ZestyMordant

nht said:

cgWerks said:

nht said:
You can buy 128GBps external pci expansion chassis today.  That TB3 is 40GBps is just what that standard supports.

But, how would you connect it? Can you combine a several TB3 ports?

No, each port is typically on a TB switch so if you grab two ports on the same switch you're still bandwidth limited.  Bonding two TB switches isn't doable today.

But TB4 or beyond could or it may get replaced by some other interconnect standard that's just an external 16x PCIe 5 connection with expensive and short cables...

macxpress said:

tht said:

The biggest issue is to just keep the machines updated at a 12 to 18 month cadence, preferably 12. They are even fine with keeping the 2013 Mac Pro industrial design as long as it is updated with state of the art parts. This is basically the iOS device model strategy. Instead of upgrading the machines internally, people sell old models to buy new models. Maybe Apple could have a convenient exchange program.

Minimally, 1 Xeon and 1 Vega means 150+300 = 400 W of power for those two alone. I/O, RAM, storage is going to be another 100 W. So the next box needs to be handle 500 W. Give it 50% margin and make a 750 W box. This way, the box could be retrofitted for 2 250W GPUs, or whatever unforeseen new capability the box wasn’t designed for. There was zero excuse for painting themselves into a thermal corner.

The internally expandable box is great for hobbyists and tinkerers, but Apple could just easily fall into the same rut of not updating that type of design with state of the art components. It’s really not the box that is the problem, it’s Apple’s commitment to continually offer state of the art workstation level machines.

Of course it also helps to have something to upgrade to as well. What I don't want to see if Apple updating the Mac Pro for the sake of updating it. Some either forgot or have never experienced the PowerMac G4 days where Apple would release this minuscule update basically just for the sake of updating it and sometimes the outgoing model was technically faster than the new model in certain applications. This constantly pissed customers off so if Intel doesn't have anything worthy of upgrading to for 2yrs then I can understand Apple waiting. Is it really worth Apple's time putting a new Xeon chip in thats only marginally faster just to shut people up?