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Spec the Mac Pro 2013: What Will the Hardware Be?

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Thinner, Lighter, Faster.

2 x Macbook Air's Enclosed within a MacPro Case.

$$Profit

Just Kidding.

Socket 2011
Sandy Bridge-E Ivy Bridge-E
16GB (Standard) 32GB Upgradable of DDR3 Running at 1866MHz as (8GB is now the standard on laptop/mac range)
2TB Harddrive Sata 3 + 500GB SSD Fusion Drive
GTX680/690 or AMD7950/7990
802.11ac + Gigabit Ethernet

Retail price of $3k.
Correct me if iam wrong.
 
onebranch said:
My guess is it would be a radical redesign. In keeping with their current trend, it would "thinner" but expandable (making more use of thunderbolt ports for expandability). Or another direction for them is make the MacPro a desktop extension of their Macbook Pros. Would basically be just a dock for the laptops, that has a GPU component, additional hard drives etc. Thus, pros would still need to buy laptops. Greedy Apple.
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Unless apple has a ton of Thunderbolt stuff it is going to release at the same time, I wouldn't count on them relying on Thunderbolt for expansion. Just one of many things wrong with your second idea: Macbook pros have no docking port.
 
It was my understanding that the Intel spec for Thunderbolt requires an Intel iGPU solution which is why X79 / LGA2011 solutions don't have Thunderbolt support and Z77 / LGA1155 solutions do. Unless Ivy Bridge-E has an Intel integrated graphic solution or Intel drops the requirement from the spec I don't see how Thunderbolt can be included on such a new Mac Pro. Unless maybe Intel found another way to integrate an Intel video subsystem such as directly on the motherboard,....

Presumably this is why the Asus ThunderboltEX add-in card was never released, because it didn't pass Intel certification. At least not the way Asus designed it to work with their Thunderbolt ready motherboards.
 
Octavean said:
It was my understanding that the Intel spec for Thunderbolt requires an Intel iGPU solution which is why X79 / LGA2011 solutions don't have Thunderbolt support and Z77 / LGA1155 solutions do.
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Nope, it just requires a DisplayPort signal. You are correct that LGA 2011 based chips don't have integrated graphics which is the bigger problem: how to route a DP signal from a discrete graphics card to a TB controller. There are several options.

The first is pseudo software based as the GPU frame buffer would be copied over to main memory over PCI-E and then routed to the TB controller. The problem here is the latencies involved as well as ensuring a stable experience across a range of GPU's. This also raises the question of what to do with the ports on the discrete video card while using TB on the motherboard. Theoretically possible but impractical in reality.

Another option would be to have a cable running from a DP connector to the motherboard providing TB ports. It'd be straight forward to encapsulate the DB signal and wouldn't have an compatibility problems. The downside is that this solution is 'ugly' and just doesn't fit Apple's style of running an extra cable as a work around.

The more likely solution would be to embed the TB controller on the discrete graphics card itself. This would ensure compatibility with the GPU and legacy GPU issues would be avoided. The downsides here would be cost of the GPU card, power consumption (current high end GPU's would have to be slightly nerfed due to power consumption) and neither nVidia/AMD would design such a card themselves. Thus if Apple wants to go this route they'll have to pay to design it themselves.

A fourth option would be to forgo traditional PCI-e for main video and utilize a MXM slot traditionally found in laptops. Due to its laptop centric nature, the DP signal is pass through the slot and could easily be routed to the TB controller. Apple currently uses MXM cards inside the iMac so there would be some cost savings there by reusing existing parts. The downside of this path is very narrow selection of MXM cards that'd fit into that slot. Granted a new Mac Pro would likely provide an additional PCI-E 16x slot for traditional graphic. Only in a dual socket configuration would a MXM + PCI-e 16x slot provide full bandwidth to each device.
 
Did anyone notice Apple has a LOT of Mac Pro refurbs? End of Sales?

As of today..I noticed a lot of hot deals on refurb Mac Pro Towers. Given my suspicions (I own a Mac Pro 2008 - a faithful never-let-me-down companion) they're emptying the stores? Perhaps readying inventory for NEW machines? Of course I mean HASWELL. Put me at the head of the line, please! Let there be USB3, eSata plug ins, Thunderbolt and a replacement for ATI boondoggles. Of course I'm assuming the new Intel chips will finally resolve the issue of multiple cores on one die. Oh, by the way, an easy to switch SSD interface would be welcome; like a dvd burner outlet in front. Plug and play SSDs from the front panel is truly the way to go with a Hackintosh.
 
I'm not suggesting its impossible or that there isn't more then one way to get Thunderbolt fully functional without an Intel iGPU. What I am saying is that it is my belief that Thunderbolt implementations will be certified by Intel and that any non-Intel iGPU Thunderbolt platform implementation will likely be denied certification. Thus never see retail sale.

If Intel were so inclined to add Thunderbolt to a platform without an Intel iGPU or allow it, then I really don't see why we haven't seen such a thing before.

Anything is possible I guess it just seems a bit odd and improbable.
 
radeon 7xxx support would be amazing and is a good alternative to nvidia's 6xx line.
 
Something tells me, with how anal Apple is being with 10.8.3, and Graphics Drivers being one of the main focuses, that a new Mac Pro isn't too far behind the release of 10.8.3.

I also have a feeling, with regards to how open Apple has been with recent graphics cards (off the shelf variety), that one of the main selling points of the new Mac Pro will be user upgradability and how many more options they now have. One great way to get out of a warranty obligation, let users upgrade with anything, only honor warranties where certified Apple hardware was used.

As someone stated earlier, I think they have a good chance to go with MXM GPUs as stock. Cook, and his supply chain ways, seems to like to buy bulk loads of similar parts to get the best price possible. Probably a GTX 680MX 2GB, if they went this route. Although they could go with dual cards, the GT 640M (for Thunderbolt support), and a stock PCI-E AMD card.

I'm excited to see what this will bring to our community here. 2011 support seems a given at this point.
 
CPU(s): Intel Xeon Ivy Bridge (successor to the MacPro5,1 Xeon Sandy Bridge)
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7950/7970 (they are not as fast as their Kepler counterparts but they are cheap enough that I don't really care, plus it will bring full 78xx and 79xx GPU support for all us Hackintosh users!)
Design: That new design you have up there, that design looks nice, slot loading disc drive looks nice, something more radically different, like what they did with the iMac 13,1 and 13,2
Price tag: Same as current (hopefully a little bit cheaper? You never know)

That's what my predictions are
 
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