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First Benchmark Result Surfaces for Mac Pro With M2 Ultra Chip

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.
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If you want to avoid paying Apple $2,200 for 8TB of internal flash storage, you can instead pay $3,000 ($5,000 over the M2 Max Studio) extra for Mac Pro over the Studio, and then install SSDs in PCI cards.

There are (expensive) PCI cards with 8 SSD slots, so the potential for storage expandability is massive.

A blatant rip-off if you ask me, but that’s a valid use case, I guess.
 
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MayaUser said:
the most powerful mac.....get this...kind of embarrassing...Apple could have release this 6 months ago
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6 months ago they were only announcing the M2 Pro/Max SoC's on Jan 17th. (new 14"/16" MBPs and M2/M2 Pro Mac minis). So it's impossible to have the M2 Ultra ready that early. Also Jan 17th is only 6 months from when the M2 was announced at WWDC 2022.

So considering we have only a year from the time of M2 introduction (WWDC 2022) to M2 Ultra introduction (WWDC 2023) and it was obviously the reason the M2 Ultra Mac Pro announcement was delayed what more can be said? :p
 
CWallace said:
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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Gonna be real...is the ability to have internal RAID SSDs really worth that extra $3000? That's $3000 just for the ability to put RAID SSDs in there. For that price you can just buy RAID enclosures that come with over 32 tb of storage already in them

And BlackMagic cards are slowly on their way out as rack mounted BlackMagic boxes are performing better than the cards do.
 
You need to already be pretty heavily invested in multiple PCI hardware slots for this to even come close to making financial sense. You can add PCI hardware to most Thunderbolt eGPU boxes like the Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box for nearly the same performance and compatibility with any other Mac-based product.
 
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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.
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The lack of a Mac Pro system and the focus on Thunderbolt killed most of them off long again in the creative industries. Pretty much every audio interface is available with a Thunderbolt connection now and for audio thats plenty of bandwidth anyway.

It's a niche product but peopel asked for a modular Mac and here it is. Of course what people really meant is they wanted a Mac where they could upgrade every little component in it over time ot save themselves money.
 
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mrat93 said:
If you want to avoid paying Apple $2,200 for 8TB of internal flash storage, you can instead pay $3,000 ($5,000 over the M2 Max Studio) extra for Mac Pro over the Studio, and then install SSDs in PCI cards.

There are (expensive) PCI cards with 8 SSD slots, so the potential for storage expandability is massive.

A blatant rip-off if you ask me, but that’s a valid use case, I guess.
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Amazing how Apple gives consumers a gigantic middle finger and Apple loyalists praise them. WTF man.
 
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Spaceboi Scaphandre said:
Gonna be real...is the ability to have internal RAID SSDs really worth that extra $3000? That's $3000 just for the ability to put RAID SSDs in there. For that price you can just buy RAID enclosures that come with over 32 tb of storage already in them
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Well the PCIe slot has higher bandwidth than the TB4 port (and less overhead, I believe) so if you need maximum performance (scratch disks?) then going PCIe over external might justify the difference.
 
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bsbeamer said:
You need to already be pretty heavily invested in multiple PCI hardware slots for this to even come close to making financial sense. You can add PCI hardware to most Thunderbolt eGPU boxes like the Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box for nearly the same performance and compatibility with any other Mac-based product.
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It honestly feels like this Mac Pro is a transitioning Mac Pro telling Pros "look this is happening so just come to peace with it. Start investing in external BlackMagic and RAID boxes."
 
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jlc1978 said:
They are, in the end, a profit making company with a duty to shareholders.
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Yes, their FIRST duty.

Some of us miss an older incarnation Apple that didn't seem to as blatantly illustrate that duty so in our faces. The "Apple tax" has always existed- so no surprise about that- but it "feels" much more greed-driven these days than- say- 10 or 15 years ago... where it could seem product and/or delighting customers MAY have trumped squeezing every possible cent out of us for those shareholders.

At times, the key to maximize for shareholders means growing goodwill with customers. $3K for some slots is like $700 for 4 wheels or $1K for a monitor stand. If a corp keeps burning goodwill for short-term profit maximization, they risk running out of goodwill. No show/sign of that in quarter after quarter of "another record quarter of revenue & profit" but it can be frustrating to even a long-term Apple CONSUMER like me.
 
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Spaceboi Scaphandre said:
Gonna be real...is the ability to have internal RAID SSDs really worth that extra $3000? That's $3000 just for the ability to put RAID SSDs in there. For that price you can just buy RAID enclosures that come with over 32 tb of storage already in them
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For the ability to use PCIe, which as one use case is SSD’s. Then you can add the other cards you needed that didn’t make the Studio viable.

I don’t get what’s so confusing about this guys. The Pro is the Studio+PCIe expansion for those who absolutely needed it.

The Studio IS the pro for the vast majority of users who don’t need to use specialized PCIe cards for their work.
 
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Spaceboi Scaphandre said:
It honestly feels like this Mac Pro is a transitioning Mac Pro telling Pros "look this is happening so just come to peace with it. Start investing in external BlackMagic and RAID boxes."
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Could be. I guess we will know in 18-24 months if the machine is updated with an M3-class SoC or if it just continues to sit at the specs it has.
 
MacRumors said:


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
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Can somebody tell me how the single core score works? M1 Max is like 1780. M2 Max is just over 2k. They only get 700 points out of the interconnection?
 
NT1440 said:
For the ability to use PCIe, which as one use case is SSD’s. Then you can add the other cards you needed that didn’t make the Studio viable.

I don’t get what’s so confusing about this guys. The Pro is the Studio+PCIe expansion for those who absolutely needed it.

The Studio IS the pro for the vast majority of users who don’t need to use specialized PCIe cards for their work.
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Neil Parfitt already touched on the PCIE expansion for BlackMagic and again: external BlackMagic boxes are performing better than the PCIE ones did, so the need for PCIE slots for BlackMagic is waning.
 
If performance is identical, GAME OVER for the Mac Pro. And the FACT that both this and the Studio systems can be configured identically on the Apple page (same RAM limit, hard disk, chances at preinstalled software) why get the Pro?

The only reason I can see is to bring over old periphery. Or to hope a graphics card gets released that might never be…
 
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They could have just designed a PCIs slots enclosure that hooks with the Studio if you need all these slots. Having two separate machines that are basically the same with the sole difference being PICs slots, is a bit stupid for me and waste of resources. I wonder if someone has measured the weight of the Mac Pro enclosure vs. all electronics inside. I hoped that the new Mac Pro would be configurable with up to 4 M2 Ultra and all SoC work synchronized to offer you brutal performance. Instead, we wait for almost 3 years to receive PCIs slots.
 
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what annoys me is, I am a pro. I use my MP every day. This Mac Pro is pointless, literally pointless. Maybe Apple need to stop taking to stupid influencers and people who make review videos and talk to professionals making content for TV/Film etc. There is ZERO way I'll be giving them 3k extra for a set of PCI slots which don't even support GPU's. If apple could offer the same or higher equivalent as their MPX or Nvidia cards this wouldn't be an issue. Bolting everything down so that it's none upgradable/expandable is insane. Who is buying this to not upgrade the RAM in a year. I sure as hell won't be doing that and then having to buy a new system for a poxy ram or ssd upgrade. It's bonkers that some marketing bod probably decided this was the way forward. AGHHHHH
 
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So funny to the people that spent over £50,000 for the last machine thinking it was worth that, they should just stop making these at least give it a better chip than mac studio
 
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