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Uh oh...Is the new Mac Mini really the new "modular" Mac Pro?
- Thread starter H. Flower
- Start date
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If I have to look into my crystal ball, I'd say no...
It wouldn't be called a Mac Mini if it were Mac Pro. IMHO
Don't worry about what hasn't happened yet, you'll get an ulcer.
Just so you realize that my crystal ball could be off a bit, I haven't used it in years
Could be, since the last Mac Pro (6,1 trashcan) was more or less an upgrade to the Mac Mini.
Any customer who wants to affordably add a PCIe card needs a cMP.
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Yes - great idea. Throttle your RTX 2080 by putting it on a high latency PCIe x4 bus.
Why don't you let us decide what we need.
Probably not:
" ... The computer has been favored because of its lower price, and it’s popular with app developers, those running home media centers, and server farm managers. For this year’s model, Apple is focusing primarily on these pro users, and new storage and processor options are likely to make it more expensive than previous versions, the people said. ..."
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...plan-revamped-low-cost-macs-to-reignite-sales
Home media server was not a 'core' target market for the Mac Pro classically. Neither was journeyman iOS app developer box affordable by the masses. Nor particularly scale out server farm ( with rack mount unfriendly dimensions ). There were some folks doing that, but far more folks doing those things with Mac Minis.
Probably very good chance there is just an embedded GPU in this new Mini. ( on package dGPU (ala Kaby Lake G) or soldered dGPU like the MBP 15" models. ). Probably no more than two drives. Decent chance it may be just one (SSD "options ... make it more expensive" above. ).
I think the only tie in with next Mac Pro is that same answer for this system as with next Mac Pro , if have several PCI-e cards the answer will involve some TB PCI-e external enclosure(s). The next Mac Pro less reliant on that, but for folks with a large pile that will be what they'll point to
A headless MBP 15" with much better cooling/thermals matches up with that loose description in the article far better than the extremely limited stuff that Apple said earlier about the next Mac Pro. If Apple bumps the mainstream iMac up to 8th gen 4-8 core options this probably won't pass the iMac in the performance curve. Must less the iMac Pro or the next Mac Pro.
Over 90+ % of the Macs out there are not Mac Pros. eGPU is far more aimed at the rest of the Mac line up than at the Mac Pro ( even a future Mac Pro).
This new Mini probably has only an embedded GPU ( iGPU or soldered dGPU). So eGPU and external PCI-e enclosures will be aimed at it. If it is pretty good, but thousands cheaper than the Mac Pro some folks using older Mac Pro will adopt it ( workload is pretty plateaued and on a tighter budget. )
Mac Mini pragmatically hasn't had a good dGPU embedded. ( two corner case options isn't a trend). Apple might be revising that if open up its thermal window a bit. So relatively, that will be putting substantively more "grunt" in the box. But yes if had high computational workloads they could task that with external.
As for a new Mac Pro . It is unlikely they are going to gimp the GPU. It may not be the biggest possible GPU, but Apple said one of the misses of the Mac Pro 2013 was that trend toward "more powerful" single cards ( as opposed to dual ). It would be more than odd to state they 'missed' on that and then 'punt' again on that with the re-re-imagined Mac Pro. They are probably going to address some of those misses with the new system. However, that probably won't be done by just slapping some generic off the shelf card in there.
If Apple chooses to go back to a deskside design baseline there isn't really a good reason why they wouldn't put at least one standard slot in the system. Their answer to 3-4 cards could be external PCI-e enclosures, but at least one won't pose a major problem if bump up the power supply, add some volume and carve out a thermal zone for a reasonable range of card ( e.g., up to 280W).
Of course the prices would be different. That's why you have ATX, mini-itx, micro-atx etc.
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nope you get no decision in the process, this is Apple remember!
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not really, you could easily stay with the modular Mac design, with a micro-itx board, soldered RAM, Soldered chip and a PCi-E extension, obviously that will be made by Apple if they want to stick with the modular idea.
You could easily use one of Intels new chips with Vega inbuilt, 16 -32 GB of RAM and a 256 GB M2 NVME and you would have a powerful machine that a large percentage of Apple desktop users who don't want an iMac could use.
The question is would Apple cannibalise the iMac to let this one come out?
[doublepost=1534830980][/doublepost]I'm not talking about the Mac mini Pro to replace a new Mac Pro, I think you need both, but a Mac mini "pro" could fit in the eco system and be a very good seller. They could even have a proper Vega card inside and it would make a great Mac gaming machine which is something I think they should get into.
Something that would sit in the loungroom, like a PS4
Ekwipt, most of that nonsense would be why I would transition way from Apple.
It would cost me nothing to move, AND I would probably get better performance from the windows versions of the software in my workflow.
It would cost me nothing to move, AND I would probably get better performance from the windows versions of the software in my workflow.
I'm not understanding this obsession some have with external GPU's. While beneficial in certain circumstances I see no reason to have them in a desktop form factor where a solution already exists: Internal PCIe slots.
that's a Vega 8 and a laptop CPU. If the iMacs got a bump to the Polaris increment they wouldn't be much behind on GPU and ahead on CPU. So the cananiblization wouldn't be that high. ( even less if AMD had a real, cost effective replacement for Polaris. )
[qutoe]
[doublepost=1534830980][/doublepost]I'm not talking about the Mac mini Pro to replace a new Mac Pro, I think you need both, but a Mac mini "pro" could fit in the eco system and be a very good seller. They could even have a proper Vega card inside and it would make a great Mac gaming machine which is something I think they should get into.
Something that would sit in the loungroom, like a PS4[/QUOTE]
"proper Vega". the Vega's like in the iMac Pro won't fit in a likely Mac Mini. There probably wouldn't be a card in the next mini ( nothing in the description hinted at them wanting to do an box with slots xMac. That's probably not what the mini will be. )
Vega's HBMs (even the mobile version) will drive the price up substantially. So the whole Mini line up with that option is highly unlikely. Polaris is unikely because of the space the VRAM takes up ( the mini probably isn't going to grow substantially larger. Perhaps an inch of height but doubtful **** the footprint much unless go vertical. )
If rendering is your thing, take a look at the AMD Radeon ProRender engine.
https://pro.radeon.com/en/software/prorender/
Looks like a better sollution.
https://pro.radeon.com/en/software/prorender/
Looks like a better sollution.
and I don't think they or I would really care, more people are getting into the Mac ecosystem than moving away. I think a Mac mini pro would sell like hotcakes. I haven't been to uni for a long time but from what I understand everyone has a Mac laptop or iPad, if you could bring that same idea to children's' tv, bedrooms, university dorms in the form of a powerful Mac Mini that you could edit on FCPX, Logic X, Ableton Live, Adobe Creative Cloud etc, you'd have no reason for people to buy anything windows.
It looks like Apple might be transitioning their entire lineup to a "regular-pro" version dichotomy. MacBook, MacBook Pro. iMac, iMac Pro. Mini, Mini Pro.
Iphone Pro? Ipod Pro?
And maybe...Mac Pro, just plain Mac?
Bears some consideration, at least.
Iphone Pro? Ipod Pro?
And maybe...Mac Pro, just plain Mac?
Bears some consideration, at least.
The names don't matter - it's producing a product that meets Pro (or Pro-sumer) needs.
Apple has been failing at that for at least 8 years. For Apple, "Pro" means "shiny".
The utter (and admitted) failure of the trashcan Mac Pro is the ultimate symbol of that failure.
Yes, the new Mac Mini is actually the replacement for the Mac Pro....
The threads on here keep smashing through the bottom of what I thought was possible in the "insane, unhinged disconnected hysteria" department.
The threads on here keep smashing through the bottom of what I thought was possible in the "insane, unhinged disconnected hysteria" department.
wan't the Mac Mini Pro released in 2013? Designed by Phill Schiller's 'Ass'
To be fair the 2012 mac mini was kind of 'Pro'
I bought the 4 core i7 and immediately upgraded it to 16Gb ram and installed an SSD, my wife uses it daily for her photography work.
In 2018 I can choose to fit two 4TB SSDs into it and run an external GPU (albeit over thunderbolt 1 and it requires a hack)
wan't the Mac Mini Pro released in 2013? Designed by Phill Schiller's 'Ass'
To be fair the 2012 mac mini was kind of 'Pro'
I bought the 4 core i7 and immediately upgraded it to 16Gb ram and installed an SSD, my wife uses it daily for her photography work.
In 2018 I can choose to fit two 4TB SSDs into it and run an external GPU (albeit over thunderbolt 1 and it requires a hack)
A 6-core Mac mini Pro with a Vega graphics card would be a mini beast!
