The new Mac Pro + 6k monitor has landed - introducing the Cheese Graters

[Mako Sports]

eh $6K base means its strictly for the pro/high end production house - crowd. 

I'll stick with PC, refuse to pay more for less or equal performance. 

[Andrew Reid]

See looking at the feedback here, they have missed a huge market for a more reasonably priced version.

I want an upgradable modular desktop Mac for a bit more money than a high-end PC.

Fed up of iMacs and laptops.

Apple have changed a $3000 dustbin into an unobtainable $50,000 investment in computer hardware that becomes more and more obsolete with every year that passes.

The thing is going to depreciate in value faster than a new diesel BMW.

[Trek of Joy]

9 hours ago, majoraxis said:

I think I will wait for the 32" 6k iMac version... that would be a nice upgrade!

 Also, I think Andrew was right about $50k for the camera's people are shooting for Netflix originals on.  I was looking for a counter example of a Netflix Original shot on an approved less expensive cameras in particular USRA Mini Pro and I was not able to find any...

A 6k iMac seems logical for the next iMac Pro refresh. But if the display alone costs $5000, what's the whole machine going to cost? Ouch.

I'm about to order one of the 8-core i9 MacBook Pro's that was quietly updated just recently and a $600 LG 4k monitor to replace my 2015 iMac. I just can't justify the cost of the other Pro models.

Chris

[Andrew Reid]

Yes we'll continue to hook laptops up to third party displays.

Or be stuck with non-upgradable iMacs.

Apparently Apple forgot about us and went after Sony Pictures instead!

[ND64]

I would pay $5k for the monitor if it was one of a kind display, but I'm pretty sure Korean and Taiwanese display makers will introduce a comparable or very close to be comparable one with 1/4 of the price in next 6 months.  

[seku]

I understand all the love for OSX (i like using it on small macbooks) ... but not for video editing. 

For me, the OS matters little once i start up DaVinci Resolve ... PC or OSX, it is all the same.

About hardware costs: i really really want to see how the new minimal cheesegrater config compares to my dual octacore sandybridge setup with 64gigs o ram ... those processors sell for 90 bucks a piece on ebay.

 

[newfoundmass]

OSX for video editing has always been more stable for me, even when using the same programs across platforms. 

FCPX though really kinda made having OSX less important for me and one of the reasons I moved to PC. If I wasn't using FCPX then it made less sense to stay with Mac. 

Still though, I miss it, especially for 3rd party programs that work better on Mac than PC, ProAnimator being one of my favorites that I would use when I just needed quick 3D text / animations. The PC version is pretty much unusable. 

[Video Hummus]

FCPX is not a bad program, however Apple has woefully neglected it. Feature wise...it sucks. It has been fast and stable for me over the last 4 years. But then you fire up Resolve and it’s just about as fast and it’s just loaded with useful features like local adjustments with tracking and object removal.

I think I would like to build something like this, but with the new Ryzen and a Nvidia GPU.

I want cool, quiet, small footprint and performance. I just wish it had more ports. 

[Borbarad]

Can someone tell where the AMD Pro Vega II Duo 200$ consumer card can be bought. I cannot find that one? Or is it just because of CUDA?

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-radeon-pro-vega-ii-7nm-gpus-apple-specs,39571.html

 

B

[Castorp]

I don’t see why some seem surprised. New top end professional Macs have always been expensive. Pretty much always over 5000 in today’s money if not a lot more. 

Hopefully prices will come down in time and there will be more options. As there has been in the past. 

This is a computer aimed at professionals. It is good to see Apple going for the serious pros rather than prosumer or gear nerd. 

It’s a beautiful machine. I would love to have one but it’s not for me that’s for sure. 

An iMac Pro is basically a throwaway. The initial cost for a Mac Pro will be high initially, but cost will come down as the computer is upgraded over time. That makes a difference in large institutions. 

Of course there are PC’s that are good value for money. But they are not Mac Pro. Apple has little competition which is why they can charge what they do. People have always attacked Macs for having component Y or X that cost Z and “it’s a rip off” bla bla blah. I’ve heard that literally for decades. And yet, I have yet to work with a better performing computer. 

I will never understand how some are offended when a camera company, or whatever, releases a product that isn’t for them. 

The Mac Pro  is right for someone, and if it isn’t, the product won’t sell. Simple.

Unless it’s some sort of conspiracy! Which is what some resort to with an almost incel-like tone at times.

To ridicule those who need for example an EOS R or a Mac Pro, or whatever controversial thing it is, can be a sign of personal insecurity I believe. 

 

[Django]

Agreed. The price doesn't shock me at all. An iMac Pro costs $5K. Now way in hell this was going to be cheaper. 

You don't have to pair it with the $5K monitor either. Any monitor will do. So $6K really isn't that much for that type of design, power potential & modularity.

Yes the days when anybody could afford a "pro" mac are gone and that is a pity. But consider how powerful computers have become and what you can do with a $2K iMac.

I'm glad there is a return to form with the modular tower design. Almost seems like the first real pro mac design in over a decade!

[Michael Steiner]

Oh dear, it's either underdelivering or overdelivering – the Internet-masses just can't be satisfied. Come on guys, this is Apple. Expecting a 3000$ MacPro is even more naive than expecting Canon to deliver a FF mirrorless with 8K full sensor 12bit RAW for 2000$. You need to manage your expectations a little better and stop being personally offended every time a product is brought to market without targeting your specific needs. One of those camera-bloggers said it right: In the Internet it's always about ME, ME, ME and only ME. No wonder you feel Canon rapes you from behind, Apple pisses on you from above while Sony stands in front of you teasing goodies without delivering. Plenty of alternatives out there waiting to be bought and used the moment you get over being offended for laughable reasons.

 

Cheers

[Marcio Kabke Pinheiro]

The "best" part was that the monitor does not include the stand, and the stand costs...US$ 999,00.

Yep, an aluminum stand pricier than a Galaxy S10+.

[newfoundmass]

38 minutes ago, Michi said:

Expecting a 3000$ MacPro is even more naive than expecting Canon to deliver a FF mirrorless with 8K full sensor 12bit RAW for 2000$.

You realize that has been the entry price for the last couple MacPros, right? 

I think the 2009 MacPro I bought was $2800? Maybe $3000?

Acknowledging you royally screwed up with the Garbage Bin MacPro and, as part of trying to win people back, launching a MacPro that has worse specs than your best regular iMac (not even the iMac Pro!) and for twice the price is asinine. That it's upgradable is wonderful, but not $6k wonderful, and certainly not the $10k you'd have to spend to get the machine you'd really need. 

This is clearly a company that has lost its way. Style over substance to a ridiculous degree. That they've simultaneously done this while dumbing down/simplified their "pro" apps like FCPX makes no sense. 

The core of the Apple's creative community, and those that were most vocal about Apple losing their way, are the ones Apple has decided to ignore. 

Everyone in this thread complaining WANT to give Apple their money, FFS! 

[Dimitris Stasinos]

For the majority of content creators (including my self) this machine simply does not exist. It was released yesterday in a parallel universe. Stop looking at it.

If you need 28 cores and 1.5 TB of RAM for your every day jobs then this price tag is probably just fine for you. 

If you are about to start saving money by sacrificing other needs that you may have, so that you can buy the base configuration in the next year, then don't this. It's just silly.

When you are buying the base configuration of a Mac Pro, you are actually paying for things that you can't use until you stuff it with overpriced components. You are paying for the "fact" that your machine has the "ability" to get significant upgrades like 1.5 TB of Ram, 4 TB SSD, 4 x Vega's etc. If you need to "save" money for the base configuration then good luck with the rest. It won't happen. Stop looking at it.

The iMac 2019 right now is the perfect balance for almost any content creator that can't afford the new MacPro. iMac Pro is also overpriced for the majority of users.

I' am working with iMacs and FCPX for the last 10 years as a full time video editor for TV shows. Every 3-4 years i am selling my iMac and getting the next one, so the actual cost for every upgrade comes to 1500 to 2000 euros. FCPX is a truly unique and reliable application and yes i have worked with Premiere, Vegas and Resolve before. You have to actually "work" with an application and not just "test" it to make conclusions. If you are editing 10 min highlights or low budget commercials then all of these work just fine but wait until you need to edit a full length movie or a 2 hour documentary to see how the app reacts to this massive amount of data. FCPX is "rock steady". Period. 

A "slightly" upgraded iMac 2019 with Intel Core i9, 1TB SSD and Vega 48 (plus user upgraded RAM to 32 GB) will cost you about 5000 bucks. Is this overpriced? Of course it is. But it's also much faster from the base configuration of the cheese grater and you get a great monitor plus peripherals. Is it upgradable? Of course not. But nothing is upgradable nowadays, even this cheese grater. In about 5 years from now, this badass Mac Pro 2019 and it's tech will be totally obsolete and in 10 years from now that fu*^%ing  bul*&@t Afterburner (that i am sure it will cost 10.000.000 dollars plus tax) will be sold for 100 bucks in ebay.

[dr_jon]

Surely the really big question is whether the 8k 444 Canon camera used at the launch is the next C300 with an 8k sensor option, or something much more expensive?
10:45 on...

 

[androidlad]

That 8K camera head has been around for years, see that big box on the table beside the Macbook Pro, that's the brain of the camera.

[Mokara]

That thing looks like it is going to be a dust magnet that will be hard to clean.

18 hours ago, newfoundmass said:

The article I read didn't mention that it was upgradable. That's great if it is, though I still can't justify $6k for it. I think that's double what I paid for my last Mac Pro nearly 10 years ago, if I recall correctly! 

Mac has always charged a premium, but it was still feasible for enthusiasts and smaller creators to scrape together the money to get a professional machine. Not so much anymore. They've moved on from those folks, unfortunately. If you want a real Mac and don't want to have to take a second mortgage out on your house, you have to get iMacs and overpriced MacBooks with shitty keyboards. Neither are ideal solutions for me, given how rapidly those machines become antiquated. I built a custom PC in 2015 for $1k that blew my 2014 iMac that cost nearly 3 times more out of the water. 

Upgradeable....with proprietary parts of course!!

18 hours ago, IronFilm said:

Am watching the WWDC recap videos. Am mostly just finding it to be really funny! Seeing as lots of this stuff they are calling AMAZING, well Android has had it for ages.......  still, good job Apple in putting in the effort to catch up!

 

Apple's general philosophy is that it is not innovation until they do it. Then it is ground breaking (even though someone else has been doing it for years).

17 hours ago, newfoundmass said:

One good thing about this announcement though is that they stuck with Intel. I know there were many in the Hackintosh community that were worried that they were going to start making their own processors again, with 2020 being the year a lot of them said it would happen. 

I wonder too if, by being more "modular", if this also makes building a Hackintosh any easier? I've really been thinking about building one as my current system gets older, I've just always been worried about something going wrong at a crucial point while working. 

I doubt that there is enough of a high end market to make those sorts of investments worthwhile, not with Intel and AMD already competing in that space. To make money with those sorts of processors they would need to get into the server market, otherwise it is just more practical to use Intel.

15 hours ago, Robert Collins said:

Max with his good, mostly bad but not ugly review.

That thing will be a bitch to clean once dust starts hanging up in the ventilation intakes, lol.

But I guess that if you can afford one, you can afford an intern with lots of time to spare too.

[Mokara]

8 hours ago, Trek of Joy said:

A 6k iMac seems logical for the next iMac Pro refresh. But if the display alone costs $5000, what's the whole machine going to cost? Ouch.

I'm about to order one of the 8-core i9 MacBook Pro's that was quietly updated just recently and a $600 LG 4k monitor to replace my 2015 iMac. I just can't justify the cost of the other Pro models.

Chris

Just a word of caution before you do that....those high core i9 based laptops usually throttle because of overheating, so performance is not necessarily much better than the i7 variants. 

If you want brute strength performance you need a desktop.

1 hour ago, newfoundmass said:

You realize that has been the entry price for the last couple MacPros, right? 

I think the 2009 MacPro I bought was $2800? Maybe $3000?

Acknowledging you royally screwed up with the Garbage Bin MacPro and, as part of trying to win people back, launching a MacPro that has worse specs than your best regular iMac (not even the iMac Pro!) and for twice the price is asinine. That it's upgradable is wonderful, but not $6k wonderful, and certainly not the $10k you'd have to spend to get the machine you'd really need. 

This is clearly a company that has lost its way. Style over substance to a ridiculous degree. That they've simultaneously done this while dumbing down/simplified their "pro" apps like FCPX makes no sense. 

The core of the Apple's creative community, and those that were most vocal about Apple losing their way, are the ones Apple has decided to ignore. 

Everyone in this thread complaining WANT to give Apple their money, FFS! 

I don't think they really believe that anyone is going to buy the base model (other than those who buy them as a status symbol). The market they are addressing will be buying the higher priced configurations, and generally the sorts of users who might use machines like that have large budgets and can afford the investment.

[wolf33d]

"I think Apple have made a bit of a misjudgement in not providing a competitive desktop Mac for the masses and smaller creative studios."

I do not think so. This is called the iMac and iMac pro. The latest 2019 iMac is very powerful, more than what most of "the masses" need. It bests the iMac Pro in many real world uses.
The iMac Pro will soon get an update and fill that gap as well. 

I recently invested in an iMac and I am amazed. I have a $500 4K 27" screen and it is such garbage compared to the iMac screen. You would spend $1000 for a similarly good screen. The power is amazing, havent restarted the computer in weeks, haven't had a bug since day one months ago, everything is blazingly fast and the system a joy to use. Also having such a clean and simple design of an all in one on my desk leaves room and is nice. I would absolutely hate to have a normal desktop, including the new iMac Pro which to me looks awful by the way. 

For work, I have from my company the latest Huawei Matebook Pro x which is considered by all major test website to be the best portable windows laptop on the market. It's such a garbage, full of bugs, have to restart it every week before it slows down too much. A PITA. Everything from the slow wake up time to the bad trackpad to the system is a pain.

People can continue to cry all day long about how Apple is expensive and I totally agree it is (sometimes justified, sometimes it's ridiculous). But it just works. 

By the way, the WWDC was the best in years. iPadOS is amazing. The new privacy features on iOS are incredible. Finally Apple is listening to customers.
I laughed good times with the $999 screen holder for the new iMac Pro.