The difference is the user could easily upgrade the RAM, HDD, video card, and CPU on the Cube with off-the-shelf parts. It was an actual pro desktop.
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Apple's Newest Mac Pro Turns Five Years Old Today
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Still using these at work every day and they are really starting to feel slow. Even with 12 cores and 64 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD there’s a lot of long, awkward pauses. Come on Apple, we really need a replacement.
I think you're right--look at the updated Mini.
People loved the new update--all it took was a change to the internals.
If Apple really wanted to cater to professionals, they'd just sell the OS, unlocked so professionals can build their own desktops and install Mac OS on it.
Hackintoshers have proven that it can be done with the latest PC parts for years.
This is just Apple being greedy and slimy towards their core users.
You'd think they'd throw us a bone after we kept them in business through the hard times.
Hackintoshers have proven that it can be done with the latest PC parts for years.
This is just Apple being greedy and slimy towards their core users.
You'd think they'd throw us a bone after we kept them in business through the hard times.
Wrong on two points.
1) We won't see the new Mac Pro until 2020, and
2) it'll look more like this:
I'm looking at adding a few machines here soon, a 2007 Mac Mini as a media box, and a 2008/2009 Mac Pro. The 2013 Mac Pro is a joke, and the fact it is still sold without a price drop is pathetic. I do not expect anything good to come of the 2019 Mac Pro, Apple no longer cares about the pro market.
Compare Apple in 2009 to Apple just before the beginning of 2019. It's honestly sad how far they've fallen.
Compare Apple in 2009 to Apple just before the beginning of 2019. It's honestly sad how far they've fallen.
Look at what they've released since. Notebook keyboards that are unreliable, notebooks and desktops that don't have a thermal solution to support the chips they employ, features added on to justify increased prices, less expandability, and an increasingly buggy OS. I have very little optimism that Apple has any idea what to do for true Pro Mac users anymore, since those users can't be swayed by fashion.
5 years and no update or significant price reduction? Who’s gonna trust a company with those business practices in tech 
Whatever the next MacPro might be, how great and awesome the design.... it will be priced 2x higher than comparable workstations and there is a big possibility that after a year Apple pulls the plug or doesn’t update.
No, thanks! I’ll put my trust into reliable consumer friendly companies.
Whatever the next MacPro might be, how great and awesome the design.... it will be priced 2x higher than comparable workstations and there is a big possibility that after a year Apple pulls the plug or doesn’t update.
No, thanks! I’ll put my trust into reliable consumer friendly companies.
the confusion isn't about what tasks it can or cannot do, it's how efficiently it can do it over the lifespan of the device.
the machine that's 5 years old is still going to run everything. But it's not going to run it as fast/efficiently as something released today.
if you're competing for business, that might mean that your company can no longer compete on contracts. While you can do X during a period of time, they can do X+1.
Say you're an engineering firm doing a lot of complicated analysis of statistics and data. you're on a 5 year old server that runs the necessary job in 7 days
your competition is on an updated computer that can do the exact same work load in 5 days. you are now 20% slower than your competition.
sometimes it doesn't require a 100% full system change to get that same performance. it might just be a secondary card to compute integers faster. Or specialized controller connectivity card, etc. This is what Apple completely misunderstood what people are looking for in a productivity machine. they put themselves inside niche product that had no upgrade paths that were competent for what people need.
And then when it didn't sell, they used that lack of sales as an excuse that nobody wanted a "pro" machine.
No matter how much they sell (can’t believe these old tech is still for sale), you can be certain Saint Cook is thrilled and totally amazed and that Apple has soooo much more in their pipelines. You’ll only see it coming from Apple
One thing is for certain though... if a new Mac Pro ever sees the daylight it’s price will blow you away. And that’s a guarantee only coming from Apple.
No, I get that. I was wondering if a newly released Mac Pro is expected to be leaps and bounds better than the current high end iMac Pro or high end MacBook Pro. I agree that 5 years is too long for any update on a machine, but I still think they have other very capable machines available today.
In other words, Apple (again) chose Form over Function. Cute over Capable. Pretty over Powerful. I could go on all day...
It won't be any better until they get over this obsession with thermally constrained designs.
From everything I have heard them say about the upcoming Mac Pro, I think they realize that.
Literally ALL THEY HAVE TO DO is put current gen components inside of the cheese grater MP case while maintinaing the usere's ability to ad dRAM, replace/supplement drives, and upgrade components, then sell them. THAT'S IT. Everyone is happy.
But Ive.
But Ive.
It’s proof that, besides the pro prices, it can’t handle Pro processors because of the heat. I really hope there will be class action lawsuits because of this. Why buy a Mac mini with an i7 or any Mac if it can’t handle the heat and the performance is like that of an i3?
It’s an embarrassment for any company building computers and it smells like a scam.
I recall someone dismissing the (estimated) at least 7% hit using an eGPU involves. When one is talking about FPS, the hit is acceptable, when we are talking about actually losing money because of it, it's a different matter entirely.
This. So much this. But it's Apple, so I think the chances are the slimmest, thinnest ever.
I hope so, but everything they've released since is thermally constrained.
I wonder if they'll get over this external box craze and put PCIe slots in the thing. That'll be the true test of if they understand what Pros need or not.
NO, the first generation was 12 years ago. This is second generation. I believe this computer might have been the worst product sold by Apple in its history.
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It is even MORE embarrasing when you consider that it took them 12 years (not 5).
First generation was release 12 years ago.
Now that is INSULTING...
They do. The New iMac Pro is a powerful machine.
the problem is it still follows "form over function" by putting it in a proprietary all in one box. Apple's solution means that in 1 year's time, if it's not as fast as the competition, the answer isn't just a part swap, but an entire hardware replacement. This is excessive, especially since not everything needs to be replaced every year.
for example, doing extreme computational stuff on the GPU. the CPU's might never ever be the bottleneck to performance. the CPU from last year might just be fine. But, there might have been a massive GPU performance leap. on a device like the iMac Pro or MacBook Pro, there is no true upgrade option here without a full replacement. And as recent history shows, there's also no guarantee that Apple will release a revision in reasonable time (i'm not talking about wholy new design, just a spec bump).
with the old cheese grater Mac pro, there was a device that fit into this workspace that had non-proprietary, user serviceable items. it's why so many of those Mac pro's are still in use today. SSD upgrades, GPU upgrades, PCI-E based updates alone have made many of these devices still relevant despite some of their older components.
it's also why the current "trash can" mac pro is not seeing such extensive lifespans. Once the internal CPU and GPU are maxed out, there's no path to bring either up. there's no space to update hard drives. While thunderbolt was intended to mitigate this by moving these expansion's externally, Thunderbolt still is an additional "distance" from the CPU and therefore has some latency/lag and bandwidth limitations in comparison to direct attached devices.
obviously every workplace is different and may have different needs/ requirements. But if you're a firm that relies on being as fast as possible, is replacing a $6000 computer every year a worthwhile investment? or replacing a $600 part every year a better one?
Also to clarify, when i talk "pro" i don't mean that it needs to also be the most powerful bleeding edge all the time. But professional often should mean adaptable to different work case scenarios and not tied to one niche workflow. a professional machine should be capable of doing anything, depending on the users need and not be limited exclusively to what the vendor specifies your need is. Whether that be using specialized computational components, more advanced networking devices, specified storage arrays, etc. a PRO computer should adapt to those things. Not force the workflow to adapt to it
Apple has proven that they aren’t able to build quality computers any more:
The bigger joke will be the next Mac Pro. I can hear Saint Cook saying how amazing and how thrilled he is to introduce the most expensive Mac ever.
Of course there will be comparable workstations for a fraction of the cost able to open by user and upgradable in every way as an investment into the future.
Expansion slots are actually dirt cheap, and certainly cheaper than offering seperate models with or without them . Same with different tower designs , PSUs etc . One design for everything - Win / win, as the kids say .
It's external solutions, and proprietary part upgrades that cost an arm and a leg .
Love the idea, Apple could do it, but won't sell it at resonable cost .
There is no market anymore for gimmickry in computing hardware , unless it is priced competitively .