Apple Silicon Mac Pro Reportedly Not Coming at WWDC, Mac Studio Refresh Likely Delayed Until M3

[jayducharme]

I wonder if Apple internally is struggling to justify the existence of the Mac Pro. The "pro" market is a dwindling segment of their sales. The Mac Studio was the most powerful desktop they ever made. The only difference a Mac Pro would bring is the ability to customize components, if that's even possible with the new architecture. Rather than upgrading components, Apple's philosophy of late seems to be to trade in your old desktop for a new one. In the end, that might be more cost effective than continually upgrading. But that's not the "pro" mindset.

 

[DavidSchaub]

Regarding

Given the discounts on M2 Pro/Max MBP along with previous 2021 models for even less, I think it's a reasonable premise. The MBPs have great displays for a bright room, compared to the 13" M2 MBA. The colors as well as the two sizes also. They have been selling well ever since they arrived in Oct 2021 as AS platform MBP. Serious it took several days to locate the M1 Max models early when they were being sold. The MBA is no where they're equal once the discounting started because of performance vs battery life. Most business people have a 14"/16" MBP. The 13" MBP is like an odd duckling still as they still haven't updated the 720P Face Time Camera and old stereo speakers.

I would certainly hope that nobody is buying the 13" MBP, but that September 2022 was RIGHT after the M2 13" MBP came out, which heavily biases it.

Beyond the issue that I don't believe that the MBP is outselling the MBA (except perhaps for the month right after new MBPs are released), but what I truly cannot believe that the Mac Pro was 11% of all Macs sold in September 2022... That is just bananas sounding.

Even if the numbers are right, seeing the numbers for EVERY month would be needed to make any sense of them.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Intel and NVIDIA have already leapfrogged over M1 and M2.

Really? You do know Apple's Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) changes everything, right? What Intel laptops leapfrogged the M2 MBP with 96 GB RAM and UMA?

 

[Ethosik]

you say this, but in my experience my mac studio ultra remains silent under full load.

Mac Studio is very quiet. But it has an awful high pitch whine screeching nails on chalkboard sound. I want a larger more deeper fan system that the Mac Pro provides.

Studio fan system is god awful. It’s a Mac I cannot stand in my setup. And I tried exchanging this 5 times but they all faced the same high pitch sound.

 

[DavidSchaub]

Why? Because it is trivially easy to put M2 Max into the M1 Max Studio, it would have sold a fair number of Studios and most importantly it would have un-frustrated lots of buyers like me who would have bought an M2 Studio months ago.

M2 Studio Ultra can wait for new Mac Pros.

I trust Apple knows its business, market, and opportunity costs more than us.

If Apple would have made enough money off it, Apple would have made it.

We have no clear idea how "trivial" it would be, and Apple sees a cost in selling an M2 Max Mac Studio beside an M1 Ultra Mac Studio.

 

[Ethosik]

I trust Apple knows its business, market, and opportunity costs more than us.

If Apple would have made enough money off it, Apple would have made it.

We have no clear idea how "trivial" it would be, and Apple sees a cost in selling an M2 Max Mac Studio beside an M1 Ultra Mac Studio.

But now we will have a time where an M3 Pro will beat out an M1 Ultra because Apple likes to put M3 in lowest devices first.

 

[jamesnajera]

Apple shouldn’t have released an M2 Pro Mac mini then as it’s better than the M1 Max Mac Studio.

Apple needs to focus on the top end device now. I don’t care if the air gets an M3. I need a top end Studio or a Mac Pro.

Sure about that? M2 Pro has half the bandwidth, 200GB. Overall the M2 Pro, M1 Max and M1 Ultra are very similar, both with encoding/decoding engines. They vary in cores, speed and bandwidth. Overall, I don’t see why Apple would upgrade the Studio with M2 Max/Ultra. The gains don’t seem worth the effort. I would wait until M3 Max/Ultra. Same with MacPro, wait until M3 Max/Ultra.

Apple just do the following this WWDC
-AR/VR
-27” iMac M2Pro
-updated Xcode

 

[Ethosik]

Really? You do know Apple's Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) changes everything, right? What Intel laptops leapfrogged the M2 MBP with 96 GB RAM and UMA?

Not talking about laptops here. Topic is related to Mac Pro. You know the tower? Has 1,000+ watt power supply? A desktop i9 13th gen and a 4090 beats the socks off my Mac Studio Ultra in many scenarios.

 

[DavidSchaub]

But now we will have a time where an M3 Pro will beat out an M1 Ultra because Apple likes to put M3 in lowest devices first.

Why does that matter?

I don't care. Why would anyone else?

 

[Allen_Wentz]

The lack of ports on desktop Macs baffles me.

Apple gives us TB4 throughput instead of a zillion different ports, and I approve. Dongles and docks are easy, but first one needs bandwidth.

 

[Ethosik]

Why does that matter?

I don't care. Why would anyone else?

Because I am a pro user that needs to get as much as I can out of a system. With Apple's release schedule, I would more than likely be able to upgrade to an M3 Pro Mac mini and beat my M1 Ultra Mac Studio for months before they decide to update the Mac Studio to an M3 Ultra.

 

[DavidSchaub]

Because I am a pro user that needs to get as much as I can out of a system. With Apple's release schedule, I would more than likely be able to upgrade to an M3 Pro Mac mini and beat my M1 Ultra Mac Studio for months before they decide to update the Mac Studio to an M3 Ultra.

I just don't understand.

If the M3 Pro Mac mini is enough for you, then get that. You win?

If you need a new Mac Studio then Mac mini shouldn't matter to you, wait until a new Mac Studio comes out, then get that. You win?

 

[Allen_Wentz]

to have an real workstation with video cards that get GPU + CPU power you can't get with just one chip. Also room for big ram pools

My guess is Apple intends to evolve away from the old-style furnace desktops, and I think they will succeed. My guess is that Apple's Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) is disrupting future RAM utilization in a big way right now.

 

[Ethosik]

I just don't understand.

If the M3 Pro Mac mini is enough for you, then get that. You win?

If you need a new Mac Studio then Mac mini shouldn't matter to you, wait until a new Mac Studio comes out, then get that. You win?

It matters as it will allow me to work faster for a short time. So I would be looking at getting the Mac mini for a few months then getting the M3 Ultra Mac Studio. As that upgrade will ALSO allow me to work faster. Not releasing an M2 Ultra Mac Studio is a BIG mistake.

 

[DavidSchaub]

My guess is Apple intends to evolve away from the old-style furnace desktops, and I think they will succeed. My guess is that Apple's Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) is disrupting future RAM utilization in a big way right now.

UMA is not magic.

If your app needs lots of RAM, it will need about as much of RAM under Apple's ARM architecture as Intel's architecture.

It has the advantage of offering the GPU *lots* more RAM than most dGPU cards have, so it does have that advantage, but there are still tradeoffs.

 

[ACHD]

Yet he doesn't have a clue to anything MacOS involved. Most here are aware of whats going on with all the OS's, I had to laugh how lost he looked when asked about whats coming in MacOS 14. So as a good source of M2 Ultra status forget it.

At apple the macOS and hardware teams are not the same teams and are not privy to what they are working on. hell your managers don't even know what your working on.

So its not surprising that his leaks may contian only HW info. It means that his sources only have access to the HW details.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Love how Apple fanboys complained about the slow update cadence for Intel chips and now face the same problem with Apple chips. Now you have slow updates and loss of mainstream Microsoft capabilities.

?? I just upgrade my Intel MBP to a maxed-out M2 MBP and do not feel slow updates and loss of mainstream Microsoft capabilities.

 

[red elma]

Apple will most likely "announce" the new MacPro lineup at WWDC ...perhaps pushing the availability and the shipping dates towards the end of the year.

 

[ACHD]

It matters as it will allow me to work faster for a short time. So I would be looking at getting the Mac mini for a few months then getting the M3 Ultra Mac Studio. As that upgrade will ALSO allow me to work faster. Not releasing an M2 Ultra Mac Studio is a BIG mistake.

For who? you? Yes.. But if the sales were there then They would have done it. But also the yields at that level absolutely may not be there.

It is not surprising to have some generations have more than others.

The reality is performance that we saw from the m2 vs m1 really isn't all that much.

The m2 was more so smaller and more energy efficient instead of powerful. So on a desktop unit like the mac studio it isn't much of a concern as power is from the wall not portable.

So likely they will wait for the m3 to do it. OR the sales sucked so bad that its not worth it for apple to design and pay for the assembly lines to assemble the 2 chiplets into 1 for the ultra.

Just cause it works for some.. doesn't mean it makes ANY business sense.

 

[nylonsteel]

there's probably a youtube type video out there with someone grating cheese on this thing

 

[CWallace]

I just don't buy the numbers... They come up on here occasionally... I would just need to see them collaborated somehow.

Well nobody but Apple knows for sure, and they're not telling (anymore).

But really, when you think about there are three models of MacBook Pro (13", 14" and 16") and (currently) one model of MacBook Air (13"), even if the MacBook Air sells the most units of all Macs, the combined sales of the three MacBook Pro models is more than the Air.

Back when Apple was releasing unit sales per model, the portables made up close to 80% of Mac annual sales volume and even when they stopped, Apple executives stated that 80% or more of all Macs sales were now portables. So the 74% estimate from CIRP is likely too conservative, but still generally within the guidance Apple has stated in the past.

 

[DavidSchaub]

It matters as it will allow me to work faster for a short time. So I would be looking at getting the Mac mini for a few months then getting the M3 Ultra Mac Studio. As that upgrade will ALSO allow me to work faster. Not releasing an M2 Ultra Mac Studio is a BIG mistake.

That doesn't make it a mistake.

It just means Apple isn't building computers for your requirements. Join the club? Apple almost never makes machines with optimal requirements for any particular user?

Apple definitely doesn't make what I want

 

[dawnrazor]

this was the writing on the wall when the rumour of the M1 Extreme being axed was all but confirmed… If apple can’t make a M1 Extreme work then it stands to reason they can’t make a M2 Extreme work as both are 5nm… Now if they can make a M3 Extreme work well that makes sense to be in a Mac Pro as it will need a pretty big heat sink…

So the next update for deck tops will be M3 and M3 Pro for iMac and Mac Mini, M3 Max and M3 Ultra in the Mac Studio and the M3 Extreme for the Mac Pro. No crossover all all with USPs.

Apple have set the pattern here, you just have to look at what has been already released… Disappointing that we have to wait so long for the Mac Pro but that’s obviously the tech holding up that side of things, also to think that Mac Studio would have 3 years between updates is pretty much to be expected, to wish for anything less is naive.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Not talking about laptops here. Topic is related to Mac Pro. You know the tower? Has 1,000+ watt power supply? A desktop i9 13th gen and a 4090 beats the socks off my Mac Studio Ultra in many scenarios.

Fair enough. My point is simply that M-series MBPs with Apple's Unified Memory Architecture (UMA) are leading the industry in the laptop world that sells orders of magnitude more than desktops. So I opine that your Studio is the lead entry in a new, improved Apple approach to desktop computing. We will see.

 

[Ethosik]

For who? you? Yes.. But if the sales were there then They would have done it. But also the yields at that level absolutely may not be there.

It is not surprising to have some generations have more than others.

The reality is performance that we saw from the m2 vs m1 really isn't all that much.

The m2 was more so smaller and more energy efficient instead of powerful. So on a desktop unit like the mac studio it isn't much of a concern as power is from the wall not portable.

So likely they will wait for the m3 to do it. OR the sales sucked so bad that its not worth it for apple to design and pay for the assembly lines to assemble the 2 chiplets into 1 for the ultra.

Just cause it works for some.. doesn't mean it makes ANY business sense.

It's the general attitude from Apple that is so frustrating. It is now shown that they don't care one bit about the professionals. They would rather update MacBook Airs than Mac Studios or work on the Mac Pro. They did it before in 2013 with the trash Mac Pro. They are doing it again now.