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There's got to be some CompSci term for how the work always follows the hardware. I work in feature animation and CPU power has grown tremendously since Shrek1/Toy Story1 yet the turn around time for a render isn't all that faster given the more complex data and processing involved.
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May 19, 2016 18:17
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Shaocaholica posted:There's got to be some CompSci term for how the work always follows the hardware. I work in feature animation and CPU power has grown tremendously since Shrek1/Toy Story1 yet the turn around time for a render isn't all that faster given the more complex data and processing involved. What Andy giveth Bill taketh away
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May 19, 2016 18:21
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Shaocaholica posted:There's got to be some CompSci term for how the work always follows the hardware. I work in feature animation and CPU power has grown tremendously since Shrek1/Toy Story1 yet the turn around time for a render isn't all that faster given the more complex data and processing involved. I think it's similar to city planning. You could widen a street to deal with congestion but in practice the congestion remains because more people will take that widened street. You're not actually dealing with traffic and you're not really increasing throughput (they have to go somewhere after your street after all). You're just sticking more cars in bumper to bumper traffic. It's just a natural thing people have observed and studied. I think compute power is like that too. If you give people more, they'll use it... In greater quantities. I don't think there's a name for it.
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May 19, 2016 18:23
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Pivo posted:I think it's similar to city planning. You could widen a street to deal with congestion but in practice the congestion remains because more people will take that widened street. You're not actually dealing with traffic and you're not really increasing throughput (they have to go somewhere after your street after all). You're just sticking more cars in bumper to bumper traffic. It's just a natural thing people have observed and studied. Wirth's law
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May 19, 2016 18:32
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Built a 400TB Xsan for a customer once since they wanted so much of their 1080p media online at any given time. They immediately switched to 4K since they had so much room! 
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May 19, 2016 18:36
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I think this one is focused on continuously growing inefficiency in the software as opposed to ever increasing demands absorbing new capacity. So for my 3D rendering example on my old 286 I was happy to render a featureless black sphere on a featureless brown plane under a featureless blue sky. One light source, no shadows. As I moved up to more powerful computers and more feature-laden software I would absorb those newly available additional CPU cycles by placing increasing demands upon the system, like multiple light sources, then soft shadows, bigger textures, higher resolution output, radiosity, etc. Of course that law you quoted comes into play with something like Bryce 3D which with each new version became an ever buggier piece of crap.
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May 19, 2016 19:05
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Right, like how games went from Wolf3D to Doom by adding multiplayer and textured floors, then Quake added true 3D, then Quake II added hardware acceleration, then Quake III added fancy lighting and curved surfaces... I don't remember video importing/editing being much worse on my G4 PowerBook than on my current MBP but now I can do 4k blah blah
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May 19, 2016 19:15
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Electric Bugaloo posted:You'll be fine. Maybe spring for the high-spec version if you're scared. quote:A weird number of people ITT seem to have goldfish memories about what "on par with a 2012 MBA" means in terms of real-world usability for a large number of cases... It also kind of makes me wonder if we're ever going to see real parity between the build quality of Windows laptops and mac ones. Even with the terrible build quality you get at the low end, you still see people hanging on to their old windows monstrosities and keeping them chugging along. I can't help but wonder if Apple's move towards a closed box design for laptops hasn't just all been their insistence on going as thin and light as possible, but also them wanting to pin down a more absolute end of life for systems that are taking longer and longer to become obsolete. If even Apple has incentive to build things not to last (with regard to upgradability), I don't see how PC manufacturers are going to get much better at improving build quality, with thinner margins and lower prices already putting pressure on what they can afford to offer.
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May 19, 2016 20:43
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So I was planning on picking up a new rMBP/rMB this next few weeks while I'm in the US but I guess new models are gonna be announced soon, so wait? Kinda sucks since I leave the week before the event I guess.
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May 19, 2016 22:00
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Boris Galerkin posted:So I was planning on picking up a new rMBP/rMB this next few weeks while I'm in the US but I guess new models are gonna be announced soon, so wait? Kinda sucks since I leave the week before the event I guess. Consensus seems to be that new rMBPs will be announced at WWDC. Of course, everyone seemed pretty certain that they would be announced back in like March but that obviously didn't pan out.
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May 19, 2016 22:04
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I'm a PC/MBP user, was looking into picking up a vertical dock (Henge dock) for my MBP but was curious to find out if anyone has experience with/can comment on how successful they've been in utilizing a video switch to go back and forth between PC & Macbook. A KVM would be ideal but I don't mind using a separate mac keyboard/mouse if need-be. I really just want to be able to use my 27" (non-mac) display for doing photo work at my desk. Any PC/MBP switching people out there?
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May 19, 2016 22:48
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Shaocaholica posted:How come there were so many 3rd party CPU upgrades for G3/G4 but none for G5? IBM? Basically. The G5 was a hilariously complicated chip from the system design side because it was really a cut-down POWER4. Until the very recent POWER8, IBM designed POWER series CPUs exclusively for internal use, in big giant multimillion dollar systems. By all accounts they weren't very shy about exposing innards normally made invisible in chips designed to be integrated into systems by multiple outsiders. POWER4 needed a companion PPC405 (an embedded control PowerPC) just to help it start up, and G5 wasn't much different. It would not have been nearly as easy to get an upgrade card designed and working. Might have even been impossible to upgrade very far; it was a collaboration where Apple took on much of the chipset design and I'm guessing the two would not have been averse to changing bus protocol more often than you might see when you need interoperability. Besides technical difficulties there would've been business issues too. Motorola had sales and support systems designed to accommodate small companies that might only buy a few thousand units. IBM, not so much.
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May 20, 2016 02:44
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BobHoward posted:Basically. The G5 was a hilariously complicated chip from the system design side because it was really a cut-down POWER4. Until the very recent POWER8, IBM designed POWER series CPUs exclusively for internal use, in big giant multimillion dollar systems. By all accounts they weren't very shy about exposing innards normally made invisible in chips designed to be integrated into systems by multiple outsiders. POWER4 needed a companion PPC405 (an embedded control PowerPC) just to help it start up, and G5 wasn't much different. It would not have been nearly as easy to get an upgrade card designed and working. Might have even been impossible to upgrade very far; it was a collaboration where Apple took on much of the chipset design and I'm guessing the two would not have been averse to changing bus protocol more often than you might see when you need interoperability. Thanks. So was there any backlash from the community which had become accustomed to 3rd party upgrades?
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May 20, 2016 04:13
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Froist posted:Mostly people seem to be against the price point, which puts it in a similar ballpark as today's rMBP while getting "4 year old" performance. Yeah, except that "4 year old performance" doesn't mean what it used to when CPU gains have essentially flatlined for the last 3. Also, it needs to be said that the performance gulf/difference in intended workload between the 13" and 15" rMBP is bigger than the gap among the various dual-core machines. An annoyingly high number of people seem to be ascribing quad-core performance to the 13" rMBPs in their comparisons and advice-giving, and it's flat-out untrue. Bob Morales posted:They did so with Quadras, then PowerPC's, then G3's, G4's.... Seriously. Which is part of why the 2011 MBA was such a game-changer for people. I made tons of videos and posters in college (theater  ) using 2008-vintage 24" iMacs, Nehalem Mac Pros, and my C2d Blackbook.MMD3 posted:I'm a PC/MBP user, was looking into picking up a vertical dock (Henge dock) for my MBP.... Don't waste your money. It sucks and you will hate using it.
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May 20, 2016 04:21
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MMD3 posted:I'm a PC/MBP user, was looking into picking up a vertical dock (Henge dock) for my MBP but was curious to find out if anyone has experience with/can comment on how successful they've been in utilizing a video switch to go back and forth between PC & Macbook. A KVM would be ideal but I don't mind using a separate mac keyboard/mouse if need-be. I really just want to be able to use my 27" (non-mac) display for doing photo work at my desk. I returned my Henge dock. The connectors were terrible.
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May 20, 2016 04:59
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Shaocaholica posted:Thanks. So was there any backlash from the community which had become accustomed to 3rd party upgrades? IDK. Probably not though? The PowerMac G5 was only on the market for about 3 years before it got replaced by the Mac Pro, so the older models went straight from "slightly behind but still okay" to "oh poo poo this is obsolete and no CPU upgrade will save it". That base-model $2500 Mac Pro 1,1 with 2x 2.66 GHz Woodcrest (Core 2 Duo, so 4 CPU cores total) was a hell of a deal.
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May 20, 2016 05:08
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I have a 2011 iMac with a broken logic board and am toying with the idea of buying another broken one for parts and trying to cobble together a working one. How specific do I need to get? I'm guessing a 2012 one won't work, but would the i7 version of the 2011 board slot right in?
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May 20, 2016 13:28
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For those who follow the PC game, are HDMI 2.0 ports becoming more popular or are they still on the old standards? A MBP with HDMI 2.0 might win me over a new iMac 5k unless it's something beyond a simple update. (Or is it possible for a thunderbolt dock to do HDMI 2 as an output? The limitation of 4k@30hz is what I'm trying to overcome, but I don't have a DP input to work with).
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May 20, 2016 13:43
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a mini display port to hdmi 2.0 adapter has been out for a few months http://www.club-3d.com/index.php/products/reader.en/product/mini-displayport-12-to-hdmi-20-uhd-active-adapter.html
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May 20, 2016 17:01
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Perplx posted:a mini display port to hdmi 2.0 adapter has been out for a few months Club-3D UHD Active Adapter Specs posted:
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May 20, 2016 17:09
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My iTunes library will be outgrowing my SSD in my MBPr soon. Since I can't upgrade the hard drive, I've been thinking about offloading the library somewhere. Would a 128/256GB SD card be a good choice for this task? I just want to make sure stuff syncs and streams without a problem off of the card. However, it would also be nice if Time Machine could back this up too, so I don't lose anything. Has anyone tried this, or have a better solution?
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May 20, 2016 18:03
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IUG posted:My iTunes library will be outgrowing my SSD in my MBPr soon. Since I can't upgrade the hard drive, I've been thinking about offloading the library somewhere. Would a 128/256GB SD card be a good choice for this task? I just want to make sure stuff syncs and streams without a problem off of the card. However, it would also be nice if Time Machine could back this up too, so I don't lose anything. Has anyone tried this, or have a better solution? I wouldn't recommend it. Even the fastest SD cards feel like molasses in wintertime for writing things. I'd say get either a USB SSD or one of those fancy wifi SSD as an external drive. Time Machine shouldn't have a problem backing both up (I am unsure about an SD card, but it does backup my random USB3 external without complaint.)
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May 20, 2016 18:22
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1st AD posted:This is industry wide, though. In fact Apple declined less than competitors like Lenovo and HP. Yes and no, the windows PC market is a dumpster fire for sure, but Macs are still a huge disappointment in terms of sales and market share. At this point Chromebooks are selling more than Macs, and Apple has to make some serious changes to the line or get more competitive on pricing. The past 5 or so years of doling out upgrades at a glacial pace and $100 price cuts (if you're lucky) is coming to an end. Pryor on Fire fucked around with this message at 18:25 on May 20, 2016 |
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May 20, 2016 18:23
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Pryor on Fire posted:Yes and no, the windows PC market is a dumpster fire for sure, but Macs are still a huge disappointment in terms of sales and market share. At this point Chromebooks are selling more than Macs, and Apple has to make some serious changes to the line or get more competitive on pricing. The past 5 or so years of doling out upgrades at a glacial pace and $100 price cuts (if you're lucky) is coming to an end. Apple commands 91% of the over $1000 laptop market. They are most profitable company in human history. What makes you think they want to chase the <$300 chromebook end of the market?
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May 20, 2016 18:30
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A spinning USB 3 hdd is fast enough for my iTunes, photos and time machine backups. 
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May 20, 2016 18:36
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beefnoodle posted:I returned my Henge dock. The connectors were terrible. ahhh, that's too bad to hear. thanks for saving me some money though... Still curious about switches if anybody has some advice.
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May 20, 2016 18:37
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IUG posted:My iTunes library will be outgrowing my SSD in my MBPr soon. Since I can't upgrade the hard drive What MBPr do you have?
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May 20, 2016 18:39
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Pryor on Fire posted:Yes and no, the windows PC market is a dumpster fire for sure, but Macs are still a huge disappointment in terms of sales and market share. At this point Chromebooks are selling more than Macs, and Apple has to make some serious changes to the line or get more competitive on pricing. The past 5 or so years of doling out upgrades at a glacial pace and $100 price cuts (if you're lucky) is coming to an end. The upgrade cycle - which has killed PCs at the same time - is because there aren't newer and faster processors coming out on the market. Ever since the C2D, core speeds have largely stagnated (the efficiency improvements have come from using those same clock speeds at lower power requirements). This means that your 2010 iMac C2Q 2.8Ghz is just fine if it doesn't catch on fire. As a result, Apple has been reducing user serviceability and focusing on marketing the Green aspect of the newer models (the 2014 Mini, for instance, went from ~13W to ~8W of idle power consumption over the 2012, but they marketed it as "The most power efficient Mac EVAR") with upgrades to other aspects (GPU for retina, SSD for disk access, wifi, etc) to help make it seem speedier overall. I mean, what hardware upgrade can Apple put out tomorrow that they couldn't put out last year? Nothing in terms of actual performance, and a decent step in terms of performance per watt. There simply isn't an x86-64 processor that they could source that would blow away users of the last 5 years of hardware. Unless they license the chip designs from Intel and do their own thing like they did in mobile, I doubt that they'll have any awe-inspiring next steps for awhile. But at least Macs have remained flat since this started. PCs have nose dived so hard into the ground, the planetary orbit shifted a bit.
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May 20, 2016 18:43
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Bob Morales posted:Sure you can, you just have to find one (used or NOS on eBay/CL etc). I'm at work, so I don't have the exact model. But I bought the first model they made with the retina display. I have a 256GB drive I believe, and my music library is just over 100 GB (plus I have movie files in iTunes too that sync with my phone).
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May 20, 2016 18:45
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Dick Trauma posted:I remember running a Photoshop demo (v. 3, 4?) on my Performa 631CD. The tiny preview window for the lens flare filter would take about 10 seconds to update between clicks. One of those times when a FPU would've been nice. Shaocaholica posted:Thanks. So was there any backlash from the community which had become accustomed to 3rd party upgrades? As for backlash, I'm not sure either, if there was I think it would've been dead by the time the G5s were around at least. Like the older upgradable Macs were during the clone era before Jobs came in and wiped everything out, and G5s didn't come until six years after that. Plus there were just less users so there could only be so much of a backlash to begin with...and whoever was left was highly loyal and would take whatever they could get 
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May 20, 2016 18:50
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Pryor on Fire posted:Yes and no, the windows PC market is a dumpster fire for sure, but Macs are still a huge disappointment in terms of sales and market share. At this point Chromebooks are selling more than Macs, and Apple has to make some serious changes to the line or get more competitive on pricing. The past 5 or so years of doling out upgrades at a glacial pace and $100 price cuts (if you're lucky) is coming to an end. As soon as I saw that article about Chromebook sales I knew we would start hearing about how Apple is doomed if they don't change everything up immediately. Chromebooks are outselling MacBooks because they're a third of the price, not because nobody wants MacBooks anymore. Like FCKGW said, Apple is still roundly trouncing their actual competitors in the laptop space. You don't see Mercedes freaking out because Toyota is selling more Camrys than they are C-classes.
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May 20, 2016 18:56
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IUG posted:I'm at work, so I don't have the exact model. But I bought the first model they made with the retina display. I have a 256GB drive I believe, and my music library is just over 100 GB (plus I have movie files in iTunes too that sync with my phone). Okay, you're in a good place then. Buy the adapter for $20 from Amazon, then get whatever SSD you want, I'd suggest a 500GB Samsung 850 EVO ($169 from Newegg, may be cheaper elsewhere) You'll need a pentalobe screwdriver to remove the back cover of your MacBook.
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May 20, 2016 19:08
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Arsten posted:I mean, what hardware upgrade can Apple put out tomorrow that they couldn't put out last year? Nothing in terms of actual performance, and a decent step in terms of performance per watt. There simply isn't an x86-64 processor that they could source that would blow away users of the last 5 years of hardware. I feel like they could make a lot of improvement in their disk space options? I realize there are physical limits in the storage world too but we aren't quite so close to hitting them. And with the actual tiny physical size of flash memory, even if a single 4TB SSD is cost prohibitive, what is stopping them from chaining together 4-8 1TB or 0.5 TB drives? And this is a company that's still selling 128GB drives in their base models -- there is plenty of room to grow here with existing tech.
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May 20, 2016 19:17
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Weedle posted:Consensus seems to be that new rMBPs will be announced at WWDC. Of course, everyone seemed pretty certain that they would be announced back in like March but that obviously didn't pan out. The only reason people thought that is because "the average cycle time fits" while ignoring that the MBP's cycle time was really short.
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May 20, 2016 19:49
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Perplx posted:a mini display port to hdmi 2.0 adapter has been out for a few months Hm interesting, I'll have to look into that. I have an LG OLED on order and it might be fun to hook up to that for photo editing and having just one machine.
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May 20, 2016 20:19
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MrChupon posted:I feel like they could make a lot of improvement in their disk space options? I realize there are physical limits in the storage world too but we aren't quite so close to hitting them. And with the actual tiny physical size of flash memory, even if a single 4TB SSD is cost prohibitive, what is stopping them from chaining together 4-8 1TB or 0.5 TB drives? Well, 1TB SSDs are only like 6 months old. They are still in the $350 retail range. I'm fairly certain the upgrade price for one would be in the $800 range because of the Apple Taxes.  But, yes, you can add more storage. The issue then becomes "Would this wow a user?" and the answer is, really, "No." If you use a 128GB now and you upgrade to a 1TB in June after they announce your wildest wet dreams in hardware form, the performance will be about the same and the size will be written off as a "meh" after the initial excitement of having room for photos AND music at the same time.
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May 20, 2016 20:37
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MrChupon posted:I feel like they could make a lot of improvement in their disk space options? I realize there are physical limits in the storage world too but we aren't quite so close to hitting them. And with the actual tiny physical size of flash memory, even if a single 4TB SSD is cost prohibitive, what is stopping them from chaining together 4-8 1TB or 0.5 TB drives? A single 4TB SSD is costly because of all the flash memory it needs. Splitting it across more drives just makes it more costly, use more internal volume, use more power, and be more inconvenient for non tech savvy users to manage. That's a very un-Apple thing to do so I wouldn't get my hopes up. 2TB options should arrive soon because several mainstream 2TB SSDs have launched in the past ~6mos, including ones built by Samsung which has been one of Apple's main flash/SSD suppliers.
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May 20, 2016 20:56
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japtor posted:Even if it works right, the setups I've seen don't seem particularly portable, mostly cause the external PSU you need to carry around too. I dunno, maybe something decent is possible with the newer bus powered GPUs (some 970s and some AMD one). Pricier but possibly more convenient option might be a tiny PC build. just catching up with this thread and... gently caress - YOU ARE RIGHT!!!! I thought my coverage had expired but it totally hadn't, will take my mac to the apple house and see if they'll fix it! my macbook has valid Applecare Protection Plan - hopefully it covers the screen. JFairfax fucked around with this message at 21:09 on May 20, 2016 |
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May 20, 2016 21:06
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Bob Morales posted:Okay, you're in a good place then. Buy the adapter for $20 from Amazon, then get whatever SSD you want, I'd suggest a 500GB Samsung 850 EVO ($169 from Newegg, may be cheaper elsewhere) Arsten posted:Well, 1TB SSDs are only like 6 months old. They are still in the $350 retail range. I'm fairly certain the upgrade price for one would be in the $800 range because of the Apple Taxes. Not that I knew that a SSD could be swapped on my MBPr, but it sounds like it would be a lot more cost for the sake of mp3s. I figured the SD card would be cheaper and easier, I just didn't know if there were any problems with doing so.
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May 20, 2016 21:30
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IUG posted:To use this point: The cost I was speaking of is at Apple retail (eg adding a drive at purchase). If you are on the fence, go spend $20 on a class 10 SD card and spend a few days copying large files to and from it. If you don't want to gouge your own soul out with a cork screw, go get a larger one. if you do, spring for the upgraded SSD.
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May 20, 2016 21:35
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