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Apple's June 2017 Mac Hardware Update


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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Oh my. Apple made the right call and put on their big kid pants. iMac Pro is no joke and the price is easily the most reasonable I have seen Apple slap on any hardware in the last 5 years or longer:

https://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2017/

I took the day off to nurse a cold so I'll pore over it all again when my head isn't full of DayQuil, but things are looking bright in the Mac universe from what I've seen so far.

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The iMac Pro and hopefully eGPU, when not AMD-only,

will allow legacy CPU optimized stuff, which I mainly have,

to still do serious 3D work on Apple for the next few years.

(If you are willing to spend 6-12 grand for such hardware)

That is fine.

 

So I could end my Apple embargo and upgrade my iPhone 4 or

even buy some of their new gadgets.

 

Finally there is a bluetooth keyboard with NumBlock.

(And without Touch Bar :) )

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
4 minutes ago, Kevin McAllister said:

slot I suspect it will reappear in the MacBook Pros at some point too. Maybe they are actually listening....

 

I was pleasantly surprised to see 10Gbit ethernet, 4xUSB AND 4xUSB C, the mem card slot AND the aux jack. I had half a mind to predict they would say "Wireless is fine no one needs cords anymore" after they removed it from the iPhone but hopefully listening is in fact ocurring.

I thought it was a little odd that they didn't include a touchbar in the external keyboard especially when they first debuted it on a Pro line as an interface element to be taken seriously as more than a gimmick, but then I remembered it's basically a small display and that the regular few AA batteries weren't going to be able to power that for any reasonable amount of time. Though I would be very surprised if we didnt see a wired version that included a touchbar between now and when the iMac Pro start shipping since Apple spent so much dev time on it.

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2 hours ago, JimW said:

I thought it was a little odd that they didn't include a touchbar in the external keyboard especially when they first debuted it on a Pro line as an interface element to be taken seriously as more than a gimmick, but then I remembered it's basically a small display and that the regular few AA batteries weren't going to be able to power that for any reasonable amount of time. Though I would be very surprised if we didnt see a wired version that included a touchbar between now and when the iMac Pro start shipping since Apple spent so much dev time on it.

 

My bet is on full scale integration with an iPad or iPad Pro. Maybe a customizable interface app that has a set of user configurable sliders and wheels, stylus integration etc.....

Not sure if you noticed, but the new keyboard seems to have integrated batteries, a lighting connector and the specs mention both bluetooth and "wireless". It seems like while its intended to be wireless you can still use it while its connected and charging.

 

KM

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2 hours ago, Kevin McAllister said:

 

My bet is on full scale integration with an iPad or iPad Pro. Maybe a customizable interface app that has a set of user configurable sliders and wheels, stylus integration etc.....

Not sure if you noticed, but the new keyboard seems to have integrated batteries, a lighting connector and the specs mention both bluetooth and "wireless". It seems like while its intended to be wireless you can still use it while its connected and charging.

 

KM

 
 

The current lightning keyboard is the same. Plugged in cable in works with Bluetooth not connected or just not pairing for reasons that took a while to just mysteriously resolve themselves.  

 

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10 hours ago, JimW said:

 

They will likely perform so similarly that it won't matter very much, but I'll have to see the benchmarks.

 

Hoping that means VW not likely to push up to needing 8Gb video cards as OpenGL is at it's highest demand now and will only get better with optimisation. Well until we get used to it and load bigger and more detailed models and bring to back to stall speed.

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On 06/06/2017 at 1:33 AM, JimW said:

iMac Pro is no joke and the price is easily the most reasonable I have seen Apple slap on any hardware in the last 5 years or longer

 

Given they're over double the cost of current iMacs, how have you assessed their value for money Jim? How do they compare to the Mac Pro regarding spec vs price? How do you think Renderworks would likely perform on a decked out machine?

Edited by Christiaan
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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
1 hour ago, Christiaan said:

 

Given they're over double the cost of current iMacs, how have you assessed their value for money Jim? How do they compare to the Mac Pro regarding spec vs price? How do you think Renderworks would likely perform on a decked out machine?

 

ONLY against the Mac Pro line yes, against Windows equivalent hardware the price is insane but I've given up on that point with Mac hardware.

 

Renderworks performance should be fantastic, as long as they pick a Xeon with hyperthreading (there are very few Xeon chips that don't these days) then having 16, 20 or 36 threads to render on is a serious advantage considering we don't yet have the ability to split renderings across multiple machines.

 

12 hours ago, Matt Overton said:

Hoping that means VW not likely to push up to needing 8Gb video cards as OpenGL is at it's highest demand now and will only get better with optimisation.

 

Correct, now that we've made the jump to using the GPU for so much, our VRAM requirements won't rocket upwards again anytime soon. The only real reason you'd need more of it would be if you had multiple 4k+ res monitors.

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52 minutes ago, JimW said:

serious advantage considering we don't yet have the ability to split renderings across multiple machines.

 

yes, I noticed recently that Artlantis now has this capability.

 

We sort of do already. When everyone leaves the office I fire up everybody's machines, open project file and give each machine a viewport to render B|

Edited by Christiaan
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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Also to clarify to all readers: If you aren't doing renderings, then the iMac Pro is pointless. The main interest in the iMac Pro is its high power large core count. It's GPU is looking excellent as well, but the higher end standard iMacs also accomplish this just fine.

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5 hours ago, Kevin McAllister said:

This is sort of interesting and mostly went under the radar because its only for developers at this point - https://www.macrumors.com/2017/06/06/macos-high-sierra-external-gpu-valve/

Apple is supporting external GPUs and making their own external GPU enclosure available....

 

KM

 

I suspect the real product from Apple could be vastly different to this developer preview. How different I wouldn't even guess as there seem to be at least two very different ways it could go.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

I'm fairly happy that this attention was paid to eGPUs. It would mean that Apple could keep slimming down their machines (even if they don't really... need to any more, it's kinda hard to stop them) while still allowing users to buy and use full size graphics cards without having to pay all that overhead for small-as-possible form factor, suffering heat management and custom boards for them to be soldered to. 

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On 6/5/2017 at 5:33 PM, JimW said:

Oh my. Apple made the right call and put on their big kid pants. iMac Pro is no joke and the price is easily the most reasonable I have seen Apple slap on any hardware in the last 5 years or longer:

 

Here's a link to an article supporting your statement that the $4999 price of the entry level iMac Pro is actually a reasonable price for the spec provided :D:

AppleInsider : iMac Pro Cost Blows Away Similar Lenovo Workstation, DIY Builders Struggle to Meet Price with Fewer Features

Edited by rDesign
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On 07/06/2017 at 9:38 PM, JimW said:

as long as they pick a Xeon with hyperthreading

 

Hyperthreading is listed on the iMac Pro's page. 

 

The iMac Pro with Maxon's 'coming' support for GPU rendering ( press release ) promises a great leap forward.

 

Any chance ProRender will simply drop into Vectorworks too with the C4D render engine? 

Edited by M5d
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12 hours ago, rDesign said:

$4999 price of the entry level iMac Pro is actually a reasonable price for the spec provided :D

 

 

For me that was always true.

Same Specs from Apple are less expensive than comparable PC options or self builds.

(Like for Bicycles : OEM vs aftermarket prices)

 

But you would normally never choose the same expensive Specs.

Maybe a (separate/modular) 4k Monitor instead of 5k, a i7/9 over Xeon, standard RAM over ECC, ...

In this case, iMac Pro, I would prefer ECC RAM and so an expensive Xeon needed.

Better an AMD Threadripper. GPU may be ok in the future if Metal gets used by developers.

But I'm not interested in a vertical Monitor at all if I am exited by horizontal Pen/Touch Displays.

But still better than sticking with 6/12 cores and 4 year old GPUs that no one uses in dual mode.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
8 hours ago, M5d said:

Any chance ProRender will simply drop into Vectorworks too with the C4D r


We currently use their standard Physical engine (or at least the majority of it from what I understand) as our one and only engine. I would absolutely want to see us adopt GPU rendering as soon as possible, but if it isnt becoming their new main/default engine, I am not sure on the logistics. The engineering managers are away at a conference at the moment, I'll bombard them as soon as they get back.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
13 hours ago, rDesign said:

Here's a link to an article supporting your statement that the $4999 price of the entry level iMac Pro is actually a reasonable price for the spec provided :D:

AppleInsider : iMac Pro Cost Blows Away Similar Lenovo Workstation, DIY Builders Struggle to Meet Price with Fewer Features


This did make me choke on my coffee however:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/want-a-fully-loaded-imac-pro-better-sit-down-at-more-than-17k-this-is-gonna-hurt/

That's... yeow. But honestly, I recall speccing out a fully loaded Mac Pro sometime around 2010 and I'm fairly certain I was able to get within shouting distance of 14k, and I am not one of those who operates at that end of the price spectrum. Living on the bleeding edge is about as painful as the metaphor sounds. Fortunately, with this line from Apple, the bottom end of the line is looking more than adequate for most usage, a much more appropriate recipient of the "Pro" title.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

The nice part is that now when you max it, it won't be outdated by 4 years by it's maxed competitors ;)

And if this is the Pro treatment they've given the iMac line, I'm now more confidently excited and hopeful to see what they do with the flagship Mac Pro revision.

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