My M2 Ultra is a beast. I justified the mother load I dropped on it last summer knowing I would never need anything more. At least not for a very very long time.
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Gurman: No New Mac Studio and Mac Pro Until Mid-2025
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Is it just me or is the current lineup of computers/iPads a complete mess? I haven’t seen specs on the M4 but I suspect Apple royally screwed the pooch with that one. $6k Mac Pro 2 generations behind a $999 iPad that doesn’t even run OSX. 🤦♂️
Yeah, it doesn't make a lot of sense that Apple would have an AI-focused event with their A4 chip being their AI workhorse, but not have their A4 chip available in Macs where it could be most effectively put to use for AI-based workflows.
If we make the assumption that Apple plans and develops multiple generations of M-series chips in parallel, we can pretty safely say the M3 was never intended to have an Ultra variant, since it physically lacks interconnection functionality and that they were already at the final stages of M4 development with M3 released. They also released the M4 chip to iPad just 6 months after releasing the M3, which almost guarantees M3 is over, outside of perhaps a reappearance in lower-end devices.
Forum members claim that chip yields for M4 are likely to be fairly low right now, which would mean there wouldn't be enough to cover high volume sales at this time (MacBooks). Not to mention how irate M3 purchasers would likely be to see new laptops with M4 released just 7 months after they got their new M3s.
To me, this lack of interconnect on M3, focus on M4 for AI, a heavily AI-focused event, and the apparent acceleration in the timeline of releasing M4 products all points to an earlier release of the M4 Macs than expected previously. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see M4 desktop Macs announced at WWDC or perhaps later this summer if chip yields aren't high enough yet. Delaying a year and a half and then introducing by-then old technology to the lineup makes very little sense, especially when Apple is already getting shredded in the tech press for being "behind" on AI and other manufacturers are allegedly poised to release chips that can compete with the older M-series chips.
I need to replace my 2015 iMac. I've waited this long. I'll just wait till they release a new mac studio perhaps a new studio display? or maybe an iMac pro. Not interested in the regular iMac and mac mini and don't want a laptop.
I wonder if they will reverse the hierarchy so laptops etc get M4 Max/Pro this year/early next year then WWDC 25, Studios and Pro are introduced with the M5 Ultra/Extreme and the laptops later that year are the M5 Max/Pro variants so M5 Ultra are out longer before the M6 Max gets near it.
Do you mean a 30" Studio display? If so I would wait and buy one
Is there any evidence that WWDC's AI workload will require the M4 chip? The M1-3's Neural Engines could be just fine, even if a bit slower.
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I love my Studio, but I think Apple would be better off eliminating it and putting a pro/max chip in the Mac Mini (which it would release at the same time as the MBP). There is just too much overlap of the Studio over the other products, and while the thermals are excellent, I’m sure a Mini would be pretty good too (especially compared to a MBP).
This seems like terrible systems engineering. I have just bought a Ryzen 5800X3D which is top tier and put it in my now ancient 2018 gaming pc, and yet Apple can’t design their own systens so as to support multiple generations?
Is it going to be like the 2013 Mac Pro all over again? A great performer that immediately gets abandoned.
Is it going to be like the 2013 Mac Pro all over again? A great performer that immediately gets abandoned.
Yes. A bit out of of date but his predictions since then had about the same 86% accuracy.
Source Leaderboard - AppleTrack
Top Apple Sources in 2022 # Name Accuracy 1 🐟 Ross Young 92.9% 2 🏀 Mark Gurman 86.5% 3 📉 Trendforce 84.5% 4 🎧 52audio 83.3% 5 🕘 9to5Mac 82.8% 6 ❓ MacRumors 72.7% 7 🇨🇳 China Times 72.7% 8 👨💻 Ming-Chi Kuo 72.5% 9 🧻 Jon Prosser 69.1% 10 🍍 Max Weinbach 69% 11 […]
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I don't think so. MacBooks, entire range, very straightforward. Mac mini, Mac Studio and iMac, again pretty straightforward. Only one I cannot figure out is the Mac Pro (the latest version makes no sense to me). iPads, I think they could condense it a bit.
But I disagree it's a "complete mess." You wanna see a mess? Go look at Lenovo's laptop or Dell's desktop lineup.
We are about half way through the year. I don't think it is coming early this year.
That's how being an analyst of any kind works, not sure why people are so surprised and mad at this.
Them people can't predict the future, they're just... people. Their guess is supposedly better than ours because they spend more time studying the matter before guessing.
Thanks to the new iPad Pro, Apple can't just use WWDC to praise M4 chips and their upcoming AI capabilities while keeping the Mac Pro and Mac Studio stuck with M2 chips. It would be bad optics—especially if pro consumers have to wait over a year. That's not going to happen.
My bet is that Apple will shake up the release schedule by launching the M4 Mac Studio and Mac Pro at WWDC, announcing that professionals can start preparing for the upcoming AI revolution with their best chips. This will allow Apple to compete with Snapdragon and set a new standard for the year. Starting with lower-yield products, Apple can perfect production before bringing these chips to consumer devices, since regular consumers aren't as concerned about which chip their device uses. Making pro users wait a year for the best M4 chip would be a misstep.
Even updating the Mac Pro and Mac Studio with the M3 chip would be a pretty stupid choice now that the M4 is out. I don't think Apple would be that dumb to release an outdated chip while they praise upcoming Macs with AI features that the M3 chips don't really support.
My bet is that Apple will shake up the release schedule by launching the M4 Mac Studio and Mac Pro at WWDC, announcing that professionals can start preparing for the upcoming AI revolution with their best chips. This will allow Apple to compete with Snapdragon and set a new standard for the year. Starting with lower-yield products, Apple can perfect production before bringing these chips to consumer devices, since regular consumers aren't as concerned about which chip their device uses. Making pro users wait a year for the best M4 chip would be a misstep.
Even updating the Mac Pro and Mac Studio with the M3 chip would be a pretty stupid choice now that the M4 is out. I don't think Apple would be that dumb to release an outdated chip while they praise upcoming Macs with AI features that the M3 chips don't really support.
Possibly with the Mac Pro. They should have made that more modular with the M3 being swappable to the next thing.
However I did get from a friend* internally that they have Apple silicon GPU unit with it's own dedicated Ram and that it's Fast... like next gen 5090 speeds, doubling as a machine learning board.
It was supposed to have launched with the Mac Pro last year but was not ready which why the 2023 was a bit pointless, but this may make it a valid purchase, and the archecture means that it could continue to swap out future GPU boards.
The other thing is another and probably last MPX upgrade for the 2019 MP.
*I'd certainly class this as unfounded rumours... but I did find out a lot of details about the 2013 Mac Pro and the 2019 before launch.
I'd disagree that Ray Tracing is a "crucial" feature for tons of people but that's just my opinion.
This will he THE epic fail of Gurman… it makes no sense. TSMC does not want to keep producing a problematic generation of 3 nm. They expect Apple to move on.
Why these analysts think laptop are higher in hierarchy than desktop machine? Yes, laptops sells more and makes more profit, but desktop is still what demanding professional still use. No sense, keeping those behind while it updates the whole laptop category.
Why these analysts think laptop are higher in hierarchy than desktop machine? Yes, laptops sells more and makes more profit, but desktop is still what demanding professional still use. No sense, keeping those behind while it updates the whole laptop category.
M1 ultra to vanilla M3, quite possibly, but I would quibble beyond that... Depending of course on what you are doing?
I mean of course there are going to be improvements, but they aren't going to be some life altering improvements that people in here think is going to happen with each spec bump every year.