What's after the 2012 MacPro?

[derbothaus]

Yes there is a bit "latest greatest" envy, but the speed bumps won't be from the microarchitecture, it will come from the process shrink. There is little generally wrong with a process shrink as it typically leads to "faster".

For those with workloads that scale by core Ivy likely means another two cores in the single package line up and another 4 cores in the dual package line up. That will be much more than 5-10% on those workloads.

We'll see. If they cap the E5 1600 cores that their current level for Ivy (at 6), it is probably even more likely will see some iGPU additions to the E5 line up when get to Haswell. If they move the 1600's to 8 max that will be not so good sign for iGPU at next step.

You have great points and if they squeeze more core in then great they are already having issues. Mine is more a question of why people that have no idea what you are talking about prefer to have Ivy and are waiting because someone else says they should because they heard it from someone else. So it must be just Intel marketing saturation that the mindshare for Ivy is so prevalent. I don't even remember i7 having this much brew-ha around it and it actually boosted higher performance tick vs. tock.

 

[thekev]

You have great points and if they squeeze more core in then great they are already having issues. Mine is more a question of why people that have no idea what you are talking about prefer to have Ivy and are waiting because someone else says they should because they heard it from someone else. So it must be just Intel marketing saturation that the mindshare for Ivy is so prevalent. I don't even remember i7 having this much brew-ha around it and it actually boosted higher performance tick vs. tock.

*victor from futurama voice*

Jessss..... but the Ivy Breedge edition has so much more eagle. I would hate to think of you missing out.

I've been waiting for sandy bridge E mac pros, but out of curiosity do any of your users ever have trouble with the other machines? I keep reading imac display and macbook pro logic board complaints recently, which sucks as I wanted to try going for a new laptop at the moment as I need to stagger purchases.

 

[JaHull]

Whatever "hack" Apple comes out with to deliver Thunderbolt with the Mac Pro with is completely dissolved if the workstation E5 either have iGPUs or glut of PCI-e lanes to deploy. The E5 2600 series already has the glut. There is only one missing piece; the 1600's.

Just so you know Thunderbolt can be implemented on PCIe graphics cards, which have access to DisplayPort data and PCI express connectivity.

 

[deconstruct60]

Just so you know Thunderbolt can be implemented on PCIe graphics cards, which have access to DisplayPort data and PCI express connectivity.

That approach is an option but it has several disadvantages.

i. kneecaps the card's bandwidth the GPU. In a OpenCL context, that is a significant negative impact.

ii. increases the complexity of the card. If need an architecture like dual GPU cards where there is a PCI-e switch on the card you now have a PCI-e switch (TB ) behind a PCI-e switch . TB at max bandwidth off/on the card is likely to show glitches/hiccups in some corner cases.

Nevermind that Apple has avoided GPU cards with PCI-e switches like the plague in the past. If Apple comissions their own custom card perhaps "eating their own dogfood" will be more appealing to them.



iii. TB needs to power the sockets. Most GPU cards suck down all the power they get... where the is the "extra" power coming from in Apple's standard PCI-e card power set-up ?

The additional 10-20W TB pumps out its sockets is another 10-20W the GPU doesn't get to enhance its performance.

iv. Apple ends up with yet-another proprietary card likely tagged with a additional tax for low volume.


It can be done. And you don't have any klugey wires to connect. But , Apple can also write all of Mac OS X in assembly language.

Long term if the CPU packages Apple is using are going to eventually get iGPUs the better aligned short term solution is to embedded a GPU. Later when they get the iGPU they simply remove the embedded element GPU from the design.

I also don't see the point why folks are so keen to burp high end GPUs down Thunderbolt. Display Port v1.2 has more advantages from the "Display task perspective". Thunderbolt blocks v1.2 . It is far more straightforward to let GPU card continue what they have been doing and just hook to displays.

As far as "but the Mac Pro has to sell Thunderbolt Displays"... that's just tail wagging the dog. It doesn't have to.


P.S. As far as AMD and NVidia PCI-e card business go... if they don't see Thuderbolt as a another arrow in Intel's quiver to put them out of business, they are about to be blindsided.

 

[ekwipt]

Why does everyone care about Ivy? Everyone! It is a little bump. It has proven nothing but same 5-10% gain as before. It has heat issues for overclockers which generally means it is less than durable compared to SB-E variants. Is the name Ivy so much more enticing than Sandy? Care about Ivy if you need mobility thanks to integrated GPU gains. It is less attractive as a desktop chip right now. And the GPU is removed from the Xeon versions anyway.

Because I don't really need a new computer right now, my finances will be more likely better by next year, the minor speed bump will most likely be under 1 year of the 2012 MacPro, better GFX cards in 2013.

The likely hood of the 2014 might extend to 2015 then I'll kick myself for not getting the 2013.

Of course everything is rumours guys, that's what the whole forums about no?

 

[derbothaus]

...but out of curiosity do any of your users ever have trouble with the other machines?

Nothing of note. Things have been suspiciously silent.

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Of course everything is rumours guys, that's what the whole forums about no?

Of course. Just wondering why THAT codename and not others.

 

[thekev]

Nothing of note. Things have been suspiciously silent.

I always read about known problems before purchasing something. My laptop doesn't get updated often or to the best specs as I don't tend to use it as much, but reading about expanding batteries and multiple repairs from some people freaks me somewhat. Problems do happen with computers, so I look at what problems are mentioned frequently and how they were handled rather than that someone somewhere had to get their computer repaired.

 

[theSeb]

I always read about known problems before purchasing something. My laptop doesn't get updated often or to the best specs as I don't tend to use it as much, but reading about expanding batteries and multiple repairs from some people freaks me somewhat. Problems do happen with computers, so I look at what problems are mentioned frequently and how they were handled rather than that someone somewhere had to get their computer repaired.

I honestly don't think you have anything to worry about. My 2009 MBP works perfectly despite spending entire night encoding my movie and series collection.

Forums provide anecdotal evidence at best.