Well, rumor was that Apple was having a hard time making an M2 super chip. If I had a guess about the MacPro it’s that we’ll hear about it when Apple is able to talk about that chip (maybe with the M3?), or that Apple will have a proprietary super-bus that will allow multiple M3 Ultra chips to transfer as fast as on-the-chip speed, or perhaps that Apple will have an Apple Silicon GPU and perhaps ML core input chip that can also connect. Also Apple Silicon storage-only chips.
With all of the rumors about introducing the new AR/VR glasses and OS at WWDC, I’d guess that Apple won’t do Mac Pro at this event.
As far as Mac Pro and super-professional work goes, that just makes the most sense to me.
Same here. I would be very surprised to hear them get concrete about it at WWDC. Self-imposed deadline or not, I would imagine they’re more than smothered in work related to the new goggles.
I agree about the MP needing such ingredients to make sense alongside the Mac Studio Ultra. I like your idea of the super bus hidden in M3 only to be revealed once the new MP comes out equipped with the Extreme uber-Ultra. Finding clues of that in the vanilla M3 (assuming it’s released first) sounds like a worthy challenge for the geeks at sites like AnandTech.
Alright, let’s stay nice. There’s no harm in discussing what might or might not happen here, particularly if the speculation is based on public information. I don’t do it in TidBITS because I think it’s generally harmful to trade in rumors and an unnecessary effort when the answer will be known soon enough. With the Mac Pro, when that will happen remains an open question.
The Mac Pro has always been massively expensive and overkill for most users. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that this version is too.
While I’d love an affordable Mac with some internal expansion capability, Apple did away with that concept a long long time ago and there has never been a hint of them considering it since then.
The Mac Pro is beyond ugly - I just had to get that off my chest. Worst Apple design ever imho.
I have the money to buy one but wouldn’t, based solely on its looks (crazy, eh!). I’d much rather get a Mac Studio if I was in the market for a desktop.
The new Mac Pro reminds me of my beloved and very beautiful Cheese Grater Mac from around 2006. It retains a place of honor on my desktop. I think it was one of, if not “the” first Macs with Intel chips. I turn it on every so often to make sure it’s still alive. The fans are just as super noisy as they always were.
Actually that wasn’t the case for the original cheese grater at all. The Intel cheese grater started at the same $1999 that the Mac Studio starts these days. Obviously, with inflation (but neglecting the overall decline in cost of electronics) that’s like $3000 today, but that’s still well within Studio territory and far below the price of an M2 Ultra Mac Pro. The trash can Mac Pro and even more so the 2019 models were the Mac Pros that introduced prices well outside of most people’s budget. But in those days we had no headless pro Mac like the Studio we have today as an alternative. The Mac Pro we see today is only a Mac Pro in name. Essentially, it’s a new category of niche Mac (in that sense more like Xserve). What used to be a 2010 Mac Pro is now by almost all accounts the Mac Studio.
While I prefer the original cheese grater design (which IIRC stems from the G5 days) over this, I don’t find it nearly as ugly as I find $400 for wheels preposterous. Not to mention the fact that there is a $3000 difference between an otherwise equally spec’ed Mac Studio and Mac Pro and so far NOBODY has been able to explain what would justify that. A few internal PCIe slots certainly don’t. If anything, they serve as a reminder that TB should to be pushed more aggressively.
What the new Mac Pro has done is nicely bracket the Mac Studio from the other side. The Mac Studio is now officially spectular good value compared to its neighbors: an otherwise equally spec’ed M2 Pro Mac mini is the same price as a Max Studio; OTOH an otherwise equally spec’ed M2 Ultra Mac Studio is $3k less than the Mac Pro. You could say the Studio is too cheap. I’ll settle for calling it very good value compared to other desktop Macs.
Well the expansion slots require a larger circuit board and thus a larger case. Then there is the cost to cut all those holes in the case front, not to mention making it both floor/desktop or rack mounting.
Besides the target user will be able to either get his company to pay for it or be able to get the taxpayer cover it by deducting the purchase as a business expense.
As for the Studio, I’d have to also buy a monitor, so a similarly priced iMac would be a better buy for me.
Excellent analysis as ever, @Simon. I guess it’s clear now that high-end iMac/iMac Pro now move to Studio+display. It still ends up being higher-priced than the iMacs at their peak, but it is a much better value overall, unless Apple does decide to put out a revised 27-inch Silicon iMac.
