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Mac Pro

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Re: Mac Pro

#451

Post by seanp2k2 »

mbell wrote: post #208

Personally I couldn't care less about the design, it would be sitting behind several large screens anyway and the thermal ideas sound interesting.... That said.... 4 ram slots???? Really? 12 cores, 2 GPUs and I get 32GB of ram? Maybe 64GB if 16GB dimms in standard sizes become a thing? That kills it completely in my book.

The 12 cores are going to be in 1 CPU BTW. It's a limitation of the chipset and probably thermal capacity as well (check out http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/... ).

As far as 16GB dimms in standard sizes; that's already a thing: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=...

There are also a handful of 32GB DIMMs out already. Example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820326...

I would expect that you'll be able to run 64 or 128GB of RAM max.

Re: Mac Pro

#452

Post by seanp2k2 »

sil3ntmac wrote: post #222
mbell wrote: post #208

Personally I couldn't care less about the design, it would be sitting behind several large screens anyway and the thermal ideas sound interesting.... That said.... 4 ram slots???? Really? 12 cores, 2 GPUs and I get 32GB of ram? Maybe 64GB if 16GB dimms in standard sizes become a thing? That kills it completely in my book.

Unless you're actively thrashing through all 32GB (maybe you are), wouldn't installing a large SSD for swap space will help you out just as much?

Not really; bandwidth, latency, etc.

Re: Mac Pro

#453

Post by seanp2k2 »

alayne wrote: post #411
rorrr2 wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't think of a single app that's RAM-speed-bound. Pretty much everything is CPU- or GPU- or disk-bound.

Memory performance is a big problem. http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2158184/intel-memor...

(this is possibly why they opted to go for a chipset that supports 4 channels and only include 4 slots; 1 slot per channel)

Re: Mac Pro

#454

Post by dan1234 »

rsync wrote: post #256

I love this new device. I suspect I will buy one. But it doesn't solve my "need a new mac pro" problem. Right now my 2009 octo mac pro, with six displays attached, plays three roles: - it is my high end desktop workstation, with three primary high resolution (2560x1600) displays. - it is my HTPC, with one of the six monitors strung into another room entirely. - it is my office NAS, with four internal 3TB disks So, th…

The displays don't actually run over thunderbolt, they just share the (mini displayport) connector so there's no need to worry about losing bandwidth.

Re: Mac Pro

#455

Post by seanp2k2 »

gamache wrote: post #58
jmduke wrote: post #19

Apple is doubling down on their segmentation here. They're clearly abandoning (I don't mean this in a pejorative sense) a mass appeal with this new iteration and targeting it specifically to 'actual' professionals: graphic designers, video editors, etc.

I don't see it that way at all. The Mac Pro has always been about the top 1% power users. The appeal was twofold: it was a bitchin'-fast machine you could stuff with as many cards and drives as you want, and it ran OS X. This new design removes the former selling point. 12 core max (same as current)?? Four RAM slots (down from eight)?? 1/6th the volume (i.e. space to plug stuff in)?? This offers almost no advantage o…

12 cores is because it's a single CPU. More info: http://www.cpu-world.com/news_2013/2013040201_Some_details_o... Expected release date is Q4 2013.

Re: Mac Pro

#456

Post by seanp2k2 »

jarek wrote: post #433
Samuel_Michon wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you’re omitting the Xeon’s increased stability versus consumer grade architectures. Many Mac Pros are used to run non-stop, they need to be more dependable than other computers.

Does this really matter in 2013? Serious question. I could see ECC having been useful in 2000 in the midst of the megahertz race, but I'm not too convinced about today...

Check out http://linux.die.net/man/1/edac-util + http://buttersideup.com/edacwiki/Main_Page and look on some servers to see if they're seeing many correctable ECC errors. I've def. seen it happen on some Dell PERCs.

Re: Mac Pro

#457

Post by josteink »

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is that a "pro" computer with no wired ethernet?

Who on earth would discard stable gigabit internet for some flaky wifi with substantially lower performance?

Edit: Corrected as requested. Thanks.

Re: Mac Pro

#458

Post by seanp2k2 »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #370
ttcbj wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly agree with this. I have owned three mac pros. I use them for development work. I like them because they are fast, well-built, run OS X (which I like), I can put lots of RAM in them, and put a few extra hard drives in with software RAID. There isn't much about this announcement that excites me. I don't think I need two graphics cards (though maybe 4K will be nicer than I realize). I don't need it to be smalle…

Video editor and high end graphics guy checking in. I’m very excited, mostly by the size of the new Mac Pro. I’ll be able to take this workstation anywhere and just plug it into some rented displays. Lugging the current Mac Pro around means I’ll have to go there by car or settle for taking a MacBook Pro along and doing rendering on a rented Mac Pro. The new Mac Pro, I can bring along in a carry-on and have plenty of…

You could also pop this in a backpack, possibly along with a small projector and wireless mouse / keyboard :)

I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see these showing up on tours with bigger electronic music acts.

Re: Mac Pro

#459

Post by adamt »

josteink wrote: post #457

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is that a "pro" computer with no wired ethernet? Who on earth would discard stable gigabit internet for some flaky wifi with substantially lower performance? Edit: Corrected as requested. Thanks.

If you scroll 'down' to the bit about expansion it says it has gigabit Ethernet.

Re: Mac Pro

#460

Post by maguay »

josteink wrote: post #457

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is that a "pro" computer with no wired ethernet? Who on earth would discard stable gigabit internet for some flaky wifi with substantially lower performance? Edit: Corrected as requested. Thanks.

It does have wired ethernet, at least according to the presentation I believe.
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