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iMac Pro

apple.com

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Re: iMac Pro

#61

Post by coredog64 »

coldtea wrote: post #32
vbezhenar wrote: post #24

I'm not amazed. This processor will inevitable throttle, I don't believe that they could cool it to allow for constant boosting. Graphics looks like trash: it's a consumer video card (no ECC, bad double precision speed) inferior to Nvidia. And of course everything glued together will render this PC obsolete in few years without any upgrade path. I hope they'll build a proper Mac Pro.

No wireless, less space than a Nomad too.

When the original trash can pro was released, AMD was a reasonable video choice. Unless Apple is also going to release a CUDA compatibility layer, I think most people would want an Nvidia video solution.

Re: iMac Pro

#62

Post by cjsuk »

stefco_ wrote: post #49
lotsofpulp wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With laptops, such as the Air, based on the great sales figures, consumers are willing to forego being able to repair versus having something compact. It also probably helps apple in the warranty department if their manufacturing quality is so high that people opening it up themselves causes more problems than the product is expected to have by itself. I used to repair my laptop and desktop, but nowadays I'd rather j…

My friend in film production tells me that his shop does a ton of editing on iMacs despite the premium on hardware. He is an enthusiast and has built his own editing PC, but he tells me the iMacs are rock-solid and never give them any trouble, despite the specs being worse on paper than some other editing machines. I think that the consistency, quality, and software integration are worth a lot to businesses, especial…

Similar situation here. I've got a 2013 MacBook Pro, a 2016 iMac and a 2015 HP z620. The z620 has been nothing but a pain in my ass since I bought it. It's noisy and shuts down all by itself at least once a week. The Macs, rock solid.

Re: iMac Pro

#63

Post by aNoob7000 »

stefco_ wrote: post #46
coldtea wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For example the macbook airs have non standard ssd that is not replaceable, so when the disk dies, whole notebook is done... Or you can go and get either a warranty extension (before it runs out) or an aftermarket SSD, like millions (including me) have done.

But you can't do that with the latest MacBooks, which have their SSDs soldered directly onto the logic boards. And you can't do that with memory for any Apple notebook from the last several years for the same reason. My 7 year old MacBook Pro is running okay thanks to some memory and storage upgrades. I would not be able to get the same life extension with one of the new models, which makes me hesitate to get a new M…

To be fair, most new laptops like the Surface Pro or Dell's XPS 13 make it pretty darn hard to upgrade the memory or hard drive.

Re: iMac Pro

#64

Post by njarboe »

urza wrote: post #52
lotsofpulp wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With laptops, such as the Air, based on the great sales figures, consumers are willing to forego being able to repair versus having something compact. It also probably helps apple in the warranty department if their manufacturing quality is so high that people opening it up themselves causes more problems than the product is expected to have by itself. I used to repair my laptop and desktop, but nowadays I'd rather j…

Yes I can understand it with compactness of mabook aris (I also have one), but with such expensive desktop, I would want to keep the possibility to repair and upgrade. When motherboard, display or any non standard soldered component dies, you have to replace the whole thing probably..

Or abandoning such a nice big, hi-res screen. I sort of like the screen and computer separate. Even the highest end smart tv's are starting to diverge into the screen, that lasts a decade or more, and the controller computer that can be replaced.

Re: iMac Pro

#65

Post by walshemj »

coldtea wrote: post #25
jarym wrote: post #19

Seeing the history of updates to the Mac Mini and Mac Pro why would anyone trust Apple with a high end desktop computer? The odds are high that they'll keep pumping this thing largely unchanged for the next 5 years while letting the state of technology race ahead. I'm saying this because no matter what Apple say, their focus is undoubtedly on what makes them the most money: iPhones.

> Seeing the history of updates to the Mac Mini and Mac Pro why would anyone trust Apple with a high end desktop computer? Because they don't buy for the next 20 years, but for their actual current needs. If anything happens and the line stops, I can always go find another solution then and there, as opposed to now. Besides, this is like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. There were several cases fo…

Moving from a MAC pro workflow to a Wintel (i9 Xenon or AMD) is non trivial you might as well bight the bullet and go threadripper or EPYC now

Re: iMac Pro

#66

Post by dagw »

vbezhenar wrote: post #24

I'm not amazed. This processor will inevitable throttle, I don't believe that they could cool it to allow for constant boosting. Graphics looks like trash: it's a consumer video card (no ECC, bad double precision speed) inferior to Nvidia. And of course everything glued together will render this PC obsolete in few years without any upgrade path. I hope they'll build a proper Mac Pro.

They make 1U servers with similar space constraints and those sorts of CPUs without throttling, if you're willing to accept that your computers sounds like a jet engine.

Re: iMac Pro

#67

Post by peterburkimsher »

alkonaut wrote: post #56

Impressive engineering to get that kilowatt-level power envelope into what looks literally like an envelope. Then the next question: is the target audience really there? The people who need 18 cores + a pro graphics card are the people who used to have mac pros (or still use them). These people care about expandable and replacable things, and most of all they want to use a screen with several computers because these…

I'm seriously considering an iMac these days. Currently I use a 2014-model 15" MacBook Pro, and it's heavy to carry to work every day. I also need a lot more disk space.

If Apple allow upgrading the iMac Pro with a 3.5" 12TB hard drive, I'd be interested.

The new MacBook Pros aren't suitable for my needs because they don't have ports. I need more storage, but can't upgrade my laptop. I don't want to go down to a 2012 MacBook Pro just to add a bigger hard drive in the optical bay. Also, I really like the Retina screen. So, how am I going to store the Big Data for machine learning on my office computer, while also having a nice screen?

The iMac seems like a more affordable option than a Mac Pro, and with cheaper, more suitable upgrades than the non-tower Pro.

If the iMac doesn't have a 3.5" disk slot though, then I take back all my compliments. The 4TB max SSD from Apple won't be enough for me.

Re: iMac Pro

#68

Post by CoolGuySteve »

jmnicolas wrote: post #3

If they manage to get the 18 core processor without thermal throttling it will be a real feat of engineering, but I doubt it's possible. Throttling or not, I wish I was rich enough (we're probably talking about a 6 to 8k machine here !).

The cooling system looks similar to what you'd see in a 1U chassis. Since it's standing on it's own instead of sitting in a rack next to a bunch of other machines, it should be fine.

It's going to be very loud under a full load though, it would have been nice if they went with liquid cooling instead.

Re: iMac Pro

#69

Post by ballenf »

stefco_ wrote: post #49
lotsofpulp wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With laptops, such as the Air, based on the great sales figures, consumers are willing to forego being able to repair versus having something compact. It also probably helps apple in the warranty department if their manufacturing quality is so high that people opening it up themselves causes more problems than the product is expected to have by itself. I used to repair my laptop and desktop, but nowadays I'd rather j…

My friend in film production tells me that his shop does a ton of editing on iMacs despite the premium on hardware. He is an enthusiast and has built his own editing PC, but he tells me the iMacs are rock-solid and never give them any trouble, despite the specs being worse on paper than some other editing machines. I think that the consistency, quality, and software integration are worth a lot to businesses, especial…

Buying a Mac for business is simply outsourcing IT support to a different vendor (Apple vs. local support options) and paying for some of the support upfront vs. on demand.

Getting good support from a vendor or hiring in house implicates a lot of overhead.

The choice to go with Apple is very understandable to me, based on my experience with how much time it takes to find and supervise IT support personnel/vendors. They are about as hard to manage as office cleaning staff, where when you look away for 5 minutes the carpet doesn't get vacuumed because it's hard to detect at first.

Re: iMac Pro

#70

Post by walshemj »

ricardobeat wrote: post #42
KaiserPro wrote: post #18

If you want CPU/GPU power on a more realistic budget, I'd suggest something like the HP Z620/640. Dual xeons, loads of disk space, and enough power to put at least two tiptop GPUs in.

But no macOS - despite a few warts and declining quality, still the best desktop operating system available.

Realy have they finally replaced finder with something as usable as filemanger in windows 3.1
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