“Users delving into the latest macOS 10.12.2 beta have discovered strings aligning with potential support for a trio of new GPU families in future hardware —a refreshed Polaris 10, the unknown Polaris 12, and the Vega 10 series,” Mike Wuerthele reports for AppleInsider.
“The last time something like this was discovered, it was the Polaris 11 chipset, which turned out to be the debut of the Radeon Pro 450, 455, and 460 in the Retina MacBook Pro with Touch Bar,” Wuerthele reports. “Speculation is running wild, based on little else than the codenames. The Polaris 10 is referred to as the 10XT2, and is probably a process improvement over the existing Polaris 10 series found in the Retina iMac given previous naming conventions.
Wuerthele reports, “Polaris 12 is completely unknown at this time.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: New iMacs and, hello, next-gen Mac Pro?!
AMD? *sigh* I want Nvidia! A Mac Pro should give pro users the ability to use what they want and not what Apple dictates. Let’s hope the “options and upgrades” feature is not pre-determined or closed off.
I sure hope we don’t have to wait until WWDC for this. As Dorothy in THE WIZARD OF OZ once said “We’ve waited long enough!!”
I like Nvidia as well, but it seems every time Apple uses them they have issues with them. Apple’s fault or Nvidia, not sure.
NVidia doesn’t bow down and cripple shit like AMD does for apple. They used to. And then they said fuck it. AMD will be do anything for a tiny bit of Apple Scratch. On their KNEES.
You don’t see AMD power AWS computer grids… no sir.. NVIDIA is what real pros use.
Hopefully Apple will come out with a new MacPro that offers an nVidia and AMD option with user upgradable RAM, Graphic Card, and Hard Dive. There used to be rumors about a “stackable” Mac that had different features that could be stacked to upgrade the “box”. Please Apple surprise and thrill us (instead of scaring and ignoring us) one more time…
I don’t get the infatuation with lego computers. Stacking is just another proprietary connector, and stackable construction means needless case complexity, compromised cooling, etc. Worse, it would by definition be locked into Apple’s now glacial product update schedule.
Mac users clearly want a new internally expandable Mac Pro that takes more industry standard hardware they can update whenever and however they need to. Being chained to Ives’ stupid fashion choices is getting very old.
The stackable/lego concept is an appealing (to customers) concept because it appears to address their interests/desires for flexibility: not only to tailor the IT to what they need (e.g., is it a storage based, or a GPU beast, etc), but to also be able to more incrementally grow their capability over time.
Cooling isn’t a problem if you design it right. For the most part, a small team can work all of those details out in the ‘Secret Labs’ and then an Apple exec can have the COURAGE to wait until Johnny Ive takes a 2 week vacation and then make the announcement & take enough preorders to weather through the Spoiled Designer Temper Tantrum.
Similarly, it is perhaps now **possible** that USB-C can be a non-proprietary interlink.
And what this all really comes down to from an architectural perspective is to make the Mac into a local mini cluster.
If stuff like OS X’s Grand Central Dispatch is ever to achieve its potential, the hardware needs to be there to have a centralized CPU split up the jobs and farm them out to the local “Lego Team” … and if one really wants to be forward thinking, one could have an iPad be the wireless interface, where all of the “Big Iron” is in the closet 50ft (or 50 miles) away. “Think Different”.
-hh
So you want Apple to copy HP now?
It is hard to find a legitimate reason the average consumer would find stacking blocks more attractive than having a less costly, just as versatile single well engineered box.
USB-C wouldn’t work, either. That’s the slow lane. You perhaps are imagining Thunderbolt 3. Well, that too is slower and less reliable than proper internal PCI connections directly to a single mother board. Very hard to see how external connections could make for a better computing experience. It certainly wouldn’t cost any less than tower computers using standard interfaces to allow user customization.
Add simplicity.
Simple, elegant, desktop box.
At least 2 swappable HDs—option of using a bay for an optical drive!
Option of SSD, Fusion or regular 3.5 hardrives
At least 4 RAM slots
At least 2 PCI–one for Video card, one for whatever I want.
At least 6 USB 3/Thunderbolt/C ports, a couple on the front PLEASE!
Gigabit Ethernet.
SD slot would be nice.
Should have the easiest access/upgradability of any desktop computer.
Again, doesn’t need to created out of adamantium forged in Mount Modor by ancient elves, and doesn’t need to be lighter than helium, nor smaller than a shoebox.
50% to 80% size of the old cheese-grater Macs would be awesome. I’m not planning on putting this in my backpack every day.
Stackable. There is nothing more useless than the special ports on a stereo system that are for interconnecting the same brand’s matching tuners and such, six months after intro.
Yes, it’ll be an evolutionary update, at best.
– USB-C thunderbolt 3 ports instead of the tbolt 2 ports
– last year’/ GPUs
– Skylake Xeon CPUs
Not. Much. Else.
Maybe, maybe not. I am not fond of unfounded pessimism.
Yes, that’s pretty much what I’m afraid of too … call it:
– Same old “it wan’t a mistake!” TrashCan form factor
– moves to the sameSSD blade interface standard as the tMBP
– swaps out TB2 for USB-C ports
– CPU upgrade (finally)
– swaps out GPUs for a newer “v12” GPUs (this rumor)
And of course, the price gets “upgraded” as well; +$500.
-hh
*Yawn*
I hope Apple makes me eat that yawn, but I don’t think they will. I think we’re due for a bogus claim that the mac pro was tremendously successful (it isn’t) due to its brilliant design (it isn’t) and so they’re making it *even better* (they aren’t) with a weak step-up in proc, gpu and TB3.
Do they USB-C connectors stay plugged in better than the mini-displayport/tb3 plugs? If so, that would at least be something. The 9 cables hanging off the side of my boxes, obstructing the power button and TB falling out every time they’re breathed on is getting old.
nway
Apple needs a three slot desktop box and a six slot tower. They just don’t want the support calls to fix third party problems.
It’s time they support healthcare, gamers and high end users in audio, video, biotech, nanotech, 3D areas, research, military etc.
Mac Pro: 1084 days and counting since last update.
That does not strike me as a sign that Apple is particularly committed to the professional market.
If I ignored my wife for three years you wouldn’t call me committed to her would you?
Then again, Cook wouldn’t know anything about that now would he?
Stupid little dig at the end. Sad thing is, you don’t see anything wrong with your attitude. Sigh…
I want a platform I can trust and respect.
There is a very small part of myself is still hoping for Apple to surprise me/us. For the most part I don’t believe Apple has a new workstation but a very late 2013 update. $3500 for an entry level quad core machine and 2 soldered entry level GPUS. Yes it will be faster than the model it replace.
I have a serious problem with Apple using a style prioritization to increase the product price and reduce its value as a workstation.
A 2013 update with current parts is not enough. Apple need to speak clearly about what is their vision and what is the commitment they are willing to make to this platform. I got tired of the “secretive Apple game” full of no good surprises.
no Nvidia 🙁
National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is mid April and I would expect that is where they will debut new Mac Pros.
You mean like the last NAB, where it was an all windows show, and all the vendors showed off all their new windows only Thunderbolt 3/USB-C gear because Apple hadn’t released a machine that could even pretend to work with any of the new hardware? That NAB? The very same? Apple is DOA at NAB.
No they’re not, they don’t really even have to go to nab anymore. The also don’t have to go to ces. We go to nab every year and rarely see anything special, or that is ready to ship. Most of the innovation is in camera sensor technology, not nle’s or machines. Pretty much any workstation made of similar components can do the same job, we buy apple products for reliability, security, customer service, and ease of use. While we do use windows for some things (virtualized in parallels) using it for mission critical tasks is not a good idea. Most production houses, even if they have windows client systems, use Linux based render farms for their content crunching needs.
It’s not Pro if you cannot change the vid card, expand the memory (and CPU), and add storage. How hard is it for Apple to see this, they need to take off there arrogance blinders.
I prognosticate that any new Mac Pro will be but an updated trash can model lacking the very features that the professional industry demands, proving once again the disconnect between Apple and a relatively small but influential subset of its customer base. May I be woefully wrong.
i pray that you are proven wrong !/?
wanted a new Mac Pro tower.
Waited : Spring, WWDC, Nov Mac announcement….
My Gtx 980 T is in the mail with thermal paste etc for the Xeon I already bought to upgrade a Cheese Grater. Typing this on another Cheeser.
(the 980 should have 2- 3 Times the GPU speed of the D700 cylinder starting at $4600 with 256 GB drive 16 RAM. My 980 costs 300 or so used from Amazon, the cheeser factory refurbished 2010 model another $500 also with 16 GB Ram. 6 core Xeon to replace 4 core about $100+ .Total if I get more RAM, SSDs is less than $2000 (upgrading the Cylinder’s drive, RAM etc would easily push it to $6000+ or more) . Cylinder beats Cheeser single core but multicore The Cheeser is acceptable. I DID NOT WANT TO DO THIS ROUTE BUT I NEED THE GPU POWER AND APPLE isn’t PROVIDING )
we want to spend but Apple is slow or forgotten us completely.
(note others — hobbyists, tech guys in labs etc — also want an UPGRADABLE Mac Mini. )
(I’ve already endlessly pointed out that Macs make more money than iPad and much more than Watch, iPod, Beats etc and in profits Macs by itself is one of the largest companies in USA , and that in spite of having practically no marketing — ever see an iMac ad? It’s just weird. We’ve got SVPs designing Christmas trees, coffee table books, mini series of Dr Dre’s Life, Apple sponsoring Fashion shows like the Met Gala but no updated desktops…. )
lets hope this latest rumour is true and kick ass desktop Macs are coming.
Great, taking into account the following: Apple’s Renewed Focus on iPad Left the Mac Behind This Year http://www.macrumors.com/2016/12/06/apple-renewed-focus-ipad-left-mac-behind