Apple's Newest Mac Pro Turns Five Years Old Today

[LordVic]

How does it work, then? When the chips and parts inside a Windows PC and a Mac computer are basically the same (except for the fact that Apple solders everything to the system board then glues the chassis shut so you have no way of expanding and upgrading), and the two platforms pretty much run the same software for most people (from browsers to MS Office to Adobe CC, etc.), then why, exactly, is comparing a Windows PC and a Mac, spec-for-spec, not valid?

because it doesn't fit his own narrative
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Out of curiosity, would a new Mac mini be powerful enough for the traveling work?
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I may be mistaken, but I have never considered a Mac to be a performance or value proposition. Has that ever been the case, that Apple was the value leader in performance?

I wouldn't say that Apple's led value proposition from a performance per dollar stand point. But up until recently, Apple always had something to differentiate themselves from the competition. that thing that only Apple did well. Whether it was OSx > Windows, industrial design language, build quality, etc.

However, since about 2015, that product differentiation has diminished to the point where they no longer really warrant as much a premium as Apple has raised prices by.

MacOS vs Windows is more a matter of preference today as Windows 10 is considered decently secure and it's extremely stable (since Win8 the core got a rewrite to improve many of the earlier issues)

Industrial design is no longer exclusively Apple thing. It used to be that while Apple was making nice looking devices, everyone else was releasing the standard beige box or plastic clunky laptops. Now, everyone i making premium quality devices. To the point that design is now just a subjective thing.

So overall, with far less product differentiation accross the product lineups, the massive price difference no longer are as easy to justify.

the biggest benefit of buying an Apple device is MacOS. To many, the limitations that Apple imposes on devices and restrictions belies the price points they have chosen.

 

[Zdigital2015]

People really need to stop comparing spec for spec with Apple products. It really doesn’t work that way.

Unfortunately, when Apple decided to move from PowerPC to Intel, they gave up that unique selling point. While Apple has other USPs in their current product lineup (TouchBar, Touch ID, T1 and T2 chips, ~Thunderbolt 3~), the base parts that make up a Mac are not any different than a Windows PC (CPU, GPU, DRAM, NVMe SSD, displays, USB ports, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, et al.). Apple has fallen behind the curve in even attempting to keep parity with Windows PCs. It is one thing for Apple to sell a Kaby Lake-based iMac, but to not have an 8th or 9th Gen product out the door or at least queued up invites comparisons. While the cost differences between the 27” Dell XPS All-In-One actually tend to favor the 27” iMac, the lack of anything performance oriented using an 8th Gen or 9th Gen CPU right now is just poor planning on Apple’s part. The Mac mini was neglected for 4 years along with the Mac Pro, all the while Apple could reasonably justify not updating them because they were consumed with iOS, the iPhone and the iPad. While iOS may still be the future, the tremendous growth Apple has seen in the past is not guaranteed in the future. Apple’s leaders have to acknowledge that there is growth and stickiness in their ecosystem by recommitting to the Mac product line.

The Mac mini was a good start, even if the price increases dampened enthusiasm, there is room for the mini to grow and flourish. The 2018 MacBook Air is lackluster at best and Apple moving it up in price, while still not understanding that they have to give users value for the price, not platitudes. I never minded Apple’s prices, because I felt as though I was getting a good, if not a great value for my money over Dell, HP, Lenovo, et al. I just do not feel that is the case anymore. I know I am not the only one.

Apple has more leeway with the iPhone and the iPad, but it has got to get a grip on updates, pricing and value as it heads into 2019. While a mini-tower might not necessarily be the way to get there, I think Apple needs to reevaluate its Macintosh hardware strategy.

Again, iOS may be the way of the future, with the 2018 new iPad Pro leading the charge, yet there is still a real lack of commitment on Apple’s part in the Pro app department (where are Logic Express Touch, Final Cut Express Touch, etc), along with changes needed to iOS to take advantage of the hardware and streamline workflows and interactions. Perhaps Apple misjudged where the market would be and where iOS would be at this time in the transition. Personally, I wouldn’t care if I got rid of my Macs, provided that the iPad gets the job done. It is still not there yet, not without a lot of ring around the rosy.

Apple has to realize that they cannot force anyone to use the wrong tool for the job, and if it means moving to Windows, users WILL jump ship - which will dissolve the incredible stickiness Apple once enjoyed. Regaining that stickiness could be very hard or impossible. Just my 2c.

 

[Dozer_Zaibatsu]

Since Apple switched to Intel CPUs, that is exactly how it works...

The only thing differentiating an Apple computer & a Windows computer are the chassis & the OS...

Yes. That was in response to my original post, which was musing on the rivalry between Intel and AMD. There was a time when the idea of a Xeon Mac seemed like a perfect melding of worlds. But Intel's own higher-end "consumer" lineup has been proving to be really close to the mark for a LOT of production needs, where Xeons are not always needed. I would be tempted to say that for any non-movie art work, (for anything not animation or movie-editing), Xeons aren't worth the extra money. (I cannot say for music production. I don't know.)

If you're a Mac user who works in Photoshop all day, an iMac is kind of it. And it works perfectly for that purpose. There is not a compelling reason to get a bigger beast on your desk that I ca

In the PC world, AMD's Threadripper is kind of spiking the ball a bit among the PC builder crowd. Well, with an asterisk. 95% of all PC building enthusiasts are doing it for gaming, for which Threadripper is itself overkill. But for production? It's a high-mark/low-cost beast which Intel isn't matching.

Recent MacPros (Meaning AshCan and iMac Pro) were maybe overpriced, technically compared to pure NewEgg thrifting, but you could argue were bargains with included Vega cards and the monitor for the iMac Pro.

It is a REAL comparison, though, to propose selling a new Xeon workstation to Mac users as opposed to Threadripper. Would you really spend $5K or more now on a powerful Xeon station to do work? Compared to, say, a Threadripper workstation? That is theoretical, since you could only build such theoretical systems using Windows or Linux. But what hardware could Apple sell, at a usual Apple premium, which would totally be worth it for the production crowd?

Apple could totally come out of left field with bargain, AMD-based Mac Pros. That's not Apple's MO, though. I think that won't happen if I understand their agreements with Intel, and their own expressed roadmaps.

My own bias is that working any CS product is kind of like working in a virtual machine anyway, these days. After you boot up either MacOS or Windows 10, once you're in the system, it's very easy to forget whether you're on a Mac or a Windows Machine.

I think that was becoming obvious to Apple, and one of their priorities about engineering the AshCan model. They felt that they had to make it very distinctive and different from a PC box to really stand out as a reason to buy it. Personally, I was enthusiastic about that form. It was really brilliant design. It just turned out, in the long run, not to be practically suited to its purpose, and specifically in working with the way in which such a system needs to work, i.e., more modularity.

 

[HiRez]

If they go with a cheese grater type design (ie. more or less extruded rectangle), one thing that would be nice is if they were more rack mount friendly. We have a lot of these sitting in racks, but the space is not optimal. Cheese grater Mac Pros were about 20"x8" on the front face. You can fit 2 of them side by side in a rack (with some empty space) and none mounted horizontally. If they can decrease those dimensions by about 3.5 inches in height and about 2.75 inches in width (~16.5"x5.25"), you could fit 1 mounted horizontally or 3 mounted side by side, much more efficient. Only problem there is the width might not be enough to slide in 3.5" drives on a sled, so that part might need a different mounting technique. When I say rack mounted, I don't mean they need to be on rails, just sitting on a rack shelf.

 

[Sabelonada]

I think that was becoming obvious to Apple, and one of their priorities about engineering the AshCan model. They felt that they had to make it very distinctive and different from a PC box to really stand out as a reason to buy it. Personally, I was enthusiastic about that form. It was really brilliant design. It just turned out, in the long run, not to be practically suited to its purpose, and specifically in working with the way in which such a system needs to work, i.e., more modularity.

It is plenty modular, if you rely on TB2.

 

[Dozer_Zaibatsu]

It is plenty modular, if you rely on TB2.

If we had some bacon, we could have bacon and eggs. (If we can also find some eggs…)

 

[Ploki]

If we had some bacon, we could have bacon and eggs. (If we can also find some eggs…)

Since when is "modular" a synonym for "internal expandability"

It's modular via TB2, period. Might not be your kind of modular, but it's plenty modular and plenty expandable.

The main issue was notoriously expensive Thunderbolt2 peripherals, and lack of them.
Thunderbolt3 is proving better so far, but intel needs to lay down on licenses.

 

[Zdigital2015]

Since when is "modular" a synonym for "internal expandability"

It's modular via TB2, period. Might not be your kind of modular, but it's plenty modular and plenty expandable.

The main issue was notoriously expensive Thunderbolt2 peripherals, and lack of them.
Thunderbolt3 is proving better so far, but intel needs to lay down on licenses.

AMEN!!! And again, Amen!!!

Fast forward 18 months and I have yet to see a press release from Intel following through on what they committed to in May of 2017 - https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...lty-free-for-manufacturers-before-end-of-2017 - I freely admit that there are 11 days left in 2018, but my BS and platitudes meter has peaked and is now in the red.

I suspect Intel is being defensive to prevent AMD from doing anything with TB3, but I may be giving AMD too much credit there.

Suffice it to say, the Windows PC OEM crowd never gave TB2 a second glance and Thunderbolt 3 only gets one because they double as USB ports. They cannot even summon the courage to remove the VGA port from a good portion of the laptops being sold in the year 2018, much less replace all the legacy ports with four (4) Thunderbolt 3 ports

My beef is not even about “Cheese-grater” versus “Trash Can” as much as it is that Apple screwed around for 3+ years before management realized they made a mistake, never once trying to upgrade the 2013 Mac Pro’s CPUs, GPUs, memory or storage configurations, never once reworking or reducing pricing until the day of their public mea culpa, when they should have had a new Mac Pro ready to go by WWDC 2017, not a preview for an iMac Pro that still needed another 6 months time to get out the door and a vapor trail of possibilities yet to materialize two years on.

The same beef applies to the Mac mini and dovetails into Apple’s hard push with iOS and the iPad. At least Apple got something out the door, divisive as it may be to some.

Looking forward to 2019, hoping Apple can get it act together and give pros the Pro they want and deserve.

 

[eatrains]

SO MANY??
I do not think anybody that is PRO is interested in bringing back a Trash CAN model. Furthermore, they are actually buying old upgraded cheesgrater models or hackintoshes, since they are tired of waiting for Apple to come up with a decent new Mac Pro computer.

The first gen WAS the cheese grater.

 

[baryon]

If you use macOS exclusive software, you can get a Mac Mini and Razer Core X + any GPu you like. (more than 2 options).

If you use Adobe, just get a windows machine, it works better on windows anyway.

Every day I'm reminded of how much I dislike Windows. Today, I needed to use someone's Windows laptop to display a single Word document for a video we were filming. While we were getting ready, it went to sleep and we couldn't wake it. We had to force-restart it and it took advantage of that to install updates. It took so long that the battery died mid-update. The computer then didn't want to boot properly. I laughed because this is just exactly how I remember Windows from 10 years ago, nothing has changed. We wanted the computer to display some text, and it couldn't freaking do it. In 2018. If it can't do that, how could I ever trust it to get actual work done?

I just wish macOS would run on any hardware, so we could build our own Macs. I don't want the risk of a Hackintosh either. There is no perfect solution unfortunately.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Every day I'm reminded of how much I dislike Windows. Today, I needed to use someone's Windows laptop to display a single Word document for a video we were filming. While we were getting ready, it went to sleep and we couldn't wake it. We had to force-restart it and it took advantage of that to install updates. It took so long that the battery died mid-update. The computer then didn't want to boot properly. I laughed because this is just exactly how I remember Windows from 10 years ago, nothing has changed. We wanted the computer to display some text, and it couldn't freaking do it. In 2018. If it can't do that, how could I ever trust it to get actual work done?

I just wish macOS would run on any hardware, so we could build our own Macs. I don't want the risk of a Hackintosh either. There is no perfect solution unfortunately.

Lots has changed in 10 years. You unfairly blame Windows, but the culprit here is a misconfigured laptop and/or an issue with whatever laptop you were using on a partially charged battery.

How much time were you waiting, during which the laptop went into sleep mode? Was the laptop running Windows 7 or 10? What happens "every day" to remind you of windows? You sound like a "Mac person"...

 

[Boil]

It is a REAL comparison, though, to propose selling a new Xeon workstation to Mac users as opposed to Threadripper. Would you really spend $5K or more now on a powerful Xeon station to do work? Compared to, say, a Threadripper workstation? That is theoretical, since you could only build such theoretical systems using Windows or Linux. But what hardware could Apple sell, at a usual Apple premium, which would totally be worth it for the production crowd?

Hackintosh...

Apple could totally come out of left field with bargain, AMD-based Mac Pros. That's not Apple's MO, though. I think that won't happen if I understand their agreements with Intel, and their own expressed roadmaps.

AMD Macs (both Pro & otherwise) would be great to see from Apple...!

 

[Dozer_Zaibatsu]

Hackintosh...



AMD Macs (both Pro & otherwise) would be great to see from Apple...!

Sure. I agree. It's almost a conundrum. You can build an incredibly powerful PC with AMD Threadripper that is a bargain-priced contender going up against Intel Xeons.

Apple wants to charge a premium for premium hardware. If they have a new Xeon chip machine in the new year at a premium cost, you know the benchmarks are not going to be good for production work compared to a PC Threadripper at half the cost. Oh, may be better, but for the premium?

Oh, and I'm aware that Hackintoshing is a thing. I found some people who did so with Threadripper, but not as much I would have thought. My own opinion is that if you want MacOS and you want to be productive with support, an iMac or a MacBookPro are good machines in their price ranges.

If you want a big, honkin' rig to compress video or animation… eh, if you want to use commercial PC hardware, Windows 10 will work quite well. There are so many complicated things I need to worry about with systems, Hackintoshing is just not anything I see as worth the trouble. Personally, I don't understand being that addicted to just the MacOS platform.

 

[Abazigal]

How does it work, then? When the chips and parts inside a Windows PC and a Mac computer are basically the same (except for the fact that Apple solders everything to the system board then glues the chassis shut so you have no way of expanding and upgrading), and the two platforms pretty much run the same software for most people (from browsers to MS Office to Adobe CC, etc.), then why, exactly, is comparing a Windows PC and a Mac, spec-for-spec, not valid?

Apple doesn’t sell technology or computers; they sell an experience.

You are basically paying Apple for their expertise in putting those parts together in a manner which offers the best user experience possible (admittedly based on Apple’s idiosyncratic vision of what that entails).

Apple’s smaller market share reinforces this. What Apple offers won’t be for the majority of users, and that’s perfectly fine, because there will still be enough users who value what Apple has to offer. Enough that they willingly pay Apple’s asking prices for them.

For example, if you search YouTube, one creator admits that he got an iMac Pro because Final Cut Pro came with an “export to YouTube” function that actually worked.

It’s sometimes the little things which matter, even if they can’t be quantified and distilled into a numerical benchmark. Apple products may cost more upfront, but they should more than pay for themselves in the form of greater productivity and fewer problems overall. And they have, for me at least.

 

[jimw]

Today marks the fifth anniversary of Apple's last update to the Mac Pro, as reflected in the MacRumors Buyer's Guide.

Mac Pro from 2013 to present​

Apple released the second-generation Mac Pro on December 19, 2013, starting at $2,999, and it remains that price today after some reshuffling of configurations despite having over five year old hardware, including up to a 12-core Intel Xeon E5 processor, 64GB of ECC RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs.

Last year, during a roundtable discussion about the Mac Pro with John Gruber and a few other reporters, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi admitted that the current Mac Pro's so-called "trash can" design has a limited thermal capacity that doesn't always meet the needs of the most demanding workflows:Fortunately, the long wait of 1,826 days and counting for an all-new Mac Pro should finally be over by the end of next year.

Last year, at the same Mac Pro roundtable discussion, Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller revealed that the company is "completely rethinking the Mac Pro," with work underway on a new version that will be Apple's "highest-end, high-throughput desktop system" designed for its "demanding pro customers."

Schiller said the new Mac Pro will be a "modular" system and accompanied by a new Thunderbolt Display successor:Apple briefly reiterated its plans in a press release about the iMac Pro in December 2017:It isn't often that Apple pre-announces new products in its pipeline, but there were growing concerns the company was no longer focused on professional users, to the point of Schiller apologizing to and reassuring customers:In April, Apple confirmed that the new Mac Pro will be released in 2019, but it didn't say exactly when in the year.

Mac Pro from 2006 to 2012​

There is some debate as to how "modular" the new Mac Pro will truly be, but many are hopeful that Apple will return to a truly upgradeable tower design like 2006 to 2012 models of the Mac Pro, which can be opened with a lever on the back. Others will be quick to dismiss that idea as wishful thinking.

Apple has yet to preview the design, features, tech specs, or pricing of the new Mac Pro, details that will very likely be held until WWDC 2019 in June or another Apple event at some point next year, so we'll have to keep waiting for now.

Article Link: Apple's Newest Mac Pro Turns Five Years Old Today

I have always regarded the most recent Mac as a souped up miniMac given its closed architecture. I anticipipate the modular Mac will be a economic failure given its reported 6k entry price point. I believe it will close the enterprise door to the Mac as it will not be price competitive with other 'pro' desktop machines with similar specs costing less than 1/3 as much that run Windows or Linux. The only thing it has going for it is that it runs MacOS which in my opinion has become much less stable and reliable over the recent years. I suspect it will have a niche market for special applications in the entertainment and high end graphs design environment but nowhere else. It will likely mean trouble for Filemaker as well since in its current bloated form and licensing package it is primary targeted towards developers rather than end users and I suspect that without a affordable MacPro available, that market will diminish, since Filemaker primary interest exists on Apple platforms. In summary given the current Mac's price points, the price point of the new Mac Pro, vs their specs and the competition it now faces, I believe we are seeing the beginning of the end of Mac.

 

[Ricebucket]

Minor speed bump? That's absurd. It's faster than the Mac Pro.

You do realize the absurdity of your statement right? You don't find this funny and sad? And it really supports the gist of my argument of how out of date and slow the existing lineup is.

 

[shaunp]

Fat PC man (“I’m a Mac, I’m a PC”) must be laughing his balls off reading all this.

I've been laughing for a while....
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Just wait: You'll be back...

If they release the right type of Mac Pro - i.e. not some over-engineered, extremely expensive solution - then I will be back. I still prefer Mac OS to Windows, I just outgrew the Mac hardware.
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Every day I'm reminded of how much I dislike Windows. Today, I needed to use someone's Windows laptop to display a single Word document for a video we were filming. While we were getting ready, it went to sleep and we couldn't wake it. We had to force-restart it and it took advantage of that to install updates. It took so long that the battery died mid-update. The computer then didn't want to boot properly. I laughed because this is just exactly how I remember Windows from 10 years ago, nothing has changed. We wanted the computer to display some text, and it couldn't freaking do it. In 2018. If it can't do that, how could I ever trust it to get actual work done?

I just wish macOS would run on any hardware, so we could build our own Macs. I don't want the risk of a Hackintosh either. There is no perfect solution unfortunately.

Only seen these issues when Windows isn't configured properly. While I prefer Mac OS, I can honestly say Windows 10 has been fine. It's been very stable and fast. I can't really fault it, other than I prefer Mac OS.

 

[ROGmaster]

Lots has changed in 10 years. You unfairly blame Windows, but the culprit here is a misconfigured laptop and/or an issue with whatever laptop you were using on a partially charged battery.

How much time were you waiting, during which the laptop went into sleep mode? Was the laptop running Windows 7 or 10? What happens "every day" to remind you of windows? You sound like a "Mac person"...

Exactly.
Two weeks ago I changed the motherboard and the CPU in a PC, upgraded from an old AMD based system to an Intel system. I kept the SSD(with Windows already installed on it), 2 HDDs, GPU and the RAM.
At the initial Boot it took Windows 10 a few seconds to recognize the new motherboard and CPU and install the corespondent drivers. It has been working flawless ever since and I even updated it to the most recent Windows update(I'm talking about the postponed October update).
Honestly it's hard to remember the last time I encounter serious problem with Windows 10(more than 2 years ago anyway)

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Only seen these issues when Windows isn't configured properly. While I prefer Mac OS, I can honestly say Windows 10 has been fine. It's been very stable and fast. I can't really fault it, other than I prefer Mac OS.

Exactly.
Two weeks ago a changed the motherboard and the CPU in a PC, upgraded from an old AMD based system to an Intel system. I kept the SSD(with Windows already installed on it), 2 HDDs, GPU and the RAM.
At the initial Boot it took Windows 10 a few seconds to recognize the new motherboard and CPU and install the corespondent drivers. It has been working flawless ever since and I even updated it to the most recent Windows update(I'm talking about the postponed October update).
Honestly it's hard to remember the last time I encounter serious problem with Windows 10(more than 2 years ago anyway)

"Mac people" have little to hold onto these days to validate their loyalty (and empty wallet) to Apple in the absence of any decent new innovation or value (or in some cases, any new ANYTHING). One of the last remaining excuses (although old and stale) is that PC's and Windows are unstable, buggy, plagued by viruses, and just don't work as well as macOS.

I agree with you 100% about Windows 10. As an independent IT support provider, Windows 10 is the best Windows to date. Like you, I've been able to take a HDD from one older PC and install it in a new PC and in a matter of minutes it's up and running on the new hardware...something that has been impossible in previous versions of Windows.

Overall, Windows 10 (if I may borrow a catchphrase) "just works". Updates can be configured to install during more convenient times that *I* control. And viruses? It really isn't an issue like years past. I don't know the last time I've seen a client with a virus, and Ransomware has finally subsided. Now, it's phishing scams, but that happens in any OS.

High end PC hardware at half the price of Apple, upgradability, and a good, stable OS, and I have a hard time justifying buying a MBP or Apple desktop at the prices they ask, especially knowing I'm stuck with (forever) whatever specs I walk out the Apple Store with.

 

[Sabelonada]

You do realize the absurdity of your statement right? You don't find this funny and sad? And it really supports the gist of my argument of how out of date and slow the existing lineup is.

I was responding to your absurd statement that the Mac mini received a "minor speed bump" when in fact it was engineered to be a very capable small form factor computing appliance. The majority of the lineup could use with processor updates. But the current Mac mini is a compact powerhouse.

 

[baryon]

Lots has changed in 10 years. You unfairly blame Windows, but the culprit here is a misconfigured laptop and/or an issue with whatever laptop you were using on a partially charged battery.

How much time were you waiting, during which the laptop went into sleep mode? Was the laptop running Windows 7 or 10? What happens "every day" to remind you of windows? You sound like a "Mac person"...

It wasn't my laptop, I have no idea. But the fact that it started updating without asking just as we wanted to use it was annoying enough in itself. In my class we have a Windows 10 machine that will perform a 20 minute update pretty much every other time we use it (we use it about once or twice every 1-2 weeks). It means that during a 1 hour class, we can't use the computer for 20 minutes, roughly once out of two classes. I don't think that's acceptable. And I know, there should be a guy employed and paid to do the updating outside of class hours for us. But there isn't, because our school is poor. Windows could make our life easier, but instead, it makes our life more difficult. While this doesn't literally happen every day, it happens regularly and it's annoying and show-stopping every time.

I would absolutely love to have other options to Apple. I hate Apple's recent strategies and I wish they had some worthy competition. I wish Windows would be a great OS that behaves in a way that's best for the user, and less like a corporation that follows stupid rules that "they know is best for you, you just don't realize it". Seriously, with all my heart, I wish Windows was a better OS, and then I wouldn't be stuck here waiting for Apple to maybe release a new pro computer after 6 years that will probably cost twice the already infuriating price that it costs now.

I'm sure that smart people can figure Windows out and can take care of it so that it doesn't cause the issues I'm talking about. But the computer in my class is not my computer, I can't help it. I'm sill inconvenienced by it when it won't boot during my presentation. If I had a PC at home, I'm sure I could maintain it in a way that I would be happy with. But when it comes to public computers that are common property, that many people use but few people take care of, it becomes an issue. How come macOS doesn't have this issue? Leave a Mac running in a university for years without updating it, and it will work fine. That's its job, to continue working, and not to be a fragile little princess that "requires updates NOW, even if that means you'll fail your exam, because there's this security issue where someone may see your friend's profile picture which is way more important than whatever it is that you may be doing right now".

 

[Ploki]

It's not just the Mac Pro that has been neglected. All of Apple's desktops have the same problem.

The iMac is overdue for an update.
The Mac Mini was not updated for years, and this year only a minor speed bump was announced.

Very disappointing.

wat?
iMac has been reengineered into an iMac Pro last year.
Mac Mini was not update for years, but this years edition is a new breed of mini, it has double the size of PSU, desktop class CPU, upgradable RAM up to 64GB and pletny of i/o, even a 10GbE port.

The only neglected desktop is the Mac Pro, unfortunately. Which has been announced for 2019 anyway.
and iMac needs a refresh. But no need to be dramatic..

 

[Mojo1019]

They changed their name for a reason.

This is so sad...

 

[mysterydate]

"If we've had a pause in upgrades and updates, we're sorry for that"
How many years does it take to count as a pause? Any pause experts out there?

Let's ask Jesus, he's been saying he's on his way for about 2000 years.

 

[Ricebucket]

wat?
iMac has been reengineered into an iMac Pro last year.
Mac Mini was not update for years, but this years edition is a new breed of mini, it has double the size of PSU, desktop class CPU, upgradable RAM up to 64GB and pletny of i/o, even a 10GbE port.

The only neglected desktop is the Mac Pro, unfortunately. Which has been announced for 2019 anyway.
and iMac needs a refresh. But no need to be dramatic..

The iMac Pro is a completely different class of device. Just look at the price. It's not in the same market segment. And Apple has admitted that the iMac Pro is a stopgap solution before a new Mac Pro comes out. It is a pretty lame excuse for just how far the Mac Pro has been neglected.

And regarding the Mac Mini, you're missing the point. The point is what you just said, that it was not updated for years. Yes, I agree that this year's model is better than the previous generation. But what else did you expect, for it to be slower? When I said it was a minor speed bump, you have to place it in context. Compared to the previous Mac Mini, it is improved in every way. But compared to other computers released during the years in which the Mini wasn't updated, the improvement isn't large at all.