole thing when a new GPU comes in.... modularity. A rethinking of the trashcan Mac Pro so that getting inside and changing its components, including the GPU is as easy as it was to upgrade its RAM is what I wanna say....

If I want something beautiful I buy some Art..

Some people would argue that the trashcan Mac Pro is a work of industrial design art. Industrial Design is actually an actual course in art colleges you can take.
 

goMac

macrumors 604
Apr 15, 2004
7,663
1,694
This bodes well for the 7,1 Mac Pro having full pcie slots I would think. After all, even a modular thunderbolt 3 connection couldn’t provide the same capability as an actual slot.

And I hope hope hope that rumor about the AMD contract ending with Apple is true and we start seeing NVIDIA dGPU back in MBPs as well.

It’s important to consider that this may be happening mostly separate from Apple.

It seems likely to me that Apple would roll the drivers in if this is going to be a blessed Mac card, like they do with all third party cards that have gone through certification.

But this may be Nvidia making a point to Apple more than some grand alliance. Again, it’s extremely unlikely that a new Mac Pro would use the same boot screen standard as the 5,1. To me this is Nvidia keeping the pro Mac user scene churned up so they can continue trying to leverage Apple.

Polaris and Vega, combined with Mojave and Apple's blessing of those cards, are threatening to completely push them off the Mac. If the Mac Pro community is all they have left, and they loose that, well then they have no leverage left with Apple.
 

kings79

macrumors regular
Sep 16, 2015
227
105
But, the trashcan Mac Pro is like so small compared to it and it kick its butt.

Hmmmm, most benchmarks I've seen with dual X5690's in the cMP are better than the Trashcan.......

Some people would argue that the trashcan Mac Pro is a work of industrial design art. Industrial Design is actually an actual course in art colleges you can take.

Thats how Apple sells LOTS and lots of new iPhones that are expensive and vastly inferior to most flagship smart phones.
Most Pro's know the difference between a work horse and industrial design...

A nice box is fine. Pros need a workhorse not a beauty queen.
 
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