Apple Says New Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR Are Coming in September [Updated]

[IllIllIll]

Nobody seems to have touched upon this... But do you realize that the RX580 card that you get with the Mac Pro doesn't have its own display outputs? If you want to output to three displays, you will be using both of the backside Thunderbolt ports PLUS one of the top ones (now, that's gonna be convinient, a DP-cable going from the top of the machine to a monitor...) And then you have ONE TB output left for everything else. This seems insane to me. Unless it was done to make people buy the more expensive graphics card... AND to encourage you to buy an extra I/O card as well. Wow...

Why couldn't you just daisy-chain the three monitors? They're all Thunderbolt, right?

 

[LordVic]

Is that an LG 38 or 34 UC99 by any chance? If so you might want to look into getting a separate stand because the default one ...wobbles.

Gotcha covered
https://www.newegg.com/black-nixeus-nmst-15-single-monitor-stand/p/15Z-00RX-00002

 

[citysnaps]

The base iMac Pro is more powerful than the base Mac Pro, costs $1000 less, and includes a 5k monitor. That's the issue.

How’s that iMac Pro work when you want to expand or upgrade a year from now (or now for that matter)? For many that’s the issue when going against HP and Dell systems the Mac Pro will be competing against.

 

[ellsworth]

You can always go the cheaper route and hire someone to hold up the monitor for you while you work.

$1,000 will only pay them for 2 weeks.

 

[Zdigital2015]

I think it's more that they've spent a lot of time and effort to lock down machines to make them replacable commodities. They want us replacing computers every 2-3 years when they become "old" and not just upgrade bits and pieces. Apple gets zero revenues if you upgrade your Apple computer from 3rd party supplies.

Apple gets full computer revenue for each computer you have to replace now. There's no reason why Their computers can't or won't support Nvidia GPU's. They've just made a business decision not to.

Most of these decisions can always boil down to money and Apple's methods to maximize their profit above all else. Just like the Current Mac Mini. There is absolutely zero technical reason why the Storage is soldered in, except as a limit to how long and how much lengevity that will get.

I also think that these decisions were done to help kill the after-market for Apple computers. Apple again, doesn't want you buying a 3-5 year old Mac and upgrading it to meet your requirements. They want you buyin a new mac. All of these current soldered and glued down Macs are going to have resell value problems in the future. They will not get the same return as Apple computers used to get on resale because of it.

It's all about shortening the life of devices so that you replace them.

It has literally ZERO to do with shortening the life of an iMac or MacBook Pro. Those devices are important to Apple, but they pale in comparison to the importance of Apple’s iOS device sales and solely controlling the growth and direction of iOS.

The business decision to exclude NVIDIA is to keep them (NVIDIA) from having any influence over Apple’s machine learning initiatives. OpenML and on device Machine Learning is critical to Apple’s future sales and market growth. A mid-size tower with a removable GPU sounds pretty enticing to a developer, who are by definition tinkerers. Many developers work on cross-platform apps as well. NVIDIA wants its GPUs and CUDA to dominate DL and ML but has zero footprint with on-device ML. Apple has two CPUs with built in ML, the A11 and A12 Bionic.

Giving NVIDIA any “in” to promote CUDA over OpenML would give NVIDIA access to dominate ML and that is something Apple Is just not going to allow them to do to try and usurp their OpenML via a stealth takeover because a dev feels it will be easier to just learn CUDA than OpenML because CUDA is an “industry standard” and that will cut down on time developing cross platform apps and give them access to an enormous untapped mobile device market.

I’ll be the first to admit that this may be a stretch, but Apple keeping NVIDIA GPUs away from the Mac and not even mentioning them in the Mac Pro keynote tells me that does not consider NVIDIA just another GPU supplier, but more of a strategic competitor.

Call me crazy, call me paranoid, but I’ve said my peace. Believe it or not...this is about way more than hardware resale value.

 

[Baymowe335]

You cant, because there isn't one on the market at this price point. Assuming this is really as good as the spec listed, this XDR will sell like hot cakes. To customers that aren't even using Mac for production.

That's why you'll see how expensive a comparably capable display can be.

 

[Simon R.]

Why couldn't you just daisy-chain the three monitors? They're all Thunderbolt, right?

That will require monitors, that are TB/DP and can daisychain. None of mine can. It must be a very small number of monitors that can do that. E.g. I have an Eizo 4K monitor with Displayport, another with DP and then a TV with HDMI for video playback. Besides, running cables from one monitor to the next is just ridiculous for cable management compared to running all three cables from your desktop.

 

[brendu]

Make do is weak sauce. How about a product that generates excitement for people wanting cooling and expandability (this excludes mini/imac) and is affordable to enthusiasts willing to pay $3K entry point of previous Mac Pros?

Apple doesn’t care, sorry. I fit your description so I built a hackintosh.

 

[gugy]

Damn, I would love to have the workstation set up but spending around $15/16k to get the MP/Display is just too much for me right now.
I'll just upgrade my MP 2010 5,1 and hang in there for couple of years and start saving.
Honestly, despite the fact the prices are huge, this workstation is something that you can easily use for 10 years and recoup that expense pretty quickly.
I just wished Apple have a lower price point entry for a 6 core MP and a 5K display for folks that need expandability and do not care about the iMacPro and MacMini.
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I used to have the 12 core 2010 MP + 30"ACD which was amazing setup and the display was beautiful.

I still have these working perfectly. My MOP is 8 years old and the displays I think 12 or longer.
That's why I want another MP and displays. These set up will work for a long time at high level.

 

[Analog Kid]

Great news for tens of dozens of people who will actually buy these. A vast majority of the creative individuals like video editors, musicians, photographers and graphic designers is priced out of the Mac Pro market.

Funny, but for years I'd been hearing that "pros" weren't using Macs because they lag in performance and Apple only cared about catering to the latte sipping, blue bubble crowd.

This is the problem with addressing the pro market-- the vocal masses are always going to be unhappy because there's something out there with better specs that they just can't add to their collection...

 

[atomic.flip]

Yeah, Disney isn't saying, "Wow, these are expensive."

First of all, professional equipment isn't cheap and those who buy it understand that. Go price an XDR comparable display and workstation. Apple actually is presenting tremendous value in this space. The $999 stand is the only questionable piece.

Secondly, money isn't the only determining factor for buying something, particularly when you have it. All cars are transportation, but BMWs, Benz, Ferrari, Porsche, etc deliver on metrics people care about.

Yeah, BUT... you don’t see people “hauling industrial equipment in a Porsche”.

You also don’t see people buying a Ferrari specifically to shuttle clients from one location to another.

Your comparison is as flawed as the justification for some of the cost of the machine.

Where I will concede the price is reasonable is for the Tower. That is priced appropriately compared to many enterprise server components. But the 1,000 dollar monitor stand is ludicrous.

 

[jgbr]

Absolutely not. What's wrong with an iMac (pick your model)? It's way more capable than the Original Recipe CheezeGrater, just lacks the expandability, which the Middle of the Market doesn't need--and never really has. But if you insist on the ORC, there are several places online that sell upgrades that will make your unit up to date. That's what I would do if ours start failing to meet our needs.

Prosumers want something upgradable within a budget. This product is purely for professionals. It’s the prosumers still caught in the middle between thermal throttling, better value in windows and taking a mortgage out. Apple would sell a lot of machines if it had something more upgradeable down in the 2000-3000 dollar range.

 

[ipedro]

Great news for tens of dozens of people who will actually buy these. A vast majority of the creative individuals like video editors, musicians, photographers and graphic designers is priced out of the Mac Pro market.

I don’t usually deride people who like to consider themselves pros but you’re not a legitimate professional if you can’t afford $12K for your every day editing tool.

Someone can be a talented video or photography hobbyist but being a professional implies that’s you’re making money doing said activity.

I just dropped $25K on a camera and a set of lenses not long ago. It’s ok because I convert that investment into revenue that pays for my hardware and then continues to pay dividends for years.

 

[Baymowe335]

Yeah, BUT... you don’t see people “hauling industrial equipment in a Porsche”.

You also don’t see people buying a Ferrari specifically to shuttle clients from one location to another.

Your comparison is as flawed as the justification for some of the cost of the machine.

Where I will concede the price is reasonable is for the Tower. That is priced appropriately compared to many enterprise server components. But the 1,000 dollar monitor stand is ludicrous.

If the monitor were $6,000 with the stand, it's still a good value...really good. The fact it comes without a stand is normal and that's why they didn't waste throwing in the stand as standard. It maybe is the wrong price point, but again, look at the RED camera arms and other professional equipment. Not cheap my man.

My comparison wasn't exactly supposed to be a 1 to 1 analogy. It's just an illustration of consumers being in the market for different value stories.

I also never said what people do with their Porsches or Ferraris. The point was that people buy really expensive stuff for very specific reasons, many unrelated to what you can understand buying a Camry.

Again, price a similarly capable workstation. My HP workstation at work retails for $8,000 and it's worse.

 

[routine_analyst]

AirPower ... coming soon.

At least this one gives a month and not something completely ambiguous.

 

[Zdigital2015]

Good question - we don't even know yet what model of CPUs are being utilized and as to what extent you can upgrade the machine yourself with aftermarket parts. What's for sure is that there haven't been massive improvements to the CPUs over the years aside from stuffing more and more cores into them. 8 core vs 8 core perhaps you'd be looking at a 30% CPU speed improvement (wild guess) and overall faster throughput but nothing like twice the speed or better. GPUs might be a different topic but then you do at least have the option to go eGPU on yours and get a better card than what the new base model ships with.



The new one looks very un-Apple for sure. Have to admit I do find the shiny surface of my 6,1 a bit silly to look at - it produces a distorted reflection of its surroundings, quite odd when you are sitting in front of it while wearing a white shirt. Matte would have been a better choice IMO, also less of a fingerprint-magnet.

The CPUs being used are the:

Xeon W-3223 - $749
Xeon W-3235 - $1398.00
Xeon W-3245 - $1999.00
Xeon W-3265M - $6353.00
Xeon W-3275M - $7453.00

They were released last week and the are based on the recently released Cascade Lake 2nd generation Xeon Scalable Processors. Source: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/series/125035/intel-xeon-w-processor.html

The CPUs should be easily upgradeable as the Mac Pro uses the same LGA-3467 as any other PC OEM. Which doesn't mean you are going to want to do that given the cost of the CPUs. Massive improvements in CPUs over the year's is Intel's department. Pretty sure it will void your warranty...I'm sure most Pros will BTO what they need and then update down the line when the Xeon W is cheaper or not worry about it once the lease runs out.

The PCIe slots are standard slots and you can install a different GPU at some point in the future that is not an MPX module. NVIDIA is a non-starter, though.

The Mac Pro has 8 PCIe 3.0 slots and standard DDR4-ECC DIMM slots. Pretty sure that aftermarket parts are a fairly simple affair.

The storage is completely Apple proprietary and there is no aftermarket parts there yet. The storage is simply NAND packages on a board with minimal support chips. There are no m.2 slots. There should be x4 PCIe SSDs that can fit in a PCIe slot should you want one.

Promise making MPX module thatch hold 2.5" and 3.5" HDDs should you want to fill your $6K Mac Pro with spinning rust.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[ryanwarsaw]

Great news for tens of dozens of people who will actually buy these. A vast majority of the creative individuals like video editors, musicians, photographers and graphic designers is priced out of the Mac Pro market.

You also don't see a whole lot of homeless people driving a dump truck to work.

 

[Peperino]

Great news for tens of dozens of people who will actually buy these. A vast majority of the creative individuals like video editors, musicians, photographers and graphic designers is priced out of the Mac Pro market.

Exactly,

The new Mac Pro is for studios only, not for the so called "Pro" video editors, musicians, etc.

We are all still where we were before without any option whatsoever.
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$1,000 will only pay them for 2 weeks.

Hey, you can buy a Ferrari, but the Wheels are optional...!

 

[SSDGUY]

Great news for tens of dozens of people who will actually buy these. A vast majority of the creative individuals like video editors, musicians, photographers and graphic designers is priced out of the Mac Pro market.

Yup. And it appears the entry model is lower spec'd than iMac Pro but much more $'s. So frustrating.

 

[mannyvel]

What's strange is a used trashcan is about the same price as a decent Mac Mini. Time to server-ize my 5,1.

 

[jmovie]

Great news for tens of dozens of people who will actually buy these. A vast majority of the creative individuals like video editors, musicians, photographers and graphic designers is priced out of the Mac Pro market.

You're right-- because "creative individuals" is not the same thing as creative professionals. Post-production houses and recording studios are often equipped with $800 Aeron chairs, $20,000 sound systems and $40,000 reference monitors. The clue is in the name: Mac PRO.

 

[snek]

I just want a good desktop with a somewhat decent GPU that does not have a super duper crazy extreme price tag.

 

[oneMadRssn]

What’s the justification for the $999 monitor stand? I understand that if you’re spending almost $10000 on a monitor and computer together, another $999 isn’t a killer. But there’s nothing else special with that stand, right, other than being designed specifically for that monitor?

It does some telescoping and (I assume) is made of some very nice materials. Seems excessive to me, but I'm not the target audience.

If you look at high-quality counter-balanced monitor arms, they're pretty expensive. $1000 is certainly high, but not out of the ordinary.

This one is over $1000, and designed for monitors up to 69lbs. https://www.ergoexperts.com/collect...ive-9105-xhd-extra-heavy-duty-lcd-monitor-arm

This is the one I have at work, $450. https://www.ergoexperts.com/collections/monitor-arms/products/humanscale-m8-1-adjustable-monitor-arm

 

[shaunp]

3 more months for us to sell our kidneys.

(Okay, okay, I know that this product is not for us and is for the real pros )

Can you tell Apple what a 'real pro' is please? They seem to think all the freelancers and small businesses have become hobbyists.

 

[raghu8912]

What’s the justification for the $999 monitor stand? I understand that if you’re spending almost $10000 on a monitor and computer together, another $999 isn’t a killer. But there’s nothing else special with that stand, right, other than being designed specifically for that monitor?

So far I know is that no screws or assembly needed to attach monitor to stand, just magnets, one person can remove and attach display to stand with out any tools.