Anandtech posts Mac Pro 2013 Review... and Anand loves it.

[ilikemacandpc]

http://anandtech.com/show/7603/mac-pro-review-late-2013

 

Anand seems to rave about the newest mac pro. He loves the design and performance. 

 

Here's what he has to say on the design: 

 

 

I'm hardly an art critic but I do feel like there's a lot to appreciate about the design and construction of the new Mac Pro. I needed to move the system closer to my power testing rig so it ended up immediately to the left of me. I have to admit that I've been petting it regularly ever since. It's really awesomely smooth. It's actually the first desktop in a very long time that I want very close to me.

 

soooo....yeah....  A bit weird to say the least. 

 

In terms of noise (Linus was looking for this), this is how it scales: 

 

 

 

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Fan Noise vs. RPM Fan Speed (RPM) Measured Sound Pressure Level @ 18" Off 32.2 dBA 770 RPM 32.4 dBA 890 RPM 32.8 dBA 1097 RPM 34.1 dBA 1193 RPM 35.2 dBA 1440 RPM 38.6 dBA 1500 RPM 39.4 dBA 1900 RPM 44.7 dBA
 

 

At maximum power (both GPUs and the CPU loaded via furmark and rendering) it seems to be dissipating approx. 450 to 475 watts of power.

Not bad at all. 

 

 

Main conclusion: 

 

All in all the new Mac Pro is a good update to its aging predecessor. Apple did a great job with the new chassis and build a desktop that's extremely dense with compute. When I had to dust off the old Mac Pros to prepare them for this comparison I quickly remembered many of the reasons that frustrated me about the platform. The old Mac Pro was big, bulky, a pain to work on and was substantially behind the consumer Macs in single threaded performance. The new Mac Pro fixes literally all of that. If you have a workload that justifies it and prefer OS X, the Mac Pro is thankfully no longer just your only solution, it's a great solution.

 

I think the mac pro has a "unique" design, but Anand never seems to touch on the myriad of cables one must have to really expand the Mac Pro. 

 

In any case, the review is massive, truly demonstrating that AnandTech makes the best reviews in the business. Good job AT. 

 

What are your opinions? Even though I think the Mac Pro is not quite what Apple needed, I appreciate AT's in-depth coverage. This is a review worthy of such a radical change, and one that just has more information. 

[qwertywarrior]

 

In any case, the review is a monstrosity, truly demonstrating that AnandTech makes the best reviews in the business. Good job AT. 

 

 

are u using the right word here ?

because it contradicts what u said in the sentence

[Nineshadow]

Oh God.

[Wano97]

I think it has a neat design, and I don't know about performance, but on paper it looks really good

[Andi]

yeah...95°C and thermal throttling.

 

It's cool that it's quiet enough but if it's getting that hot in such a small formfactor everything gets cocked = short component lifespan

[Guest]

Dat thing is fucking awesome no question.

even the bang for the buck is good and it got 8 out of 10 its tyny and cooooool!

[LAwLz]

95 degrees on the CPU

97 degrees on the GPU

44.7 dBA from about 18 inches away.

 

I knew their "~18 dBA under load" was just a big fat lie. It is almost 8 times as loud as they claim, and it is hot as hell.

 

Anyway the hardware in it isn't bad, but it has lots of drawbacks (very pricey, not very upgradable and requires a ton of external stuff). The review so far (currently reading through it) pretty much just confirms what I suspected. Some people will probably think it is good, but personally I don't think it is. I suspect that a lot of people would say it wasn't anything special if it weren't for the Apple logo on it.

[TheRuke]

Does this mean Linus will fanboy over it even harder to get closer to Anand?

[Thibaudv]

Also, don't forget that it's winter right now. Imagine this little oven in summer...

[cDNA]

are u using the right word here ?

because it contradicts what u said in the sentence

he meant monstrosity by size....

[ThorBuildingLegos]

What can I say? Apple knows machine design, and the latest installment of the Mac Pro is a reminder of this. I was pretty stoked when I first saw the whole internal cooling rib and its cylindric form, but was also dissapointed when I found the GPU couldn't be replaced.

[Sharkyx1]

Everyone here in their hate fest seems to forget it was doing 95c with furmark and prime, not real world stuff unless your profession is making cooling systems cry. Luxmark and x264 bench on the other hand had GPU 70c and CPU 85c with no throttling.

[Kajornkeat]

Imagine using this in South East Asia or Middle East in the summer, this thing is not going to last very long. Trash can is on fire
 

[Andrew48]

A garbage can that also incinerates your garbage! Awesome!

[Kirihuna]

My favorite part was this:

 

 

As I learned last time, there are typically some hefty discounts associated with workstation orders so take this pricing with a grain of salt. I also had to fudge the HP numbers a bit as I can only get a single FirePro W7000 in the Z420 configuration - I just doubled the W7000 adder in order to simulate what a theoretical dual GPU version would cost. There are other imbalances between the comparison (HP supports more displays, Apple features more Thunderbolt 2 ports, FirePro W7000 features ECC GDDR5, etc…), but the point here is to see if Apple’s pricing is out of touch with reality. It’s not.

 

Also, it is known that Anand loves Apple products. Not based on a performance perspective (which, guess what, they can excel at) but build quality and usability. But despite loving Apple products, he gives honest reviews.

[Kirihuna]

yeah...95°C and thermal throttling.

 

It's cool that it's quiet enough but if it's getting that hot in such a small formfactor everything gets cocked = short component lifespan

Not necessarily. Doesn't mean shorter life span if it's rated to get that hot.

 

Like the 290x.

[Kuzma]

Not necessarily. Doesn't mean shorter life span if it's rated to get that hot.

 

Like the 290x.

Regardless of it's rating, thermal degradation is a thing.

[qwertywarrior]

he meant monstrosity by size....

By definition its something bad 

Gigantic would have been a better word

[IdeaStormer]

I still want to see this thing tested at someone's house, where there is no AC and in the summer. As it is anything with CPU's that high in the Xeon E5 line are always in a server room with dedicated AC I would like to see house air cool that thing under load.

 

(for the post deep interpretive readers, I want to see it tested to see how it runs under that environment, not hating or throwing apple under the proverbial bus)

[Kirihuna]

Regardless of it's rating, thermal degradation is a thing.

It's a thing for almost any component. All components will degrade overtime from heat.

 

But it won't degrade as fast compared to something that isn't support to get that hot.

[NIC ROBERTOOO]

I think most of us can agree that the ID of Apple stuff is quite good, so I'm not surprised he said he liked it based on it's looks. I'm definitely no apple fanboy but their stuff looks pretty good

[Andi]

Not necessarily. Doesn't mean shorter life span if it's rated to get that hot.

 

Like the 290x.

 

100% is does....290x's in 3-5 years will all be near dead if used alot.

 

Also, Apples pricing is never out of wack at the beginning of a product circle. It remains to be seen if apple will update the MacPro every year. But i don't think so, because they don't sell that many of them. If you have to pay the same in 3 years for the same old hardware pricing becomes ridiculous

 

[martinrox1568]

What can I say? Apple knows machine design, and the latest installment of the Mac Pro is a reminder of this. I was pretty stoked when I first saw the whole internal cooling rib and its cylindric form, but was also dissapointed when I found the GPU couldn't be replaced.

but they can be

[LAwLz]

but they can be

I haven't really looked into it, but it seems like they use a proprietary connector/form factor. You can replace them, but you can only replace them with the same card from Apple.

[FireFox]

Only comes with a one year warranty?