The problems many people here are describing are mostly concering folks who obviously didnt buy the trashcan back in early 2014 when it became available. Because in all seriousness, is there anyone on here who owns the thing in a decent config who runs into any situations where it feels outdated?
You can't game, so the GPUs don't matter to you anyways in that regard.
The whole creative suite never did any reasonable push towards proper GPU acceleration with open CL so far in THREE YEARS.
Nuke just slowly starts to support more and more dual GPU nodes, wich is great, and they run like butter on the machine. (Kronos retiming being one of them that profits really a lot from the GPUs).
In Premiere and FCPX I could edit 4k with no problems whatsoever from my Lacie Little Big disk TB2, but I have yet to come across one job that actually required 4k in the real every day bread and butter world as an Editor in advertisement.
I'm repeating myself, but has there been any significant Single Core CPU upgrades in the last three years? Cause that'd be the only thing where I could imagine more performance would be nice. Every other task I throw at it it just laughs about. I have zero doubts I'll be happily using it still in two years, giving me 5 years with it. I used to be that guy who upgraded his computer every two years, but not anymore with the current mac pro.
Of course If I bought this today I'd be pissed about the prize. But back then it was ok and you got a lot of power that is still totally up to any task.
If you do serious 3d work you'll use a PC anyways and then you'll have your dual 12 core CPU, 128 GB ram, crazy monster GPU workstations, which is totaly cool. But for editors and freelance video allrounders, DITs or even high end color graders, the mac pro is an awesome machine!
Yes..contra to popular demand on this site, I do not regret purchasing a Mac Pro 6 core 2013 in July of this year. I had to and could not hold out due to work demands at the time (ran literally 16-17 hours straight almost every day for 2 months working on FCPX projects). I was a little weary due to the "old" tech complaints read on this site. Problems with it..yes, but with every OS update lately, it has improved. Noticed big and I mean big differences in most normal single-dual core tasks since updating to macOS Sierra also (which was a complaint for many) and hope Apple still focuses on the bugs with the unit going forward. Does good with FCPX which is why I bought it.
If I listened to all of the complaints (probably those who don't have one or cannot afford one which I almost did), I would have bought a maxed out iMac retina 2016 that is said to out perform it....well...I went to some professional sites that can be trusted and read comments that "yes" the iMac retina 2016 out performs the Mac Pro 2013 is 'some' bench marks and overall the "better" per price comparison if price is more your concern (understandable)....but...under serious pro work loads, the iMac would over heat more than the Mac Pro and not be recommended, for it is really not for heavy long workloads like what I was doing. I listened....
I will be using it for quit some time and happy with it.
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I don't think it has that much to do with people expecting yearly product cycles when it come to the Mac Pro, people just want Apple to update it when new components are available, for instance, the Xeons, Apple are using the E5 V2, the V3 came, Apple did not update, the V4 came, Apple did not update, and currently we are right in the middle of the V4 to V5 cycle and still no Mac Pro. People would be fine waiting for 3 years if there was no new components available but Apple could have updated the nMP 2 times by now.
Not defending Apple...but is not the Mac Pro 2013 totally a custom job, especially inside with the graphic cards? It is not as easy as just slapping a new standard part in the trash can and call it a day like Windows boxes. And I won't talk about years (and still) having to deal with compatability and driver issues which is common and a standard with Windows and hardware boxes.
I think one reason with the long delays is making new components when they come out work with the others inside. If you have a trash can, you will notice the complexities already (issues) with it sometimes working with the other complex tech, especially all at once (hdmi, usb, Ethernet, thunderbolt etc.) and is why Apple is usually behind in tech due to testing and making sure everything works together, especially before release day. Which lately has been less desirable and in fact sloppy.
Now with the OS changing every year, it creates even more complexities to work out unfortunately. I also think that when it was released in 2014 , the complexities in making everything work in senergy was too complex and needed more time to resolve, but people were still complaining about Apple taking to long then...so they put it out with the bugs hoping to improve it via OS updates. Better to have the machine running ok on release than with issues out of the gate. (which still happened anyway).
I think this is why the delay, not because apple is not caring about the Mac Pro. Open it up and take a look. Old tech, but impressive design. Remember it is first version of a custom new design, so the next Mac Pro should be more stable. Yes, I want the latest tech always, but Like it or not, this is how it is..
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The need for ProRes will diminish if Apple does not upgrade the Mac Pro as the industry will force the change simply because it has to. Apple genuinely doesn't seem interested in the 'pro' market any longer and if there's a risk to not being able to produce a product the industry will shift and very quickly. I'm no expert in film post production, I've just got over 25 years IT experience and have seen plenty of things like this before. Apple is no different from any other supplier.
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This why I sold mine. Couldn't see a future in the product line, and while I didn't need to upgrade my Mac Pro for perhaps another couple of years I was in desperate need of a laptop that could support 32GB RAM. Apple don't make this type of laptop so I had to buy a PC. didn't see the point in hanging onto a Mac while it still had value and I'd already moved over to PC for my laptop, so I sold it and got a custom build X-99 PC for the money I got back from the nMP. It's 6-core with 128GB RAM, loads of PCI-e slots, m.2, u.2, USB 3.1, TB 3, and that's the starting point. I can take it up to 22 cores if I needed to and dump a load of storage in there.
The difference between network admins or general techies and the video-movie makers is the focus of what is important to them. Movie makers care really not what is in the box and apple knows this. Admins and techies care. Video-editors-movie makers don't as long as the box can create what they are doing and meet their deadlines. They do not care if they have the lastest and greatest. Apple know this. Their goal is to produce and make their product and meet their time tables. If they can do it with thunderbolt 1 or 2 or whatever CPU or graphic card(s) are in the box, they don't usually care. Unless it breaks or it no longer does what they want or what they do...they then buy another.
From what I have seen, many in the industry cannot tell you what kind of CPU or graphics card is in the box or trash can. They don't care. They care about the software and as far as the hardware, if it does what They want, that is fine. I am sure I will hear it from some, but this is basically truth.
I suspect that Many Pros buy and keep until it breaks or if they need more depending on what they are doing, the need will make them buy or move to another platform. Waste of resource to buy just to have the lastest. Pros buy due to the need. If apple cannot produce what they need, pros will move on. Simple. Pros will not generally argue or complain, they are more concerned about producing. If a company doesn't give them what they want, they just move on. That is a real pro. Pros have the money to buy what they need. That is what is called, "professional". If they don't have the money, they will get it or find the way too. If Windows will do it for them, they will switch...simple.
