state of the mac pro in the future

[egy195]

so guys it's been nearly a year since apple revealed the new design of the mac pro ditching the more traditional tower design to the delight/anger of its customers.
i've always wanted a mac pro and was putting it in my plans for the future but the new design kinda turned me off of that idea.
my question is : what do you think apple will do in the future about the mac pro ?
will we see updates regularly or will it be another X years till we see any update ?
will we see third party manufactures introduce parts for it ?

 

[snouter]

Just my .02, worth possibly .00

The nMP is clearly niche. The Apple accountants can probably barely find this thing on their balance sheet, even at ~$3000 to $9000 a pop. Apple goes at their own pace with it. I think they will update it some, but not as aggressively as a PC maker might. I don't see them updating it until about this time next year.

I did not have a lot invested in legacy stuff as I have been using PCs for my heavy video and 3d lifting and MBP for lighter stuff like coding. I love the nMP design. I have already kitted it out with 64GB ram and hung a Pegasus2 R4 8TB off it.

Thunderbolt is FINALLY starting to take off. As it hits PC makers, I expect this to continue.

SSD swaps will happen. People have already swapped out the CPU. The $2000 10 core looks like the darling at the moment.

It is what it is and it depends what you want in a computer. I have a homebuilt 4930k that is overclocked and cost half as much as my nMP. Does not keep me from loving my nMP any less. I wanted a Mac I could push hard and did not feel the iMac or my MBPs were that. I have pushed the nMP and it's quiet, stays within thermal limits and is a manufacturing marvel. 4 ram slots would be my main complaint, but the 64GB I have in there now is good for my near future.

Computers are tools. I think it's always a good idea to examine what you want to do with it, what your economic rationale is, and work backwards from there. I don't hate Windows 8, so I don't hate my 4930k. When I use Adobe CC or Cinema 4d, Windows barely matters to me. I "like" OS X enough to go with a nMP set-up. I still totally prefer Mac laptops to PC laptops. I prefer web development on OS X and Linux VM and VPS servers.

We have a lot of options these days. These are good times.

 

[VirtualRain]

so guys it's been nearly a year since apple revealed the new design of the mac pro ditching the more traditional tower design to the delight/anger of its customers.
i've always wanted a mac pro and was putting it in my plans for the future but the new design kinda turned me off of that idea.
my question is : what do you think apple will do in the future about the mac pro ?
will we see updates regularly or will it be another X years till we see any update ?
will we see third party manufactures introduce parts for it ?

I think Apple will update the Mac Pro more frequently now, probably when new Haswell-EP CPUs are available from Intel and new GPUs are available from AMD. Q4 of this year (earliest) or (more likely) Q1 of next year makes sense for both of these things to occur and result in an update.

With standard dual GPUs, USB3, PCIe SSD, and TB2, this is really one of the best Mac Pros yet.

Third parties are already introducing parts. There's really nothing you might want that doesn't exist... everything from rack mount chassis to external optical drives, and of course HD chassis, TB audio devices, and more.

 

[AidenShaw]

...and new GPUs are available from AMD.

...and Apple could surprise (and please) a big segment of their user base by supporting CUDA as well as their proprietary GPU API.

CUDA is the de facto standard for GPU programming - but the Apple ostrich has its head in the sand saying something else.

 

[VirtualRain]

...and Apple could surprise (and please) a big segment of their user base by supporting CUDA as well as their proprietary GPU API.

CUDA is the de facto standard for GPU programming - but the Apple ostrich has its head in the sand saying something else.

LOL... nice spin. You should work in marketing (for Dell, HP, or Nvidia). Of course you're not fooling anyone. The fact is CUDA is proprietary. OpenCL is an open standard.

And it's not surprising that Apple would prefer to develop their software based on an open standard rather than proprietary technology that locks them into a single supplier.

It's also not surprising that Nvidia would promote their own proprietary API rather than embrace an open standard that puts them on an equal playing field. I'm sure the doors are wide-open to having Nvidia GPUs in a future Mac Pro if Nvidia embraces OpenCL.

It's too early to tell how this CUDA vs OpenCL war will play out. You're certainly correct in saying that CUDA currently has more support than OpenCL, but whether that will continue to dominate long-term or developers will transition to OpenCL remains to be seen and probably depends somewhat on the future adoption of OS X vs Windows and even the success or failure of the Mac Pro.

 

[Mac-Mac-McAfee]

i've always wanted a mac pro and was putting it in my plans for the future but the new design kinda turned me off of that idea.

I've worked with and lusted after the previous Mac Pro. That said, the new version makes me want one even more now.

 

[linuxcooldude]

...and Apple could surprise (and please) a big segment of their user base by supporting CUDA as well as their proprietary GPU API.

CUDA is the de facto standard for GPU programming - but the Apple ostrich has its head in the sand saying something else.

That is changing quickly. Venders like Adobe have made great strides in supporting the new Mac Pro & AMD graphics, rather then sticking strictly with Nvidia. As was mentioned previously, sticking with a single proprietary vender will limit adoption rates for third party software. I'm expecting that to change quickly over the next several years.

 

[Riwam]

What configuration will it be?

I've worked with and lusted after the previous Mac Pro. That said, the new version makes me want one even more now.

.................................
I share your enthusiasm.
Have you decided already what configuration will you order?

 

[mojolicious]

i've always wanted a mac pro and was putting it in my plans for the future but the new design kinda turned me off of that idea.

If you're put off by the ridiculous form factor and lack of (internal) expansion options then you're out of luck for the foreseeable future. The old Mac Pro packaging essentially dates back to the blue and white G3 of fifteen years ago...