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Is this why the new Mac Pro has been taking so long?
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92 Replies
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Thanks for that link. Intriguing. Apple is so tight-lipped about future products it’s anybody’s guess what’s happening with the Mac Pro. Pair this finding with the benefits of Apple’s Metal technology and maybe there’s something worth waiting for…maybe.
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Really want to see 10GigE in the new MacPro. I want to set up a new 10GigE network here and having a port on each machine without needing a PCI card would be, as Trump would say, Huge.
Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media Inc.
Video Production, Post, Studio Sound Stage
Founder/President/Editor/Designer/Animator
https://www.tiltmedia.com -
If Apple are prepared to wait so long for AMD to catch up to NVIDIA’s second tier cards from 2016 when they know in five months those cards will be behind this years NVIDIA offerings then they are not really serious about the MacPro.
If they want to make cutting edge pro computers with the best graphics they could have done that years ago by using replaceable NVIDIA cards. I think the long wait for a MacPro that will be easily surpassed by cheaper PC hardware almost before it is released is a poor commercial decision. Also if they make the mistake of a non upgradable graphics card with a history of overheating again they might find buyer resistance.
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Michael Gissing
I agree with your comments. I have made mention of AMD’s Ryzen CPUs and AMD’s Vega Chips several times in these forums. The 2013 Mac Pro does run hotter than the PC counter parts. At least the article made mention of Nvidia’s Volta GPU. With Apple you get one or the other but not both. The market for 2013 Mac Pro’s GPU is to small for all the manufactures to worry about it. I love being able to pop any card into my computer that I want to. I know some Mac uses want that ability as well.
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My lord I do NOT miss those days when I had to split my brain between editing and system integration issues.
Decades ago when I was starting in digital editing, I remember having to buy my systems from ProMax because they were among the few who understand the special “Granite Digital” Firewire busses that made DV (DV!) deck editing fluid in and out of a Mac.
(Yes, youngsters, there was actually a time when 3.5Mbps content streams were a CHALLENGE to edit with!!
Today, I bought a laptop via mail order. Downloaded my software of choice. And was editing everything I needed to edit in less than an hour – with fluidity and ease.
To me, THAT is the delivered promise of the modern editing era.
I don’t have to waste my time trying to benchmark everything to eek out enough grunt to get my day to day jobs done and delivered, quickly and efficiently.
I understand that there are a few who must live on the edge of performance to get what THEY do done efficiently. And if you’re 3d modeling, Or chasing billions of polygons – bless you and I hope you get what you need.
I’m just a content creator.
Where my work used to be mostly for broadcast, today it’s mostly for on-line distribution. I work in 4k or lower masters, because I’m typically NOT delivering to motion picture theaters – tho I’m aware that even the higher end filmmakers I know are often delivering 2k anamorphic and doing just fine.
For me, the old “chasing hardware” days are gone.
No time for it. Not when my “off the shelf” gear runs rings around anything I’ve ever had on my desktop before.
YMMV.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Bill Davis] “For me, the old “chasing hardware” days are gone.
No time for it. Not when my “off the shelf” gear runs rings around anything I’ve ever had on my desktop before.”
Lucky you, for many of us (there are more than a “few”) more power is very useful.
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[Steve Connor] “Lucky you, for many of us (there are more than a “few”) more power is very useful.”
Didn’t say that it wasn’t.
Only suggesting that there MIGHT be a time in the not too distant future, where trading dollars for grunt for a noticeable improvement in performance stops making the same sense that it used to.
Isn’t that kinda what’s being discussed on the QNAP oriented threads?
And what the LumaForge guys figured out two years ago retrofitting those broadcast operations in Europe?Technology evolving past where it’s SENSIBLE to start playing a different game, judged by different metrics?
That’s all I’m saying.
My MacBook Pro experience over the past few years has SHOCKED me. It’s changed my orientation. When I go to NAB in two weeks. I’ll take my laptop and one or two 4TB USB 2 drives in my lightweight briefcase – and the experience I’ll have working in my hotel room will be EXACTLY equivalent to working at my desk. The ONLY limitation is I won’t have my Fiber line for upload and download. But my hardware array and system performance will be identical. I define that as ” proven to allow me to work at the top end of my skills without impediment.”
And I do NOT think that type of change is going to slow down.
That’s all.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
Are the new AMD GPUs what’s kept the nMP locked in stone for nearly 4yrs? I don’t think so. Whatever Apple is waiting on (assuming they are waiting on anything) is a mystery to all but a select few in NorCal. Since 2010 the only Mac Pro releases have been in 2012 (a slightly faster 2010 cMP) and in 2013 (the nMP). This is obviously not the market segment Apple is spending much time with, and to Bill’s point, why should they? For a lot (I dare say most) of the people that need to edit on a somewhat regular basis a ‘normal’ desktop or laptop is adequate.
In 2002 I remember our Smoke operator using an SGI Octane because an off-the-shelf computer just wasn’t good enough. Now Smoke runs on a laptop. Apple has never been a ‘big iron’ computer maker and these days off-the-shelf workstation computers are basically ‘big iron’. Mobile devices are the new laptops, laptops are the new desktops and desktops are the new workstations. That market segment certainly still exists but it is getting smaller, not larger.
15-20yrs ago many of us here were the beneficiaries of the DV Revolution and/or the desktop NLE revolution? Working out our homes (or small offices) w/o the need for $100k Avids and $70k Betacams? That downward pressure trend never stopped, we’ve just aged out of Apple’s target demo.
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[Andrew Kimery] “Are the new AMD GPUs what’s kept the nMP locked in stone for nearly 4yrs?”
I’d just be happy if Apple used chips that did get trashed by Adobe and Resolve renders. I get more trustworthy render results from iMacs and MacBook Pros than the trash can Mac Pro.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
I just hope that the iMac does not become the only answer. I love the iMac and use a iMac 5K Retina daily, however I preferred being able to choose the monitors I wanted; particularly two or three of the same running off of the Mac Pro when I was working on one.
Now if the iMac became the top of the line from Apple and they offered a Retina Display as an option to buy separately that’d be different perhaps. Though make no mistake that I still prefer (having a choice) working with the Mac Pro over the iMac; particularly when doing multiple tasks and editing.
Hopefully we’ll no soon what Apple is up to.
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