Apple Silicon Mac Pro Use Cases

[aParkerMusic]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been wondering what sorts of uses the current Mac Pro exists to fulfill. I know it’s not as customizable/expandable as the Intel model, but that it still allows some measure of expansion (PCIe ports?).

How can it be expanded? What sorts of modifications would people make, and for what uses?

Does any here currently use one of these Apple Silicon Mac Pros?

Appreciate anyone’s input!

 

[mfram]

I don't have a Mac Pro but I can guess what the external PCIe ports might be for.

First would be some kind of high-end network or other low-latency computer interconnect that can tie a bunch of computers together. Used to implement clusters of computers working together on various computational tasks.

Another use would be to connect to enterprise-grade fiber channel storage area networks. Think of them like external RAID storage controllers, except much more expensive with much more functionality. They can provide redundant access to hundreds of TB or maybe now PB amounts of storage. That would be needed if you're working on large video/media files or maybe AI. If a company already invested in high-end enterprise storage you'd need external PCIe ports to join an existing setup. I worked with these in the past on non-Mac servers.

 

[mcnallym]

Essentially non GPU PCI-E cards. So network, storage, video capture.
For people that for some reason unable to use a TB enclosure to put the cards in.

Is a very niche market now as far as Apple concerned.

 

[JouniS]

Essentially non GPU PCI-E cards. So network, storage, video capture.
For people that for some reason unable to use a TB enclosure to put the cards in.

Thunderbolt is pretty slow for some applications. It's usually one generation behind PCIe. You would need two Thunderbolt 5 ports for a single PCIe 5.0 SSD, or for a 100-gigabit network adapter.

 

[maflynn]

but that it still allows some measure of expansion (PCIe ports?).

Yes, there's some expansion cards available, but much of the functionality of those internal expansion cards have been replaced by external thunderbolt peripherals.

How can it be expanded? What sorts of modifications would people make, and for what uses?

It can't, the architecture of Apple Silicon means that ram, gpu, and internal storage is all locked in place at the time of purchase.

Does any here currently use one of these Apple Silicon Mac Pros?

I'm sure there's people using it, just pop over to the mac pro forum and ask. I think the majority of people who need a powerful desktop have opted for the studio. The best you can get with the Mac Pro is a M2 ultra, where at the Studio offers a M3 Ultra and its been rumored we'll be seeing a M5 Ultra studio, where those same rumors also indicate that Apple is shelving any Mac Pro updates.

Food for thought.
M2 Ulta Mac Pro: 24 core/60 gpu/32 neural cores. 64GB of ram, 1TB of storage: $7,000
M3 Ultra Studio: 28 Cores/60 GPU/32 neural cores. 96GB of ram, 1TB of storage: $4,000

Why would spend 75% more money on a slower desktop that has less ram?