Why do you think a new Mac Pro ISN’T coming?

[Tim Wilson]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Did Apple have a “I’m a Mac” MacPro commerical?

I thought those were laptops and imacs.”

I had to look this up. There were 66 commercials in 4 years, but I couldn’t find any of them that mentioned a specific model by name. They definitely referred to Mac computers in general, though, as well as the Mac OS vs. Windows software, especially Vista.

But certainly, the cartoonish aspect spoke more to the iMac and MacBook sensibility, leaving us at the “supercomputer” tank commercial the last one for Mac Pros…oops, and quite cartoonish at that….

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

[Craig Seeman]

[Tim Wilson] “tank commercial the last one for Mac Pros.”

That was a Power Mac if memory serves me.

Can you think of a reason to use a mass advertising medium like TV to advertise a tower computer to a niche market? Check the number of HPZ800 you see on TV as well, for example.

One might look at advertising in industry trades. There’s also product placement by other advertisers. One might check the number of ads in video post trade publications that have a MacPro in the ad. While that might be rare now, I think that was not that uncommon just a couple of years back.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Herb Sevush] “Jeremy – are you using these yourself and getting this thruput?”

I do not have an iMac, but I have played with a TBolted iMac and a Promise Raid and it gets astounding speeds never seen before on an iMac. It was hovering around 780MB/sec consistently. I did not want to believe it either.

Of course, the raid was mostly empty, and probably not very fragmented. Even so, my guess is it goes down 100 MB/sec which leaves 650+. How much do you really need? I’m asking honestly.

I’ve seen 250+MB/sec off of one SSD drive.

And I’ll tell you again, you don’t need 900MB/sec to do a 6 camera mutlicam in 720p60 ProRes.

These are realities, not theories. Anyone who says that they can’t cut video on an iMac with a TBolt raid hasn’t tried it.

I’m not saying it’s a sizzle core, but it’s certainly snappier than my “tricked out” 3 year old MacPro with a fast fibre raid.

Jeremy

[Craig Seeman]

Macworld tests with Promise Raid
https://www.macworld.com/article/1160819/pegasusr6thunderbolt.html
and
https://www.macworld.com/article/1161139/thunderbolttests.html
Barefeats here
https://barefeats.com/tbolt01.html

[Robert Brown]

[Tim Wilson] “BTW, here’s Apple’s 1999 Supercomputer commercial:”

This really is a humorous business when you can look back at the old adds. But personally I also think the Mac Pro is done. Even though I hope my 12 core is not done for a while. To me it seems the Mac Pro is everything Apple isn’t anymore. I think they must cringe that they’re still selling them. They’re all about small and cute these days.

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

https://vimeo.com/user3987510/videos

[Herb Sevush]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I have played with a TBolted iMac and a Promise Raid and it gets astounding speeds never seen before on an iMac. It was hovering around 780MB/sec consistently. I did not want to believe it either.”

Since your last post I did some research and those numbers are for Raid 0, which I would never use for serious storage, for Raid 5 it drops to around 500. When you have it at 80% capacity my guess is your around 400MB/s. Which I still find amazing at the prices I’m seeing – around $1600 for a 6TB drive. I don’t see why you couldn’t gang 2 of these together in a software raid 0, creating a raid 50 and get some amazing thruput numbers. If this had been around last year I would definitely have looked at this as an option. But it wasn’t and my investment has been made. My Raid gets 900 MB/s raid 5 at 80% capacity – I have no complaints.

[Jeremy Garchow] ” I’ll tell you again, you don’t need 900MB/sec to do a 6 camera mutlicam in 720p60 ProRes.”

So you’ve said. What I can tell you is that at 500 MB/s in Legend ™ I get the dark green preview line and occasional stuttering in playback. I know that theoretically this should not be happening, but it is, and not only on my system but on those of the editors I work with. I’m a lot happier working at 900 MB/s then I was at 500 – and a happy editor makes nicer edits.

[Jeremy Garchow] “Anyone who says that they can’t cut video on an iMac with a TBolt raid hasn’t tried it.I’m not saying it’s a sizzle core, but it’s certainly snappier than my “tricked out” 3 year old MacPro with a fast fibre raid.”

I’ve never said you can’t cut with a new Imac , I’ve just said that with the gear I have the Imac isn’t a great option. Also, for PPro it isn’t a good option on a dollar for dollar basis. The Imac makes sense if your committed to FCPX or the MAC OS and I’m neither.

I am still amazed at those Pegasus Raid speeds however, thanks for bringing that to my attention.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Tim Wilson]

[Craig Seeman] “Can you think of a reason to use a mass advertising medium like TV”

Exactly my point. It makes no sense at all, any more than it makes sense for Apple to go to trade shows. We’d gotten off on a bit of a tangent about Apple needing, or not needing, to build brand recognition. I side with the folks who say that we lot (or more accurately, YOU lot…nothing personal) aren’t adding anything to Apple’s brand value.

Nor for that matter does anything but iPhone and iPad advertising. Those are the mass market products, they should be getting all the attention. That’s just smart.

So apologies for taking the most weisenheimer-ish aspect of the thread into the weeds.

Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou

[Craig Seeman]

[Robert Brown] “They’re all about small and cute these days.”

I can’t wait to see Jonathan Ive’s small and cute MacPro replacement. I’m glad you feel positively about the new form factor as well.

[Craig Seeman]

[Tim Wilson] “Exactly my point. It makes no sense at all, any more than it makes sense for Apple to go to trade shows”

Yet I saw them at the local Blackmagic show along with Adobe and Avid. It did shock me. Not that that’s a trade show but it’s good to see them participating in a supporting company’s road show. Of course it was 2011 iMacs and not 2010 MacPros though. Magma was also there showing off the Magma Thunderbolt PCIe chassis.

[Clint Wardlow]

[Craig Seeman] “I can’t wait to see Jonathan Ive’s small and cute MacPro replacement. I’ve glad you feel positively about the new form factor as well.”

I don’t know. I would kind of like to see big honking towers with lots of blinking lights and beeping noises. Maybe even a couple of cosmetic only reel-to-reels thrown in. A Mac Pro so massive in size I could design an entire room around it I am kind of retro that way.