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New Mac Pro

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Re: New Mac Pro

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the people that are buying this will attached very large external storage as it is most likely going to be used as a video editing workstation.

Is video editing external storage more likely to be shared 10GbE NAS or direct attached Thunderbolt 3 with software RAID?

NAS in any reasonably sized shop.

Re: New Mac Pro

#222
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it seems to come with 10gbe by default which is consistent with it.

2x 10GBE actually. Plus four 40Gbps Thunderbolt ports.

I find that link aggregation is pretty much useless and/or unstable. Not sure what good two 10gbe ports do. But seeing 10gbe becoming part of the standard spec is a really welcomed improvement. Not the least because it will drive prices down.

Re: New Mac Pro

#223

I know being expandable is important here but I am stunned by the fact that an iMac Pro actually comes with better SSD and Video Card for less money and you get a screen to boot! 256g SSD is shameful, I don't care what they were thinking. No Nvidia support mentioned so I know a few that just wrote it off for that oversight alone. They will probably hold out just to be sure but that was the hope for them and others. W…

Everything about the base specs are just good enough. I’m not defending it per se, but if you spec’ed the machine for any given purpose, whether software dev, or rendering, it’d probably raise the cost by at least $1-2k, and then you’d have the “real” machine. So, the reason the price looks egregious is because most of it is just base cost.

This is a computer made for the engineers who’ve already “made it,” who are making that $500k a year and are looking for a Porsche over a Corvette.

Re: New Mac Pro

#224

Hopefully this will stop people from moaning that "Apple has abandoned the pro market!" Or probably not. They'll just redefine "pro" to meet their complaining needs.

yeah, HN commenters just was an expandable mid-sized tower. a gaming PC, but a Mac. But the best use case for a gaming PC is to play games...which the Mac will never be the right platform for. Even if Apple supported Nvidia with Nvidia drivers, if you want a gaming PC just get one.

Re: New Mac Pro

#225
post #47

Very sad day. In the first moments, I thought everyones wishes had come true, and they bring back the old style Mac Pro back, with a redesigned housing. But the old Mac Pro had started around 2-3k, so while never cheap, not out of reach of an enthusiast user. While the specs of the new Mac Pro are certainly impressive, the price is just out of the range of all private and most professional users. Not sure why Apple r…

You have to bear in mind the target market - notice that it has dual 10Gb Ethernet, and that many users will be using a NAS. There are a shedload of PCIe slots there too for more storage.

Re: New Mac Pro

#226

That price is just absurd. I waited for Mac Pro announcement to decide whether I'll stay with Windows or jump to macOS. Macbooks are not for me, but I hoped for a remotely reasonable priced computer, something like $2000 with another $1000 to expand with more memory, etc. But $6000 for 8-core CPU, 256 GB SSD, GPU that is less powerful than my old $200 NVidia 1060? It's just laughable. Otherwise seems like a good mach…

The new Mac Pro, like Mac Pros always have been, is for music/TV studios and design agencies that bill their time starting at $500/hour. It's really not for individuals, and that's ok. Apple made a computer "just for the pros", like HN begs for in every butterfly keyboard thread. I'm thrilled about it even though I know I'll never touch one. It's for people who don't know what a CPU core is but know how to produce a…

My dad is a graphic designer who got his start doing desktop publishing on a Macintosh II using QuarkXPress. He's faithfully stuck with the Mac since the '80s and currently has a trash can Mac Pro, with which he is mostly happy. He's never billed anywhere near $500/hour as most of his work is for small print periodicals (Currently, his only outstanding need is for better render times on Final Cut Pro (rendering videos of conference proceedings for YouTube), but I know he'll balk at $6000 for the new Mac Pro. I don't know what I'll recommend.

Re: New Mac Pro

#227

Complaining only signals that you are not the market they’re targeting. This is for Hollywood media makers, high end studios, etc. This was never to be a mass market item.

I don't see how "the target market will still pay for it" is justification for insane markups on commodity hardware.

I understand paying a premium for the R&D that would have gone into the case and cooling design, but to then go and put such dated hardware in it and still start at $6000.

Re: New Mac Pro

#228
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory you can stick any nvidia cards you want into this machine. Don't have to stick with the stock AMD GPUs.

Unfortunately for reasons that remain murky Nvidia still hasn’t put drivers out for Mojave and their absence from the keynote leads me to believe they won’t have drivers for Catalina. Nvidia blames Apple saying they’re not approving drivers. So yes you can slap a 2080ti in your Mac Pro but without drivers it’s useless.

Anybody know what Apple's problem with nVidia is? Are they still feeling burned from the BGE failures several generations back?

Re: New Mac Pro

#229

I know being expandable is important here but I am stunned by the fact that an iMac Pro actually comes with better SSD and Video Card for less money and you get a screen to boot! 256g SSD is shameful, I don't care what they were thinking. No Nvidia support mentioned so I know a few that just wrote it off for that oversight alone. They will probably hold out just to be sure but that was the hope for them and others. W…

256GB SSD and base video card is fine. I would definitely look at a Mac Pro for software development (every minute counts) and if you're in that group there is simply no need for more storage or decent graphics.

meh, i'm just starting to fool around with music editing and my 250 GB laptop is out of storage. Also, it's a three year old laptop and that's what it came with. They could have kept the stainless steel and given me a bigger drive.

Who exactly is the intended user for this ultra-expensive, non-portable, box if it's too lame for hobbyists?

This is just apple sticking a vacuum into their customers pockets, applying the same over-pricing policy that is now standard on their phones.

Re: New Mac Pro

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 1987 Mac II released at $5,498, $12,125 adjusted for inflation. Granted, that included a monitor. IMO these things are designed for companies like Pixar, Disney, and aerospace, the "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" world.

Hardware was many orders of magnitude more expensive to manufacture in 1987[1]. The base model that you get for $6000 is not impressive at all by today's standards. The max specs would make it a powerhouse but it probably will also cost ~$12000. [1]: http://www.singularity.com/charts/page59.html

12k for max specs feels low. I'm thinking the over/under is 20k.
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