Apple Executive Discusses New Mac Pro's Lack of Graphics Card Support

[MacRumors]

While the new Mac Pro features six available PCI Express expansion slots for audio, video capture, storage, networking, and more, the desktop tower is no longer compatible with graphics cards. Instead, graphics processing is handled entirely by the M2 chip, which includes up to a 76-core GPU that can access up to 192GB of unified memory.

Apple's hardware engineering chief John Ternus briefly touched on the matter in an interview with Daring Fireball's John Gruber last week, explaining that expandable GPU support for Apple silicon is not something that the company has pursued.

"Fundamentally, we've built our architecture around this shared memory model and that optimization, and so it's not entirely clear to me how you'd bring in another GPU and do so in a way that is optimized for our systems," Ternus told Gruber. "It hasn't been a direction that we wanted to pursue."

Another limitation of the new Mac Pro compared to the Intel-based model is the lack of user-upgradeable RAM, given the unified memory is soldered to the M2 Ultra chip. In addition, the Intel-based model could be configured with up to 1.5TB of RAM, which is 8× as much as the 192GB maximum for the Apple silicon model.

There are certainly advantages to the new Mac Pro and its unified architecture. For example, Apple says the new Mac Pro is up to 3× faster than the Intel-based model for certain real-world workflows like video transcoding and 3D simulations. For video processing, Apple says the new Mac Pro's performance is equivalent to an Intel-based model with seven Afterburner cards. For overall CPU performance, the new Mac Pro's $6,999 base model is up to 2× faster than a 28-core Intel-based Mac Pro, which started at $12,999.

The new Mac Pro is available to order now, and launches in stores on Tuesday. Customers who don't need PCI Express expansion should consider the Mac Studio, which can be configured with the M2 Ultra chip for $3,000 less than the Mac Pro.

Article Link: Apple Executive Discusses New Mac Pro's Lack of Graphics Card Support

 

[redbeard331]

Seems like a weird decision, at least it can still grate thicc mozzarella shreds.

 

[tomnavratil]

Due to the lack of external GPU support as well as very limited RAM, this makes it quite a niche machine at that price point. There are a few use cases where this device makes sense over the new Studio but for people who need RAM-heavy or GPU-heavy operations locally, the older Intel version might be a better option. However if they keep the same form factor, maybe a proper rebuild will occur in a year or two, we shall see.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

I’ll wait for the real world testing, as that seems to be a better indicator of value than benchmarking.

The optimisation from Apple’s own GPU and unified memory should also play a factor.

 

[dogstar]

Apple trolling real devs..

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

I still think the new Mac Pro is still an overpriced machine.

Apple needs to come out with Mac Pro Mini.

 

[blazerunner]

How do you not plan for the most common device used in PCIe slots? WTF is wrong with Apple?

 

[QuarterSwede]

I think it’s clear Apple is all in on the Vision Pro and spatial computing being the future of computing and for this goal quick access to memory is essential. I don’t see them creating a different system just for the Mac Pro.

This snippet doesn’t really give you the whole story Ternus was telling either. It leaves out a decent amount of context. His portion (as well as Mike Rockwell’s on the Vision Pro) is worth watching.

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

If people make a big enough stink, we can change their minds. The 2019 happened because people complained.

 

[Rob__Mac]

I still think the new Mac Pro is still an overpriced machine.

Apple needs to come out with Mac Pro Mini.

View attachment 2216585

It’s called Mac Studio.

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

If people make a big enough stink, we can change their minds. The 2019 happened because people complained.

This time it’s a software limitation, not hardware

 

[retta283]

If people make a big enough stink, we can change their minds. The 2019 happened because people complained.

This time they will just discontinue it, I assume. It's such a tiny sliver of their Mac sales (which are a small portion of their overall sales) that if no one is buying it they will gladly use that excuse to axe it. PCIe expansion is already possible through external means on the Studio, IIRC.

 

[Longplays]

Due to the lack of external GPU support as well as very limited RAM, this makes it quite a niche machine at that price point. There are a few use cases where this device makes sense over the new Studio but for people who need RAM-heavy or GPU-heavy operations locally, the older Intel version might be a better option. However if they keep the same form factor, maybe a proper rebuild will occur in a year or two, we shall see.

Top 5 Companies, Worldwide PC Workstation Shipments, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, 2022 (shipments in thousands of units)

Company	2022 Shipments	2022 Market Share	2021 Shipments	2021 Market Share	2022/2021 Growth
1. Dell Technologies	3,171.2	41.4%	2,979.6	39.8%	+6.4%
2. HP Inc.	2,580.4	33.7%	2,549.3	34.0%	+1.2%
3. Lenovo	1,860.0	24.3%	1,920.9	25.6%	-3.2%
4. ASUS	24.5	0.3%	19.7	0.3%	+24.3%
5. NEC	20.1	0.3%	26.1	0.3%	-22.7%
Total	7,656.2	100.0%	7,495.6	100.0%	+2.1%

Source: https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS50454823

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

I wonder if a VM could work with one 🤔

 

[jz0309]

If people make a big enough stink, we can change their minds. The 2019 happened because people complained.

Good luck…
Apple is going after bigger fish …

 

[AAPLGeek]

How do you not plan for the most common device used in PCIe slots? WTF is wrong with Apple?

Too busy drinking their own kool-aid to care what real pros want.

The new Mac Pro is basically meant for some YouTuber that "creates content" shooting in 8K Red RAW.

 

[ururk]

Has Apple not heard of this magical thing called AI (/s)? Right now available libraries for ML rely heavily on GPU power, NVIDIA tensor cores. The libraries that do make use of Apple technologies do so in sub-optimal ways - either because Apple has not provided the right hooks (GitHub issues pointing to lack of support in Apple frameworks) or because industry is heavily using Tensor cores. Sure, Apple's chipsets may be very powerful, but they are limited by what Apple provides at the framework level.

 

[Vega20]

Apple trolling real devs..

Seriously. Like who do they think will use this product? The need for external GPU's has never been stronger, especially for developers, engineers, and even "creatives" like 3D and game designers. I wonder if VM passthrough would work in Parallels or something. Also apparently the PCIe slots are sharing bandwidth so even your typical audio expansion cards will probably be slower than the 7,1 even at Gen 4. What on earth is this thing?

 

[turbineseaplane]

The sales will be low because of how they gimped this thing….

And they will cancel the product within two years.

 

[oofio2461]

A mac pro with a 4090 would be excellent, great for everything including gaming, but Apple hates having a discrete GPU on their Macs. on a laptop sure but on a desktop why not allow a discrete GPU from AMD or even Nvidia? Sure iGPU's are gaining power but are simply not ready enough for very intense tasks like gaming.

 

[TheChancellor]

What do you need the PCIE slots for in 2023? Genuine question. If graphics cards are out what is the use case for this machine? Mac Studio is probably better use of money. Seriously

 

[till]

Pretty silly excuse, since extra GPUs in a pro workstation would be doing stuff like video/3D rendering and compute, not real-time gaming. The real problem is of course the drivers. You can't really expect NVIDIA or AMD to make decent Mac drivers without giving them a large pile of cash.

 

[Sevendaymelee]

I hate Windows and have switched to Mac completely. But if I were in the market for a new PC and wanted to spend that kind of money, believe me... it would be something else. At that range, I want complete control over my investment, not proprietary nonsense.

 

[MacFin]

It's pretty clear that Apple's main focus was getting that transition to Apple Silicon done, and they made some compromises with the new Mac Pro as a result. They did the same thing with the initial M1 Mac mini and 13" MacBook Pro – just slapped in the Apple Silicon and called it a day.

But here's what I think: when Apple is ready to launch the next generation, like the M3, they'll probably give the whole chassis a major overhaul. Right now, it feels like they were racing against time to ditch Intel and make good use of those leftover M2 chips that aren't selling well. So, this temporary solution totally makes sense. But you can see that Apple is leaning more towards a Mac Studio future, where the Mac Pro becomes a super niche product that they don't really expect to sell a ton of. Their main moneymaker in the future seems to be the Mac Studio, so that product line isn't going anywhere.

 

[sunapple]

Apple: we know exactly what our Pro costumers want.

Pro customers: