Apple Confirms Mac Pro Is Dead, No Future Models Planned

[MacRumors]

Apple has discontinued the Mac Pro and has removed the machine from its website, reports 9to5Mac. Apple said it does not plan to design a new version of the Mac Pro, and no new model will be coming in the future.

The Mac Pro was last updated in 2023, which was when Apple added an M2 Ultra Apple silicon chip, but the chassis has not been refreshed since 2019. Apple redesigned the Mac Pro to be more modular in 2019 after failing with its "innovative" trashcan Mac Pro, but the machine has never been mainstream due to its $6,999 starting price.

Apple has largely replaced the Mac Pro with the Mac Studio, a device that is smaller and uses newer Apple silicon chips. The Mac Studio is now Apple's high-end desktop machine designed for professional use.

The current Mac Studio features an M3 Ultra chip, though it is expected to get an M5 Ultra refresh later this year. Apple's desktop lineup also includes the Mac mini and the iMac.

The Mac Pro's downfall started in 2013 when Apple introduced a radical cylindrical design that turned out to be a major mistake. The Mac Pro's components were mounted around a central thermal dissipation core and cooled with a single fan that pulled air from under the case, through the core, and out of the top of the machine. It was quiet, but not efficient.

When Apple announced the 2013 Mac Pro, Phil Schiller infamously said "Can't innovate anymore, my ass," in response to critics who complained about the Mac Pro's lack of updates and Apple's failure to create products for pro users.

Unfortunately, the 2013 Mac Pro's design did not include PCIe expansion slots for graphics cards and other hardware, with expansion handled through Thunderbolt 2 ports. The design also did not account for future updates in GPU technology, leaving Apple unable to add larger graphics cards and other components to the device.

Apple ended up apologizing to its pro user base and said the 2013 design was thermally constrained in a way that made upgrades impossible. It took Apple until 2019 to unveil the current Mac Pro, which adopted a more standard tower form factor with eight PCIe slots.

After the 2019 launch, the Mac Pro got an Apple silicon chip in 2023, and that's it. There have been three Mac Pro updates in the last 13 years, so it's not surprising to see the Mac Pro retired. The Mac Studio offers almost all of the same capabilities as the Mac Pro, with the exception of PCIe expansion slots.

Article Link: Apple Confirms Mac Pro Is Dead, No Future Models Planned

 

[MacUserFella]

Saw this coming from miles away, no one is paying a few extra thousands for PCIe ports

 

[MakeAppleAwesomeAgain]

They were finally out of M2 Ultra chips.

 

[docfrag]

But I bought the wheels first and was saving for the computer!

 

[Morod]

Better grab your wheels while you can!

 

[con2apple]

Saw this coming from miles away, no one is paying a few extra thousands for PCIe ports

Practically useless PCIe ports.

 

[STOCK411]

LONG live the cheese grader

 

[abatabia]

As predicted by many. The end of an era. I’m a proud, yes I said proud owner of a trash can that still gets limited use.

 

[963852741]

Without additional GPU options and ways of using multiples M soc chips I don't see how it's any different than a Studio. PCI slots?

 

[TechieTaco]

But what am I going to use my $700 wheels for now?

 

[Happy_John]

Sad, but not surprising. It was effectively replaced by the Studio, and the only reason they hadn't discontinued it before now was it ticked the "made/assembled in the USA" box they needed to tick, but now a percentage of Mac Minis will tick that box instead.

The M2 Mac Pro was a let-down, but the 2019 Mac Pro was a lovely piece of hardware, and a worthy successor to the 5,1 ( the absolute king of Mac Pros ) and all the Mac Pros previously.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

Put dem wheels on your Mac studio 👍

 

[BigJohno]

Sad day for sure. Could be back in some form in the future but it's clear now, Apple wan't Mac Studio + Studio XDR as the future.

 

[ReliableSource]

Guess that’s what happens when you try to bring manufacturing to the US (jk)

 

[dannyyankou]

Not really surprising after they renamed the Pro Display XDR to the Studio Display XDR.

 

[maflynn]

The writing has been on the wall for some time

Still sad to see such an iconic machine be discontinued

 

[just.in.time]

Definitely the end of an era. Especially if you include the Power Macintosh line that preceded it, a very long era.

 

[Soonerpet]

It is sad, but since Apple would never allow or find a way to use real video cards in the Pro, the slots were mostly useless. The M series chips are amazing, if we could only take advantage of nvidia off the shelf cards as well, we’d have the perfect desktop. I hate that to this day I still have to keep a windows computer around just for gaming. Back in the day with the Intel Mac pros I was able to upgrade and put high power graphics cards in those and for a while had the dream of one system, Mac and gaming all in one. I miss those days.

 

[kiensoy]

Can't innovate any more my ass

 

[HouseLannister]

Cuz only the good DIE YOUNG!!!

 

[Jamie0003]

I wonder why they even bothered after the trashcan?

 

[warriors2017]

How do I grate my cheese now?

 

[Happy_John]

I wonder why they even bothered after the trashcan?

The 2019 (7,1) was a ridiculously lovely machine. It was an extremely good (almost) last stand for the Mac Pro line ( I'm deliberately wiping the M2 Mac Pro from my memory ).

 

[visualseed]

As predicted by many. The end of an era. I’m a proud, yes I said proud owner of a trash can that still gets limited use.

For all the negative things said about it, mine just keeps chugging along and remains very useful. I phased out all my other Intel Macs over the last couple of years, but this one was just a sweet spot for specs and performance to warrant a reprieve.

 

[jayducharme]

I wonder if what really killed off the Mac Pro was Thunderbolt. Bus speeds have gotten so ridiculously fast with TB5 that internal cards are losing their edge (though having them internal made for fewer external peripherals).