Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple's Newest Mac Pro Turns Four Years Old Today
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I’m sorry, but I still like this design despite it being flawed and never been upgraded.
I think it’s cool looking and different
That’s why I like the Surface Studio too, make a computer look different. Not a boring metal box!!
I think it’s a tempting buy if the price was a lot less, you can use an EGPU if needed right? Shame it’s still in the multi thousands price bracket
I think it’s cool looking and different
That’s why I like the Surface Studio too, make a computer look different. Not a boring metal box!!
I think it’s a tempting buy if the price was a lot less, you can use an EGPU if needed right? Shame it’s still in the multi thousands price bracket
They've made a few in the past. But this sure was a big one.
Not sure this day is worth celebrating though. It's like celebrating a divorce.
/Glass half full
Last edited:
While I am one of those people who will never buy a high end Mac, I used to but the mid-grade Mac all the time. There is a huge hole in the Mac's lineup between the MacMini (Tops out at $999) and the Mac Pro (Starts at $2999). Also MacOS assumes that everyone has an SSD, however the MacMini comes with a 5400 RPM hard drive (max non-sequential read of 1.5MBps). I can not tell you how many spinning beachballs I see on a regular basis. Yes the current top of the line MacMini has a fusion drive, but I am not spending $1000 for essentially just a hard drive upgrade.
And before someone says how about the iMac, I am one of those people who do not want an All-in-one. Yes the monitor is glorious, But I tend to upgrade my monitors every other computer upgrade. A good monitor can easily outlast a computer.
While a mid-grade headless Mac will probably steal some sales from the Mac Pro, I honestly believe that more people will upgrade from the MacMini, than will downgrade from the MacPro.
I am not upset it is 4 years old given the chip changes we have seen happen slowly. I am more disappointed there is not a modular MacPro using the "old" case as well. Also a Mac-Mini in the style of the Mac II SE, small but modular.
Apple refuses to have a double battery iPhone despite massive consumer feedback.
Apple refuses to have a double battery iPhone despite massive consumer feedback.
I'd like to see them some how retain this design for a modular and headless Mac. Yes it can't be a powerhouse using modern graphics cards due to thermal constraints. But it is still a great looking design. As some sort of upgrade from the MacMini, this would be great.
Non adjustable stand is still a huge fail. But they always prefer design over functionality. They don't care that every second person has a book or another "filling" stuffed underneath. Difficult to understand, but many seem to be happy, cause the most important attribute of a monitor seems to be "the sturdy aluminium design".I'm really interested to see what the new display will look like.
If they took the Thunderbolt Display and made it 5K, added a better mic, better camera, better speakers and more ports to act as a hub since the new MacBook Pro's only have USB-C. Oh it would be perfect.
I mean, just look at it, it still looks great, even with the huge bezels. The sturdy aluminium design is still lightyears away from that new LG monstrosity.
Edit: And while you're at it, add a HDMI port. It would be great if I didn't have to use a separate display to play on a console once in a while.
![1317358652-apples-newest-version-of-thunderbolt-display-mc914lla-2.jpg]()
Agree about Eizo.
I’ve seen detail on an Eizo you’ll never see on an Apple screen. Forget the Retina display. It’s the ability to display A LOT more contrast in terms of tones and colours. Apple screens are too shiny, all the dark tones look like mud.
Would be nice to see Apple do their take on a serious monitor but pretty unlikely because so many pros don’t get it, or don’t care.
And this is a pattern that Apple has been following for at least 20 years..They pull us professionals in with a superior
OS and then they put out some great hardware and we all buy in. These millionaire shitz who run Apple, with their,
"oh look, a squirrel!" mentality, then move on to their latest obsession and when the pro sector has gone to hell they decide after everyone has left, to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.
The Millionaires who run Apple are out of touch. They don't have a clue what the prosumer wants much less the PROS.
The problem isn't overall sales / profitability, they've got that worked out pretty well.
The problem is effectively telling their customers, "We've totally got your back, as a supplier of computers to fit all your demanding needs... up to a certain point. After that, get bent, and go use Windows or Linux or something, because we don't care about you then."
But even for a large pool of users who think they might eventually have such needs, but never end up needing it, having an all-Apple upgrade path in front of them gives them the security to buy that mid-level Apple machine today. Having no workable upgrade path beyond an all-in-one filled with laptop-class parts is frustrating and worrisome.
Remember, everyone likes to quote the "can't innovate my ass" line, while laughing at the current Mac Pro, but that was said at an unveiling coming as an answer to the previous neglected Mac Pro. They made a world-class pro machine, the "cheese grater" Mac Pro, and then they didn't stay aggressive on upgrading it, and people worried for a long time, so they went in their secret cave and created the cylindrical Mac Pro, which was an amazing start, and then they... ... ... nothing. They let that one wither on the vine too.
The cylindrical Mac Pro is an amazing design, and should be put in an art museum, but it fails on all sorts of practicality points that the old cheese grater totally had covered. They let pride get in the way and showed off how well they could design... a work of art. But not a practical pro-level machine. There's a scene in Ocean's Eleven, where Rusty (Brad Pitt's character) is trying to teach a roomful of idiots how to play poker, and one of the idiots lays down his cards with a flourish, proudly announcing, "All REDS!" And gets congratulated by all the other idiots. Doing a great job of totally not the thing that's needed/important/relevant, and feeling he "totally nailed it". Remind you of anyone's ass innovations?
Apple set out to make a machine for people with "professional" needs, for those extreme edge/corner cases, demanding uses (ones not adequately served by their existing standard Mac lines), and their target market had a checklist that started out with, "Power/speed. Capability. Expandability." And Apple somehow came away from that focus group with a checklist that started with, "Innovative/sleek. Small. Quiet." And built a machine that... not only couldn't the customers expand it, but even Apple couldn't figure out how to upgrade it. So it died on the vine. AGAIN. The target market didn't ask for the machine to be tiny and round. Those were odd design choices that Apple made. If they'd kept at it and made improved versions (setting aside the utter lack of expandability for a moment), then they might have gotten away with it. But it didn't play out like that, and Apple didn't even try to keep the machine relevant, much less cutting-edge. Instead, no matter how pretty the "current" Mac Pro is, it's a complete failure on the axes that are important to the intended users.
(Apple could have come out a couple years ago and said, "sorry, we screwed up by releasing a shiny new unexpandable Mac Pro that maxed out its thermal envelope on the first day - here's a recycled cheese grater Mac Pro chassis with the latest/greatest CPUs, graphics cards, and I/O ports", and the pro users would have sang their praises. But Apple was apparently more concerned with image and artistry than with meeting the customer's needs.)
I'd like to see Apple once again make a machine perfectly aimed at the high end - even if I don't need one right now - so I know that it's there if/when I do. (I'd also like them to make the mythical xMac - one step up from the Mac Mini, a small headless desktop box with a decent cpu/gpu and easy-open doors for upgrading the ram, storage, etc. - but I don't really believe in fairy tales any more.)
Last edited:
Having lived with a variety of the new MBPs, all I can say is God help the forthcoming Mac Pro.
Apple seems incapable of designing and selling computers that are not crippled out of the box in the name of thin.
Apple seems incapable of designing and selling computers that are not crippled out of the box in the name of thin.
How much, exactly, will the new Mac Pro cost that you know the price point is too high?
Yeah, just add it to the long list of products that Apple doesn't care if it's a flop or not, right? You think Apple only cares about the iPhone and Macbook?
If you want fewer emoji, complain to Unicode.
Please don’t get Apple’s one emoji artist fired, she’s really nice.
You... you know there's more than a dozen desks at Apple, right?
Pros should wait to see what the new Mac Pro will bring rather than get the iMac Pro. The iMac Pro is the pro version of the iMac, not the iMac version of the Mac Pro.
Going from a headcount of 25,000 to 25,003 won’t help, since it's not a headcount problem.
Or you could fire the 3 graphic artists and hire 3 software engineers... like it should have been
I wonder if the old Mac Pro re-enlists as the new Mac Mini?
The design of that Pro was great, but it wasn't a Pro design. Seemed like a tricked-out mini.
The design of that Pro was great, but it wasn't a Pro design. Seemed like a tricked-out mini.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
For the crowd that is always whining or worrying about a new model coming out soon after they buy, those who bought this thing kept up with Apple's "latest version" for all these years.
I don't think Jonny Ive was involved in the design at that point. Now he is and I don't think he would be caught dead letting something like that come out of Apple now. He would consider it a personal insult. He does not give a **** what you or I think, the only thing that matters are the magazines, any anyone else extolling his gobbledygook design philosophy, and his own image.
