No new Mac Pros on WWDC :(

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I totally didn't expect Apple to update the Mac Pro at this time. I still say they will wait for the Ivy Bridge Xeon update that will come late this year or Q1 2013. And when it does happen, *IF* it does, I think we have seen the last of the oversized, outdated tower.

Very crappy of them to advertise the Mac Pro as being "new". There's nothing new about it. It's causing a lot of confusion, I see people commenting on new CPUs and whatnot. None of that is true, the *ONLY* thing that has changed is they have upped the base configuration RAM from 6GB to 12GB.

[Jack Colquitt]

There in lies my dilemma :O( Hell will freeze over before Autodesk sells a PC version of Smoke! The Linux version is a big chunk of change ;o)

And Linux is nice, but, we also need more than Smoke....
boot x3.... OSX for Photoshop, Linux for Smoke, and Windows for..... hmmm..... web ?

I'm kidding, and it's not against your advice Paul, but everyone using dual boot knows it's a pain for efficient work....
so all of us need real solutions, not bandage.

[PETER ODIO]

http://www.macrumors.com/

According to New York Times technology columnist David Pogue, Apple still believes in desktop Macs, including both the iMac and the Mac Pro.

The Mac Pro in particular has raised the ire of some Apple fans because it has been several years since the last update, and the update today was extremely minor.

Pogue writes:
Many Apple observers also wonder if Apple thinks that desktop computers are dead, since not a word was said about the iMac and Mac Pro. An executive did assure me, however, that new models and new designs are under way, probably for release in 2013.

Updated Xeon E5 chips were released in March, but the Mac Pro update released today strangely didn't include them.

The company late last year was reportedly "questioning" the future of the Mac Pro line, examining whether it should continue offering the professional-level workstation as sales have declined amid a continued shift toward notebook machines and specs that had gone stale while waiting for Intel to release updated processors. With Pogue's post today, however, the future of the Mac Pro seems slightly more assured.

[Chris Jordan]

I asked that same question, but more so w/an iMac rather than MacBook Pro. I spent a lot of time this past NAB trying to figure out what I would do should Apple nix the MP. As powerful as an iMac or MBP is/are these days, the question revolves around how powerful one can make either sys w/external thunderbolt expansion. Currently I run an NVidia Quadro 4800, RR and AJA Kona 3 in my MP. My Smoke on Mac runs pretty damn good w/them so naturally I'd like to keep the trio running in a news system. Sonnet did not have a 3 card Thunderbolt solution. Magma has a 3 card chassis so I guess I'll start my exploration there. The other road block - memory. HP's Z800 maxes out at 192Gb. so a new MP would have likely been right up there. With were we're headed, 16GB on an iMac just isn't going to cut it... Literally ;O)

I have 32GB on mine... does well with Red raw footage if at 1/2 res...and at 1/2 res you can't really even see the difference...fine for editing.

[Jack Colquitt]

Yeah........... but............ if it's right, 2013 !!!
4 years................................

Ok.

Real question :
how many of you are using iMac ?
And is it a good enough solution with R3D ?

I know it's not a Macpro, and I absolutely don't except the same result,
but, just to edit, grade and few effects, with additional display, on CS6 or Smoke,
do you sincerely thinks it's a working solution ?

I want to give a chance to OSX, until the impossible release of a new Macpro,
but it don't want to only be able to edit HDV on my computer !! ; )

[Ben Rojas]

I have 32GB on mine... does well with Red raw footage if at 1/2 res...and at 1/2 res you can't really even see the difference...fine for editing.

Add photos to the mix and memory gets chewed. Forget FCP, that's limited by the 4GB limit, in my case, Smoke does a fantastic job but it needs all the memory you can muster up. I for one don't feel like having to resize photos in PS or the like just to work w/them... Especially CC or adding efx to them. So not fine in my case.

[Jack Colquitt]

You mean using Smoke with R3D, and few effects slow down to much your iMac ?

[Ben Rojas]

You mean using Smoke with R3D, and few effects slow down to much your iMac ?

I have no idea, nor did anyone showing Smoke 2013 @ NAB, what R3D, heavy efx, layering, compositing or things of the like will do to performance. As it stands now, and I'm on a 12core w/32GB mem. RR, Quadro 4800 and Kona 3, you can only push so hard before the damn thing slows to a crawl. I don't blame Autodesk, as I'm pushing the limits using mammoth pics, so the advance sys. would be a better option... But, hey, beggars can't be choosers ;o) Other than for editing and minor efx work, I can't see using Smoke on iMac w/o hardware support.