Interestingly, the spec still says 128GB of RAM despite the fact that the price of 64GB LR-DIMMs are getting closer to the price of 32GB RDIMMs.
iMac Pro
161–170 of 209 posts
Re: iMac Pro
#162This is an impressive feat of engineering to get all that hardware into a that kind of a package, but man, I bet there are a lot of pros who'd have preferred an aluminum box that they could open up. No fixability / no upgradability is the price we pay for laptops, but does it really have to be the price for desktops? I'd think that swapping a video card or adding a drive or two is the sort of thing that one might do…
> I guess after this machine is obsolete, there's a "screen mode" where these things can be used as a monitor and the 18 Xeon cores are powered down? I wish, there used to be Target Display Mode but it was removed in recent years (anything after Mid-2014). For the 5K iMac it was pretty obvious why it was missing, until fairly recently (DP 1.3 was ratified late 2014) there wasn't a connection fast enough to even drive…
Even when Target Display Mode was a thing, it still required a running OS on the target system.
I do love my iMacs, but I spend more than zero time shaking my head at the tight coupling of expensive, high quality components that will, eventually, fail independently.
Apple generally does a great job keeping the "eventually" at bay. But it's always coming.
Re: iMac Pro
#163Amateur extreme. Pro's need a machine that can evolve over time. More memory, larger storage as it becomes available, God forbid - a faster cpu. Remember the PC platform is inherently upgradeable. The LGA2066 chipset can be used with 8+ different CPU's. Pro's invest in proper tools to support their work, not in souped up toys. Without offense meant to my Honda bretheren, this in the same line as the $100,000 Civic mo…
I hear this sentiment all the time that "pro users need the ability to upgrade" but not once in a decade of my professional programming career have I _ever_ seen a computer at a workplace upgraded. They get purchased, they get repaired, they get retired or they trickle down to "lesser users", but I've never seen anyone get additional RAM or a drop in CPU replacement on an employer-owned machine. If you needed a bette…
Counter anecdote: my workplace performed SSD + RAM upgrades for everyone and that fit well within that year's budget. The alternative would have to wait another year (or more) to replace all the laptops at a much greater cost.
Re: iMac Pro
#164Amateur extreme. Pro's need a machine that can evolve over time. More memory, larger storage as it becomes available, God forbid - a faster cpu. Remember the PC platform is inherently upgradeable. The LGA2066 chipset can be used with 8+ different CPU's. Pro's invest in proper tools to support their work, not in souped up toys. Without offense meant to my Honda bretheren, this in the same line as the $100,000 Civic mo…
I hear this sentiment all the time that "pro users need the ability to upgrade" but not once in a decade of my professional programming career have I _ever_ seen a computer at a workplace upgraded. They get purchased, they get repaired, they get retired or they trickle down to "lesser users", but I've never seen anyone get additional RAM or a drop in CPU replacement on an employer-owned machine. If you needed a bette…
I've been a 'pro' software engineer for a couple decades and the large place's I've worked have actually upgraded machines that actually could be upgraded: with more ram, better video, etc. I did a couple years as an IT Consultant and every single small shop, contractor, developer, video editor, recording studio, who are also 'Pros' by the way, I've ever worked with has always looked to upgrade their hardware before buying again. At $4k - $17k a machine, it's simple math. The machine's not dead, but its time for a new gpu, or hard drive, or more ram. The pc platform is designed for upgrading, from mouse to motherboard. It takes work to make it not.
Thinking about it, Apple's genius has been finding this line: "How closed can we go, how disposable can we make them and maximize churn, while not slowing down buying. We can even create a desire for churn [it's September, time for a new $600 phone, anyone?] Its exactly like the one you have, only different." As others have pointed out here, the dog and pony show they put on recently, by inviting a select group of reporters (market influencers) into their hq was damage control when several magazines/sites called them out for crossing this line. New machines with lower specs than older machines, gaming battery life tests, irrational pricing, and selling 5 year old spec machines as 'Pro'. I might recommend reading the reporting of the meeting, it's a textbook example of high-end one-on-one selling, impressive location, the appearance of insider-access, sealed with a personal commitment from the leaders. Meanwhile, they don't have a 'pro' product line, and though they have enough cash on hand to buy every pro team in every sport in the U.S. they haven't made any investments or advancements in pro pc technology in a decade. And that's cool, if apple doesn't want to fill the gap, someone will fill the space eventually.
And I concede that the headphone jack is fine, it;s a combo, first glance i assumed just output. That works.
Re: iMac Pro
#165Amateur extreme. Pro's need a machine that can evolve over time. More memory, larger storage as it becomes available, God forbid - a faster cpu. Remember the PC platform is inherently upgradeable. The LGA2066 chipset can be used with 8+ different CPU's. Pro's invest in proper tools to support their work, not in souped up toys. Without offense meant to my Honda bretheren, this in the same line as the $100,000 Civic mo…
> And no mic input? Why? That's just silly. It cost them more to leave that out. Do you mean separate mic input? Because it has the same combo headphone jack as all existing Macs. So it has mic input. As a pro audio user, a built-in mic input is useless anyway. We have external USB3, TB, or Firewire interfaces for that. Lower noise, better DACs, phantom power, HiZ and XLR inputs, etc. Beyond pro, nobody uses mic inpu…
Ah.. a combo. that works
Re: iMac Pro
#166Impressive 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…
>These people care about expandable and replacable things Apple likely has data that says there are enough people that don't care about these things to justify their production of this computer. I work in an office full of designers, illustrators, animators and developers and there are very few of them that have much of a passion for messing around with the hardware and would far prefer to just upgrade every few year…
> Apple likely has data that says there are enough people that don't care about these things to justify their production of this computer.
I wouldn't bet on Apple having a finger on the pulse of the pro market ever since I witnessed the reception of Final Cut "Pro" X.
Re: iMac Pro
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
>These people care about expandable and replacable things Apple likely has data that says there are enough people that don't care about these things to justify their production of this computer. I work in an office full of designers, illustrators, animators and developers and there are very few of them that have much of a passion for messing around with the hardware and would far prefer to just upgrade every few year…
> Apple likely has data that says there are enough people that don't care about these things to justify their production of this computer. I wouldn't bet on Apple having a finger on the pulse of the pro market ever since I witnessed the reception of Final Cut "Pro" X.
Maybe they determined that there was more money to be had and a lack of options in the prosumer space between iMovie and Final Cut. The influx of home-baked content producers on Youtube comes to mind.
Re: iMac Pro
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most is really ambiguous here. By units sold? Probably not (mass quantity low end laptops aren't upgradable). By dollar amount sold? Definitely not (Apple has an outsized share of the market based on revenue). By new models? Probably.
”Apple has an outsized share of the market based on revenue” On profit, I can believe, but on revenue? Even at 10% market share, Macs would have to be five times the price of PCs to bring in equal revenue.
Sure. It isn't just the macs that you need to count, but the PCs as well. Non upgrade-able ultra lights dominate the post $1000 market even for pcs.
Re: iMac Pro
#169Re: "Can't upgrade it like a PC"
I have found that my Apple devices retain value much better than a PC, so when 2-3 years have passed I sell the old one, recouping some cash, then buy a new/new-ish one. That "upgrade" costs more than only buying new RAM but when considering that you get brand new _everything_ the price is about right IMO.
Good luck taking that PC with an 8-year old motherboard and $1200 in upgrades and getting anything out of it on eBay.
Re: iMac Pro
#170I would worry that something breaks after warranty expires and the whole computer can go out of the window. With regular good old desktops you can just replace the broken part. With such special custom made hardware it is sometimes impossible. For example the macbook airs have non standard ssd that is not replaceable, so when the disk dies, whole notebook is done...
Do you mean that even Apple can't repair it? I had problems with my Macbook Pro and they specifically ordered an item from Apple and shipped it to repair the machine.
Something like the iMac, if the video card goes out on it (common problem) the only replacement part is from Apple and costs $600 so you might as well just throw the whole thing out (or sell it for parts)