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8TB SSD and Radeon Pro W5700X Upgrade Options Coming to Mac Pro

As a long time Mac Pro customer, this product is disappointing and Apple's direction saddening. Most pros like myself, who work in print design and photography, no longer have viable options with Apple. My previous Mac Pro cost me around $3,500, or just over half what a new Mac Pro will cost. Some will say that the iMac or iMac Pro is more than I need. Could be. But I want to pick my own monitor. I want two TB3 busses. I want expandability with slots. MacBook Pro 16" does not offer the performance required to use as a desktop substitute. Pros like me used to have that before, now Apple wants us to pay double or more for expandability.

Sorry, Apple, but I think you've finally lost your collective minds.
 
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rpmurray said:
Wheels for the stainless steel frame, $400. Not as pricey as I thought they'd be.
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In some respects this is not a mass produced product, so boutique prices are justifiable. Easy for me to say of course because I'm not buying one :rolleyes:
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Zdigital2015 said:
9.5 TFlops for the 5700XT versus 5.6TFlops Single Precision for the 580X. That and double the VRAM which is worth it for several applications, especially FCP X.
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Are two 580X's going to outperform a 5700XT? Would be cheaper, but I wonder if MacOS and its software would make use of this.
 
audiomatt said:
Crossposted:

Everyone seems to be forgetting the mantra of buying a mac tower: Upgrade it yourself.

The CPU, GPU, Storage and Ram are all upgradable. buying the machine is smart. Paying apple to install stuff is NOT. You're going to use this machine for the next 15 years.
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Is it?

I read Apple's site and there is nothing about upgrading SSD and RAM. Does it take Samsung NVME drives?
 
Sedulous said:
Great, now make a consumer version please. Some people do not need a $3000 CPU but would like upgradability. Pretty please?
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Apple has abandoned that onwer-can-upgrade market years ago... the "Classic Mac Pro" was the last Mac that was filling these needs.
Like probably many here, I call myself a "pro-sumer", i.e. the Mac is a hobby and love to get a new fast Mac for many things I enjoy doing at home (i.e. Final Cut Pro for 4K home-movie editing, playing X-Plane 11) and these apps love a fast CPU, GPU, lots of RAM and VRAM and fast and lots of storage.

iMac Pro "should" be the Mac of choice for us. But, I would like a different grfx card, easier storage upgrades and expansions, and probably a different monitor over time.
I still own a 2008 Mac Pro and mid-2010 Mac Pro. Both Macs I adore and I really keep because I just can't say goodbye to them...

Both Macs were pretty affordable, very easily upgradable and a joy to use. No concessions.
I now use a iMac 27" 5K (2017 with Radeon 580) which is a super-Mac, but it is starting to show its age...

This new Mac Pro is a dream, but way, way out of pro-sumer league unless you're a millionaire...
 
DVD9 said:
Is it?

I read Apple's site and there is nothing about upgrading SSD and RAM. Does it take Samsung NVME drives?
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I just chatted with someone on the apple site and specifically asked.
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dantroline said:
In some respects this is not a mass produced product, so boutique prices are justifiable. Easy for me to say of course because I'm not buying one :rolleyes:
[automerge]1576008520[/automerge]

Are two 580X's going to outperform a 5700XT? Would be cheaper, but I wonder if MacOS and its software would make use of this.
Click to expand...

again, it's not like there won't be aftermarket wheels. One of these youtubers that got advanced machines complained there weren't enough USB-A ports as if you can't install an 18 dollar pcie card.
 
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gugy said:
I know, it's tough but if the XDR is a reliable and amazing like the two 30" ACD's that I still have after more than 12 years. It's worth IMO.
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Interesting point. Those things started at over $3000 back in 2004 and were probably more on par with the target market of the Pro Display XDR than say the Thunderbolt display was.

Personally, it's probably still too steep of a price point for me.
I freelance on the side but I don't freelance THAT much. 😅
 
audiomatt said:
on the contrary, you're paying high on the base price for the flexibility. Look, their process was simple. They went to pros and asked what they wanted. They wanted a bare bones machine with upgrade paths out the wazoo. Apple went back to their bean counters and asked a simple question: How much money do we have to charge for the base configuration to make up for the fact that no one is going to max it out from us.

The only people maxing this out are showy rich people who don't know what they're doing. That's why they CLEARLY asked the press to advertise how expensive it was.

The other ones maxing it out are the ones that have high power pro needs and expect it to do the job it was purchased for. If you know that you are going to be working in ProRes RAW 4K or 8K, or 4K Davinci Resolve color correction, you're not going to buy a base machine.
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audiomatt said:
I'm OP. I was told the GPU, CPU, Storage, and Ram are upgradable.
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I still don't know if that means you do it yourself with off the shelf stuff like Samsung NVME drives or if you have to have Apple do it at the store. It's shocking that none of that information is on Apple's site.
 
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No support for current standard graphics APIs, no deal.

I understand this is a push in a fight against Nvidia, but I'm not into fights, but in machines for current research. The price may fit within our research budget, but the APIs supported don't.
 
Technically, I could buy one of these, but it just doesn't make sense for my limited use case. What I am hoping, however, is that we'll start seeing some aftermarket PCIe GPUs with real horsepower. Hopefully I can drop such a beast into my old cheese grater.
 
DVD9 said:
I still don't know if that means you do it yourself with off the shelf stuff like Samsung NVME drives or if you have to have Apple do it at the store. It's shocking that none of that information is on Apple's site.
Click to expand...

What? Go ask. It took me 60 seconds to get a response.

Or you could look at the motherboard:
1576011170648.png
 
AZREOSpecialist said:
As a long time Mac Pro customer, this product is disappointing and Apple's direction saddening. Most pros like myself, who work in print design and photography, no longer have viable options with Apple. My previous Mac Pro cost me around $3,500, or just over half what a new Mac Pro will cost. Some will say that the iMac or iMac Pro is more than I need. Could be. But I want to pick my own monitor. I want two TB3 busses. I want expandability with slots. MacBook Pro 16" does not offer the performance required to use as a desktop substitute. Pros like me used to have that before, now Apple wants us to pay double or more for expandability.

Sorry, Apple, but I think you've finally lost your collective minds.
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So, how will you proceed? Like you, I wish Apple had an upgradeable headless product that was lower-end (ie: doesn't need to be Xeon) like the iMac Pro as I have real uses (and needs) for such a computer.
 
What are you smoking? This is an amazing machine. Sure, its expensive but Apple now caters for every category. iMac or iMac Pro is plenty for you and if you really make living and need better than the Mac Pro will pay for itself with few jobs. There are more people who do the job on even worse computer and they get on with it. Then there are some that like to complain and spend time on forums.

Apple owes you nothing so "as a long time Mac Pro customer......" line is totally irrelevant. Apple provides a product for the market they want to be in. Market changes, needs change too and we can really be happy that Apple listened to Pros and created truly powerful machine for once.

Some people are never happy. Even if they got stuff for free they would complain.

Little reality check - how have you been doing your job until now that you complain that this brand new machine is not for you?

I'm not defending Apple as i complain plenty but I try to not behave like a spoilt child and be reasonable.

I can't afford the machine as my work provides machines for me and those cost probably more than this (my computer here is 20core something) but I would love to have this for home for my hobbies and potential freelance gigs.
My previous 12 core Mac Pro with 30" ACD was the best computer I've ever had. Sure, the most value was from 2008 8core one but unfortunately market is different than 11 YEARS AGO!!!

So please, be real here!


AZREOSpecialist said:
As a long time Mac Pro customer, this product is disappointing and Apple's direction saddening. Most pros like myself, who work in print design and photography, no longer have viable options with Apple. My previous Mac Pro cost me around $3,500, or just over half what a new Mac Pro will cost. Some will say that the iMac or iMac Pro is more than I need. Could be. But I want to pick my own monitor. I want two TB3 busses. I want expandability with slots. MacBook Pro 16" does not offer the performance required to use as a desktop substitute. Pros like me used to have that before, now Apple wants us to pay double or more for expandability.

Sorry, Apple, but I think you've finally lost your collective minds.
Click to expand...
 
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AZREOSpecialist said:
As a long time Mac Pro customer, this product is disappointing and Apple's direction saddening. Most pros like myself, who work in print design and photography, no longer have viable options with Apple... Some will say that the iMac or iMac Pro is more than I need. Could be. But I want to pick my own monitor. Apple, but I think you've finally lost your collective minds.
Click to expand...

The iMac Pro has a P3 display and is exceptional in its own right. Why would you consider anything else?
 
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dantroline said:
In some respects this is not a mass produced product, so boutique prices are justifiable. Easy for me to say of course because I'm not buying one :rolleyes:
[automerge]1576008520[/automerge]

Are two 580X's going to outperform a 5700XT? Would be cheaper, but I wonder if MacOS and its software would make use of this.
Click to expand...
I would want the W5700X for the 16GB of VRAM, which is going to be more important in certain applications and strike a better middle ground as those Vega II’s are not cheap. This was a gap Apple needed to close, so was adding the 8TB SSD option.

Next up needs to bea refreshed iMac Pro with update CPU, GPU, DRAM ceiling and an extra Thunderbolt 3 bus (2 ports) along with the 8TB SSD.
 
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Sedulous said:
Thus “consumer version”. The CPU accounts for more an 50% of the base model cost. Apple could, in theory, drop in a consumer grade CPU (i7 or i9) and drop the base model price by $2000.
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Well if Apple released a consumer grade CPU with regular RAM, regular non-workstation GPU, then it would really undercut their Mac Pro market.

It wouldn't be very "Mac Pro" anymore.


(I'm for a cheaper Mac Pro in case that's unclear)
 
alphaod said:
Well if Apple released a consumer grade CPU with regular RAM, regular non-workstation GPU, then it would really undercut their Mac Pro market.

It wouldn't be very "Mac Pro" anymore.


(I'm for a cheaper Mac Pro in case that's unclear)
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The MacBook PRO is only available with i7 or i9. Buyers that want the workstation class hardware (Xeon, ECC RAM, etc) can get workstation class hardware. It is in Apple’s interest to increase volume of the bulk of the hardware (such as the chassis, power supply, etc). By NOT having a consumer oriented model this product will remain niche while leaving a gaping whole the the product line for no reason other than “Pro must mean Xeon”. The beauty of Mac Pro (and its predecessors) was that the cost of entry was attainable and it scaled up to suit.
 
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Sedulous said:
Thus “consumer version”. The CPU accounts for more an 50% of the base model cost. Apple could, in theory, drop in a consumer grade CPU (i7 or i9) and drop the base model price by $2000.
Click to expand...
It’s not a drop-in...that’s a completely new motherboard with less PCIe slots, DIMM slots, et al. Needs to be tested, validated, etc.

it’s not in the cards, they are never going to do it.
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Sedulous said:
The MacBook PRO is only available with i7 or i9. Buyers that want the workstation class hardware (Xeon, ECC RAM, etc) can get workstation class hardware. It is in Apple’s interest to increase volume of the bulk of the hardware (such as the chassis, power supply, etc). By NOT having a consumer oriented model this product will remain niche while leaving a gaping whole the the product line for reason other than “Pro must mean Xeon”. The beauty of Mac Pro (and its predecessors) was that the cost of entry was attainable and it scaled up to suit.
Click to expand...

That was then, this is now. It’s time to move on.
 
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Zdigital2015 said:
It’s not a drop-in...that’s a completely new motherboard with less PCIe slots, DIMM slots, et al. Needs to be tested, validated, etc.

it’s not in the cards, they are never going to do it.
[automerge]1576018911[/automerge]


That was then, this is now. It’s time to move on.
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I know it is a different socket but same case, power supply, connectors, and largely same logic board components. Yes, it is great to see Apple offering serious hardware. However I see a big product line gap that could have been addressed by offering a consumer grade version of this same machine. This would be better for Apple because it would increase volume. Greater volume means lower manufacturing cost and more potential interest by third parties to support Apple's double-wide PCI-e connection... which as it stands, will probably never see any additional cards made for it.
 
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