CUPERTINO, California, named after Saint Joseph of Cupertino (1603-1663), who was prone to frequent, miraculous levitation.
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Wishes for Next Mac Pro
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CUPERTINO, California, named after Saint Joseph of Cupertino (1603-1663), who was prone to frequent, miraculous levitation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_of_Cupertino
He was said to have been remarkably unclever, but prone to miraculous levitation and intense ecstatic visions that left him gaping.[1] In turn, he is recognized as the patron saint of air travelers, aviators, astronauts, people with a mental handicap, test takers, and poor students. He was canonized in 1767.
If he is the patron saint of poor students you shouldn't have provided a citation.
We have discussed this at length, at least most professionals so many times already it's impossible to keep up with. As a professional 3D artist, certain things are a MUST and it is very likely everything I do will be moving to Windows. This is simply because people like me can no longer wait so long for Apple to update their Mac Pro line and also their video cards. In order for me to stay Mac, they will have to ship by July 31 or I won't be coming back.
For me, this is what I am building in my new system regardless of Mac or PC, price not important:
1. Duel Xeon CPUs, latest Intel, highest clock speeds at the time. At least 16 cores.
2. 32GB RAM
3. nVidia 690 or Tesla based high-end cards for their "CUDA" cores. A MUST for my 3D rendering. Don't care about Radeon cards, must have nVidia.
4. 256 or 512GB SSD for OS and software
5. 2TB HD - for library files such as Music, Pictures, software files, etc.
6. USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt
For me, this is what I am building in my new system regardless of Mac or PC, price not important:
1. Duel Xeon CPUs, latest Intel, highest clock speeds at the time. At least 16 cores.
2. 32GB RAM
3. nVidia 690 or Tesla based high-end cards for their "CUDA" cores. A MUST for my 3D rendering. Don't care about Radeon cards, must have nVidia.
4. 256 or 512GB SSD for OS and software
5. 2TB HD - for library files such as Music, Pictures, software files, etc.
6. USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt
I'm currently on an iMac which has only one ethernet port.
It's really up to each user how he wants it.
If you use a good wifi/airport, you shouldn't experience any downsides. I can get 20 mbs download. Problems only appear if one uses cheap wireless routers.
Oh I wasn't doubting you, I was merely expressing my skepticism that this man did anything even close to levitating. Seemingly unremarkable people with outlandish 'abilities' are often given sainthood. Look at Thomas Aquinas, the man was dying and asked for some Herring. Upon being fed something else (because he was in a location far from any Herrings, he claimed (in his delusional, half dead state) that they were the best he had ever tasted. Bam, Miracle! He must have turned the food to herrings in his mouth, give that man a sainthood!
Ahh, that would be why.
I pull 20Mbps (my cable speed limit) down on Wi-Fi, too (on a Linksys Wireless-N router).
GTX680 & 690 are gaming cards. What you need is a Quadro.
At the moment their is just one card that would make sense since the Kepler GK110 wasn't presented yesterday. (But a K20 Tesla)
I hope for a 7970.
Apple lacks SLI and Crossfire.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-690-benchmark,3193-12.html
A GTX680 is faster than a Quadro AND has CUDA support so why not? Only very few users actually need a Quadro and that would be because of specialized drivers not speed or HW functionality. A GTX690 would never work correctly unless you are only in Windows and have external power.
Ahh, that would be why.
I pull 20Mbps (my cable speed limit) down on Wi-Fi, too (on a Linksys Wireless-N router).
I have a Linksys as well. Used to have a different brand, which was a nightmare. Linksys works perfectly.
I always like a minimum of cable spaghetti. That's only one advantage of a workstation. I don't want to imagine connecting four or five HD's to a MacBook Pro.
Gaming cards, yes. But they're also faster than any Quadro card currently produced if you're not running software that relies on double-precision float math (and this would be the majority of CUDA-enabled software, actually).
But, about the fastest CUDA card you're gonna get on the Mac under OS X without external power is the GTX 570. 580 also works, but requires an external PSU. No Mac drivers for GTX 600 series yet.
Wish list!
* Fastet possible dual 8-core CPU Xeon
* Fast GPU, preferable Nvidia 680
* Enough power cables for big/multiple GPUs and power hungry PCI cards.
* 10 Gigabit ethernet (for fast NAS box backup)
* 6 Gbit Sata
* Ports: Firewire, USB3, eSATA, TB
* Blueray (nice to have)
* At least 6 PCIe3 slots , 4 with enough lanes for GPUs/SSD/fast raid cards
* Some space beside the PCIe slots where you can mount extra adapters etc without using a PCIe slot.
* 6 Hard disk drive bays (including 2 in lower optical bay) each bay can either hold 2x2.5" disks or one 3.5".
* Probably need a slightly larger box and bigger PSU
* Fastet possible dual 8-core CPU Xeon
* Fast GPU, preferable Nvidia 680
* Enough power cables for big/multiple GPUs and power hungry PCI cards.
* 10 Gigabit ethernet (for fast NAS box backup)
* 6 Gbit Sata
* Ports: Firewire, USB3, eSATA, TB
* Blueray (nice to have)
* At least 6 PCIe3 slots , 4 with enough lanes for GPUs/SSD/fast raid cards
* Some space beside the PCIe slots where you can mount extra adapters etc without using a PCIe slot.
* 6 Hard disk drive bays (including 2 in lower optical bay) each bay can either hold 2x2.5" disks or one 3.5".
* Probably need a slightly larger box and bigger PSU
Wish list!
* Fastet possible dual 8-core CPU Xeon
* Fast GPU, preferable Nvidia 680
* Enough power cables for big/multiple GPUs and power hungry PCI cards.
* 10 Gigabit ethernet (for fast NAS box backup)
* 6 Gbit Sata
* Ports: Firewire, USB3, eSATA, TB
* Blueray (nice to have)
* At least 6 PCIe3 slots , 4 with enough lanes for GPUs/SSD/fast raid cards
* Some space beside the PCIe slots where you can mount extra adapters etc without using a PCIe slot.
* 6 Hard disk drive bays (including 2 in lower optical bay) each bay can either hold 2x2.5" disks or one 3.5".
* Probably need a slightly larger box and bigger PSU
I like this wishlist.
Future proof graphic card ports/slots/interfaces, fast data pipelines.
I just I doubt we'll get BluRay out of the box.
I also think that graphics card access should focus more on "pro" cards like the quadro. I may be wrong, but isn't the 680 more suited for gaming?
The fact that you wanted rather a slightly bigger case shows you're serious. It's all about access, expandability, cooling, not smallness of box which has not the slightest importance for a workstation.
Generally, even the "slowest" Mac Pro should be considerably faster than the top iMac (you know, when it gets so hot you can fry eggs or your fingertips on it
)
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Unfortunately it is not that simple.
3D Software is very fussy about GPUs.
Here is an example by one of the leading vendors of 3D VFX software, SideFX, with the specification for Houdini, which runs on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows 7.
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=415&Itemid=269
Essentially if you want it to perform as advertised you need an NVidia Tesala or Quadro, or an AMD FirePro card.
Also note the following "OpenGL 3.2 and OpenCL is not yet supported on OSX. It will be supported once Apple updates their drivers." In another support article they go into more details. The key issue is that the way that Apple implemented OpenGL 3.2 support in Mac OS X 10.7.x means rewriting 10s of thousands of lines of code. This explains why most 3D software is still using OpenGL 2.1 on Mac OS X even though the OS now supports OpenGL 3.2.
Personally I am looking at Windows or Linux alternatives, much as I like Apple products and OS X I need to see some sort of commitment to supporting professional users of 3D Apps before investing what is quite a lot of money in a new Mac Pro.
My own needs are similar, but probably a little lighter than yours. With the list of requests (Teslas and NVidia gpus) you'd be better off with a Windows box. I doubt NVidia and Apple will ever do the work to bring Teslas to OSX.
Those drivers help for some things
. They also come with more ram at the top end, but those are some very expensive cards. If you're responding to the person who wanted to use CUDA for rendering purposes (and I can't think of any application that supports that specifically under OSX), he'd probably want to consider water cooling on a GTX690. The gaming cards can really heat up to scary temperatures.Apple hasn't been very good about OpenGL, but yours was the best explanation I've read on it. 3D apps have always been a minority under OSX, and Apple really does really take the lazy route at times, forcing others to conform. Note the resolution independence marketing drivel before. In the end, we got hidpi support. Double or nothing.
I doubt that you can put it down to laziness. We can debate wether the reasons are good or bad, but Apple have a reason for doing it their way.
The current Mac Pro meets my needs very well. I'd like to see expanded GPU options, though. I use it mostly for games.
Much of the time, I look at what they do and think that they've developed a pretty good idea of what people will tolerate.
Thunderbolt
- Definitely Thunderbolt ports
- hiDPI Thunderbolt Monitor
- SSD for boot
- Dual top-end Intel chips - Ivy Bridge? Xeon E5?
- HDD bays able to support 3.5" or 2.5"
- 802.11ac wireless (and an Airport Extreme ac to go with it)
- Modern Graphics Card prob from NVidia blah blah (you guys have way more opinions on this)
ready to buy it on day 1 for sure - but since this will be my first Mac Pro, honestly the current model would be just fine with TB and refreshes in processor and GPU.
USB3? meh
- Definitely Thunderbolt ports
- hiDPI Thunderbolt Monitor
- SSD for boot
- Dual top-end Intel chips - Ivy Bridge? Xeon E5?
- HDD bays able to support 3.5" or 2.5"
- 802.11ac wireless (and an Airport Extreme ac to go with it)
- Modern Graphics Card prob from NVidia blah blah (you guys have way more opinions on this)
ready to buy it on day 1 for sure - but since this will be my first Mac Pro, honestly the current model would be just fine with TB and refreshes in processor and GPU.
USB3? meh
The fact that you care at all sits you well within the population that could benefit from Quadro/ FirePro. If you just need CUDA for your Adobe a GTX 6xx series would be really nice for fractions of the cost, no?
GTX680 is a gaming card, don't know if you understand it.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5699/nvidia-geforce-gtx-680-review/17
The 7970 would be the best overall choice for a MacPro. Cheaper, lots of room to overclock and a lot stronger in compute. I doubt they would offer nVidia and AMD same time.
It's also a great CUDA card for Adobe CS without costing an arm and a leg, don't know if you understand it.
A very simlpe and very sad one: that Apple keeps it alive :-/
If that would come true, then, bring it on as you did with the 1,1 (that I own): the latest and the greatest at a great priceerformance ratio. One that I can justify thinking it will last me another 6 years, as the 1,1 is doing.
If that would come true, then, bring it on as you did with the 1,1 (that I own): the latest and the greatest at a great price
erformance ratio. One that I can justify thinking it will last me another 6 years, as the 1,1 is doing.
A very simlpe and very sad one: that Apple keeps it alive :-/
If that would come true, then, bring it on as you did with the 1,1 (that I own): the latest and the greatest at a great price
If I didn't NEED more power, I'm sure my MP1.1 would still be chugging along another 6 years from now. Actually, I plan on keeping it around as my second machine.