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Apple Previews iMac Pro: The Fastest Mac Ever

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Well, I just looked up the i7-7820X, and it is supposedly going to retail for $600. I can't seem to find pricing on the x299 boards though...

but, yeah, that's a seriously expensive processor you found! ;)

EDIT: However, if one has the cash, and really needs the compute power, then that's not a problem. ;)

Thread Ripper will upend Intel's business model. Their "infinity fabric" makes their yield model less finicky. Clever.

By the time the IMP drops, we should see some 'interesting' price adjustments, for raw cpu's in the "HEDT"/X299 space, in our favour.

Intel really got... ripped ;)

There will also be Covfefe Lake soon after, so 6 core 4.5Ghz+ on latest IPC should suit a LOT of ProSumer market.

The IMP is pretty, and beautifully engineered. But so was the nMP.
 
Thread Ripper will upend Intel's business model. Their "infinity fabric" makes their yield model less finicky. Clever.

By the time the IMP drops, we should see some 'interesting' price adjustments, for raw cpu's in the "HEDT"/X299 space, in our favour.

Intel really got... ripped ;)

There will also be Covfefe Lake soon after, so 6 core 4.5Ghz+ on latest IPC should suit a LOT of ProSumer market.

The IMP is pretty, and beautifully engineered. But so was the nMP.

Yeeeeeeeah, I'm not buying that these HCC Xeons can run at load without throttling in an iMac Pro chassis. I'm sorry, but there's a reason Xeon heatsinks are generally overkill - they aren't low TDP parts. They're usually designed for 24/7 operation (they're enterprise server parts), not designed to be plopped into a consumer level chassis with negligible space for heat dissipation. And if the previous iMac 5Ks are any indication, I'm half expecting Apple to let these things hit 100°C before the fans fully rev up. Otherwise I can't see them being tolerable to work with at full load for long in terms of noise.

Good luck getting RAM outside of Apple on this one too. Unless they add a door on the back of that chassis, it isn't end user upgradeable. You'll be paying Apple to BTO the max or to upgrade later. Not sure you'd want to risk a $5k minimum machine going to OWC with today's haphazard shipping.

Also, yay for webkit still being broken in Sierra. Viewing Apple's own iMac Pro page on their website in Safari crashes webkit.

The moment X299 gets support and I'm able to afford to make an HEDT Hack Pro, that's where I'm going, since Apple continues to fail to see the other high end users - the gamers. Sure, my Cosmos II case is bulky, but it will hold anything I throw at it, and my Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler gets a shiny FREE upgrade to the SecuFirm 2 LGA 2066 bracket when I purchase a new X299 motherboard.
 
Yeeeeeeeah, I'm not buying that these HCC Xeons can run at load without throttling in an iMac Pro chassis. I'm sorry, but there's a reason Xeon heatsinks are generally overkill - they aren't low TDP parts. They're usually designed for 24/7 operation (they're enterprise server parts)
Skylake EP are the server CPUs. Skylake X (with Xeon Bronze/Silver branding) are HED with 140W max TDP (for the 18 core). Presumably low power variants are a possibility for these chips same as Intel are able to do with other designs? Otherwise big fan noise problem potential.
 
Yeeeeeeeah, I'm not buying that these HCC Xeons can run at load without throttling in an iMac Pro chassis. I'm sorry, but there's a reason Xeon heatsinks are generally overkill - they aren't low TDP parts. They're usually designed for 24/7 operation (they're enterprise server parts), not designed to be plopped into a consumer level chassis with negligible space for heat dissipation. And if the previous iMac 5Ks are any indication, I'm half expecting Apple to let these things hit 100°C before the fans fully rev up. Otherwise I can't see them being tolerable to work with at full load for long in terms of noise.

Good luck getting RAM outside of Apple on this one too. Unless they add a door on the back of that chassis, it isn't end user upgradeable. You'll be paying Apple to BTO the max or to upgrade later. Not sure you'd want to risk a $5k minimum machine going to OWC with today's haphazard shipping.

Also, yay for webkit still being broken in Sierra. Viewing Apple's own iMac Pro page on their website in Safari crashes webkit.

The moment X299 gets support and I'm able to afford to make an HEDT Hack Pro, that's where I'm going, since Apple continues to fail to see the other high end users - the gamers. Sure, my Cosmos II case is bulky, but it will hold anything I throw at it, and my Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler gets a shiny FREE upgrade to the SecuFirm 2 LGA 2066 bracket when I purchase a new X299 motherboard.

The Late 2013 Mac Pro worked in a more confined space with two GPUs and seemed to be just fine - http://www.anandtech.com/show/7603/mac-pro-review-late-2013/14 - while no one knows for sure until the iMac Pro ships, I'm fairly sure that Apple's engineers are aware of the thermal issues they're dealing with in a confined chassis. The slide shows a very impressive thermal dissipation system between the fans and the heatsinks, I'm not that worried. What I wished for was that a reinvented TD system would make it into the existing Core i5/i7 iMac.

I am hoping that Apple has a trick up it's sleeve to allow users to replace or upgrade RAM. Given that it's ECC DDR4 2666 DRAM, I don't think it will be economical from any vendor. Yes, Apple will overcharge by 200%-300% for their RAM. Yes, I have no defense for that...it's ridiculous.

Gamers are not Apple's target market and NEVER will be...8, 10 or 18-core Xeons are complete overkill for gaming and really not even applicable. Games don't depend on double-digit cores and multithreading, hence why the Core i5-4690K is/was so recommended for gaming PCs. Cheaper than an i7. overclockable, dependable, etc. A gamer doesn't need or want an 18-core CPU, they want a GPU that delivers 90-120fps (at least) at UltraHD resolution with settings on max. The iMac Pro is a workstation for people who crunch serious numbers day in and day out or work on footage from a Red Weapon 8K and need to edit footage fro customers with a non-negotiable deadline. If the iMac Pro lives up to it's name, Apple will have a hit on it's hands and the Hackintosh community should benefit from better support for Intel's HEDT platform with macOS. The iMac Pro is a good thing.
 
The Late 2013 Mac Pro worked in a more confined space with two GPUs and seemed to be just fine - http://www.anandtech.com/show/7603/mac-pro-review-late-2013/14 - while no one knows for sure until the iMac Pro ships, I'm fairly sure that Apple's engineers are aware of the thermal issues they're dealing with in a confined chassis. The slide shows a very impressive thermal dissipation system between the fans and the heatsinks, I'm not that worried. What I wished for was that a reinvented TD system would make it into the existing Core i5/i7 iMac.

I am hoping that Apple has a trick up it's sleeve to allow users to replace or upgrade RAM. Given that it's ECC DDR4 2666 DRAM, I don't think it will be economical from any vendor. Yes, Apple will overcharge by 200%-300% for their RAM. Yes, I have no defense for that...it's ridiculous.

Gamers are not Apple's target market and NEVER will be...8, 10 or 18-core Xeons are complete overkill for gaming and really not even applicable. Games don't depend on double-digit cores and multithreading, hence why the Core i5-4690K is/was so recommended for gaming PCs. Cheaper than an i7. overclockable, dependable, etc. A gamer doesn't need or want an 18-core CPU, they want a GPU that delivers 90-120fps (at least) at UltraHD resolution with settings on max. The iMac Pro is a workstation for people who crunch serious numbers day in and day out or work on footage from a Red Weapon 8K and need to edit footage fro customers with a non-negotiable deadline. If the iMac Pro lives up to it's name, Apple will have a hit on it's hands and the Hackintosh community should benefit from better support for Intel's HEDT platform with macOS. The iMac Pro is a good thing.

I beg to differ on the gaming side of things. Gaming is an ever-growing market and has been for years. There's A LOT of titles that have come out for the Mac and this is not without a reason. Not to mention - the iMac Pro was a part of the same keynote that introduced Unity and EPIC studios colaborating on VR! Gaming is the Number 1 application for VR - and will be for quite some time! (if not ever).

So I believe Apple will be moving more or less into a gaming direction. But enough on that - I am getting off-topic.

RAM will not be officially upgradeable. I think the only way to crank more in there would be an aftermarket solution. I.E. - third party service centers cracking the machine open and sticking more RAM into it. .... which given the price they will be asking for to do it - might not be to far off of what Apple charges for DIMMs lol :D

The last news I read was Apple deemed the iMP completely non-upgradeable. Has that changed?
 
I beg to differ on the gaming side of things. Gaming is an ever-growing market and has been for years. There's A LOT of titles that have come out for the Mac and this is not without a reason. Not to mention - the iMac Pro was a part of the same keynote that introduced Unity and EPIC studios colaborating on VR! Gaming is the Number 1 application for VR - and will be for quite some time! (if not ever).

So I believe Apple will be moving more or less into a gaming direction. But enough on that - I am getting off-topic.
I have a dissenting opinion here. Apple is not going to become a gaming platform. Why? Because most of its hardware is non-upgradeable, and, frankly, not that easy to mod either. This won't appeal to "gamers."

What Apple IS doing however, and this is my takeaway from the WWDC, is bidding for the gaming industry - building machines that are capable of creating the assets, etc., for the games - supporting the content creators.

RAM will not be officially upgradeable. I think the only way to crank more in there would be an aftermarket solution. I.E. - third party service centers cracking the machine open and sticking more RAM into it. .... which given the price they will be asking for to do it - might not be to far off of what Apple charges for DIMMs lol :D

The last news I read was Apple deemed the iMP completely non-upgradeable. Has that changed?
Looking at the chassis, one can easily determine that the machine is a swimsuit - not a few of racks of mix-n-match clothing. No modularity in this design.
 
The iMac Pro is a good thing.

If you are an Apple Final Cut pro user, absolutely.

If they put a Pascal card as a BTO (factory installed) option!, it would see much greater uptake, for CUDA enabled apps.
Well from 0.01% workstation market to 0.1%

Which is why its nice to have x299 chipset support ;-)
 
I have a dissenting opinion here. Apple is not going to become a gaming platform. Why? Because most of its hardware is non-upgradeable, and, frankly, not that easy to mod either. This won't appeal to "gamers."

Strange, I never knew that gaming consoles were upgradeable. Yet, they seem to be selling well to gamers?

Aside from that, the iMP's target audience does seem to be different. When I get the algorithms working that I have in my mind, I might want one. Or a Hackintosh with a dual Pascal, in case the GPU acceleration works well. I'm guessing the new MacPro will be way over my budget.
 
Strange, I never knew that gaming consoles were upgradeable. Yet, they seem to be selling well to gamers?
I wasn't referring to gaming consoles... However, if Apple were to make such a thing, gamers likely wouldn't buy it as Apple would make it too expensive... I would like to see it though. :)
 
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