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Hello
I am very surprised that there is no comments !
Did this news took your breath away ?
http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/
The technical data looks good Cyril and it takes on 60 gigs of ram. It's supposed to be twice as powerful as current Mac Pro models and is 10 inches high. It looks like a dustbin to put your trash in - but based on what most people produce on computers today - there's a wonderful irony in that. It's certainly a dustbin I will want if it turns out to be any good. Thunderbolt exclusivity also doesn't surprise me. Very fast transfer speeds are being mooted. I would have thought they will come out with new OS for this machine too. So the wait will have to include findings that may take quite a bit of extra time.
I got rid of my 2008 Dual Xeon MacPro and Logic one year ago and I am too happy with my Windows 7 PC.
Apple hardware and software (Logic) is old history and we don't produce music with hardware design.
If what is inside it will be something that worths its cost, then we'll talk about it.
Well, you asked...
The positives: overall power, and Apple's willingness to design something very different.
But...
Design: form over function?
Thunderbolt: slower than the newest PCIe specs.
No expansion: for its sleek industrial design, and small footprint, one has to add lots of external boxes/enclosures for multiple hard drives, PCIe cards, external thunderbolt devices, etc., etc., etc., resulting in a much larger overall total footprint than one has with a standard computer case.
Everything soldered in, cannot be upgraded, easily repaired or fixed.
The big unknown: cost.
Conclusion: probably great for the video crowd, with its dual graphics cards, where expansion isn't necessarily as critical, but not that great for intense audio production, particularly with large sample libraries (i.e. VSL, and others), where expansion matters. Because it is Apple, it will be declared fantasmicalwondergreat.
Conclusion #2 (personal): not a MacPro, but a souped up, and probably very expensive, iMac. It will go on my iGnore list.
@noldar12 said:
Conclusion: probably great for the video crowd, with its dual graphics cards, where expansion isn't necessarily as critical, but not that great for intense audio production, particularly with large sample libraries (i.e. VSL, and others), where expansion matters. Because it is Apple, it will be declared fantasmicalwondergreat.
No shure of this.
Did you read :
The actual Mac pro 12 core is already a very good configuration with ssd for MIR, this new Macpro is going to be a killing computer for a MIR configuration.
And if VSL uses the power of the graphic cards !!!! 😉
The only problem I see is having one Thunderbolt box containing our audio card and let see about the price
Hi,
I think one of the biggest negative factors will be their price. But Mac Pros were always expensive, and cost more than similar spec'd PCs.
The new Mac Pro when nicely souped up with memory, and external TB2 peripherals, PCI expansion Chasis, ...etc. will cost a bundle !
The cost factor will be its biggest negative factor, I also don't get the small size factor of the design, most deskop users don't need to be mobile, so why make it so small, and have us connect most of the expansions/TB2 peripherals externally ? which are going to consume more space anyways.
Having said so, I'm very happy that Apple decided to make a new Mac Pro ! There was a lot of buzz earlier in the year that they might be killing the entire Mac Pro line. So.. now we know that's not true. I think the new design is pretty innovative, although it could be mistaken for a trash bin [:D] I still like it. I just wish it was taller, and bigger to accomodate more expansions internally.
I will evaluate the new Mac Pro when it begins shipping, and gets more realistic user reviews of how they behave under pressure , do they stay cool, and are they super-quiet in a studio environment ? I also feel they are more geared for Graphics/Video professionals, given the dual-graphics processors.
Cheers,
Muziksculp
@muziksculp said:
Hi,
I think one of the biggest negative factors will be their price. But Mac Pros were always expensive, and cost more than similar spec'd PCs.
This is not true is you compare using the exact same processor !
I did a study a few years ago ; the high end Macpro was a few euro less than the Dell servers with the same processors !
Cyril is right:
in 2008 a dual Processor Mac Pro was not so that much expensive compared to the others.
The easy reason was that they bought all the available XEON processors, not very fair....
... killing computer for a MIR configuration.And if VSL uses the power of the graphic cards !
i asked this question years ago already und the answer was as simple as shattering:
the available grafic-memory is not large enough to have the impulses permanently loaded in (grafic card) RAM, which is required for fast calculation of the audio to output. using the GPU power just for calculations would result in a bottleneck on the bus (constant loading/unloading of impulse data) ...
@cm said:
i asked this question years ago already und the answer was as simple as shattering:
the available grafic-memory is not large enough to have the impulses permanently loaded in (grafic card) RAM, which is required for fast calculation of the audio to output. using the GPU power just for calculations would result in a bottleneck on the bus (constant loading/unloading of impulse data) ...
That may have been true years ago when you asked that question.
The VRAM in the new Mac Pro can be up to 6GB. The largest venue for IRs in MIR Pro is 1.32GB. So, please ask this question again.
@dbudde said:
The VRAM in the new Mac Pro can be up to 6GB. The largest venue for IRs in MIR Pro is 1.32GB.
well, besides you would need at least some memory for the display(s) 😉 it is not as simple.
you also have to get the sample data (preload buffer) into RAM to have something to calculate on and not all GPU processing threads can access all memory, especially not simultaneously.
get an idea reading this article(s).
GPU processing is great for calculations which can be easily fragmented into little portions of jobs, it is not as efficient for multi impulse response reverbiation when the *whole room* is applied to every single instrument.
@dbudde said:
[...]The VRAM in the new Mac Pro can be up to 6GB. The largest venue for IRs in MIR Pro is 1.32GB. So, please ask this question again.
I'm not going to join the discussion, but just to avoid misunderstandings: The RAM used by MIR's Venues is not only dependant on the number and length of the original impulse responses (which is reflected by the raw size of a RoomPack), but mostly on the number of Icons used on a virtual stage. Each Icon triggers the pre-rendering of a unique set of impulse responses, depending on its position, rotation, stereo width, the chosen Instrument Profile, the global Reverb Time trim factor, and of course the selected Output Format (... multi-channel formats will need more RAM than stereo, for example).
This will happen again for each and every change applied to any Icon.
Kind regards,
Not really interested in debating this either. I just think it prudent to revisit the question of moving certain functions to the GPU given what cm said the reason it hasn't been possible before. But I think you guys already know that. I'll trust that you do the right thing whatever that turns out to be.
De : thierry ecuvillon <thierry.ecuvillon@free.fr>Date : 10 juin 2013 23:23:24 HAECÀ : tcook@apple.comObjet : about new mac proHi, i have just seen the new mac pro from wwdc movies.It is really great but i just want to tell you my feeling:Technically, all is super but i am a musician and it is certain, i will never go in concert tour or in recording studio with it.For technician and musician, we need a 19"rack system, strong and easy to carry.Like a industrial computor.I hope you will understand this, i think a lot of technician will be happy with it.Best regards,Thierry Ecuvillon
I like it, dustbin , the concept of a unified fan that large will keep it cool and quiet. Lots of power under the hood and lots of ram, excellent, Xeon is the only way to go.
So how much? And i hate when Apple says, " starts at"..just give us a price fro the whole enchilada.
Thanks for posting
Cheers, JRM
@PaulR said:
Everyone try to remember that these machines going back to early Mac Pros were not built for musicians. Their prime target is the graphics boys and girls. Musicians come way down the list.
Yes, this is Very True !
Apple was more into catering for the Pro- Graphics, video, Post Video, ..than for Pro Audio-Production community.
Also look how much more attention FCPX gets compared to Logic Pro !
Their history proves this.
Apple has released the new specs. Their audio blurb (which predictably follows the blurbs on video editing, 3-d modeling and animation, and photography):
More power across the board.The new Mac Pro delivers up to 12 processing cores (up to 24 virtual cores) and up to 60GB/s memory bandwidth — twice the bandwidth of the previous-generation model. Now you can work with even more tracks of virtual instruments, plug-ins, and effects than previously possible. And the ultrafast PCIe-based flash storage loads all those instruments, samples, and loops almost instantly.
Connect to next-generation I/O technologies.
Six Thunderbolt 2 ports and four USB 3 ports redefine the meaning of expansion. Connect up to 36 best-in-class audio I/O devices from Avid, Apogee, M-Audio, MOTU, Universal Audio, and more. And with a PCI expansion chassis connected via Thunderbolt, you can work with the DSP and audio I/O PCI Express cards you already have.
--Mark Arnest
