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Gurman: All-New Mac Pro Still in Testing, But 'M2 Extreme' Chip Likely Canceled

A "pro" model with only 192GB RAM? I'm sitting here working on systems with 1.5TB RAM for EDA. If it's expandable then they need to target several TB ram. The 192GB on-die memory will likely have to be a 4th level cache instead of main memory.

There is an entire scientific/engineering pro market that's way above photography and video. Apple needs to target these users.

I could literally use 10,000 processors if they gave it to me.
 
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Also I don’t know what the upgrade cycle is for the Hollywood types that might buy high-end Mac Pro configs in the $10k - $50k range. They might have just invested a lot of capital in 2020-2021-2022 on the Dec 2019 Mac Pro for each one of their users.

Maybe in 2023 they’re not quite ready to buy a lot of new Mac Pros, especially if performance isn’t a dramatic improvement from their current machines and they can’t keep their expensive MPX AMD GPUs.

Maybe they’d rather upgrade what they have with Radeon 7900 XTX GPUs and wait for 2024 or 2025 to make a bigger investment in either a more expandable AS Mac Pro or some other system entirely.

Maybe for 2023 Apple can get away with a compromise like the original iMac with the tray loading CD drive, and as soon as they can, add a more compelling CPU / GPU solution for Mac Pro in 2024.

Just spitballing, I hope like all of you Apple has some tricks left up their sleeve and can do dual+ M2 Ultras with highly expandable RAM, GPU, SSD, MPX and PCIe.

Good point also about super fast SSD swap making up somewhat for a lower amount of actual RAM.
 
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HobeSoundDarryl said:
Again, by "entry," I suspect he's seeking PRICE not hardware/tech positioning. (I think) He wants an affordable Mac Pro again... like PowerMacs from about 16-20 years ago.

I paid well over 2X what I paid for a PowerMac back then and I have ZERO expansion options inside. There is one slot but I can't use it without Apple doing something to make it possible to put more storage inside. I would have much preferred a Studio with internal slots... aka Power Mac-like... aka the xMac dream many have longed for for all the time I've been using Macs.
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You are simply wishing for last year's technology. We have evolved to SoC approaches and high bandwidth Thunderbolt for i/o. Very powerful and much more efficient but with issues like RAM expansion, etc. The lower end Mac desktops (Minis and Studios) just build for efficiency, and it works at those levels. The Mac Pro cannot really ignore those things, so I will be very interested to see what approach Apple's engineers take with the new MP.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
Try a google search for Apple PowerMac G4 ads. Apple once offered "our most powerful Mac ever" with plenty of internal expansion for under $3K. I owned one as first Mac and it was great. Apple even made it idiot-easy to open and easily get to the slots when one wanted to add anything. It was a great tower.
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I couldn't afford a $3000 Power Mac in 2004. Now I can’t afford a $6000 Mac Pro in 2022. Never seem to be able to get ahead. Damn inflation (or corporate profiteering, take your pick).
 
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There's very powerful PC platforms with slots for such issues. Apple is great and all- I make my living on Macs- but PC is not nearly as terrible as some of us make it out... nor requires a nuclear reactor for power, etc. If someone needs "affordable" + tower + slots and much more broad compatibility with what can go into those slots, taking a look around outside the walled garden might have something ideal for some.
 
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MikhailT said:
Apple has no desire to compete with the gaming chips, they only want to focus on the compute side of 4090, which Apple Silicon is already much closer than half of 4090 after optimizations and so on. I think Apple is most likely going to have next-gen Afterburner cards for Mac Pro, so they don't need to do M2 extreme for these specific compute-heavy workloads.
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Are you serious? People buy RTX 4090 mainly to work in 3D engines especially that need RAY TRACING in real time.
Apple has nothing that can compete with NVIDIA's 3000 series at all.
4090 You went too far...
 
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just a refersher for those of you not into 3D and heavy calculations. Mac studio ultra cpu is about as fast as the old, consumer level 5950x from
Amd or 12900 from intel. And the ultra gpu is about as fast as a amd 6700 or nvidia 2070. For some special cases it ia better due to different architecture but this is the ballpark in which it plays. Lets assume the m2 ultra is 40 % faster across the board and it will not touch current gen intel/amd/nvidia in anything when compred to consumer level hw. And the situation is even more dire compared to actual pro hw. I don’t think apple will let this happen. Either they releae a mac pro that kicks ass at least in some regards or they’ll drop it.
 
ilikewhey said:
that would be fantastic, cause this means hello egpu! as much as i like the gpu on my m1 max, but lets be honest apple silicon gpu never held a candle to nvidia and amd's top of the line offering.
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Indeed it would. I'd be happy to upgrade to the M-series chips but my Intel Mac mini still can beat the graphics capabilities.
 
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mrr said:
Remember when the entry level Mac Pro was actually affordable?
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I think we all remember when a lot of Apples devices were affordable.

My first (and, as of right now) last Mac was my MacBook Pro from 2010 and it was $1200. And upgradeable. A couple of upgrades kept it working as my daily for 12 years.

If I wanted an equivalent MacBook today, being forced to pay Apple’s upgrade prices? Probably about $2,000.
 
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Hmm. I never considered economies of scale working against Apple in regards to their own SoC’s, but this right here is an interesting example of it.

Workstation CPU’s like Xeon or Threadripper are the lowest selling SKU’s from Intel and AMD (right?). But you’re still talking about a lot of product between HP, Dell, Apple, Lenovo, etc.

With Apple being the sole customer when it comes to their SoC’s, outfitting a specialty SoC into their already low-volume Max Pro would surely cost ludicrous amounts of money.

Never considered that. That’s what I’m getting from this article.
 
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rodriguise said:
Dear Apple,

We only want an M2 Mini with at least 64GB of memory.

Sincerely,
Everyone.
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You can configure a Mac studio with M1 Max 10/24 w/64GB/512GB SSD for a list of $2399 list USD now before any discount right now. EDU price that stores can match is $2159 USD. We are seeing retailers match that.

Why wait?
 
v0lume4 said:
I think we all remember when a lot of Apples devices were affordable.
Click to expand...

My 1st Mac was a 2006 CoreDuo Mini dealer upgraded to 1GB/120 which was 950€ which for sure were just as hard to swallow back then as the 2k for the Studio.

Main difference, the Mini started feeling pretty slow soon after while I expect the Studio to be good for years to come.
 
3nm SoCs are not available as fast as Apple needs/wants, so a M2 Ultra-based Mac Pro may be a placeholder, something to get an ASi-powered Mac Pro tower with PCIe slots out on the market, while Apple pushes TSMC for 3nm wafers...?
 
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Think Gurman it’s have posted this during the office Christmas party, because he literally makes zero sense here, basically he is saying it’s a Mac Studio, in a different er case…??
 
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However much people cheer about expandability and eGPU, what’s the odds Apple will go with even AMD offerings? Remember, NVIDIA and Apple hated each other before and relationship doesn’t exist since then. And how modular would this be? Dedicated CPU in LGA? Will we have desktop Apple silicon package?

I just don’t see much of eGPU or even dedicated GPU cards in Mac Pro simply because Apple is pushing their metal very hard. RAM maybe but with unified memory RAM stick performance might not be as attractive as people think, even though Apple is using DDR standard for their machines as well.
 
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Allen_Wentz said:
You are simply wishing for last year's technology. We have evolved to SoC approaches
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It is more accurate to call SoC approach to lock the customer to the platform, without third-party competition, without the ability to upgrade, without the ability to repair independently.
 
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In less than 10 years I'll be able to pick up one of these Intel units for less than $100 :rolleyes:
 
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