[Rick Lang]

[Marcus Moore] “You may be right- I know Barefeats did some FCPX tests on different processors a while back. I’ll have to see what they results were.

Considering I’m currently working on a 2011 i7 iMac, anything is going to be a huge step up.
“

We need to wait for new versions of the software since various functions have been tuned to the new machines and the custom GPUs. So don’t put too much stock in their previous benchmarks. By December most questions will have been answered.

Considering I’m upgrading from a late 2009 iMac, it’s going to be silly fast. Need to start throwing BMPC4K UHD raw files at it next year though and that will at least begin to justify the upgrade.

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Rick Lang]

[Christian Schumacher] “I’m going to go out on a limb here and say for extensive FCPX and Motion work, the best bang for the buck is a 8-core coupled with the D700s. “

Edit: found the description for the Intel e5 1680 v2 8-core chip and it does look good with more than twice the amount of L3 cache (25600 KB) compared to the 6-core chip.
Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Rick Lang]

[Mark Dobson] “As you will have heard on the streamed presentation these machines come with a ‘quarter of a terabyte’ flash storage as standard. I think most people will opt for 512GB or 1TB storage and it will interesting to see how these are priced. They are specifically designed for the new Mac Pro and, unlike the memory, it doesn’t look at this stage like something that one could upgrade at a later date. ( I’m presuming one can upgrade the memory oneself )”

The flash storage is “user accessible” which means it can be upgraded although we need to wait until November to see the prices. I read somewhere that only one screw needs to be unscrewed to replace the flash. Still going to be cheaper to order what you believe you need as build-to-order rather than upgrade later. I don’t know if and when third-party flash for the Mac Pro will be available but that might be an option in the future.

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Rick Lang]

Intel’s prices assuming I’ve picked the correct corresponding chips:

E5-1620 v2 3.7GHz 4-core: $294
E5-1650 v2 3.5GHz 6-core: $583
E5-1680 v2 3.0GHz 8-core: $1,723
E5-2967 v2 2.7GHz 12-core: $2,618

Now it looks like the unpublished cost of the Mac Pro with the 8-core and 12-core options means Apple is undecided about the price. One could speculate each jump will cost $1,000 but the Intel numbers don’t increase so evenly so the marketing dept will pick something hopefully corresponding to their costs.

Edit: found the Intel description of that 8-core E5.

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Rick Lang]

[gary adcock] “It has been there all along gentlemen and ladies, it is part of the TBT specs”

Thanks, Gary. I guess what might be new is that it is now “self-configuring” in OS X Mavericks when you connect two TB Macs.

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Rick Lang]

[Walter Soyka] “Did they mention the specs for the base model?”

Walter, J think I found the corresponding Intel Xeon E5 chips for each model except for the 3.0GHz 8-core.

4-core: E5-1620 v2 1-socket 3.7GHz cache 10MB power 130W
6-core: ES-1650 v2 1-socket 3.5GHz cache 12MB power 130W
8-core: E5-1680 v2 1-socket? 3.0GHz cache 25MB power 130W
12-core: E5-2697 v2 2-socket 2.7GHz cache 30MB power 130W

Edit: found the correct description for the 8-core chip. Intel has not yet updated all web pages for it.

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Rick Lang]

I posted about IP Over Thunderbolt in Mavericks yesterday on the Apple Forum for OS X Mavericks looking for details about this new feature. The press release just said it was self-configuring. I couldn’t find anything in System Preferences/Network to support adding an IP Over Thunderbolt connection on my 2009 iMac, but perhaps it only shows up when you actually connect two or more Macs via Thunderbolt and ‘it just works.” No one has responded on the Apple Forum yet to provide any further details.

Edit: I just received an answer on the Apple Forum. It is in System Preferences/Network. On a Mac with Thunderbolt, it shows up when you click the + button to add a network connection.

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Rick Lang]

[Mark Dobson] ”Even with nothing to play the files back onto I’m tempted by the new Sony PXW-Z100 Camcorder…”

Have you considered the Blackmagic Design Production Camera, Mark? Not yet shipping but will be by the time we save for these unnecessary and inevitable expenses.

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Rick Lang]

[Gary Huff] “Not worth getting in my opinion, considering you can’t upgrade anything other than the RAM.”

You may be right, Gary, but let’s wait and see when the Mac Pros have been released. The memory is certainly an easy user-upgrade, but I’m wondering if the various other options will only be available as build-to-order at time of purchase or could be offered as upgrades later by Apple and/or third parties.

Technically it looks like it could be possible that any of the options could be offered by Apple if they chose that route. Doesn’t look like a physical impediment except for the CPU originally selected but maybe even that CPU card is replaceable. The flash storage and GPUs may just be boards that can plug into a socket. Might really help their sales if buyers thought they had an upgrade path in the future if they needed more power.

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Rick Lang]

[Darren Roark] “I remember ‘back in the day’ of 2006 where 512mb was an insane amount of vram.”

With only one physical chassis for the new Mac Pro but all options being available, you could conceivably order a 4-core CPU, with only 12GB compressible DDR3 memory, say 512GB of PCIe flash storage, and the dual D700 GPUs with a total of 12GB DDR5 VRAM. It’s stunning to think that machines now can have as much VRAM as RAM when traditionally graphics memory was always a small fraction of system memory. Is this the true marker of the ascendency of the GPU?

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB