Who uses Mac Pro's for gaming? Those graphics cards are not designed for that type of thing.
I believe what Mr. Door is talking about is a 5,1 Mac Pro with upgraded PCI-E video card.
Yup.
It's this amazing idea -- you have the CPU and the GPU in the same case with an extremely high speed connection (faster than TB3 even!!) between them. Just one simple box, no ugly wires connecting two boxes. And it's faster and quieter!
Full disclosure -- I've got a 5,1 twelve-core with Nvidia 770. Love it.
Is there an adapter for internal SSDs? The thought of a spinning DD these days gives me shivers.
You need to look at Bizon for a deliverable external GPU product for the new MacBook Pro (https://bizon-tech.com). The BizonBOX 2S is available now with the BizonBOX 3 coming in early 2017. Some of the latest NVIDIA GPUs aren't supported yet but you can get the NVIDIA GTX TITAN X, 12 GB, DVI, HDMI, 3 DP (3072 CUDA cores). Of course it will set you back $1500 but as you say these are for the adventurous.
Well spotted. Mind you just about anything connected to Windows is s scam ... lol
Sorry, but when the new MBP with 2.9GHz processor, 2TB SSD and the slightly better graphics Radeon Pro 460 (instead of the 455) is $4300 (not including all the extra dongles/adapters that one has to buy) and without a mouse, PLEASE don't tell me that anything associated with Windows is a scam. Even with the stock configuration upgraded to a 1TB SSD, it's $3200, still a ripoff.
Oh come on it was 'partially' a joke . In truth I was thinking more about the software side of that world, I agree the hardware is damned impressive. I inch closer and closer to building my own game box. aaaagggghhhh.
In case anyone wonders, sadly, no you can't use AMD driver updates while in Windows as they deliberately exclude their own GPUs made for Apple as being 'not recognized', nice one AMD! It was possible to mod the Omega drivers prior to Crimson, to stop rejecting the D500s, but a complex hack, I've yet to look to see if this is possible with the latest Crimson but I probably won't anyway as the hacked Omega drivers made the Mac Pro run very hot. That's why I am using the long outdated official Crimson drivers from Apple still!
AMD releases special drivers for BootCamp. Choose "BootCamp" in the menus then choose Windows version and Mac model on the driver downloads page. This is all we can get at this time.
Who uses Mac Pro's for gaming? Those graphics cards are not designed for that type of thing.
I believe what Mr. Door is talking about is a 5,1 Mac Pro with upgraded PCI-E video card.
Yup.
It's this amazing idea -- you have the CPU and the GPU in the same case with an extremely high speed connection (faster than TB3 even!!) between them. Just one simple box, no ugly wires connecting two boxes. And it's faster and quieter!
Full disclosure -- I've got a 5,1 twelve-core with Nvidia 770. Love it.
Is there an adapter for internal SSDs? The thought of a spinning DD these days gives me shivers.
In case anyone wonders, sadly, no you can't use AMD driver updates while in Windows as they deliberately exclude their own GPUs made for Apple as being 'not recognized', nice one AMD! It was possible to mod the Omega drivers prior to Crimson, to stop rejecting the D500s, but a complex hack, I've yet to look to see if this is possible with the latest Crimson but I probably won't anyway as the hacked Omega drivers made the Mac Pro run very hot. That's why I am using the long outdated official Crimson drivers from Apple still!
AMD releases special drivers for BootCamp. Choose "BootCamp" in the menus then choose Windows version and Mac model on the driver downloads page. This is all we can get at this time.
Right, then you update the Apple Utility that Boot Camp installs (multiple times) in Windows, that version AMD driver you refer to is then updated further by Apple to version 6 in their parlance. I would give you the Crimson driver release numbers if I could but away from my Mac Pro at the moment. From memory it's something like a jump from 15.1 to 15.3 but I could be way off. I seem to recall the PC world are on 16 now. In fact there was an update this week especially for Watch Dogs 2 which scared the hell out of me but it turned out my older drivers worked fine as per my earlier post.
By the time you've spent probably over $2,000 building your own gaming PC would be a simpler solution. I am lucky as the owner of MBPs and a new 6 core Mac Pro as the latter runs Window 10 for high end gaming very well. It of course has has duel AMD D500 GPUs but sadly no option for macOS to utilize both in games, one is used purely for computation and this is aimed at FCPro X (and works very well I should add), but it's useless for modern games, not that there are many!
This is the game developer's fault if they don't support multiple GPUs or CPUs. macOS supports dual GPU via Metal. If they ignore Metal to stick with their decades old obsolete "write once run everywhere" cross-platform paradigm, they don't deserve high end workstations from Apple, IBM, Dell or HP.
By the time you've spent probably over $2,000 building your own gaming PC would be a simpler solution. I am lucky as the owner of MBPs and a new 6 core Mac Pro as the latter runs Window 10 for high end gaming very well. It of course has has duel AMD D500 GPUs but sadly no option for macOS to utilize both in games, one is used purely for computation and this is aimed at FCPro X (and works very well I should add), but it's useless for modern games, not that there are many!
This is the game developer's fault if they don't support multiple GPUs or CPUs. macOS supports dual GPU via Metal. If they ignore Metal to stick with their decades old obsolete "write once run everywhere" cross-platform paradigm, they don't deserve high end workstations from Apple, IBM, Dell or HP.
I don't disagree. Apple should just buy the top game firms and Steam and close the Windows departments
In case anyone wonders, sadly, no you can't use AMD driver updates while in Windows as they deliberately exclude their own GPUs made for Apple as being 'not recognized', nice one AMD! It was possible to mod the Omega drivers prior to Crimson, to stop rejecting the D500s, but a complex hack, I've yet to look to see if this is possible with the latest Crimson but I probably won't anyway as the hacked Omega drivers made the Mac Pro run very hot. That's why I am using the long outdated official Crimson drivers from Apple still!
AMD releases special drivers for BootCamp. Choose "BootCamp" in the menus then choose Windows version and Mac model on the driver downloads page. This is all we can get at this time.
Right, then you update the Apple Utility that Boot Camp installs (multiple times) in Windows, that version AMD driver you refer to is then updated further by Apple to version 6 in their parlance. I would give you the Crimson driver release numbers if I could but away from my Mac Pro at the moment. From memory it's something like a jump from 15.1 to 15.3 but I could be way off. I seem to recall the PC world are on 16 now. In fact there was an update this week especially for Watch Dogs 2 which scared the hell out of me but it turned out my older drivers worked fine as per my earlier post.
Thanks. I was just about to install those AMD BootCamp drivers that I stopped, because I'd previously installed Apple's latest BootCamp software.
FWIW one of my friends — who gets most of his work done on a 15" MBP — just picked up a Razr Blade laptop and a Core equipped with a $1200 Nvidia Titan card (it's going to be used down the line for VR development). Works great. I don't think he's tried it with Mac/Bootcamp but probably doesn't care either.
The only drawback is that 40gb Thunderbolt cords max out at 18 inches in length. Apparently they will be longer someday but the technology isn't quite there yet. The Core is bigger than it looks and feels like it was as much as an old cheesegrater G5, so you'll need room on the desk for it.
It's not known what tidal volume of air the case needs for adequate cooling, but the output managed to blow a full box of kleenex about three feet across a desk when the fan switched to high speed.
Geezaloo, that’s box fan levels of oomph.
Getting an external GPU to work in macOS requires system integrity protection (SIP) to be disabled through the terminal. Then, a hack must be installed allowing for the Apple-laid block on some Thunderbolt 3 peripherals to be bypassed.
Meanwhile with the old Mac Pros, as long as nVidia supports a card with their web driver, you can install an off the shelf card and have it work flawlessly.
Who uses Mac Pro's for gaming? Those graphics cards are not designed for that type of thing.
I believe what Mr. Door is talking about is a 5,1 Mac Pro with upgraded PCI-E video card.
Yup.
It's this amazing idea -- you have the CPU and the GPU in the same case with an extremely high speed connection (faster than TB3 even!!) between them. Just one simple box, no ugly wires connecting two boxes. And it's faster and quieter!
Full disclosure -- I've got a 5,1 twelve-core with Nvidia 770. Love it.
Is there an adapter for internal SSDs? The thought of a spinning DD these days gives me shivers.
Sure! They're about $15 from OWC or Amazon.
mmmmm .... I'm tempted to look on E-bay for a Cheese Grater now ... lol. So ironic as I sold so many, damn it, if I'd just kept one. My wife would kill me though. So out of interest, I assume Windows sees any drive it boots to as 'the internal' is this true? The external ones attached via USB3 (and even Thunderbolt) I make with WintToUSB have one snag, they can't be updated by Microsoft to later versions of Windows as it refuses due to UEFI firmware limitations. I'm trying to find out if Microsoft issue later ISOs of Windows 10 (equivalent to Apple's Combo Update ISOs) or if they always keep the original and rely on updates once installed. If I could get a later build as an ISO I'd be all set.
In case anyone wonders, sadly, no you can't use AMD driver updates while in Windows as they deliberately exclude their own GPUs made for Apple as being 'not recognized', nice one AMD! It was possible to mod the Omega drivers prior to Crimson, to stop rejecting the D500s, but a complex hack, I've yet to look to see if this is possible with the latest Crimson but I probably won't anyway as the hacked Omega drivers made the Mac Pro run very hot. That's why I am using the long outdated official Crimson drivers from Apple still!
AMD releases special drivers for BootCamp. Choose "BootCamp" in the menus then choose Windows version and Mac model on the driver downloads page. This is all we can get at this time.
Right, then you update the Apple Utility that Boot Camp installs (multiple times) in Windows, that version AMD driver you refer to is then updated further by Apple to version 6 in their parlance. I would give you the Crimson driver release numbers if I could but away from my Mac Pro at the moment. From memory it's something like a jump from 15.1 to 15.3 but I could be way off. I seem to recall the PC world are on 16 now. In fact there was an update this week especially for Watch Dogs 2 which scared the hell out of me but it turned out my older drivers worked fine as per my earlier post.
Thanks. I was just about to install those AMD BootCamp drivers that I stopped, because I'd previously installed Apple's latest BootCamp software.
Who uses Mac Pro's for gaming? Those graphics cards are not designed for that type of thing.
I believe what Mr. Door is talking about is a 5,1 Mac Pro with upgraded PCI-E video card.
Yup.
It's this amazing idea -- you have the CPU and the GPU in the same case with an extremely high speed connection (faster than TB3 even!!) between them. Just one simple box, no ugly wires connecting two boxes. And it's faster and quieter!
Full disclosure -- I've got a 5,1 twelve-core with Nvidia 770. Love it.
Is there an adapter for internal SSDs? The thought of a spinning DD these days gives me shivers.
Sure! They're about $15 from OWC or Amazon.
mmmmm .... I'm tempted to look on E-bay for a Cheese Grater now ... lol. So ironic as I sold so many, damn it, if I'd just kept one. My wife would kill me though. So out of interest, I assume Windows sees any drive it boots to as 'the internal' is this true? The external ones attached via USB3 (and even Thunderbolt) I make with WintToUSB have one snag, they can't be updated by Microsoft to later versions of Windows as it refuses due to UEFI firmware limitations. I'm trying to find out if Microsoft issue later ISOs of Windows 10 (equivalent to Apple's Combo Update ISOs) or if they always keep the original and rely on updates once installed. If I could get a later build as an ISO I'd be all set.
Yeah. The windows boot drive is always "the internal" or the C: regardless of what position it holds on the backplane.
Who uses Mac Pro's for gaming? Those graphics cards are not designed for that type of thing.
I believe what Mr. Door is talking about is a 5,1 Mac Pro with upgraded PCI-E video card.
Yup.
It's this amazing idea -- you have the CPU and the GPU in the same case with an extremely high speed connection (faster than TB3 even!!) between them. Just one simple box, no ugly wires connecting two boxes. And it's faster and quieter!
Full disclosure -- I've got a 5,1 twelve-core with Nvidia 770. Love it.
Is there an adapter for internal SSDs? The thought of a spinning DD these days gives me shivers.
Sure! They're about $15 from OWC or Amazon.
mmmmm .... I'm tempted to look on E-bay for a Cheese Grater now ... lol. So ironic as I sold so many, damn it, if I'd just kept one. My wife would kill me though. So out of interest, I assume Windows sees any drive it boots to as 'the internal' is this true? The external ones attached via USB3 (and even Thunderbolt) I make with WintToUSB have one snag, they can't be updated by Microsoft to later versions of Windows as it refuses due to UEFI firmware limitations. I'm trying to find out if Microsoft issue later ISOs of Windows 10 (equivalent to Apple's Combo Update ISOs) or if they always keep the original and rely on updates once installed. If I could get a later build as an ISO I'd be all set.
Yeah. The windows boot drive is always "the internal" or the C: regardless of what position it holds on the backplane.
Great good to know. Now if only there was a way to access the nMP's internal bus directly! /sigh
I think Apple should be working on a new Cinema display that not only is 5K, but also has an external graphics card that would keep laptops thin and light, but when connected to a display, speed up graphics performance where battery life is not a problem. I think people would buy those displays in droves and it would also differentiate it from cheaper displays.
Bring the brand new Mac Pro. With brand new Apple Thunderbolt Display. All with Thunderbolt 3.
Exactly...
But in reply to the article, when it comes to eGPUs for either TB2 or TB3, try a search on these websites:
google.com, and youtube.com ( "Sheldon comment - Sarcasm ehe ehe" - bbtheory )
whatever...
By the time you've spent probably over $2,000 building your own gaming PC would be a simpler solution. I am lucky as the owner of MBPs and a new 6 core Mac Pro as the latter runs Window 10 for high end gaming very well. It of course has has duel AMD D500 GPUs but sadly no option for macOS to utilize both in games, one is used purely for computation and this is aimed at FCPro X (and works very well I should add), but it's useless for modern games, not that there are many!
This is the game developer's fault if they don't support multiple GPUs or CPUs. macOS supports dual GPU via Metal. If they ignore Metal to stick with their decades old obsolete "write once run everywhere" cross-platform paradigm, they don't deserve high end workstations from Apple, IBM, Dell or HP.
I don't disagree. Apple should just buy the top game firms and Steam and close the Windows departments
That would be awesome payback for what Microsoft did with Halo!!
I think Apple should be working on a new Cinema display that not only is 5K, but also has an external graphics card that would keep laptops thin and light, but when connected to a display, speed up graphics performance where battery life is not a problem. I think people would buy those displays in droves and it would also differentiate it from cheaper displays.
Why Apple? Why should the GPU maker be looking to work with Monitor maker generally on a USB-c thunder3 platform that can then host something like an MXM style card in the monitor?
We use an upgraded 4,1 to 5,1 tower with a 16 lane Cubix box with GTX 680s, due for an upgrade as soon as the 1080 is certified for DaVinci Resolve - perhaps it now is, I haven't checked lately. None of the current Mac Pro versions represent a value proposition that beats this - unless a TB3-equipped Mac Pro or iMac able to officially use external GPUs and a second and/or third GUI display were to arrive. That may well do better, but may not match the numbers that seem to be possible in Windows, which is a deep tragedy for the high end professional use of the Mac. Final Cut X is a red herring for testing - hardly anyone is using it at the high end, and its performance is heavily optimised for the current machines. Playing with GoPro h.264 and a bit of colour correction is lightweight at best. The real test of GPU use is the rendering of 4K and higher source camera material, such as ArriRAW or ProRes 444 XQ, with motion effects such as spatial and temporal noise reduction. Get those to happen in real time and I'll buy - but an officially sanctioned 3rd party solution, not a hack.
By the time you've spent probably over $2,000 building your own gaming PC would be a simpler solution. I am lucky as the owner of MBPs and a new 6 core Mac Pro as the latter runs Window 10 for high end gaming very well. It of course has has duel AMD D500 GPUs but sadly no option for macOS to utilize both in games, one is used purely for computation and this is aimed at FCPro X (and works very well I should add), but it's useless for modern games, not that there are many!
This is the game developer's fault if they don't support multiple GPUs or CPUs. macOS supports dual GPU via Metal. If they ignore Metal to stick with their decades old obsolete "write once run everywhere" cross-platform paradigm, they don't deserve high end workstations from Apple, IBM, Dell or HP.
I don't disagree. Apple should just buy the top game firms and Steam and close the Windows departments
Would be a great way for Apple to sell trucks even with windows deployment still an option.
Comments
Oh come on it was 'partially' a joke
The only drawback is that 40gb Thunderbolt cords max out at 18 inches in length. Apparently they will be longer someday but the technology isn't quite there yet. The Core is bigger than it looks and feels like it was as much as an old cheesegrater G5, so you'll need room on the desk for it.
Meanwhile with the old Mac Pros, as long as nVidia supports a card with their web driver, you can install an off the shelf card and have it work flawlessly.
YVW ... Been there done that! LOL
Why should the GPU maker be looking to work with Monitor maker generally on a USB-c thunder3 platform that can then host something like an MXM style card in the monitor?
Final Cut X is a red herring for testing - hardly anyone is using it at the high end, and its performance is heavily optimised for the current machines. Playing with GoPro h.264 and a bit of colour correction is lightweight at best. The real test of GPU use is the rendering of 4K and higher source camera material, such as ArriRAW or ProRes 444 XQ, with motion effects such as spatial and temporal noise reduction. Get those to happen in real time and I'll buy - but an officially sanctioned 3rd party solution, not a hack.