illa romza

I would replace my Hack Pro with a Mac Pro if I had my choices of video cards.

With dual processors and VM's I'd just run 2 30" screens, one with osX, one with Win7 in a VM.

This is the biggest deficiency that Apple has.

http://www.jimmirehman.com/charger/Blackedout.jpg
2008 Dodge Charger SE
http://www.jimmirehman.com/charger/Signaturev1.jpg

Thats an epic Charger, I like em' for the stealth cop looks.
Charger Police Interceptor's FTW!

Previous question: How hard could it be to take advangate of the multi-cores.

The first thing is that it depends on what you are starting with. If you have zero code out there, you can come up with a nice design for your program that takes advantage of as many cores as you throw at it. If on the other hand you have large chunks of legacy code that was written in the time of single cores, it may be close to a re-write to fully take advantage of the hardware. In some cases it will be easier in some cases to throw the old code away.

But some of it is imagination, if you can look at a problem and the solution you orginaly came up with, and using your imagination look at the problem at hand in inovative ways, parts of the programs could be re-written to take advantage of the hardware and other parts can be left alone (for the short term). This is an incremental step, you gain X% in one area and little to nothing in another area. The key is to determine what your program spends most of it time doing and re-write/re-design that section of the code for the biggest short-term gains.

I remeber working in assembler and selecting the correct combination of instructions based on their function and the number of CPU cycles it took to execute each instruction. Sometimes a set of 12 instructions was faster than a different set of 8 instructions in accomplishing the same result. Use your imagination and look at the problem from a different angle. If your brain only sees a number of serialized steps, you won't be able to come up with anything that takes advange of the hardware.

What you start with (old code) and your imagination can get you there quicker or slower.

Short answer: It depends.

Welcome to edition 15!! The last thread is at 2400ish posts and 99 pages. Can't believe there have been 14 of these. It is so much easier to start the next one when you can cut and past the links of the last as the thread starter!

Starting this off right! Links for Mods and other interested parties!

Post your last purchase (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=406860)
Post your last purchase II (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=450221)
Post your last purchase III (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=494787)
Post your last purchase IV (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=547632)
Post your last purchase V (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=591242)
Post your last purchase VI (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=631447)
Post your last purchase VII (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=672226)
Post your last purchase VIII (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=672226)
Post your last purchase IX (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=765588)
Post your last purchase X (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=805111)
Post your last purchase XI (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=842754)
Post your last purchase XII (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=884344&highlight=post+your+last+purchase+xii)
Post your last purchase XIII (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=944269&highlight=post+your+last+purchase+xii)
Post your last purchase XIV (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1013381)

Go ahead and post your last purchase, and apparently original pictures are encouraged so we can see what you got!

My last purchase was not a big one - but it was GOOD and CHEAP! Costco dog and soda!! Lol.
Hmm. Do you know the total on all of the posts? :p
The SwitchEasy TRIM case (lime color) for iPhone 4.
What do you think of it? If it seems good, and if they release one for the iPT, then I might get one.

While professionals can say bye bye to nVidia's CUDA processing and PhysX.
:-(

ATI/AMD is doing what they can, developing an OpenCL driven bullet physics port to Maya but they always seem to be one step behind - announcing a plugin for Maya 2011 in the same week that Autodesk announced that nVidia Physx is being integrated directly into Maya 2012 with real time physx cloth deformation, rigid body dynamics, and physx accelerated calculations for DMM destruction.

On the windows side, 3ds Max is getting Physx integration, too. Open CL is cool but it's got some ground to make up in the application world.

If you refer to my prior post in this thread, I too am a professional 3D content creator. As things stand currently, all software I use take better advantage of nVidia compared to ATI. Most of what I use prefer "CUDA" cores and eventually more "PhysX" integration.

This is why I can no longer use Apple at all in my work, I can not come close to getting what I can from a pair of 580 GTX factory OC cards in SLI for a Mac Pro. In fact, most of what Apple offers is still behind the curve.

It is the single area where Apple fails and I know from attending conferences that most of the big names simply don't care because they do not have enough users on that platform to matter. Don't get me wrong, I still think Apple is great for most all other areas and I recommend them to family and friends. But for the 3D professional market, there is no way I can use Apple without making many sacrifices.

I'm mixed to disappointed on this one.

The solo to duo upgrade on the low end is nice, but I would rather have seen a price drop.

On the high end, that's barely an upgrade at all. Before, the high end model was way more appealing, after the upgrade the high end model is really unappealing compared with the macbook and the iMac.

In addition to printing and font management, how bout adding to the list networking access. The way one accesses networks in Windows seems much more straight forward, consistent, clean and intuitive in Windows XP than it does in OS X. That's my oppinion anyway. Maybe that's just me. Anyone else agree???

Totally agree...that's one aspect of Windows that I do like better. Local networking on my Macs seems very sluggish compared to Windows.

Ever connect your laptop to a share on the network at work, put the laptop to sleep without disconnecting that share and then bring the computer home? Once the computer notices the share is no longer there, it basically hangs for about 30 seconds until it asks you to disconnect. Windows handles stuff like this MUCH better.

"Technology gets out of the way"

That's why I got a Mac/iPhone in the first place. Get out of my way, Windows/Android!

That's what happened to me years ago, but with iTunes. I was using iTunes on Windows XP and instead of fighting it to organize my files, I finally said to myself "why would I want to manage my files manually"? Then I started using metadata and smart playlists... a few months later I bought a Mac mini G4 which was less powerful than my PC, but then a few weeks later I realized I hadn't booted the PC in over a week. I moved all my data and sold the PC.

I'm now on my 3rd Mac mini (2010 unibody) with 8GB of RAM and it does the tasks I ask without getting in my way. :cool:

Thank God I sold my mini three days ago. It was a Core Duo 1.66Ghz with 1GB RAM. Luckily the buyer's already payed and I'm on my way to the post office now. Phew!!

2008 Pontiac G6. Lease is up soon...

(Not my picture)
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/3/3048/3101/32619050002_large.jpg

Because they fear the iPod... and its ecosystem...

This is key for sure. The success of the iPod is directly attributed to its integrated "ecosystem" as you put it. iTS, iTunes, iPod.

Slowly but surely, with movies, photos and games - and MUCH talk of cell phone syncing with iCal, Address Book and iApps - Apple is attempting to tie iLife & OS X into the equation... making it a critical and integral part of that ecosystem.

If people wanted the full iPod experience, they NEEDED iTunes... so they adopted it. In the future, with product XYZ, people will NEED OS X for the full experience... and they will adopt it.

THAT is what MS fears about Apple/iPod. They could give a rat's ass about the portable music/media market. They just want desperately to kill the iPod and what it means for MS's future.

In my opinion, they should've undersold by $50+/unit. At their current rate, they'll never penetrate the market.

-Clive

nooooo, not merom!! Give the imac the conroe processor it deserves!! It's a desktop, and if it could handle a G5 it can handle a conroe. :(

But the 23" idea is very cool. :D

- remove the click wheel
- extend the screen to fill up the front face
- slap in a multi touch display
- 220GB for movie watching & games, lotsa games
;)

As far as sharing in your range. Again a waste of battery to support this. I have what I wnat ton hear for the most part. I don't much care to drain my battery searching other users' libs (that will come and go as they wander around and in and out of range - oh great, I found a cool Streets video I don't have!! Oh wait he just left range!!!), it's short-lived enough already.

I think a better idea is just a listing of what others around you are listening to. You can choose (by using the (->) button like in iTunes) to look it up and either buy it or listen to a preview.

I sure hope they announce something about an Apple phone soon. Im sooooooo tempted to get the LG Chocolate.

It's a shame there's almost no way Verizon will carry an Apple branded phone. I just don't see it happening. Looks like I'll have to get an LG Chocolate for music on the go...

AMD Fusion is a better CPU because it does true OpenCL in the GPU, not like Intel's alpha OpenCL which runs on the CPU side.

Fusion is DirectX 11 class. Intel is DirectX 10.1 class.

Uhh, no bro. The CPU and GPU are two separate things, and Sandy Bridge smokes Fusion on the CPU side. If you want to argue OpenCL for all of the zero current day applications it currently has then be my guest and do so. Fusion is DX11? Wow, more vaporware that rarely gets added in modern games due to wanting to be backwards compatible, how exciting!

Once again, run Sandy Bridge and a discrete GPU if you are really looking for performance. There's your OpenCL and DX11 support that you need so badly. It will smoke anything AMD has to offer.

Bye bye Nvidia. Twas interesting whilst it lasted.

Not. Even. Close.

You probably don't work in the 3D world if you're saying that. ATI blows for Maya currently. There's also the issue of GPU support. While OpenCL is promising for agnostic GPU support, the CUDA offering from Nvidia is showing real world support. DaVinci can use the Nvidia 4000 in multiple cards to dramatically speed up the application.

I'd be more impressed to see Apple support the off the shelf offerings of Nvidia, too. That way we'd have a choice and further the adoption of OpenCL in a variety of applications.

Both are pro-features, so it will be VERY unlikely that we will see them in the Mini.
At least another USB port would be nice. Two was pathetic, three's OK, but
four is more realistic number nowadays!

Personally, I'm not convinced that the mini is going to go Core 2 at all... I think we might see the "Solo" going "Duo" and the CPU speeds up'd a bit, that's all. Maybe, just maybe, the top-of-the-line Mac mini might get a Core 2 (Merom)..... :)

Crystal Head Vodka for turkey day.
Mando

Apple don't want to be left out of this online movie thing. They tried to convince the studios, but they couldnt, so I think they have no choice but to make it a rental service before it's too late

So you're saying we should go back to Mac OS Classic cooperative multi-tasking ?

Hello ?

The 80s called, they want their computing paradigms back. Cooperative multi-tasking makes sense on ressource limited architectures. Even the iPhone/iPad like devices are far from "ressource limited". We had pre-emptive multi-tasking on much less capable devices (think 386s with 8 MB of RAM).

LOL! Yeah... and I remember crashing faster than you click your mouse on those systems. Windows 3.0 and 3.1 were a mess. But of course... most things were back then. how far we've come.

Please to have Thunderbolt.

WOW! "Think Secret" is really putting its reputation on the line by making this ("WWDC surprise: Apple to announce iTunes movie rentals" and Second-gen iPod nano on tap for August") two statements! What are the chances of Jobs announcing movie rentals and second-gen ipod nanos at WWDC (of all places) (in addition to 10.5 and MacPros)? But with Jobs, who knows what will be announced. "One more thing"... oh and wait just "One more thing"... :confused: :confused: :confused:

I've found that old iMovie still works great for some of my work flow (I edit for public access) but that new iMovie, though it is different, is quite easy to use and works for other projects quite well (web video). I have also used FCP for other projects and the differences between any version of iMovie and FCP is that FCP doesn't stand in the way of your creativity. If you can imagine it, it can be done in FCP and there are probably 2 or 3 ways to do it also. At least for me.