Availability of Apple's 15-inch MacBook Pros constrained ahead of redesigned models

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  • Reply 101 of 169
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by superdx View Post


    You can't slot in a more powerful graphics card (or 3). Graphics processing is probably the #1 segment of power users, not programmers (NB: I am a developer myself).



    Thunderbolt! Problem solved! Seriously, Thunderbolt GPUs will be big.



    Also, I'd think that CPU power is the #1 requirement of Mac Pro users, but I could be wrong. But if I am, why in the world are they wasting money on a Mac Pro when they could get a Windows machine and SLI/Crossfire a ton of MODERN cards for that power?
  • Reply 102 of 169
    ssquirrelssquirrel Posts: 1,196member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    BS! Servicing a hard drive is not unreasonably difficult. Your statement is actually pretty insulting, as it implies that people are too stupid to effectively work on their own hardware.



    That's b/c they are. Not even on a straight intelligence level, but their technology intelligence. My mom can program a VCR. God help her w/a computer. Explaining things 50 times doesn't make it stick either. Also, it's only insulting if you are not capable of working on the machine yourself. You are, so why should you feel insulted?
  • Reply 103 of 169
    sddavesddave Posts: 24member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by loveandcapture View Post


    It's disheartening to hear about the Mac Pro possibly going bye-bye... I bought the most recent model in late 2010, and it's been a total dream (video editor/musician here).



    ...



    Amazing - until just about a year ago, there was no reason to be dubious about Apple's intentions in this space. Now... yikes. If no refresh of the Pro comes along, there's the answer, and it's time to look elsewhere.



    Exactly why I had to build my "mackintosh", to go along with my MBP and iPad ... and the mini just isn't enough.
  • Reply 104 of 169
    sddavesddave Posts: 24member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SDDave View Post


    Exactly why I had to build my "mackintosh", to go along with my MBP and iPad ... and the mini just isn't enough.



    um, I meant "hackintosh" (auto-spell check is annoying!).
  • Reply 105 of 169
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    I was thinking exactly the same thing. I learned how to write apps on an old-design Mac Mini, even. All Macs are easily powerful enough for any app development.



    I really don't understand why people think it's valid to make sweeping statements like this. ALL Macs for ANY development. What? My iOS compiles take 10 - 20 seconds depending on what else the system is doing. This is a serious pain when working on tight-corner issues that require a lot of app restarts. So, no, NOT all Macs are powerful enough for any app development. Does it matter which Mac I'm using? Should I say, since according to you, ALL macs are capable?
  • Reply 106 of 169
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SSquirrel View Post


    This makes the very wrong assumption that people who are developers are only coding on Mac Pros.



    No it doesn't.
  • Reply 107 of 169
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by boeyc15 View Post


    Sooo.. a new, very different form factor for MacBook Pro and no 'special' announcement? Just shows up in the store one day? Seems odd. Would Apple have a special event one month before WWDC?



    That's a good point. If they don't release new models in early May, other manufacturers will get a 1 month head start on Ivy Bridge. If they do update them in early May, it's not likely they'd host an event so close to WWDC.



    Given that the rest of the models can be updated in June, they could all be updated at the same time and announced at the same time. This would allow them to transition the 13" MBP more easily as the 13" Air will have been updated to Ivy Bridge.
  • Reply 108 of 169
    d-ranged-range Posts: 396member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    Actually, given the right software and enough RAM you can actually benefit significantly from more cores as a developer. Compilation can be easily spread across multiple cores.





    Mac OS loves RAM, no surprise here.



    This is just plain baloney. Many developers leverage all of those cores daily.



    Development work doesn't scale to infinite cores. If you have a decent quad-core CPU, compilation runs will not be able to saturate all of them because things get I/O-bound and build dependencies start to limit further build parallelisation. Adding more does not make sense.



    I have iPulse running on my quad-core iMac, so I can see CPU load in real-time when building stuff in XCode. It clearly shows that during large compiles, most of the time only 2 cores are completely saturated, and the other 2 are under-utilized, most likely waiting for dependencies to finish building. The effect is even more obvious if you are doing incremental/partial (ie: not clean) builds, which means only changed files are going to be compiled. In that case it is RAM and I/O that are holding you back, not CPU.



    CPU power is not something you can just blindly add more of and expect things to get faster, not anymore at least.
  • Reply 109 of 169
    d-ranged-range Posts: 396member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by orthorim View Post


    Depends on what you're developing. I was doing Java / Eclipse and thought the same.



    Then I started using that ridiculous CPU hog Xcode and guess what, it's actually CPU constrained on my C2D 2.66. POS software, bloatware, whatever, but it's definitely going to be faster on an 8 core Mac Pro.



    XCode is the first piece of software I am using that makes me wish I had a quad i7.



    I don't consider a quad-i7 'extreme high-end', I was comparing the top-end of the iMac range against a Mac-Pro with dual 6-core Xeons.



    The point was whether a current iMac would work well as a development workstation, or that you would want to have a Mac Pro for that. IMO, there is very little to gain using a Mac Pro to run XCode, as long as you have a decent CPU in your iMac, lots of RAM and and SSD. You'll save lots of money and you will have a very hard time seeing any performance difference. In fact, I'm 100% sure that a Mac Pro with HDD's will be a lot slower for development work than a quad-core iMac with an SSD.
  • Reply 110 of 169
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by d-range View Post


    Just put lots of RAM and an SSD in RAM iMac and it will fly as a developer workstation, to the point you will have a very hard time noticing any difference with a 12 core Mac Pro. I did it a few weeks ago with my 2010 quad core i7 iMac, and I can only say the machine feels like something completely different for devlopment work. Compilation, debugging, starting the iOS simulator, it's all near instantaneous.



    Hardly surprising if you think about it, since almost all typical development tasks are decidedly I/O bound, so if you have a decent CPU (which all the current iMacs have), lots of RAM and a fast SSD (I used a Samsung 830), there is very little to gain by throwing more hardware and money at it by buying a Mac Pro. We've long passed the point that development work requires extreme high-end hardware.



    Bang on the money.



    I think that's probably the argument Apple is looking at in assessing the Mac Pro's future.



    It's sales last time Apple did break out hovered above 100k. And that was around the time of the Grator Industrial re-design. If it's 50k a quarter with the current archaic specs I'd be surprised. I think the Cube was canned with sales of about that or less.



    The tower concept hasn't been mainstream at Apple since the iMac blossomed after it's Bondi introductory impact and subsequent fruity flavoured explosion. The iMac smashed the Power Mac's sales. Surprise? Not really. It was an affordable, powerful Mac in the £595-£1295-ish price range initially.



    I wouldn't mind Apple dropping the Pro's starting price to £995 for the entry and have 3 more models at 250£ intervals topping out with a dual model at £2k. They've done it before historically. But is the tower concept going to go mainstream after they've spent so much time eliminating it as a differentiator for the Xen-chic Apple design ethos vs PCs? The last time a tower was mainstream was 1997? The G3 Blue and White was lovely. It sat where the iMac does now. Todays iMac blows away the G3 blue and white, the G4, the G5 and the early Intel tower machines. Heck, it even roughs up a 12 core on certain tasks if you hook up a thunderbolt Pegasus and plop in an internal SSD and pack the iMac with 16 gigs of ram.



    It doesn't take much advancing of the iMac's capabities to prick whatever air is left in the Pro's balloon.



    Computers are getting smaller. Big boxes are so yesteryear. It's dinosaur land. (...and that's coming from me who waited ten years for the 'ideal' tower Mac and then bought an iMac in a sale and all my fears were dispelled.)



    The iMac has eaten the lunch of the mainstream tower market. In most aspects it offers most of what a mini tower can give you plus a nice screen. It even got a decent top end gpu last time around with as much vram as you see ram in a Macbook Air. Not bad, Apple, eh? And ati/amd are pushing power and efficiency in their gpus if not always absolute power and they make a very nice fit for iMacs. That's alot of sales for AMD per quarter if they can keep Apple sweet in the power/efficiency game. And that power looks even better with the 7000 series. These iMacs are worlds away from the old Bondi/fruit gum iMacs. Alot has changed since the iMac's introduction. It's AIO, but it's way more powerful.



    I'd like to see a 'Big Mac' Mini. Double whopper. If you stacked two Minis one on top of the other...you'd have 8 cores. Using Thunderbolt as the bridge to use one of the chips as co-processor? Room for two HDs etc. (Ivy bridge will run super cool.) People are using them as servers. The discrete gpu option will be 'ok'. And there's the chance that MSI will get an external thunderbolt option gpu up and running inside 6 months. How long before Apple say F*** it with intel and go A6? Ax whatever in teh next several years? Maybe AMD will come back into the fray and offer great SoCs? Wafer thin desktops/laptops with iPad style SoCs? Not this year, no...but Apple's ambition in the iPad showed what they can do when they control their destiny. And I bought an iPad over a Macbook. (To be fair, I don't like laptops.)



    Price? Not a lot compared to the shocking value of the entry Pro. It's not hard to see where this is going.



    Smaller. More power. Thinner. Apple's desktop designs are heading in the iPad direction. Look at the white iMac's introduction alongside a side on iPod. Tells you alot about what Apple thinks about desktops. They even used laptop parts in the iMac for years even though they had desktop options they didn't compromise their philosophy. Slimmer. Power efficient. Good bang for buck without requiring a chernobyl reactor in your wardrobe or inducing heat to fry an egg.



    We can only hang our hats of hope on Wizard's refactor hypothesis. If we get one more Mac Pro? It will be the last hurrah.



    How many years until iMacs have 6 and 8 cores? AMD have consumer 8 core processors now, don't they?



    Lemon Bon Bon.
  • Reply 111 of 169
    Computers are becoming commodities. Toasters. Look at the smash hit success of the iPad. What it isn't today will soon by slurped up by an iPad 4 with quad cpu and rogue gpu.



    Look how far it's come in a couple of years?



    The next gen consoles and low end to low mid laptops should be looking over their shoulders nervously.



    Things can change fast. Just as Enterprise, R.I.M or M$ or Palm...or HP... The i-Warriors hoardes are taking Rome by sheer force of numbers and no shortage of power.



    Lemon Bon Bon.
  • Reply 112 of 169
    Apple could bundle Final Cut X with top end iMacs to keep some of the Pro's happy.



    Who's to say where the top end iMac could go. Each year it is getting more and more powerful. Some times evolutionary some times a leap...there's something irrevocable about it's climb. (And I'd still like to see the X-Mac...give it a better gpu and no screen and price it the same as an iMac. Death match. See who wins.)



    Lemon Bon Bon.
  • Reply 113 of 169
    After the Cube though, can you really see Apple doing the X-Mac? When many consider the Mini to be the rebirth of said machine?



    LOL. Yes. A Cube with a lower price. *(If only it had better gpu options...I'd so be there...)



    Lemon Bon Bon.
  • Reply 114 of 169
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by d-range View Post


    I don't consider a quad-i7 'extreme high-end', I was comparing the top-end of the iMac range against a Mac-Pro with dual 6-core Xeons.



    The point was whether a current iMac would work well as a development workstation, or that you would want to have a Mac Pro for that. IMO, there is very little to gain using a Mac Pro to run XCode, as long as you have a decent CPU in your iMac, lots of RAM and and SSD. You'll save lots of money and you will have a very hard time seeing any performance difference. In fact, I'm 100% sure that a Mac Pro with HDD's will be a lot slower for development work than a quad-core iMac with an SSD.



    Well argued and you stuck to your point.



    ie look at where the Pro's specs are now. Look at the task. Look at the market for said tasks.



    Is the Pro absolutely necessary. I think you've made the case for iMac with SDD and lots of ram in this instance.



    The i7 processor has been a great leveller for the iMac. That along with the Pro's languishing at the hands of both Intel and Apple (who haven't been innocent in the Pro's lack of value.)



    In this instance the SDD and lots of ram can offset the dual 6s.



    I like the instant on speed of the iPad. Apps don't take ages to load. How long before Apple brings SDDs to the desktop Mini and iMacs as standard? if not this year? Next?



    My next iMac...I'll definitely want an SDD as standard and 8-16 gigs of ram.



    Lemon Bon Bon.
  • Reply 115 of 169
    d-ranged-range Posts: 396member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lemon Bon Bon. View Post


    Well argued and you stuck to your point.



    ie look at where the Pro's specs are now. Look at the task. Look at the market for said tasks.



    Is the Pro absolutely necessary. I think you've made the case for iMac with SDD and lots of ram in this instance.



    The i7 processor has been a great leveller for the iMac. That along with the Pro's languishing at the hands of both Intel and Apple (who haven't been innocent in the Pro's lack of value.)



    In this instance the SDD and lots of ram can offset the dual 6s.



    I like the instant on speed of the iPad. Apps don't take ages to load. How long before Apple brings SDDs to the desktop Mini and iMacs as standard? if not this year? Next?



    My next iMac...I'll definitely want an SDD as standard and 8-16 gigs of ram.



    Lemon Bon Bon.



    I do think there are areas left where the Mac Pro is still relevant. If you really need massive CPU power and storage capacity, and you need OS X, there really isn't any alternative yet. Think about render farms, scientific computing, that kind of stuff. It's a small market, but still a valid one, and I don't expect Apple to phase the Mac Pro out just yet. They'll probably have to upgrade it at least once or twice.



    That said, eventually I think the Mac Pro will go the way of the Dodo, and that it will be replaced by small machines that you can stack and combine to scale to Mac Pro performance, just like you suggested. Thunderbolt is just a preview of what would be possible if it moves to fiber-optic and increases bandwidth ten-fold. The technology already exists in Intels labs...



    What we need is a ridiculously fast interconnect that comes close to a local memory bus, distributed GPU's, some kind of shared/extendable memory model and software that ties it all together, to the point you just add more compute nodes by hooking them up over next-gen thunderbolt and the OS does the rest.
  • Reply 116 of 169
    D-Range.



    I've often maintained that Apple should have two tower lines.



    They've already got an impressive case/tower with the Pro. Just give the front a face lift and keep it all dual processor for those 50-100k sales per quarter.



    However, in the iMac price range £999-£1649, offer a mini-tower aka the old G3 Blue and White class with i7 processors with a decent gpu. It would boost sales of the 27 inch monitor even further.



    If they got 100-200k mini towers and 50-100k Workstations, sales of 300k for two desktop tower lines isn't so bad with Apple's margins. Though Wizard thinks they'd sell way more desktops if they offered his X-Mac. We may never know. But can we trust Apple to price it sensibly like they did the Cube?! Towers are mere boxes after all. There's plenty of PC resellers getting by on less margins. So I guess it's down to Apple's philosophy which seems almost anti-tower as time has gone by.



    What you say about the fibre optic bandwidth in the pending upgrade of Thunderbolt (next year? The year after?) and bandwidth cluster nodes computing stacked aka like modules seems the consensus for many on here. Perhaps it's a matter of time. *(Looks at the next ten years..? Five?) The mini could easily be one lego brick with another sitting on top. When you can start getting a Mini for about £500 with quad core and buy two for £1000, you have 8 cores and plenty of ram and hard drive space for the money. It's just how to link them to fit the purpose.



    Like you say, the transition away from a Mac Pro isn't quite there yet. But it wouldn't be the 1st time Apple didn't let sentiment get in the way of business, Floppy, fruit iMacs, Cube, X-Serve, OS9, Lamp stand iMac, Candy bar iPod Mini...Apple sometimes can stuff even when it's doing well. They even ditched firewire on the Macbook before bringing it back? They even shipped fruity iMacs without CD players...(DVD only indeed...yeesh...)



    Lemon Bon Bon.
  • Reply 117 of 169
    They even canned the Macbook. We now have the Air instead with the iPad taking care of any low end laptop wannabees.



    Lemon Bon Bon.
  • Reply 118 of 169
    rcfarcfa Posts: 1,124member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by aaarrrgggh View Post


    Agree. The trick will be to figure out ways to help make other products bridge the holes in the line-ups. I can't picture a Promise RAID on my desktop below my iMac when it comes to storage (due to noise more than anything). However, I'm starting to think that is the generally rational approach to the situation. Not much sense in having an internal (high-end) sound card for audio pros if you can have a more effective external solution that doesn't create too much chaos. Almost all I/O type needs can be done externally.



    I do hope they can figure out a way to have dual power supplies in whatever they use as a replacement-- something that can bridge from the server room to the desktop.



    What's really missing in non-pro product lines isn't internal expansion capability, since Thundebolt takes care of that.

    What is missing is redundancy and high-end capabilities:

    12+ CPU cores

    ECC RAM

    Rack mountable for collocation solutions

    High-end graphics

    Many of these things can't be achieved by macMini due to the thermal envelope, space or chipset constraints.

    Mac OS X Server also grows more and more toy-like while Apple brags about iPads enterprise adoption. Does Apple in the future plan to be an MS VAR and Systems Integrator, selling Windows Server Backoffice solutions for corporate iPad users, or will they still have a vision for an end-to-end integrated ecosystem?
  • Reply 119 of 169
    I checked various retailers including Amazon and J&R and I see no shortage of MBP.
  • Reply 120 of 169
    rbrrbr Posts: 631member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iSheldon View Post


    Laptops fail as the computer of choice for many finance/science professionals- not everyone is an "artiste". The lack of a number pad in a laptop keeps us clamoring for the new iMac. For portability an iPad is the new goto for us- no longer chained to a clam case are we.





    I understand portability, but what I don't get is data entry. Are you entering data or merely using the iPad to call up data and/or for "show and tell" demos? Thanks.
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