Apple Mulling Preview of New Modular Mac Pro at WWDC in June

[Microdot]

My company is moving on because of lack of updates to the hardware - and everything else that we use has been getting better and better.. macs stayed the same.

ditto.

my main workstation was a 2013 mac pro. when it finally died, i decided it was time to move on. built a ryzen workstation, for the same price as what the current mac pro runs, and it runs loops around it... 8 cores at 4.4ghz, 64gb ram, rtx 2080, 2tb nvme, and 4tb of ssd storage. all for less than the entry level mac pro, which is YEARS behind.

they are going to have to knock it out of the park for me to move back, as this ability to upgrade on a whim is just too enticing.

 

[theluggage]

Not promised in 2019.

There was a later comment that said it would be "a 2019 product":
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/04/05/apples-revamped-mac-pro-to-launch-in-2019/

This is the same Bloomberg that has the unverified and unretracted story about Chinese spy chips, correct?

Yes, but who cares - the claim is so non-falsifiable that its almost a tautology. The idea that Apple are considering previewing something that they've described as "a 2019 product" at what is usually their major press event of the year is one for the International Review of Papal Denomination (incorporating The Journal of Urso-Sylvanian Scatology and The Role of Constipation in 19th-Century Detective Fiction)".

Apple is very cautious as they can’t get the Pro wrong again.

Too late. They've already got it wrong by not having had a viable high-end Mac workstation for 5+ years.
If they had a viable mini-tower Xeon Mac with PCIe graphics, they'd solve 90% of pro users' problems and have all the time in the world to do something innovative.

10-15 years ago, such a machine - esp. at PC-competitive prices - might have cannibalised sales of iMacs and laptops, but today only pro/enthusiast/hobbyist users would consider such a system - and any such users who aren't prepared to pay a premium for MacOS have already jumped ship or built a Hackintosh.

They've also apparently decided that the "Mac Pro" is exclusively for people doing VR or cinema-quality video on cinema-quality budgets, and that people who prefer a desktop for flexibility and customisability without necessarily needing a 16 core Xeon and workstation-grade graphics can go whistle.

 

[cwkoller5]

Don't waste your time trying to make it a silent/convection work of art, Apple. Most of us stick them under our desks and save that real estate for screens, input devices and speakers. You had it right in 2012. Just update it and lets start making **** together again.

 

[lawrencen]

Yes, but will it support Nvidia gpu's? I'm seriously considering switching
Win10. I have been waiting for a year for Titan V support, let alone lack of Mojave drivers.Pro level work requires the ability to choose the best GPU for the task & AMD doesn't always cut it.

I finally bit the bullet and have my first PC at home in 20 years. Im actually quite happy. I still love my mac everything else but am dont with this BS. I built my own (was fun) and am now happily rocking an RTX 2080ti and soon will be adding a second 2080ti (for GPU rendering).

At my work - Design/Animation/VFX the design team switched from Mac to PC last year.

 

[lkrupp]

I have a feeling people will be disappointed.

Well, that’s a given, at least to the MacRumors crowd. Nothing Apple comes up with will stop the immediate trashing and declarations of DOA. They’re already locked and loaded. Just read this very thread.

 

[elvislives]

It better be Nvidia Apple.

 

[Plutonius]

If they are mulling it over, it seems to indicate that it's not close to completion and I doubt it will come out in 2019 .

 

[Stella]

Apple is trying to make this Pro machine some sort of fashion accessory, just like the useless and failed Trash Can, which no Pro wants. Otherwise, why else would it take Apple so long? It sits on / around your desk helping you to be productive and probably making $$. The Pro machine needs to be expandable and powerful at that.

If you want a fashion accessory you don't need a Pro machine, get an iPad or MacBook Air instead.

 

[Freida]

They’re mulling the preview, not the product. I figured that out from the title alone. Relax.

thats not what he meant but im sure you figured it out by now

 

[emigre808]

NOT gonna buy a $10K Mac Pro that has some radical design at release and then is NEVER updated. If apple would just throw out a spec bump on their iMac i would purchase 12 of them today - my designers are on old iMacs... been waiting for more than a year

 

[Stella]

I get the impression that some folks think the concept picture in this article is what Apple will be shipping.

No the new Mac won’t look like a Mac Mini nor have a Touch Bar.

If it were ( which as you point out, isn't ) , that machine would be totally and utterly useless!! Too small, not enough expandability. It wouldn't even fit an Nvidia 2080 GPU.

 

[Freida]

I am mulling over whether this is a good idea.
Apple used to launch products not to preview them. Every single time they preview something, tends up being a year late.
I'd rather they just continue to make it as good as they possibly can and release it in September or December with immediate availability than telling us how great it's going to be with an "end of year" date which becomes end of year 2020.

it needs to be previewed. Pro market is different than consumers. Companies need to plan ahead etc. Also, the PRO market is pissed off right now and Apple promised to fix it so everyone is watching. Apple needs to deliver or otherwise they will be in trouble and lose eventually. Its that simple

 

[AxiomaticRubric]

I have a feeling people will be disappointed.

Disappointed by what? The price? The features? Both?

 

[Manzanito]

Remember when they stacked the Mac minis last year? Why not have a modular system like that where you can buy different modules, depending on what you need/expand.

Why not design a tower, a system that actually works?
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WWDC 19 - Mac Pro previewed
Dec 19 - Available to order
March 20 - first lower end models ship
May 20 - All models ship
?????? - first update

If they screw up there will be no update. The rest of the timeline seems legit.

 

[Heineken]

Disappointed by what? The price? The features? Both?

People will find a reason.

 

[Joe The Dragon]

Release the damn thing already! it's a computer! most people can build one in a weekend! They are getting my nerves with dragging it out so long. They announced they had a dedicated team working on it 2 years ago.. So lets assume a team is 4 people working 40 hours a week, how can it take 2 years! I'd expect 3 months at the most!

Thunderbolt is the issue as well apple not wanting to have a voodoo video card like loop back cable that other pro workstations use to have TB.

Apple also likes looks over good cooling so they pick hardware that fits there space and when that get's delayed it slows them down.

Imac pro looks and thin got in the way of the ram door.

 

[Brownie77]

Apple are just 'mulling' this over?? Their lack of commitment to the Pro market is astounding (but sadly not surprising)!!

Well it may, or may not be ready to show. You shouldn't draw from this a lack of commitment - obviously.

 

[Abazigal]

Disappointed by what? The price? The features? Both?

That Apple’s definition of Modular is not going to be what the rest expect it to be.

Let’s recap.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/05/apples-2019-imac-pro-will-be-shaped-by-workflows/

What shape that modularity takes is another matter entirely, of course. I know some people have been pining for the days of internal expansion card configurations with standardized hardware — and maybe that is the way that this will go. But on Tuesday I also got a tour of the editing suites where Mac hardware and software is pushed to the limits, including extensive use of eGPU support, and a different vision emerges.

First, we visit the room where they record new instruments for Logic and Garage Band and then on to an edit bay used by the Pro Workflow Team to put Final Cut Pro through its paces.

Throughout, the idea of modularity was omnipresent. An iMac Pro with two iPad Pros hooked up to it allows for direct control, shortcuts and live access to the Logic manual, all while you’re mixing a song on the main device: an eGPU with a MacBook Pro running a live edit of an 8K stream with color grading and effects applied.

External GPUs plugged into MacBook Pros, in my opinion, is going to be an enormous shift in the way that people think about portables. I got a live demo of a graphics stress test running on a MacBook Pro natively, then on one and then two external GPUs. The switching is nearly seamless, depending on the age of the app, and some modern rendering software can use all three in concert. It’s one of those things that works exactly the way you think it would, and it leans heavily on Thunderbolt 3.

 

[oneMadRssn]

Apple is really over-thinking this. Mac Pro is a truck to get work done, and all it's drivers want is a modern cheese grater-style tower.

Agreed. This shouldn't be so difficult. Heck even a custom MicroATX or MiniITX computer would only take a few months to design.

The fact its taking this long suggests they're going for another radical new and unusual design, which is unfortunate.

 

[canonical]

I'd be very happy if they just updated the existing R2D2 Mac Pro

 

[Brownie77]

Apple is trying to make this Pro machine some sort of fashion accessory, just like the useless and failed Trash Can, which no Pro wants. Otherwise, why else would it take Apple so long? It sits on / around your desk helping you to be productive and probably making $$. The Pro machine needs to be expandable and powerful at that.

If you want a fashion accessory you don't need a Pro machine, get an iPad or MacBook Air instead.

"Apple is trying to make this Pro machine some sort of fashion accessory" how do you know that?

"Otherwise, why else would it take Apple so long?" Ahhh because you have no idea about product development so the answer must be "fashion accessory". Wrong company to watch if you want fast turn around and quick products.

 

[Fishrrman]

Entry-level price for the Pro and the 6k display will probably be $7-8,000 ...

 

[Joe The Dragon]

There was a later comment that said it would be "a 2019 product":
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/04/05/apples-revamped-mac-pro-to-launch-in-2019/



Yes, but who cares - the claim is so non-falsifiable that its almost a tautology. The idea that Apple are considering previewing something that they've described as "a 2019 product" at what is usually their major press event of the year is one for the International Review of Papal Denomination (incorporating The Journal of Urso-Sylvanian Scatology and The Role of Constipation in 19th-Century Detective Fiction)".



Too late. They've already got it wrong by not having had a viable high-end Mac workstation for 5+ years.
If they had a viable mini-tower Xeon Mac with PCIe graphics, they'd solve 90% of pro users' problems and have all the time in the world to do something innovative.

10-15 years ago, such a machine - esp. at PC-competitive prices - might have cannibalised sales of iMacs and laptops, but today only pro/enthusiast/hobbyist users would consider such a system - and any such users who aren't prepared to pay a premium for MacOS have already jumped ship or built a Hackintosh.

They've also apparently decided that the "Mac Pro" is exclusively for people doing VR or cinema-quality video on cinema-quality budgets, and that people who prefer a desktop for flexibility and customisability without necessarily needing a 16 core Xeon and workstation-grade graphics can go whistle.

An 2K (2.5K and up at apple pricing) workstation does not really hit laptops maybe some imac stuff.

the imac pro is nice but start point is high an workstation needs to start at 3K-3.5K max. more likely is 2.5K (with an case that is easy to change storage) don't really 1TB of high cost storage at apple price.

$150-$250 for 1TB pci-e m.2 or Samsung 970 PRO $350 means that apple needs to it's cost be say $450-$500 for 1TB (full price not upgrade from)
also base needs to be 256GB (pro users have there own storage needs and may not want to have 1TB-2TB of base non raid non recovery storage)
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"Apple is trying to make this Pro machine some sort of fashion accessory" how do you know that?

"Otherwise, why else would it take Apple so long?" Ahhh because you have no idea about product development so the answer must be "fashion accessory". Wrong company to watch if you want fast turn around and quick products.

Dell and HP have pro workstations that get updated all the time and they don't get config and price locked for long times no they get small bumps over time as well new cpu's as they come out. Also need video card choices as well.

And they start with lower end video cards.

 

[anthogag]

They should show a preview but not too much because Samsung will reverse engineer and analyze the ad right down to the last frame.

 

[guzhogi]

I miss the days of the Power Mac 9500/9600 that had lots of expansion slots, and G4s where you could just swing down the door and get access to everything. Don't forget Xserves. Unfortunately, I feel Apple cares more about consumers than Pros (in this case "Producers," rather than "Professionals"). Someone remind me, wasn't there a story a while ago that stated that Apple sold more iPhones/iPads than Macs? And that includes the much longer history of Macs. I have to wonder if Apple will ever cut its Mac line entirely if/when iPads can run a full version of Xcode.