I guess it's going to a thin client approach. iMac workstations with thunderbolt expansion and processing farms for rendering or what have you. I bet someone would make a killing with the pro market if they sold an easy to integrate and expandable render farm, or something that uses amazon services.
Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”
81–90 of 321 posts
Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”
#82Our sound guy is PISSED at the lack of update. Seriously, incredibly pissed. I've honestly never seen him this angry before. He'd been counting down the days till WWDC and a long overdue update. There are three major pieces of software he uses on his Mac that he swears by. It sounds like they have all just released or are about to release Windows versions. I'm beginning to wonder if this is a trend? Apple is clearly…
To confirm, what kind of professionals are you talking about for whom a new Macbook Pro isn't going to be fast enough?
Audio professionals editing large surround sessions with lots of plugins and lots of tracks for one (plus you need 3-4 or more PCIe slots to stick Pro Tools or similar DSP cards in). These need as much horsepower as you can throw at them.
Video professionals doing rendering or compositing, ditto.
Not to mention the video cards available, plus being able to throw four full size drives directly on the SATA bus.
Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”
#83Did my 17" MBP just become a collectors item?
Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”
#84Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”
#85I do not understand. What is the appropriate use case for a Mac Pro where something equivalent and much cheaper cannot be used?
Logic Pro with high numbers of tracks and effects/filters.
Anything that needs workstation-level graphics like the NVIDIA Quadro (for doing stereoscopic graphics, multi device synchronization, broadcast pipelines, and more).
Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”
#86I guess it's going to a thin client approach. iMac workstations with thunderbolt expansion and processing farms for rendering or what have you. I bet someone would make a killing with the pro market if they sold an easy to integrate and expandable render farm, or something that uses amazon services.
Except that you would have to pipe giga/terabytes of data to/from the cloud - that is why lots of in house rendering and catalogue systems use Fibre Channel and similar technologies - one of the bottlenecks is I/O from the workstation
Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”
#87I'm curious, why is it not possible to buy pre-configured, off-the-shelf dual or quad CPU PC systems? I know that you can get dual CPU server motherboards and build your own system, but as far as I know no one sells a pre-built desktop system that looks anything like the Mac Pro (spec-wise). EDIT : Looks like I was mistaken. You can get high-end PC workstations.
I don't think any "major" brands do but you can find similar stuff in the "gamer" market.
Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”
#88Has it come to the point that the only way to build a serious Mac rig is a high end hackintosh? I had high hopes as I need a very serious rig for work related stuff, I put off doing soe RMA and other nonsense waiting for this thing... and ... this is it?
Speaking of which, has anyone built a monster hackintosh?
Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”
#89This isn't surprising. Look at the product wikis and see the comparison of all the hardware. From the mac pro all the way down to the phone. They have been selling overpriced hardware for a very long time. To be fair.. before the intel switch the hardware was theirs. Now, after the intel switch they're still selling over priced hardware except now it's cheaper for them because they're not using powerpc's anymore, and…
Not overpriced. Nobody could come close to the price of the Macbook Air with fully equivalent hardware, for example, and today's MBP release is the same. When competitors try to meet the specs across the board, without any major compromises, they cost 20% more. The overpriced thing is a decade old, and used to be justified as a brand positioning (pay more for quality build). Now, Apple's supply chain lets them offer…
I'm confused: what hardware specifications are you referring to? A simple NewEgg browse disproves this comment unless I'm misunderstanding you.
Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”
#90Our sound guy is PISSED at the lack of update. Seriously, incredibly pissed. I've honestly never seen him this angry before. He'd been counting down the days till WWDC and a long overdue update. There are three major pieces of software he uses on his Mac that he swears by. It sounds like they have all just released or are about to release Windows versions. I'm beginning to wonder if this is a trend? Apple is clearly…
To confirm, what kind of professionals are you talking about for whom a new Macbook Pro isn't going to be fast enough?
FX artists for digital cinema. 4K takes nearly half a gig a second uncompressed.