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Apple Working on Two New Mac Pro Desktops, One of Which Will Be Reminiscent of Power Mac G4 Cube

Boil said:
All this going on about 128 cores...

You all realize the rumors do not say a single thing about a 128 core CPU (APU), but the 64 core & 128 core references were towards Apple GPUs (for a future Apple Silicon-based Mac Pro)...!?!

And for anyone who "called it", I have been going on about Apple making another Cube for a couple of decades now, so...

28 Performance cores (just to thumb their nose at the 28 core Xeon in the 2019 Mac Pro)
4 Efficiency cores
32 GPU cores
16 Neural Engine cores
32GB RAM (128GB RAM maximum)
1TB NAND SSD (4TB maximum)
Four USB4/TB4 ports
Two USB-A ports
HDMI 2.1 port
Two Gigabit Ethernet ports (10GB Ethernet option)
420W Platinum-rated PSU
US$2,499 (base model 32GB RAM / 1TB SSD / Gigabit Ethernet)
US$4,999 (max model 128GB RAM / 4TB SSD / 10Gb Ethernet)

Apple Low-Profile Mechanical Keyboard & Apple 3D Mouse
US$249 for the pair

Apple 32" 4K Thunderbolt Monitor
US$1,499

And to close, a blast from the past:

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G4 Cubes running the displays on the set for the NX-01 Enterprise...!
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All well except the Display set; for proper PPI:
32” 6k (and you’re at XDR territory...) or; more realistic 27” 5k (with your price tag).
 
dysamoria said:
No. The biggest reason I chose Mac/Apple was to STOP with the hacking BS.
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Most likely, because of that, like myself, you have faced a substantial reduction in your Pro software options. Personally the inability and apparent unwillingness of Apple in promoting Metal adoption by developers has been crippling...maybe the apple silicon performance allure helps to change this.
 
citysnaps said:
Hah! What about all the comments in the past about the Mac being dead, that Apple's future and all that people really need (incorrectly and intentionally attributed to Tim Cook) are tablets? Such a hoot!
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As usual your inability to admit Apple's mistakes bites you once again. For all intents and purposes until a few years ago the Mac WAS dead or have you conveniently forgotten that famous graphic showing a Mac lineup that hadn't been updated in years (don't bother replying, I know the answer)? Tim and company kept pushing the iPad as a professional tool even when it was clear that what professionals wanted was a powerful Mac workstation (and not Ive's hubris - the Trashcan Mac), an os that wasn't plagued with bugs every release and the ports on them necessary to get the job done. Only once the roar turned into a tsunami did Cook do an about-face and returned focus on the Mac.
 
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gnasher729 said:
No. The Cube was released just at the start of an unforeseen financial crisis. It was slightly expensive, but everyone buying it was quite happy. Then suddenly money got tight. Any other time it would have been a reasonable success.
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Rofl. You mean the 150k people who got suckered into buying it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Mac_G4_Cube#Sales

Hell even Tim Cook called it a spectacular failure,
 
Other then the Vader overheating, I through it was a nice design. Maybe with the Arm setup the thermals aren't as taxing for a mid teired system . Upgraded USB C x 4 dual, 4 usb A, 16 core m1x, 64 gigs unified ram, 4 TB HD. Something that can be opened up to clean, run at least 2 big monitors
 
dasjati said:
And that they were both a bad deal. The Cube was more expensive then the PowerMac G4 and could do less. It was a design piece. Similar with the trashcan: Yes the "thermal corner" was a problem, but also expandability. That has not changed.
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I bought hundreds of trashcan MacPro, they were great. I wouldn’t be surprised if they sold better then the newer upgradable MacPro. Not every pro need such a big upgradable machine and so Expansive. I want to buy a workstation and change it every 36 months. I don’t want to upgrade parts. If they were to keep doing the trashcan but updating it every year with new processors / graphics cards it would be perfect . I think there is a market for both MacPro. Small ones, but still . Not all pros have the same needs.
 
NT1440 said:
Honestly, I would LOVE a new trashcan machine based on Apple silicon. I deployed so many of those when I worked at ESPN, truly a beautiful design up close.
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Agrée , I bought hundreds in a pro studio setup. None of them failed. Best computer I ever work on. Loved the size and design. Which they would keep doing it, with Apple Sillicon and an updated graphic card and usb-c ports.
 
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2013.1 said:
Should it therefore have the same length as the Mac Pro?
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The only real need for full-length PCIe cards I can see are for the audio folk; Pro Tools cards & the such...

These are the folks that will stick with the forthcoming "smaller" Mac Pro...

Since Apple is not doing third-party GPUs anymore, they can make their Apple Silicon GPUs/GPGPUs as compact as they want; so a new Apple Silicon-powered Mac Cube can be a compact unit like the original G4 Cube...

techwhiz said:
PCIe expansion, ECC memory, more than 16GB memory support, system memory not used for video.....
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Hard to say what might come about for larger memory pools, but do remember that Apple has committed to using a Unified Memory Architecture for the Apple Silicon-based Macs...

Mr.PT said:
All well except the Display set; for proper PPI:
32” 6k (and you’re at XDR territory...) or; more realistic 27” 5k (with your price tag).
Click to expand...

I am just saying, Apple needs an Apple-branded monitor to go with their lower cost (compared to the 2019 Mac Pro) headless desktops...!

Something smaller than the XDR, but it should match the panels used for the iMacs (Apple Silicon-based models); so new 24" & 30" monitors aimed at the consumer / prosumer market (rather than the $5000+ XDR which is out of the reach of many Mac users)...
 
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Boil said:
The only real need for full-length PCIe cards I can see are for the audio folk; Pro Tools cards & the such...

These are the folks that will stick with the forthcoming "smaller" Mac Pro...

Since Apple is not doing third-party GPUs anymore, they can make their Apple Silicon GPUs/GPGPUs as compact as they want; so a new Apple Silicon-powered Mac Cube can be a compact unit like the original G4 Cube...



Hard to say what might come about for larger memory pools, but do remember that Apple has committed to using a Unified Memory Architecture for the Apple Silicon-based Macs...



I am just saying, Apple needs an Apple-branded monitor to go with their lower cost (compared to the 2019 Mac Pro) headless desktops...!

Something smaller than the XDR, but it should match the panels used for the iMacs (Apple Silicon-based models); so new 24" & 30" monitors aimed at the consumer / prosumer market (rather than the $5000+ XDR which is out of the reach of many Mac users)...
Click to expand...
Yes, so it would be an LG ultrafine panel in an Apple chassis. Quite simple and nobody understands why it’s not done yet! Don’t forget MBP users who would also love a second Display.
 
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All this week rumors are so wonderful, people here at Macrumous might start suffering from severe anxiety, from trying to think of something to add to their wish list...
One question though, in this scenario (new Apple Mini Pro + new affordable Apple Display) what would be the use of iMac, except for having a less flexible all-in-one solution?
 
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Mr.PT said:
Yes, so it would be an LG ultrafine panel in an Apple chassis. Quite simple and nobody understands why it’s not done yet! Don’t forget MBP users who would also love a second Display.
Click to expand...

That 40" 5K2K LG Ultrawide IPS panel would be pretty sweet; but I feel using the same 24" & 30" panels as in the (forthcoming) new iMacs would be better from a logistics standpoint...?

Mr.PT said:
All this week rumors are so wonderful, people here at Macrumous might start suffering from severe anxiety, from trying to think of something to add to their wish list...
One question though, in this scenario (new Apple Mini Pro + new affordable Apple Display) what would be the use of iMac, except for having a less flexible all-in-one solution?
Click to expand...

iMacs look cool, until either the computer part or the monitor part go on the fritz...!?!

Mac Pro Cube & 40" Ultrawide would be a solid setup...?!?
 
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Boil said:
That 40" 5K2K LG Ultrawide IPS panel would be pretty sweet; but I feel using the same 24" & 30" panels as in the (forthcoming) new iMacs would be better from a logistics standpoint...?
Click to expand...

That monitor is only like 160 ppi. Pretty sure Apple is going to stick to the 200+ ppi pixel density they use on the rest of their displays.
 
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I wait to see what happens but it is probably not looking good for us to replace our 2010 MacPro. Judging by this description it will still be very expensive, in which case we will probably have to consider going the MacMini route to replace the Pro. They will have to increase the memory though.
 
q64ceo said:
Parallels lets one run another macOS while using BS. You could run Mojave in a VM and have decent graphics with good performance.
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I am also wondering about the complaint given 32-bit support dropped already with Catalina.
 
dysamoria said:
Thermals. They didn’t learn. Every MacBook Pro since, plus the 2013 Mac Pro, tell us this. Maybe they’ve finally seen the error of their ways and that’s why Jony Ive “got bored”... And the current Mac Pro is well made for thermals, but costs too damned much for non-corporate studios and plutocrats. I’d like it if they learned their lesson about thermals AND pricing.
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I don’t care what you’re criticizing. The truth is you simply can’t get efficient cooling with modern Intel chips. Not unless you’re using bulky gaming notebooks.
That said with M1 you could get way better temps than any other Tiger Lake-U or even Ryzen-U laptops.
 
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