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MP 7,1 Waiting for Mac Pro 7,1 A1991 (no more)
- Thread starter Mago
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when Apple first went to upgradable CPUs, the Powermac 7500, 8500, 9500, and all the clones based upon them, CPUs were (soldered?) on a slot-based daughtercard that was replacable. UMAX used to ship double slot machines with one slot free, so users could upgrade later, & Daystar had 1,2 & 4 CPU options for their Genesis MP line.
Without the disco... perhaps not.
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/del...-desktop/spd/alienware-area51-r7/dpcwcfxr703h
Dell probably would do an EPYC workstation first. Take something similar to this
https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/povw/poweredge-r7515
and simply put it into something like (partially just rotate it 90 degrees )
https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/povw/poweredge-t640
HP may follow in similar fashion. Right now I'm not sure either one of those two get enough EPYC to fill their server demand so a tower variant probably isn't high on the list for a while. Loose the base/turbo peaks but some folks just want a "server" by their desk.
AMD put some product segmentation on the Threadripper for higher end workstation space.
"... Each CPU supports four channels of DDR4-3200. We confirmed that this included support for ECC UDIMMs on a board-by-board basis, but does not include RDIMM or LRDIMM support. AMD did state that these new CPUs are validated for the 32 GB DDR4 modules coming onto the market, which makes a realistic maximum DRAM support of 256GB (8 x 32GB). ..."
https://www.anandtech.com/show/15062/amds-2019-fall-update/3
Capped to unbuffered DIMMs (UDIMM) shaves lots off the of max capacity. The current iMac Pro can match that.
As one of the co-creators of the Thunderbolt specification, if Apple wants AMD CPU architecture Macs using TB3, they can have it.
And now that Intel has loosened up the licensing and royalty fee structure to get TB to be adopted by the USB Promoters Group to form the foundation for USB4 we are seeing AMD CPU architecture systemboards that offer Thunderbolt 3 (the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3).
Sam Goldwyn (the G in MGM) was famous for saying “Two words: impossible”
[automerge]1575501256[/automerge]
I’m glad, and I hope it happens. But things don’t move that fast, and I’d be surprised to see an AMD Mac in 2020
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Maybe I missed the news which I don’t see with a search but the 2013 Mac Pro seems to have left the building.
Probably not. TR3 needs 8 DIMM slots to get to 256GB. The current iMP does it with 4. (so if capped at 4 DIMMs the TR3 maxes out at 128GB ... the 2017 era limit of the iMP. ). Apple is probably not going to go backwards on max mem capacity. So that is problem.
TR3 is also in a whole different baseline clock TDP zone. TR3 jumps up 30W to 280W from TR2 250W ( and TR1 had 180W options .... AMD is on a tread over last three iterations. That tread doesn't particular synchronize well with iMP constraints. ) Whereas the W-2100 series specced at 140W ( and high core counts on turbo loads jump spike into the 160W zone. ) And it has a bigger CPU package footprint.
Apple could make the next iMP enclosure larger to make it all fit, but are they really gong to do that ? (maybe (6K screen) or maybe not (speed bump what they have) ).
if Apple cut the starting base price of the iMP down $500-1000 it would do better with the core count cap it has ( or start at 10 cores and go up to 18 with the smaller of that adjustment.)
I'm pointing at the iMP because folks keep pointing at TR3 as some kind of King Kong, "wins on all metrics" , world beater. It isn't. AMD threw some compromises in there. From scavanging just "good enough" chiplets as relatively high power consumption. ( and not having enough top quality ones to do 64 cores for a while .. EPYC and Ryzen soaks them all up. ). There is more to what will make the cut as the next iMP processor than a couple of tech porn benchmark results.
Silver lining: The ship date is now the 23rd for the 6,1. Last week they were available for pickup near me.
Reasonable bet that some configs are shipping to stores now, and BTO pricing will drop sometime next week, maybe open orders on the 16th?
You’re right. In Oz they are showing 2-3 weeks for delivery or available for pick up 31/12/2019. So clearly they don’t want any purchases until nMP is up. I also think 16th for orders with immediate delivery. Just like 6.1 and iMacPro. so I guess it’s T minus 10 days......
Whatever mystical substance you guys are ingesting that allows you to free associate like this, I'd love to try some.. I guess there isn't much else to talk about at this point though so we must stretch ?
It does look like it's limited to 256 GB - 4 RAM channels still allows a 2 slots/channel design, so 256 GB with 8 slots is possible, but no support for buffered DIMMs or RDIMM leaves it stuck there (and requiring 8 slots). 256GB, while a lot of memory, seems like a very low limit for a 32-64 core processor... The market for that many cores is precisely the same edge cases who need a ton of memory.
Of course, this (and the TDP) would require a bigger iMac Pro. An iMac Pro based around some version of the Pro Display panel (with a less fancy backlight) could solve that problem and also the cooling issue, especially if the new no-Ive Apple also made it a bit thicker...
If they do that, what do they do with the Mac Pro? The iMac Pro becomes the fastest, biggest core count machine they have, since the Threadripper is both more cores and faster per core than the Mac Pro Xeons. EPYC has much lower base and boost clocks than Threadripper (low enough, in fact, that there's a risk of getting beaten by the MacBook Pro on poorly threaded tasks!). Having a hole in your performance where your big workstation can lose to a laptop is embarrassing, even if it rarely comes up.
AMD seems to be segmenting pretty seriously by limiting EPYC to low clocks and Threadripper to modest RAM capacities. It would be relatively easy to build a high-end workstation CPU in between the two, but it doesn't exist (yet?).
Intel's Xeon-W line is in fact a mix of the two strategies AMD could use. The Xeon-W 2200 line are closely related to HEDT processors (Threadripper), but with enhanced memory support. The Xeon-W 3200 line are server processors with a clock speed boost and multiprocessor features stripped out. Whether they get there from Threadripper or EPYC, the CPU Apple would want is possible...
Of course, this (and the TDP) would require a bigger iMac Pro. An iMac Pro based around some version of the Pro Display panel (with a less fancy backlight) could solve that problem and also the cooling issue, especially if the new no-Ive Apple also made it a bit thicker...
If they do that, what do they do with the Mac Pro? The iMac Pro becomes the fastest, biggest core count machine they have, since the Threadripper is both more cores and faster per core than the Mac Pro Xeons. EPYC has much lower base and boost clocks than Threadripper (low enough, in fact, that there's a risk of getting beaten by the MacBook Pro on poorly threaded tasks!). Having a hole in your performance where your big workstation can lose to a laptop is embarrassing, even if it rarely comes up.
AMD seems to be segmenting pretty seriously by limiting EPYC to low clocks and Threadripper to modest RAM capacities. It would be relatively easy to build a high-end workstation CPU in between the two, but it doesn't exist (yet?).
Intel's Xeon-W line is in fact a mix of the two strategies AMD could use. The Xeon-W 2200 line are closely related to HEDT processors (Threadripper), but with enhanced memory support. The Xeon-W 3200 line are server processors with a clock speed boost and multiprocessor features stripped out. Whether they get there from Threadripper or EPYC, the CPU Apple would want is possible...
The point of the Mac Pro has and will continue to be flexibility. For the people who just need power, they already made the iMac Pro.
one question, and I believe it to be the largest concern. How much will the wheels cost
This is for non-ecc ram as there is no modules bigger than 32gb, but if you where familiar with Threadripper, previous tr2 maybe configured upto 1tb as log you use Uber expensive 128gb modules, same as the iMac Pro (Xeon)
x4 = You can also buy a used car for this purposeWell, I can tell you!
Only $999 ..... each
No pricing yet, but believed to be several models to choose from including Powder Coated w/Color Stripe Highlight, Chrome Plated, Generic Magnesium or Stainless Steel. Spinner rims are an additional cost.