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First Benchmark Result Surfaces for Mac Pro With M2 Ultra Chip

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The first Geekbench 6 benchmark result for the new Mac Pro surfaced today, providing a closer look at the M2 Ultra chip's CPU performance in the desktop tower.

Mac-Pro-Feature-Blue.jpg

The result lists a single-core score of 2,794 and a multi-core score of 21,453, compared to 1,378 and 10,390 for the highest-end Intel-based Mac Pro with a 28-core Xeon W processor, a configuration that started at $12,999. This means the new Mac Pro is over twice as fast as the fastest Intel-based model, and given that all configurations include the M2 Ultra chip, this performance can be had for a much lower $6,999.

Mac-Pro-2023-Geekbench.jpg
Mac14,8 = 2023 Mac Pro​


Unsurprisingly, these scores are virtually identical to those that surfaced for the Mac Studio with the M2 Ultra chip a few days ago. The new Mac Pro is aimed at customers who need PCI Express expansion, but anyone else should consider the Mac Studio for their desktop computer needs, as it can be configured with the M2 Ultra chip for $3,999.

The new Mac Pro has the same overall design as the 2019 model, but it no longer supports graphics cards and does not have user-upgradeable RAM due to Apple silicon's unified memory. The computer launched today following pre-orders last week.

Article Link: First Benchmark Result Surfaces for Mac Pro With M2 Ultra Chip
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/06/13/mac-pro-m2-ultra-chip-benchmark-result/
And with that, any reason to get this over the Mac Studio is now gone. There is now ZERO reason at all to buy a giant Mac Pro over the smaller Studio

"But the Mac Pro can be rack mountable!"

So can the Mac Studio, even moreso since it's considerably smaller so you can mount a lot more

rackmount-mac-studio-myelectronics.jpeg
1453.png


"But I need the Mac Pro for the PCIE to put my BlackMagic cards in!"

Do you? Do you really? Because BlackMagic PCIE is slowly on it's way out as there's external rack mounted boxes that are performing better than the PCIE cards did.

Even Neil Parfitt, the audio studio pro who famously unboxed a fully specced Rack Mount Mac Pro, is saying the M2 Ultra Mac Pro is kinda redundant


I don't see a future for the Mac Pro anymore.
 
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Does the Apple Silicon Mac Pro really have no external PCI Card GPU support? Is there a work around?
 
Surely this is a stop-gap. There is clearly a niche set of Intel MacPro users holding on to their machines because of the lack of PCI support with any other Apple silicon Mac. Now, many of them have an Apple silicon option, which will force many of the PCI device manufacturers in the direction of Apple silicon support as well.

My guess is that the M3 line of chips is delayed, and the hardware design team was putting all their efforts into Vision Pro.
 
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Who in their right mind would buy a Mac Pro 2023?

My guess is someone with too much money and absolutely no need for a supercomputer.

The MP 2023 is a vanity project, designed to prove an Apple can still do fast fast. Target audience: vanity buyers.

How will you know of someone bought one? They’ll tell you.
 
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CalMin said:
Surely this is a stop-gap. There is clearly a niche set of Intel MacPro users holding on to their machines because of the lack of PCI support with any other Apple silicon Mac. Now, many of them have an Apple silicon option, which will force many of the PCI device manufacturers in the direction of Apple silicon support as well.

My guess is that the M3 line of chips is delayed, and the hardware design team was putting all their efforts into Vision Pro.
Click to expand...

Intel Mac Pro users aren't gonna buy this for two reasons: 1. No GPU card support. But that's minor compared to the big problem: 2. No RAM expansion.

The 2019 Mac Pro could go to up to 1.5 TB of RAM. The M2 Ultra can only go up to 192 gb. That's way too small for major audio professionals as all the assets in Logic combined with ProTools open and other software sends their RAM usage above 300 gb. They're gonna hold onto their 2019 Mac Pros until Apple Silicon gets to the point it can go above 300 gb
 
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For reference, here is the 28-core Intel Mac Pro:
Mac Pro (Late 2019) Benchmarks - Geekbench and 5 more pages - Personal - Microsoft​ Edge Beta ...png


So, compared to the old Mac Pro (on this one test), you're getting a much needed CPU upgrade.

The problem with getting excited about this is here is GB's averages for the i9-13900KS:
Intel Core i9-13900KS Benchmarks - Geekbench and 10 more pages - Personal - Microsoft​ Edge Be...png


I don't even know what Xeon to compare to as trying to navigate those was a bit of a mess, but the 13900KS with 4 less cores and less threads is offering a SIGNIFICANT improvement in CPU performance.

Most of my experience with Mac Pro users have been people who rely on CPU performance above all. Data sciences running simulations, for example. The limitation of 192GB of RAM over the previous Mac Pro's 1.5TB combined with a better, but still not top of the line CPU makes me think the Mac Pro wasn't supposed to be this way. For all intents and purposes, it's a Mac Studio with internal PCIe. The amount of people who want a Studio with some external cards seems like an extremely small portion of the people who were buying Mac Pros. I feel like most customers at this point would either just invest into the Mac Studio as a much more compact and space saving workstation, or they would've moved onto custom Linux and Windows builds with these better Intel CPUs (provided they aren't using macOS exclusive software).

I feel like with TB4 that many of these PCIe cards outside of graphics cards can reach their full potential as well.

If you're someone who ends up buying a Mac Pro for a reason other than "I need macOS/macOS software", I'd be really curious as to why the Pro over the Studio or a more modular Intel/AMD PC.
 
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PowerMac5500 said:
Can anyone share some examples of popular PCI Expansion cards that would justify the extra $3,000...? I feel like I'm missing something here.
Click to expand...

SSD storage. 100GB NICs. Audio cards for scoring entire symphony orchestras. Video cards for working with 8K and higher video streams.

Spock said:
Dang, $3k for PCI slots. Apple really does hate us don't they?
Click to expand...

It is expensive, but one can spend into five-and-six-figures on SSD, audio and (non-GPU) video PCIe cards to fill those slots.
 
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Obvious result with old LGA3467 3000 series Xeon...

Not to shabby compared with current consumer Intel/AMD chips.

13900K/7950X median score :
single core 3000
multi core 22000
 
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Well , obviously the mistake of Apple was not to subject the Mac Pro to liquid Nitrogen cooling...
What did you expect otherwise?????
 
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