The new Mac Pro is a METAL cylinder, eight times smaller than the previous generation. It includes the latest Xeon processors (perhaps Ivybridge-based?), dual AMD workstation graphics, six Thunderbolt-2 ports, four USB3.0 ports, HDMI out and a motion sensor.
I am not bowled over by the design, and have reservations about cooling efficiency. What do you all think?
Edited to correct information that it is in fact a metal cylinder rather than plastic.
I think it is quite possibly the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Why would I need dual ATI cards in a workstation when nothing takes advantage of it. It also looks like a nightmare to upgrade if that is even possible. Wonder what the price will be.
I think it is quite possibly the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Why would I need dual ATI cards in a workstation when nothing takes advantage of it. It also looks like a nightmare to upgrade if that is even possible. Wonder what the price will be.
quite shocked when i saw the the new mac pro is now a cylinder, i thought it was some sort of joke.
http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/10/next-generation-apple-mac-pro-eyes-on-at-wwdc-2013/
The design will take some getting used to, but is it plastic though? (edit: those Engadget shots clearly show it as metal… which makes it look quite like a bin 
I wonder what the final look will be when it’s released).
I’m curious as to how expandable it is. It’s so small, there doesn’t seem to be much (any) room in there for expansion boards or many storage devices. Not a huge drama for me, but probably will be for others. I guess they are banking on Thunderbolt 2 and FireWire 2 for that.
Anyway, I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve spent time with it. For now the Mac Pro lives, and by the comments of Phil Schiller, Apple are committed to keeping the Mac Pro supported far into the future. I’m happy about that.
They should be big ugly square silver boxes that weigh 60lbs … Ok … that’s been done …
But at least they don’t conform, which is a good thing … and many typical users don’t need to always upgrade …
and they are manufactured in the US
Mari on Mac running on the new Mac pro during the keynote.
The performance is basically astounding.
:bounce: At last! Will it use the looooong awaited OGL4 with the new version of OSX Jack?
OK, corrected the initial post to reflect that it is metal, not plastic. You know what it reminds me of? That old Apple “Cube” from years ago, with a vertical ventilation method. I guess what is old is new again, eh?
By the looks of it it’s a dual Xeon workstation with soldered on GPU’s, 1 SSD and no room for internal addons. And the AMD GPUs are openCL only so CUDA support.
The Mac Pro’s product page is updated! Lots more photos of thing, including normal RAM slots visible in a side compartment:
Also, F*$& YEAH MARI FOR OS X!
my quick thoughts:
Apple loves the configuration page that TRIPLES the price of the bace model. So im sure you can pimp this R2- unit out.
Looks like it comes with 2 CPU sockets, thats importent. The CPUs they quote are available TODAY. A new gen. of XEONS are coming out September-ish, rumored to be 12-15 cores PER CPU socket. so that MAY meen we are looking at 24-30 core (48-60 w/ HT) systems. So im SURE there will but upgrade build-to-order options.
If you can’t Select NVIDIA over AMD in build-to-order options…this is dead in the water. FUCK YOUR EXTERNAL CHASSES.
How the Hell do you RACK MOUNT THIS THING? if it takes up more room then 4 U to have 4 across…again. dead in the water.
P.S.
The money that I have saved for this day…I’m spending on 3 more Shuttle SX79R5 6core 3930k systems for my home render farm.
I really love the look of this thing. Sleek and sexy and unobtrusive. Not that I am going to buy one mind you, but I do like the look. 
It’s a electrical device, of course it’ll be dead in the water. 
Seriously though, people say that about every Apple announcement. and 99 out of a 100 times they end up with egg on their face.
It’s nice that it’s small, but I think people would rather pay less for more power rather than a weird case
Most of the cost in these systems is the CPU, so overall I suspect it’s not going to be extreme. Very likely the new systems will be comparable to the price on current systems.
Flash drive may push up the price somewhat, but you get instantaneous load … read/write access to that drive.
I was just browsing the site (very nicely designed BTW). Seems to me this limited design lacks the thermal dissipation capability to remove heat from a dual 8-core system (as I suspected) which is a bit pathetic considering the myriad of truly professional options already available from the likes of Dell and BOXX. Sure, they’re not shaped like sex-toys for elephants but they get the job done. You can’t go wrong with the 3930K processor. Performance that matches an 8-core Xeon for a quarter of the price? I’m fine with that. I’m not sure we live in economic times that allow us to justify paying premium prices knowing that a big chunk of what we’re spending is going towards the looks rather than performance. On the other hand, I don’t have the urge to hump my workstation so maybe i’m missing out on one of life’s pleasures.
