New Mac Pro rumor – is this a joke?

[Craig Seeman]

[Erik Lindahl] “What GPU would you have on the motherboard? The integrated chips are sadly still quite crap,”

Motherboard GPUs aren’t necessarily “integrated.” The nVidia GTX 680MX in the iMac is fairly powerful
I’ve posted the Barefeats GPU tests pretty regularly. It’s competitive with the Radeon 7950 in many tasks for example.
https://barefeats.com/gpu7950.html
and
https://barefeats.com/gpu7950b.html

I don’t think it would be odd at all to have a powerful GPU on the motherboard. The differences are fairly small compared to the PCIe variety.

See this as well which compares the 680MX to other GPUs including 680 Mac.
https://barefeats.com/gpu680v2.html
680 Mac wins in some cases but the differences are not that big.

Thunderbolt needs a motherboard socketed GPU so you’re not escaping that if you find Thunderbolt useful. I’d prefer a 16x PCIe to add the GPU of my choice but that doesn’t undermine having a very good GPU on the motherboard.

[Erik Lindahl]

The 680MX and high-end 700-series are decent cards yes. But you still are using a PCIe 16X slot for them. I even think the 2012 iMac has a PCIe 3.0 slot for the GPU. I’m not sure what you gain by going this route if you’re not trying to build a very slim machine.

https://barefeats.com/gpu680v.html

Here we see where the MX suffers badly. I also think the desktop cards relatively perform better in Windows due to immature drivers for these newcomers.

[Timothy Auld]

It’s really quite simple to open your phone case. You just need a spudger. But I’ve found that closing it again usually requires a sixteen pound sledgehammer.

Tim

[Jim Giberti]

[TImothy Auld] “It’s really quite simple to open your phone case. You just need a spudger. But I’ve found that closing it again usually requires a sixteen pound sledgehammer.
“

Which apparently is why my reception has been so bad.

[Craig Seeman]

[Erik Lindahl] ” I even think the 2012 iMac has a PCIe 3.0 slot for the GPU”

It’s on the motherboard. Maybe you’re defining “slot” differently than me. A socketed GPU vs a PCIe card. There are no PCIe slots in the iMac. The GPU is on the motherboard.

The examples you post are all games related. They’re not relevant to the work I do at least until the software I use makes them relevant. That’s why I linked to test results with professional video applications I and others are likely to use.

[Erik Lindahl] “I also think the desktop cards relatively perform better in Windows due to immature drivers for these newcomers.”

Which is not relevant to the applications I want to run. I Bootcamp and run Windows 7 on all my recent Macs so if I prefer to run a specific Windows program as I already do, I don’t see this as an issue.

[Timothy Auld]

Yes, but the emotional satisfaction when that sledge hits the mark is well worth the poor reception.

Tim

[Dan Stewart]

Its the iMac Pro I swear.. No retooling (I hear they’re obsessive about that) just add the extra space back in the trunk – ok maybe not the dream A6 coprocessor array/flanders screen – but a slightly deeper case(circa 2010) and a little extra gubbins – no expansion.. its all falling into place.. you’ll see.. oh yes you’ll ALL see..

[Erik Lindahl]

It depends on why you want a so called “motherboard GPU”. I’d be surprised if a mobile chip is cheaper than a desktop chip. I also think as mentioned they will still use a PCIe slot (given you can’t replace it) so why not have it user replaceable? The only win is a slimmer system.

https://www.barefeats.com/gpu680v3.html

Look at that. A GTX690 desktop is 2X faster than a 680MX, a 680 desktop is around 50% faster at AE / CUDA rendering.

I respect you don’t play games but this is also a place where the “desktop Mac” would fit in. The GTX 680MX iMac is decent but there is huge impact jumping from 1080p to 1440p in performance. Apps can reflect this as well.

Also as far as I understand Barefeats Resolve test isn’t optimal for GPU-stressing.

[Erik Lindahl]

Also, GPU-performance on Windows or other systems is highly relevant as you get more perspective on how a chip can perform. For example it pretty clear there is some kind of driver issue if a 680MX beats a 680 desktop in for example Motion. That’s clearly driver optimizations done to one chip an not the other.

[Bernard Newnham]

I just read the description in the article that Joseph posted at the top of the thread –

“…..is said to support dual GPU, making it capable of supporting three monitors from the get go. There will supposedly be no Firewire 800, optical drive or ability to expand internal hardware. Thunderbolt I/O is expected to be on board…..”

Sort of a hobbled desktop PC then, with lots of opportunities for Apple to over-charge on the peripherals. No wonder James Daugherty is throwing his toys out of the pram.

Some suggestions –
Asus Z87 motherboard (or whatever)
Intel Core i7-4770K S1150 3.5GHz 8MB Haswell Quad Core Processor Unlocked (or whatever)
NVidia GeForce GTX 680 – two if you want (or AMD if you prefer)
As much memory as you can afford
As many drives as you want + optical and SSD if you wish
Big monitors, small monitors – take your pick.

Buy tomorrow at your nearest stockists

Forget all this speculation.

Bernie