“This year, one message you could have easily taken away from Apple’s WWDC keynote is that there’s still plenty of love for not just the Mac platform, but the desktop computer specifically,” Dan Moren writes for Macworld. “Having just purchased a new iMac of my own, I can personally vouch for it: sometimes, there’s no replacement for a desktop.”
“So why the sudden resurgence of interest in the desktop? The most obvious answer is performance. Without having to engineer to as strict a tolerance as portables (and without having to worry about factors like battery life), you can eke much more horsepower out of a Mac,” Moren writes. “MacBook Pros are perfectly respectable as far as performance goes, and portability is a major benefit for many professionals, but with the new iMacs — and with the promise of the iMac Pro and Mac Pro — Apple seems to finally be prepared to deliver on the idea that you don’t have to compromise performance on the desktop. ”
“Of course,” Moren writes, “that’s not the only obvious answer.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We won’t rehash Apple’s lengthy criminal neglect of the Mac desktop, we’ll just look forward to the new iMac Pro, the new, “modular” “Mac Pro,” and macOS High Sierra!
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s all new iMac Pro, the most powerful Mac ever, starts at $4,999; arrives this December – June 5, 2017
Mac Pro tower of power, return of Apple-branded displays promise Mac resurgence – May 24, 2017
Why Apple’s promise of a new ‘modular’ Mac Pro matters so much – April 6, 2017
Apple’s cheese grater Mac Pro was flexible, expandable, and powerful – imagine that – April 6, 2017
More about Apple’s Mac Pro – April 6, 2017
Apple’s desperate Mac Pro damage control message hints at a confused, divided company – April 6, 2017
Who has taken over at Apple? – April 5, 2017
Apple’s embarrassing Mac Pro mea culpa – April 4, 2017
Who’s going to buy a Mac Pro now? – April 4, 2017
Mac Pro: Why did it take Apple so long to wake up? – April 4, 2017
Apple sorry for what happened with the Mac Pro over the last 3+ years – namely, nothing – April 4, 2017
Apple to unveil ‘iMac Pro’ later this year; rethought, modular Mac Pro and Apple pro displays in the pipeline – April 4, 2017
Apple’s apparent antipathy towards the Mac prompts calls for macOS licensing – March 27, 2017
Why Apple’s new Mac Pro might never arrive – March 10, 2017
Dare we hold out hope for the Mac Pro? – March 1, 2017
Apple CEO Cook pledges support to pro users, says ‘we don’t like politics’ at Apple’s annual shareholders meeting – February 28, 2017
Yes, I just bought a ‘new’ Mac Pro (released on December 19, 2013 and never updated) – January 4, 2017
Attention, Tim Cook! Apple isn’t firing on all cylinders and you need to fix it – January 4, 2017
No, Apple, do not simplify, get better – December 23, 2016
Rare video shows Steve Jobs warning Apple to focus less on profits and more on great products – December 23, 2016
Marco Arment: Apple’s Mac Pro is ‘very likely dead’ – December 20, 2016
How Tim Cook’s Apple alienated Mac loyalists – December 20, 2016
Apple’s not very good, really quite poor 2016 – December 19, 2016
Apple’s software has been anything but ‘magical’ lately – December 19, 2016
Lazy Apple. It’s not hard to imagine Steve Jobs asking, ‘What have you been doing for the last four years?’ – December 9, 2016
Rush Limbaugh: Is Apple losing their edge? – December 9, 2016
AirPods: MIA for the holidays; delayed product damages Apple’s credibility, stokes customer frustration – December 9, 2016
Apple may have finally gotten too big for its unusual corporate structure – November 28, 2016
Apple has no idea what they’re doing in the TV space, and it’s embarrassing – November 3, 2016
Apple’s disgracefully outdated, utterly mismanaged Mac lineup is killing sales – October 13, 2016
Apple takes its eye off the ball: Why users are complaining about Apple’s software – February 9, 2016
Open letter to Tim Cook: Apple needs to do better – January 5, 2015
Sometimes it feels great to own the biggest baddest most powerful pick up truck in the world. And drive it all around.
I just hope you use what you got. If you are like most pickup owners on the road, the extended cab gas guzzler hasn’t a thing in the bed nor any mud on the fenders. And with the super deluxe package, the damn thing costs as much as a mercedes saloon while taking up twice the parking space as necessary.
This is the big problem with Steve’s oft repeated analogy: Computers Are Not Vehicles. In the computer world, future proofing is a real concern, and buying a high performance Mac has zero impact on those around you. Not so with vehicles.
The difference between an apple watch, an iPhone, an iPad, a laptop, and a desktop is more analogous to roller skates, bicycle, moped, car, and airplane respectively.
2018 is the year of the Mac desktop actually since by the time the iMac Pro and new Mac Pro are available it will mostly be in 2018. Making the big assumption here Apple won’t pull that old chestnut of theirs promising in any one year but delivering on Dec 31st and then “deliveries are constrained” or overwhelming pent-up demand won’t let you actually get one for months.
2018 could see things settle out though at last for a few more years and see far fewer unhappy & disgruntled Apple user faces, including mine.
In other news, 20-and-never will be the year of Linux on the desktop. I’ll be here all week!
2018 will be the year where, once again, Apple pulls away the football as loyal users run up to give it a swift kick.
Apple’s definition of “Pro” will be rose and gold colors on the same ole “trashcan” design with under-performing, non-upgradeable, proprietary hardware.
At least that’s what history has shown time and again…
Uh, no. What you’re saying doesn’t comport with Apple has already said, and what they’ve already shown on the iMac Pro. While it can be fun to be cynical, it’s also a way of being misinformed and to misinform.
And Mac Mini Modular Pro!
Named by former Microsoft employees?
Apple has totally lost what the meaning of Pro is already. Let’s not wish for more thermally constrained sealed non-upgradeable “pro” junk from Apple. Please!!!!!
Checked ou the iMac Pro specs on APple’s site:
Radeon Pro Vega
11 teraflops single precision
22 teraflops half precision
8GB or 16GB High Bandwidth Memory
400GB/s memory bandwidth
Okay.
Conspicuously absent…double precision numbers. I wonder why….
Here’s why…
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3201011/components-graphics/what-the-radeon-vega-frontier-editions-specs-and-pricing-mean-for-pc-gamers.html
Stream processors: 4,096
•Compute units: 64
•Clock speed: 1382MHz “typical,” 1600MHz peak
•Single precision floating point performance: 13.1 TFLOPS
•Double-precision floating point performance: 26.2 TFLOPS
•Pixel fill rate: 90 gigapixels per second
•Memory: 16GB HBM2 in two stacks
•Memory bandwidth: 483GBps
•TDP: 300 watts (air-cooled), 375W (liquid-cooled)
•Display outputs: three DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI “4K60”
The form factor and cooling abilities of the iMac Pro as expected yield performance compromises. Form over function yet again.
DPFP 2x performance of SPFP? I think not.
Check your data.
Cut and pasted the data. The commercially available card is faster it seems. What made me suspicious was absence of double precision reporting from Apple’s site.
BTW, I will check. The acronym threw me off. Stay tuned.
You are correct, PC World has an error calling it double precision in the body and then they have a chart showing half-precision for the 26.2 value.
Looking here:
http://wccftech.com/amd-vega-10-20-slides-double-precision-performance-1500-mhz-vega-10-x2-2017/
It’s reported that double precision is not 1/2 of SP, but 1/16!
That’s a hit that might impact expectations on whether the machine is suitable for scientific and engineering use.
I just wonder what Apple’s going to do with the Mac mini, since the last incarnation was 2014.