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Apple's Mac Pro Refresh: What We Know So Far
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We had an XServe at work, and to this day I think that was the best-looking piece of rackmount hardware I've ever used. Also a good design internally, but there is other stuff that's on par on that front.
It's good (for pros) that Apple is going to keep Intel chips in the ultra-high-end hardware for as long as it makes sense--a forked architecture is a bit unusual, but I appreciate them sticking with what works.
That said, two M1 Max chips in one computer would probably be competitive with a current-gen, top-of-line, 28-core Xeon CPU or an AMD Threadripper (impressively, at less than half the power of either, though that's not very important in a desktop). Four of them would be something else entirely.
It's the GPU and RAM that are the bigger questions to me.
If Apple continues to not support 3rd party GPUs in the eventual AS Mac Pro, even four M1 Max equivalents is not going to rank in the same league as dual WX6800X Duos with 64GB RAM each (heck, dual ones wouldn't even have as much RAM as the cards once the system memory was deducted). Maybe Apple is willing to cede the extreme top of the line, but if they sell that kind of absolutely ridiculous hardware, somebody must be buying it.
An on the RAM side, 1.5TB is a lot more than the unified memory is going to do, and even if they're willing to put that much on the die, it's a lot to ask a business to plan in advance for $22,000 in RAM at the time of purchase, rather than upgrading as needed.
Plus the ECC question. I'm assuming that the current M1 architecture does not do something equivalent to ECC internally.
All of which is to say the desktop/pro architecture is going to be a lot different than the ultra-integrated mobile/lower-end one, or they're probably going to give up on the HPC end of the market.
Yes ... yes it does mean that. They're going full ARM. They don't want anything to do with Intel anymore. They have everything invested in their new architecture. They're being very lenient during this transition period by developing Rosetta to run older software until everything is finally moved to ARM. Eventually they will provide no support at all for older Intel Macs.
Going to be very expensive. Any of you dreaming it isn't going to be should wake up.
No, it does not.
Where has Apple said that once two years is up, they will literally not be selling an Intel model of anything moving forward?
That is not the same thing as having an ASi offering for the whole lineup.
(the quote you keep referring to)
You have absolutely no evidence to support they're going to keep Intel around, because it goes against everything Apple has said, as well as insider knowledge of those close to Apple. There is literally no reason to keep Intel around.
You're honestly just inferring things and writing in predictions and asserting them as facts
Let's agree to disagree and move on (for everyones sake)
It was a very different transition 17 years ago.
The company has changed immensely, so has their size (enormously), the needs of their clients and the diverse nature there.
It can be tempting to look at that, but it's by no means a referendum on what one does now.
The Intel switch was such an enormously clear performance and feature win.
Switching away from Intel isn't yet shown to be that for Mac Pro users, particularly with the unknown narratives around graphics and folks that might still need x86 and add-on card support -- or even still just professional software support that has yet to migrate.
The Mac Pro angles can be hard for normal consumers to grok
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yeah i'd much rather have an alder lake consumer grade CPU like the 12900k than xeon. much cheaper and would allow me to have a true all in one desktop computer for everything from mac os to windows, from workstation to gaming, etc.
Yes, I am inferring things based on current information from everything we've heard from Apple insiders and Apple themselves in the last year and a half. You're stating things based on your desire for Apple to keep making Intel Macs for a while.
Sure.
Curious, why does an integrated GPU automatically get a frown? What if the GPU blow away the competition through its exceptional design? I agree that Apple should definitely maximize use of the form factor, but we also need to let go of old thinking and see what comes.
A very important piece of all this for sure...particularly upgradeability
Since the GPU (and CPU) cores in the ARM architecture appear to be infinitely scalable alongside shared memory, there's a very real possibility that the GPU in the new Mac Pro will obliterate anything else available in the GPU space currently and in the future. We don't really know what Apple's ARM tech is capable of until they announce their next M-beast. As long as it has proper cooling, this may be one of the most exciting Mac releases in the history of Apple.
makes sense on a desktop too for certain segments. 256gb of unified gpu accessible memory? sure
This paints a nice future for Intel support in macOS for a good long while yet.
Very good given the enormous install base of Intel machines out there now (and the foreseeable future)
I think the design will be quite different from the last model — hoping it takes cues from the G5 Mac Pro. The cooling probably doesn’t need to be as elaborate with the M-series chips either.
I don’t see Apple releasing another Intel-based Mac Pro. Can’t the processor be upgraded in the existing system — wasn’t that the point of the modular design?
I don’t see Apple releasing another Intel-based Mac Pro. Can’t the processor be upgraded in the existing system — wasn’t that the point of the modular design?
I am fine with them releasing an updated 2013 MP trashcan. Lots of thunderbolt ports so any add ons are just external instead of over PCI. But the price needs to come way down. The trashcan started at $3k. Not $6k.
They honestly should!
Finally the technologies are to the point that the design would actually be acceptable.
Nope I think Apple could easily make 1U rack models given the size (width, depth). The Mac Pro in that representation is using just shy of 5U. Apple could design larger models though. Since we haven't seen how Apple is implementing non-intel cooling such as ARM its will be interesting to see how small Mac Pros are when transitioned.
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out of core rendering has been around for quite some time within serious rendering solutions.