Doesn't a single thread ripper basically slay this thing?
Yes, The Epyc 2 definitively destroys this one as appeared in multiple benchmarks.
New Mac Pro Tech Specs
171–180 of 497 posts
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hackintosh allows you to have OS X on better hardware but these days it's really unsafe, due to the possibility of Apple going full ARM in the near future, dropping all the support for x86.
That logic is a bit strange. When / if Apple stop support for x86 any Apple computer purchased before they go ARM will essentially be end of life. If you do not want to build a hackintosh because of ARM in the future you also do not want to buy a Apple x86 computer today.
It seems like a Hackintosh would actually be the better choice if you're worried about Apple moving to ARM, since you could run Windows or Linux on it without relying on Apple for driver support.
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#173It is still not shipping so there's not really a reason not to use a Threadripper for lower price AND higher performance. Or even Epyc chips. We know the Titan Ridge Thunderbolt controllers work on AMD motherboards. Alpine Ridge had firmware problems but Titan Ridge is fine.
Apple & Intel are deeply entwined, both at a technical and a contractual level. There's a reason Apple has never made an AMD computer.
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#174Slightly off-topic, but who here uses a HEDT (high-end desktop) or workstation computer for software development? Does it make a significant difference in comparison with a standard business laptop?
I bought a used Dell workstation with a 8c16t Xeon E5-2670 and 32GB ECC DDR3 RAM a few years ago. It's a bit outdated now, but it's still faster than the most laptops (for multi core workloads). At the time I had a MacBook Air, so this completely blew it out the water. I remember one time while trying to debug an issue I had 10 docker instances of our CI running (Rails + Cucumber + Firefox) and there was absolutely no performance impact to the desktop experience.
Last year I bought a T470s with 20GB DDR4 and an i7 (U series) as I was mostly working away from home. It's good enough for most of the work I do, but it can be a bit slow at times. The processor just isn't as fast and the integrated graphics struggle with a 4K desktop (I think that's mainly Linux/GNOME being unoptimised though). I haven't noticed it throttling, but my workload usually isn't that CPU intensive.
If you mainly work from home I'd definately suggest building a desktop machine for your needs.
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always argued that for the prices that Apple charges Apple Care should be included in all its products. The first Apple computers I bought lasted for years and I never thought Apple Care was necessary, but since the fiasco with the 2011 MBP and the butterfly keyboards I'm not buying another of its products without Apple Care. Yes, Apple ended up doing the right thing in both cases but it took years after the pro…
In Europe a lot of products have to include 2 years warranty by default, which makes Apple Care a lot less attractive. You're basically paying the same price for just one more year instead of two.
2 years for people, 1 year for businesses. That includes self employed people if they want to enter it as an expense in the accounting books (I'm not sure about the terms in English, I hope you understand what I mean.)
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#176Doesn't a single thread ripper basically slay this thing?
The Current 2990WX is typically slower. For example, rendering is a strong point of Zen: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13748/the-intel-xeon-w-3175x-... but here it is behind. The Mac Pro's Xeon W would be slower than that tested Xeon W in multithread but faster in lightly threaded workloads.
But AMD said new workstation chips are coming in November. This could be up to 64-core Threadripper chips with PCIe4 support. Though we have no idea on the clock rates so it is possible these Xeon W CPUs may still come out ahead in lightly threaded performance, especially with AVX-512.
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
It presumably is in some areas. In New Zealand we have The Consumer Guarantees Act. Things are expected to have a reasonable life span. What this means is not specified but is generally accepted to be relative to the price paid (eg if it’s expensive, it should last). It’s a fantastic piece of legislation. I’ve had a 2.5 year old iPhone covered for example.
I believe that the parent meant that Apple charges enough (in the US), so it should have the extended guarantee included there. In NZ, things cost extra due to that law, correct? The difference: is everybody is paying for that extra protection, there's no choice.
We do have very high retail mark ups. Perhaps this is due to that law. But it is very nice protection to live under.
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
exactly how I felt. My last mac pro was useless to me without CUDA.
There is open CL now which blender and other programs have started using. Hopefully the lack of nvidia cards in these mac pros means proprietary tech like cuda gets left behind.
Apple is ending support for opencl, too.
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#179Slightly off-topic, but who here uses a HEDT (high-end desktop) or workstation computer for software development? Does it make a significant difference in comparison with a standard business laptop?
Yes. I have a company issued 2018 MBP 2.6 GHz i7 & 16GB RAM but I prefer to do most of the dev work on my HEDT running Linux (Ubuntu 16.04), 4.0 GHz i7 & 32GB RAM.
It's way better at running Docker instances, a bunch of electron apps, and tons of Chrome tabs simultaneously without a hitch.
Re: New Mac Pro Tech Specs
#180I wish I could afford these, but I’m really curious to test a hackintosh with threadreaper 3 following what they did on Linus tech tips with a virtualized PC and Mac running at the same time on the same monitor https://youtu.be/EozeSDeV3Vo
Hackintosh allows you to have OS X on better hardware but these days it's really unsafe, due to the possibility of Apple going full ARM in the near future, dropping all the support for x86.
Given that the latest Mac still uses an Intel CPU, I’d say the range is [5,7] years at minimum, based on Apple’s current vintage/obsolete policy, before x86 support is dropped from OSX.