Yeah, that's a decent price for the 2010 model. It's actually the latest one as the Mac Pro hasn't been updated in 2 years so it's not really any different from buying the entry 2.8GHz model on Apple's Store with a 1 year warranty.
They are possibly selling it with the expectation that a new one will be coming in June. It pretty much has to be or it will be discontinued.
The CPU performance is around the same as the Mac Mini Server and slightly less than the i7 iMacs. The Mac Pro 5770 GPU is a fair bit slower than the iMac's 6970M but slightly faster than the 6770M.
For the task you need it for, it should be sufficient and the price they are asking for is good. Even if Apple update it in 3 weeks, they will likely still start at over £2000. It also shouldn't depreciate your machine by much when it's released as it will use last year's CPUs, it's just a year late.
I'm low on links today, but the 5770 vs 6970m thing should be pretty close.
Edit: if it's a good deal, there's no reason not to go for it. They'll have to support it for some amount of time still. If you want a better gpu wait for updates and get the newest thing. If you're comfortable doing cpu upgrades, $600 or so will give you the equivalent of the current 6 core . I'm personally going to update at some point here. I'm waiting to see what Apple debuts for 2012. Whatever I buy is most likely getting 32GB of ram so that it never shuffles anything to the disk (keep in mind I work with huge files and I run into ram problems way more often than cpu constraints).
Gizmodo posted that article yesterday making a big point that the page only had 15 likes with this Big Red Circle around the number 15... well that was yesterday... look at this today! ONE day later...
Gizmodo posted that article yesterday making a big point that the page only had 15 likes with this Big Red Circle around the number 15... well that was yesterday... look at this today! ONE day later...
THEY ARE GAINING ABOUT 1 A MINUET!!!
While that is amusing, Gizmodo's facebook survey is pretty meaningless.
It gained 363 since 2.5 days ago so it's down to around 1 'like' every 10 minutes. Not impressive when Gizmodo gets hundreds of thousands of unique visitors per day.
There will be more than 100,000 Mac Pro owners out there so you'd expect a certain percentage of them to want an upgrade.
As you can see from the comments though, not all the people actually want to buy a Mac Pro as it stands, some are commenting saying they want a more affordable Mac Pro.
2,000 potential customers worldwide aren't enough to make a product launch worthwhile.
There are certainly reasons to make a new Mac Pro but just as many not to.
reasons for
- it's the most serviceable machine they make so good for people who need the highest reliability
- the highest-end model is 2-3x faster than the highest-end iMac at 3x the price, likely high margins and compelling for resource-intensive tasks
- the only machine that can run 6 displays
- likely the same buyers going for the Cinema Displays
reasons against
- they will have to use Sandy Bridge Xeons
- extremely low volume compared to the rest of the lineup
- only the $3500+ models offer a performance advantage over the iMac, the performance advantage is small and you still have to buy a display
- the form factor has no growth, desktops are being eroded in favour of laptops so sales will just keep on dying
While I think the Mac Pro has an audience now, I don't think it will have one in 5 years. Apple doesn't build machines for the present but for the future.
The path of least resistance is to throw in new CPUs and GPUs without a redesign but they could have done this by now. That leaves two more likely scenarios - a radical redesign or discontinuation. I'm sure Tim Cook will explain the choice they eventually make.
There will be more than 100,000 Mac Pro owners out there so you'd expect a certain percentage of them to want an upgrade. [...]
2,000 potential customers worldwide aren't enough to make a product launch worthwhile.
There are certainly reasons to make a new Mac Pro but just as many not to.
reasons for
- it's the most serviceable machine they make so good for people who need the highest reliability
- the highest-end model is 2-3x faster than the highest-end iMac at 3x the price, likely high margins and compelling for resource-intensive tasks
- the only machine that can run 6 displays
- likely the same buyers going for the Cinema Displays
reasons against
- they will have to use Sandy Bridge Xeons
- extremely low volume compared to the rest of the lineup
- only the $3500+ models offer a performance advantage over the iMac, the performance advantage is small and you still have to buy a display
- the form factor has no growth, desktops are being eroded in favour of laptops so sales will just keep on dying
While I think the Mac Pro has an audience now, I don't think it will have one in 5 years. Apple doesn't build machines for the present but for the future.
The path of least resistance is to throw in new CPUs and GPUs without a redesign but they could have done this by now. That leaves two more likely scenarios - a radical redesign or discontinuation. I'm sure Tim Cook will explain the choice they eventually make.
A good summary of the argument. Although I imagine 2,000 (typo?) is far too low for the initial sales burst, since the Mac Pro 1,1 and 2,1 are being left behind by both Mountain Lion and Adobe's CS 6 (no official support for those graphics processors, but you can tell it to use the CPU instead).
Another way to possibly reduce costs and definitely free up space in the retail stores (I'll let you guess which of these two I think is more of a priority for Apple right now) would be to offer the new Mac Pro online only. They could offer a wider range of base configurations, and there will always be people who are willing to pay Apple a hefty premium to install additional RAM and hard drives. The Mac Pro is not an impulse buy, and it doesn't need to be in the retail stores.
Finally, I'd argue that there are developmental reasons why Apple needs to continue to make a Mac Pro and an OS X Server. I agree the scene is changing and it will look very different in 5 years. But it's really the cloud that affects the Mac Pro, not the prevalence of laptops. As I understand it, serious rendering is all heading that way. The era of doing that kind of thing in-house is already pretty much over. So the question is, how does that affect the landscape for the Mac Pro and the OS X Server? For one thing, I think it entirely possible Apple will want to keep OS X in the server business -- they need it for themselves, and OS X is well-positioned in the long run for this purpose. So it's the server that's the Mac Pro's secret weapon, likely to keep it alive well beyond 5 years into the future.
People say Apple is moving away from the desktop models. IMO This is ridiculous, there will always be a need for powerful desktop workstations for engineers to design all these little gadgets with all the bells and whistles that are making Apple so much money right now. I would venture to say a large majority of this work is done on a Mac Pro. Powerful workstations are also needed to produce all this stuff we listen to and watch and play with. It is the "Laptop" that will go out of style and use because of the iPad and other tablets becoming more powerful and taking their place; this is happening right now extremely fast. Although the tablet will see extreme power and function upgrades in the coming years they will never replace a powerful workhorse desktop which will also get more and more powerful as the years roll on far exeeding the ability to put that much power in a small package like a laptop. Laptops may still be around in 5 years but sales will be very small and only to a very unique nich who would need one and want to carry one around seeing how much the tablet will have gained so much power, function, and use of the cloud in ways we might not even imagine right now. Yep! Laptops are on their way out!
Before anyone says something about a physical keyboard... Yes I use one and love it! I have a lot of trouble trying to type on my iPad screen keyboard; but that's me 55 years old. We have a generation coming up now that is cutting their teeth on touch screens and keyboards they will get just as good and effeciant on them as we are on our clunky space waisting keyboards. That Generations will say "What?" carry around a keyboard attached to my pad ? your nuts! The mobile use of computers and the professional use will get farther and farther apart.... in what they need and use...
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
Yeah, that's a decent price for the 2010 model. It's actually the latest one as the Mac Pro hasn't been updated in 2 years so it's not really any different from buying the entry 2.8GHz model on Apple's Store with a 1 year warranty.
They are possibly selling it with the expectation that a new one will be coming in June. It pretty much has to be or it will be discontinued.
The CPU performance is around the same as the Mac Mini Server and slightly less than the i7 iMacs. The Mac Pro 5770 GPU is a fair bit slower than the iMac's 6970M but slightly faster than the 6770M.
For the task you need it for, it should be sufficient and the price they are asking for is good. Even if Apple update it in 3 weeks, they will likely still start at over £2000. It also shouldn't depreciate your machine by much when it's released as it will use last year's CPUs, it's just a year late.
http://www.barefeats.com/wst10g12.html
I'm low on links today, but the 5770 vs 6970m thing should be pretty close.
Edit: if it's a good deal, there's no reason not to go for it. They'll have to support it for some amount of time still. If you want a better gpu wait for updates and get the newest thing. If you're comfortable doing cpu upgrades, $600 or so will give you the equivalent of the current 6 core
Quote:
Originally Posted by AandcMedia
Saw this on Gizmodo: https://www.facebook.com/MacProsPlease
Gizmodo posted that article yesterday making a big point that the page only had 15 likes with this Big Red Circle around the number 15... well that was yesterday... look at this today! ONE day later...
THEY ARE GAINING ABOUT 1 A MINUET!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by not1lost
Gizmodo posted that article yesterday making a big point that the page only had 15 likes with this Big Red Circle around the number 15... well that was yesterday... look at this today! ONE day later...
THEY ARE GAINING ABOUT 1 A MINUET!!!
While that is amusing, Gizmodo's facebook survey is pretty meaningless.
They're up to 2048 today!
It gained 363 since 2.5 days ago so it's down to around 1 'like' every 10 minutes. Not impressive when Gizmodo gets hundreds of thousands of unique visitors per day.
There will be more than 100,000 Mac Pro owners out there so you'd expect a certain percentage of them to want an upgrade.
As you can see from the comments though, not all the people actually want to buy a Mac Pro as it stands, some are commenting saying they want a more affordable Mac Pro.
2,000 potential customers worldwide aren't enough to make a product launch worthwhile.
There are certainly reasons to make a new Mac Pro but just as many not to.
reasons for
- it's the most serviceable machine they make so good for people who need the highest reliability
- the highest-end model is 2-3x faster than the highest-end iMac at 3x the price, likely high margins and compelling for resource-intensive tasks
- the only machine that can run 6 displays
- likely the same buyers going for the Cinema Displays
reasons against
- they will have to use Sandy Bridge Xeons
- extremely low volume compared to the rest of the lineup
- only the $3500+ models offer a performance advantage over the iMac, the performance advantage is small and you still have to buy a display
- the form factor has no growth, desktops are being eroded in favour of laptops so sales will just keep on dying
While I think the Mac Pro has an audience now, I don't think it will have one in 5 years. Apple doesn't build machines for the present but for the future.
The path of least resistance is to throw in new CPUs and GPUs without a redesign but they could have done this by now. That leaves two more likely scenarios - a radical redesign or discontinuation. I'm sure Tim Cook will explain the choice they eventually make.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin
There will be more than 100,000 Mac Pro owners out there so you'd expect a certain percentage of them to want an upgrade. [...]
2,000 potential customers worldwide aren't enough to make a product launch worthwhile.
There are certainly reasons to make a new Mac Pro but just as many not to.
reasons for
- it's the most serviceable machine they make so good for people who need the highest reliability
- the highest-end model is 2-3x faster than the highest-end iMac at 3x the price, likely high margins and compelling for resource-intensive tasks
- the only machine that can run 6 displays
- likely the same buyers going for the Cinema Displays
reasons against
- they will have to use Sandy Bridge Xeons
- extremely low volume compared to the rest of the lineup
- only the $3500+ models offer a performance advantage over the iMac, the performance advantage is small and you still have to buy a display
- the form factor has no growth, desktops are being eroded in favour of laptops so sales will just keep on dying
While I think the Mac Pro has an audience now, I don't think it will have one in 5 years. Apple doesn't build machines for the present but for the future.
The path of least resistance is to throw in new CPUs and GPUs without a redesign but they could have done this by now. That leaves two more likely scenarios - a radical redesign or discontinuation. I'm sure Tim Cook will explain the choice they eventually make.
A good summary of the argument. Although I imagine 2,000 (typo?) is far too low for the initial sales burst, since the Mac Pro 1,1 and 2,1 are being left behind by both Mountain Lion and Adobe's CS 6 (no official support for those graphics processors, but you can tell it to use the CPU instead).
Another way to possibly reduce costs and definitely free up space in the retail stores (I'll let you guess which of these two I think is more of a priority for Apple right now) would be to offer the new Mac Pro online only. They could offer a wider range of base configurations, and there will always be people who are willing to pay Apple a hefty premium to install additional RAM and hard drives. The Mac Pro is not an impulse buy, and it doesn't need to be in the retail stores.
Finally, I'd argue that there are developmental reasons why Apple needs to continue to make a Mac Pro and an OS X Server. I agree the scene is changing and it will look very different in 5 years. But it's really the cloud that affects the Mac Pro, not the prevalence of laptops. As I understand it, serious rendering is all heading that way. The era of doing that kind of thing in-house is already pretty much over. So the question is, how does that affect the landscape for the Mac Pro and the OS X Server? For one thing, I think it entirely possible Apple will want to keep OS X in the server business -- they need it for themselves, and OS X is well-positioned in the long run for this purpose. So it's the server that's the Mac Pro's secret weapon, likely to keep it alive well beyond 5 years into the future.
People say Apple is moving away from the desktop models. IMO This is ridiculous, there will always be a need for powerful desktop workstations for engineers to design all these little gadgets with all the bells and whistles that are making Apple so much money right now. I would venture to say a large majority of this work is done on a Mac Pro. Powerful workstations are also needed to produce all this stuff we listen to and watch and play with. It is the "Laptop" that will go out of style and use because of the iPad and other tablets becoming more powerful and taking their place; this is happening right now extremely fast. Although the tablet will see extreme power and function upgrades in the coming years they will never replace a powerful workhorse desktop which will also get more and more powerful as the years roll on far exeeding the ability to put that much power in a small package like a laptop. Laptops may still be around in 5 years but sales will be very small and only to a very unique nich who would need one and want to carry one around seeing how much the tablet will have gained so much power, function, and use of the cloud in ways we might not even imagine right now. Yep! Laptops are on their way out!
Before anyone says something about a physical keyboard... Yes I use one and love it! I have a lot of trouble trying to type on my iPad screen keyboard; but that's me 55 years old. We have a generation coming up now that is cutting their teeth on touch screens and keyboards they will get just as good and effeciant on them as we are on our clunky space waisting keyboards. That Generations will say "What?" carry around a keyboard attached to my pad ? your nuts! The mobile use of computers and the professional use will get farther and farther apart.... in what they need and use...