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Wanting to get a nMP soon. when is the 7,1 coming out?

Caribbean Islands will only be out maybe middle of next year.
So, either Apple will update nMP early next year and use existing Tonga and Hawaii GPUs (Crossfire through PCIe supported), or wait another year or even more (while at it just wait for Broadwell or even Slylake with TB3 - why not?!!) and use the newer GPUs. With all the waiting maybe they'll even use the successor to CI, who knows?!
I'm confident that Apple will update soon enough, although it's strange that there is no solid info yet.
But Apple can keep it's secrets...
 
I have the specs for 7,1 in front of me.

Apple has heard your rumblings and sales of 6,1 were painfully low. Refurb 4,1 and 5,1 are selling more.

Apple is returning to the tower design but they have gotten rid of the optical drive and drive bays to create a sleek black compact tower with curved edges. Inside you will find five PCIE slots, dual processor options from 4 core CPUs all the way up to 14 core CPUs, and a user upgradable m.2 slot on the motherboard. They are also offering many graphics cards options from AMD and Nvidia with true SLI support built into Yosemite 10.10.4. It will also be the first desktop machine with Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.1 (6 ports each).

#dreamon :p
 
ManuelGomes said:
Caribbean Islands will only be out maybe middle of next year.
So, either Apple will update nMP early next year and use existing Tonga and Hawaii GPUs (Crossfire through PCIe supported), or wait another year or even more (while at it just wait for Broadwell or even Slylake with TB3 - why not?!!) and use the newer GPUs. With all the waiting maybe they'll even use the successor to CI, who knows?!
I'm confident that Apple will update soon enough, although it's strange that there is no solid info yet.
But Apple can keep it's secrets...
Click to expand...

Two things I would point out. Fiji GPUs are already going to OEM's. Second, If Fiji, and rest of Caribbean Island cards would be on 28 nm, they would be already out, rather than Tonga.

There are two ways. Fiji XT is 20 nm FD-SOI , or... 14 nm FinFET, both from GloFO.

AMD was supposed to postopone highest end GPU for 2H of next year. And that is not even FijiXT card, its MUCH BIGGER and much more powerful than 4096 GCN core, 4GB HBM GPU.
Fiji was supposed to be R9 380X, not 390X.

On SiSoft site, there were two additional GPUs with HBM Memory, one with 3200 GCN cores, and one with 3520. That one with 3200 have had 2 GB of HBM, and that one with 3520 with 4 GB of HBM clocked at... 350 MHz.

Everything so far, is rumor mill. Gigantic Rumor mill, because expectations and excitement for those cards are pretty high.

However, Im certain that we will see new iteration of Mac Pro early 2015.
 
Gav Mack said:
Yes of course but they are slower than the d700's. Not tried the d300 yet but I assume so.
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Right, the way you worded it made it sound like you were insinuating that the D500's aren't CrossFire compatible. Which, BTW, I imagine are MORE than enough for any game, esp. BF4.
 
C610 (X99) has also a bug relating to the SATA controller, like with X79.
You can use only 6 ports (of a total of 10) in RAID, the remaining 4 are still usable.
I'm not sure this will be fixed anytime soon, maybe a new stepping.
It's not important for the MacPro, but let's hope this doesn't make Apple delay the nMP.
 
pcd109 said:
I've seen sharp decrease in mac pro numbers on the businesses i work with(print, graphics and video) after FCPX fiasco. I also seen a sharp decrease on advertising agencies and print houses. Now i don't see a comeback on either of this ones with the nMP. Home user base has grown, true, and that might be replacing pro's in numbers, but there is one issue with this trend. In my graphics shop there are dozens of businesses that see my macs and ask me "what windows is that?(yea, i got this question few times)". Now this is exposure to decision makers who buys in bulk numbers. I only work directly with marketing and CEO's of companies, so decision makers. Home users don't buy in bulk and don't expose they macs to businesses. So if you move out of add agencies and print houses and graphics studios, then you have an issue. If Apple continues to keep offer less upgrades for more and more money there will be all over 90's again. With one small difference though: there is no other Steve Jobs around to save them this time.....
Click to expand...


Disagree. I freelance in studios all over the world and its always been a split. As a guess Linux 50% OSX 30% windows 20% - and the windows is normally just there for 3d studio max and some specialist applications.

Editors may have shifted form FCP to Premiere. But I know a lot of companies that have gone back with the nMP to FCPX when they see what it can do for the money with very little setup or running hassle
 
Nosferax said:
I would like to see some hard and reliable numbers backing that up... I just don't see people moving back to FCPX in drove for example. I would bet that most nMP buyers were already either cMP or iMac users with well established OSX based non CUDA enabled workflow.

I know that for my company, the lack of NVidia GPU killed the nMP.
Click to expand...

Just wondering what cuda only applications you use?

Adobe is fully supporting OpenCL, and the last hold out, 3D rendering in AE, is being ported to OpenCL.

Even the previous Cuda only renderers in 3D applications are being supported like octane.

I know it's a very platform specific thing and when you head down a path that uses Proprietary Tech like Cuda, you are pretty much locked in for good or bad.

Then thing is the Dual D700s are INCREDIBLY cheap for their power ( D300s are a bit pointless however ) and Nvidia workstation Cards are Hideously expensive but potentially more powerful. So their is a lot of trade off.

Personally I just want the fastest bang for my buck to create with so I have 6 core nMP / D700s and I've set up my own Amazon EC2 render farm. Forget your feeble 12 core rendering... I have 156,000 cores :) Ok... I actually use about 128...
 
prowlmedia said:
Then thing is the Dual D700s are INCREDIBLY cheap for their power ( D300s are a bit pointless however ) and Nvidia workstation Cards are Hideously expensive but potentially more powerful.
Click to expand...

The D700 is slower in Open CL compared to a dual GTX 980 rig and is far more expensive. Even dual GTX 970 wins by a small margin and is considered a budget solution.
 
Far more expensive? I don't know where you buy from, but on our planet two D700 costs 1000$ while two 980 costs about 1100$.
 
EdDuPlessis said:
The D700 is slower in Open CL compared to a dual GTX 980 rig and is far more expensive. Even dual GTX 970 wins by a small margin and is considered a budget solution.
Click to expand...

I would just point out, that D700 is based on 3 year old cards. Lets compare the cards that will compete directly with one and another, but for that we have to wait to February.

Edit.
http://www.chiphell.com/thread-1196441-1-1.html
Fiji is R9 380X. Bermuda is Bigger and more powerful chip. Both are made by GloFo at 20NM. Told you that was what going to happen ;).

One more thing. The advantage of AMD GPUs is really getting apparent in Higher than 1440p resolutions. Yep, In "Retina" displays.
 
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sirio76 said:
Far more expensive? I don't know where you buy from, but on our planet two D700 costs 1000$ while two 980 costs about 1100$.
Click to expand...

It doesn't work like that. If you want dual GTX 980 in a system that system will cost a lot less than a Mac Pro with Dual D700. You can't seprate system price from the total cost for the obvious reason that you can't buy D700s on their own...unless you buy their cousins the 7970s.

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koyoot said:
I would just point out, that D700 is based on 3 year old cards. Lets compare the cards that will compete directly with one and another, but for that we have to wait to February.
Click to expand...

Around that time there will be updates to the nine series too so it's a moot point. I was compring the D700 to the stock version of the GTX 980 but there are already faster clocked versions even months before the possible Titanium version (not Titan).
 
prowlmedia said:
Why are you bothering me with gaming cards? And if you don't know the difference...
Click to expand...

LOL. The feeble attempt at showing contempt for "gaming cards" gave me a good chuckle. The D series showed up as meager "gaming cards" without ecc enabled until a driver update occurred which enabled the software based ecc functionality.
 
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prowlmedia said:
Why are you bothering me with gaming cards? And if you don't know the difference...
Click to expand...

Difference? You mean the ECC ram? Yeah that will help you in the off chance that space radiation cause one bit to flip...

Beside that, you'll get better value from gaming card.
 
superdx said:
Hopefully it's for nvidia GPUs, or they somehow bring Crossfire at the hardware level instead of needing drivers to support. Gaming would be awesome!
Click to expand...

Crossfire at the hardware level just really isn't a thing that can be done without breaking a lot of things.

Apps really need to just get to the point where they can handle multiple GPUs instead of pretending their is just one. Hardware can't fix that as much as it needs to.
 
Cubemmal said:
Yup. Nvidia's like current and produce heat. AMD's have generally been more of the low power option, and Apple like low power components. Regardless if I recall correctly the 2013 nMP already is near the limit of what the PS can do, I don't think they can push it any further.
Click to expand...

Uh…unless you're talking about Quadro vs. Fire Pro/GL, NVIDIA has historically been the cooler-running GPUs, especially in iMacs and MacBook Pros. The last Radeons used in 2011-era iMacs and MacBook Pros (AMD Radeon HD 6xxxM series) now all have overheating and meltdown issues.
 
Nosferax said:
Difference? You mean the ECC ram? Yeah that will help you in the off chance that space radiation cause one bit to flip...

Beside that, you'll get better value from gaming card.
Click to expand...

You can enable ECC in the NVidia system preference on the 7 and 9 series.
 
EdDuPlessis said:
It doesn't work like that. If you want dual GTX 980 in a system that system will cost a lot less than a Mac Pro with Dual D700. You can't seprate system price from the total cost for the obvious reason that you can't buy D700s on their own...unless you buy their cousins the 7970s.
Click to expand...

Please... of course you can fit a couple 980 inside a 1.000$ PC rig.. but let's say I want to put them inside a 10.000$ workstation does this made them pricier?? of course not... BTW we talking about Mac here. The fact is that a dual D700 is cheaper than a dual 980... and this is clear to everybody who can tell the difference between 1.000$ and 1.100$, if you can't understand this then there's a big problem in communication between us.

EdDuPlessis said:
Yet dual GTX 980 beats the D700 in every pro app.
Click to expand...

Lol, go try some pro 3d software, I've tested a real scene a months ago, the D700 was as fast or up to 3x faster against a 980(on an overclocked 5960X PC rig) if it was mounted on a 4/5.1 MP it would be 10x faster. It maybe faster in some tasks, and slower in others, claiming the 980 is fastest in every app is just a false statement.
 
sirio76 said:
Lol, go try some pro 3d software, I've tested a real scene a months ago, the D700 was as fast or up to 3x faster against a 980(on an overclocked 5960X PC rig) if it was mounted on a 4/5.1 MP it would be 10x faster. It maybe faster in some tasks, and slower in others, claiming the 980 is fastest in every app is just a false statement.
Click to expand...

Mate I was using 3D Studio when it was a DOS app (installing from 14 floppies wasn't fun) and you were in nappies.

Post some video evidence of these claims below otherwise it's vapour and you're wasting your life and our time.

'As fast or 3x faster'

'It would be 10x faster in a 4/5.1'
 
Derpage said:
LOL. The feeble attempt at showing contempt for "gaming cards" gave me a good chuckle. The D series showed up as meager "gaming cards" without ecc enabled until a driver update occurred which enabled the software based ecc functionality.
Click to expand...

<Sigh>Sorry bud. I deal with Extremely High Detail CAD with Billions of Polys every day. A 980gtx just plain can't handle it. There is a real reason they have pro cards you know... It ain't Just about the EEC

384Bit Memory Bus against 256bit
Higher Memory Bandwidth.
Let alone the 6gb ram ON EACH CARD!
Oh and TRUE 30 Bit Colour at 60htz at 4K - Not the 980 version of it.

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EdDuPlessis said:
"Gaming cards"

Yet dual GTX 980 beats the D700 in every pro app.
Click to expand...

<big big Sigh> Ok there Skippy. Lets see you test all the apps I run that aren't even certified for gaming cards... and plain do not run.

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Nosferax said:
Difference? You mean the ECC ram? Yeah that will help you in the off chance that space radiation cause one bit to flip...

Beside that, you'll get better value from gaming card.
Click to expand...

See above...

Though I do agree you get better value from a gaming card.... that's because they are to play games on. Not to design buildings, cars or many of the other tasks designed to run on a workstation card non stop, 24 hours a day, and heres the really really important, without fault.
 
prowlmedia said:
<Sigh>Sorry bud. I deal with Extremely High Detail CAD with Billions of Polys every day. A 980gtx just plain can't handle it. There is a real reason they have pro cards you know... It ain't Just about the EEC

384Bit Memory Bus against 256bit
Higher Memory Bandwidth.
Let alone the 6gb ram ON EACH CARD!
Oh and TRUE 30 Bit Colour at 60htz at 4K - Not the 980 version of it.

----------



<big big Sigh> Ok there Skippy. Lets see you test all the apps I run that aren't even certified for gaming cards... and plain do not run.

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See above...

Though I do agree you get better value from a gaming card.... that's because they are to play games on. Not to design buildings, cars or many of the other tasks designed to run on a workstation card non stop, 24 hours a day, and heres the really really important, without fault.
Click to expand...

You're talking as if you were the authority when it comes to engineering apps. Fact is, your not and you just don't know what you are talking about.

Reality is, that today "PRO" card are the same GPU than the "Gaming" card but are often clocked lower than said gaming card to give the illusion of more stability when in fact they are just plain slower by design.

If you go to CGSociety and talk with people in the 3D/VFX business they'll recommend you buy a "gaming" card over a Quadro or Firepro 99.9% of the time. Only for very advanced fluid simulation or such product, which are quite rare to non-existant on OSX anyway, would you have the need for something better than a "gaming" card. But this isn't the market for the nMP. The nMP is all about "media" production. Apple left the field of scientific/engineering quite a while ago.
 
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