How come theses guys can do it before 2013?

[Craig Seeman]

Let’s see real world results.
Many have USB3 support as well but not all USB3 is the same apparently.
Consider that Blackmagic only certifies their Shuttle on one MSI laptop.
I suspect Apple, given their relationship with Microsoft, may be waiting for them to develop something.
The challenge is bringing GPU out of Thunderbolt and, so far, the Macs that have implemented Thunderbolt don’t have 16xPCIe slotted GPU cards.

[Andy Neil]

Speculating on the reason for Apple’s timetable is meaningless, but if I were to hazard a guess, I’d say that there is some technology element holding up the process, or a complete redesign is underway and is radically different, preventing them from releasing something quick. Perhaps they can’t make retina displays for large monitors yet in significant numbers. Perhaps they’re working on a new motherboard design that doesn’t use standard components and they are building the components themselves. But I do think that if you assume they are planning on updating the line (or launching a replacement line), they would do it this year if they could.

Cool motherboard though.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Bernard Newnham]

“Consider that Blackmagic only certifies their Shuttle on one MSI laptop.”

I rather think all that certification stuff is just a gesture really. There are loads of laptops and hundreds of combinations of motherboard, processor and memory, so it would be impossible to test on anything more than a very few. And as things in the pc world change and improve almost weekly, they’d have to do it all over again pretty soon.

My Blackmagic Intensity Pro works perfectly on both my pc and Hackintosh, and I can’t at the moment remember what’s in either. Manufacturers have to work in an environment where there’s a basic standard that everyone works to – but the actual components come from all over the place. The fixed design of Apple gear stifles development in the same way that the game consoles do.

And Asus is quality stuff, the Rolls Royce of motherboards. And a lot cheaper that Apple.

Bernie

[Lance Bachelder]

Why bring GPU out the Thunderbolt port? It’s still only equivalant to a single PCIe 2.0 lane. The PCIe 3.0 16x slots on the new ASUS board for instance are 32x faster than a single Thunderbolt lane and there are 4 slots!

Intel is working on Thunderbolt version for PCIe 3.0 – maybe that is what Apple is planning and why we won’t see it until next year?

Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Irvine, California

[Craig Seeman]

[Lance Bachelder] “Why bring GPU out the Thunderbolt port?”

Apple seems to want it that way.
The new MBPr has an HDMI out additionally (for example) but display out of Thunderbolt is part of Apple’s standard plan.
One might say the “quick” solution would be to eschew GPU out of Thunderbolt and just go out of the GPU using previously normal methods. What would that do for Apple’s Thunderbolt Monitor though. Apple’s not one for interim solutions like that if they have a longer range plan. Given the “later next year” comment Apple would seem to be no where near ready. I’m sure they have something in mind and ASUS’s solution is not the direction they want to go in.

[Craig Seeman]

[Andy Neil] “Speculating on the reason for Apple’s timetable is meaningless,”

Zen and the art of discussion at Apple FCPX or Not: The Debate forum. 😉

[Andy Neil] ” but if I were to hazard a guess,”

All guesses are replete with hazard in this forum.

[Andy Neil] “if you assume they are planning on updating the line (or launching a replacement line), they would do it this year if they could.”

Apple’s way is not ASUS’s. I suspect they have a more elegant solution which may take more time to implement. Well, we do know something is taking them more time.

[Andy Neil]

[Craig Seeman] “Apple’s way is not ASUS’s. I suspect they have a more elegant solution which may take more time to implement. “

Not sure what ASUS means, but I agree that they are not simply going to cobble together new tech like thunderbolt into an existing tower design. If that were the case, they’d have released it last year.

The reason I think there’s an issue somewhere, is that typically Apple has a pretty predictable update schedule. New Mac Pros are already late, and to have it now confirmed that the update might even be over a year away from now makes me wonder what the hold up is.

With the virtual beating that Apple’s been taking from the pro community for a year now due to the FCPX roll out, I feel that if Cook could have announced a new tower, that he would have, if only to show the pro community that he still wants their business. I think that’s what is behind the recent semi-forthcoming PR moves. He had to know going into WWDC that a lot of people’s first question after the keynote was going to be, “Where’s the Mac Pro?”

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Phil Hoppes]

Because they are not going to make what you think they are making. My money is on a high end iMac or high end MacMini. That actually makes more sense. They will make some pizza box with limited expandability. Maybe… and that is a big one, Maybe an actual video slot and perhaps 1 or 2 sideways PCI slots but I really doubt that. Apple does not want you making 57 verities of their hardware. Their paltry lack of high end video card support is what drove me back to PC’s 18 months ago. I wouldn’t hold your breath on their attitude on this suddenly reversing. Look at their past actions in their largest volume markets and ask yourself what have they done? They’ve taken kinda expandable laptops and locked them into being fat iPads. You really think you are going to get a soup-to-nuts expandable tower version 2 out of a company that is clearly looking to simplify and minimize their product line? I think not.

Is that bad? Well maybe for some. For the lions share of who Apple wants to serve, it will be more than enough. They don’t like bleeding edge. They don’t want bleeding edge. They are not going to make bleeding edge.

[Robert Brown]

I’m a ways off until need ing anything but I think a Hackintosh will be my next move. I still like OSX but would rather have control over what I have in there and Apple’s behavior to me is almost intolerable. They do what they feel like, that seems to be the bottom line. I wonder how long they will be in this position.

Robert Brown
Editor/VFX/Colorist – FCP, Smoke, Quantel Pablo, After Effects, 3DS MAX, Premiere Pro

https://vimeo.com/user3987510/videos

[Michael Gissing]

Apple is a company that places a premium on outward appearance. Slim and shiny is in. The art & design dept is central to Apple.

What we want and need are ugly big boxes in a machine room with awful artistic aesthetic. Don’t expect Apple to put out that sort of aesthetic so there is an inherent conflict.

Grunt is a square peg in Apple’s sleek bevelled hole. Expect compromise and you won’t be disappointed.