Overall though I am just grateful Apple are actually upgrading their computers regularly now, unlike the Intel days where it got messy and, er, old with the chips they used. Mac Pro exempt of course, why do they even keep that one around?
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M5 Ultra Chip Coming to Mac Studio in 2026
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Especially at the M4 level with the extra 12GB of RAM the mini Pro gained.
I bought an M2 Max Studio over an M2 Pro mini because the Studio was actually cheaper once you brought the mini to 32GB and you got a Max SoC.
We're not really seeing that yet. A16, A17 Pro, A18 Pro, and A19 Pro brought 11%, 11%, 21%, and 8% improvements, respectively. In terms of IPC, M4 is up 13%, and M5 another 8%.
I'm not really worried about Qualcomm so far. They need a lot more power to achieve similar benchmark results.
I'd be more worried that M5 is now at 4.6 GHz, so Apple is hitting the GHz wall by around M7.
Especially if they went with custom SoCs that had a handful of CPU cores and a shedload of GPU cores (which the
SoIC-MH packaging would allow them to do).
Though they'll likely skip an M6 Ultra (as the M6 will be a new arch/node process, etc)... so it'll likely be the M7 Ultra (after the M7 Pro/Max are out)... so this could be late 2028, 2029... pretty long wait IMO (and for me I'll be retired and likely just buying these for goofing around... I'm guessing the Macs I buy next year will be the last ones I buy for professional use... bittersweet).
The Mac Pro could get a new lease on life as a AI machine... Extreme processors, lots of RAM... in theory they could use the slots for GPU/NPU cards if they decided to have support for that (not necessarily Nvidia GPUs BTW as I doubt that would happen)
I am not saying users don't need the Mac Pro, I am simply saying they might as well kill it if they don't want to update it. It is 3 processor gens behind and they are still charging $7k.
I own two studio's, an M1 and M4. Best computers I have ever owned by far. I have stayed away from the glued together Ultras's are they have been hugely disappointing and expensive chips that basically become obsolete instantly with the Max Chips being so good for far less and the Ultras's incapable of scaling the double Max hack. I have a feeing this time may be different with the new packaging technology and as the M5's being so good. I may actually jump to the Ultra this time around as it seem highly probable the Ultra will finally reach Nvidia level GPU performance. And if that happens I will never own a Windows machine again.
They couldn’t manage to fuse 4 Max chips together, so it never saw the light of day. But, as this post earlier in the thread is saying, https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...g-to-mac-studio-in-2026.2470499/post-34269876 , an Extreme chip may be back on the cards (or board) if Apple do not have to rely on the 2xMax = 1xUltra, 2xUltra (i.e 4xMax) = 1xExtreme model. If so, and this chip is only available in the Mac Pro, the Mac Pro comes back to life as a marketable machine.
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I believe these are the current requirements. So I guess the new machine will be able to run the 236B parameter models.
Context size is also important. To be really useful, a large context is needed, 8K is too small.
Someone reported this for
DeepSeek R1-0528
"Last night, the folks at MLX Community uploaded a 4-bit quant of the full 685B parameter model, which is a ~350 GB download that I immediately tested in LM Studio, which has a built-in MLX interpreter for Apple Silicon. Loading the model in LM Studio lets you set a maximum context window size of 163,840 tokens; I attempted that, but the M3 Ultra with 512 GB of RAM couldn’t do it. Setting the context window to a much smaller 32,000 token size loaded the model with 363 GB of RAM used, but it was swiftly ejected from memory as soon as I tried to chat with it. Going down to a more reasonable 8,192 context window size did the trick."
People buy the Mac Pro over the Mac Studio when they need PCI slots for something like Fiber Channel networking.
There are studios that keep all their media on a Fiber Channel network.
I think there are other specialist uses for PCI.
Quite a few other businesses require dramatically higher capital spending. Even at $30K a Mac Pro is cheap compared to what a plumber might spend on an outfitted plumbing truck. And don't even think about the guy who owns a restaurant.
In that comparison you're right, computers are now very cheap compared to 30+ years ago, and are generally far cheaper than most other professional equipment. Even compare the price of a Mac Studio to a good office chair or office desk, and chairs and desk are not that exciting. You won't get many desks or chairs for the price of the machine sitting in front of it / on top of it.
That said, the current version of the Mac Pro is ridiculously expensive compared to the price of the equivalent Mac Studio Ultra, with not enough between them to justify the difference in price.
Yes, that's essentially the target market, that and users who need a rack mountable machine with a serious cooling system, or need a single box that can be transported easily with a lot more I/O and storage capacity than a studio.
ultras just seem like such a waste. they're quickly eclipsed by the max chips of the next gen for half the price
The Mac Pro is the only Mac that is "Made in America". The factory is in Texas. It is also made in very low quantities. Both of these things drive the price up
But again, prices are relative. If you need a PCI FC card, it means you are on a 64GB FC network. Have you priced dual-port FC cards?
Dell Emulex LPe36002 Dual Port 64Gb Fibre Channel SFP+ HBA No Bracket
xByte Technologies offers a 100% money-back guarantee. Every item passes strict quality control by certified technicians to ensure top standards.
www.xbyte.com
64GB FC Switches cost about $80K
And this is only the "cheap stuff". Wait untill you get the quote from EMC for a storage server. You are looking at $300K at the entry level. Some will go with NetApp for a little less.
I worked at a place where we had "millions" in the server closet, just in storage. And then add in the Argon fire suppression system, redundant power and the cooling.
But of course, most Mac Pros were bought by people with more money than sense, for were used to watching cat videos on YouTube.
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WWDC is probably the earliest. I think if we see the M5 Max MacBook Pro before mid-March (and if Apple decides not to pull the rug out from under everyone's feet again like they did by sticking the M3 in a Studio last time around) there's a good chance we'll see the M5 Ultra released around WWDC.
Depends on what you consider a beast price. I can get a Mac Studio M3 Ultra with 512 GB of RAM and a 2 TB SSD for $9000. That's a lot for home use but for work? Not bad for what it provides.
I just got a M4 Pro Mac mini for my new work computer because I have access to a high performance cluster for my higher RAM and processing needs, but if I didn't have that I would easily have purchased a Studio with M3 Ultra (96 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD) for $3600. That's not really in "beast" pricing for work.
Yep. Apple makes pricy consumer / prosumer products, it doesn't make pricey professional gear (in the sense of "professional" as you're taking of). I think you're absolutely right in saying the current Mac Pro really is being continued to be mad for two reasons 1) as you've said, it nominally ticks the "Made in America" box, so they can say they are compliant with requests that they assemble a product in the USA, and 2) for users who need PCIe for very specific PCIe cards.The Mac Pro is the only Mac that is "Made in America". The factory is in Texas. It is also made in very low quantities. Both of these things drive the price up
But again, prices are relative. If you need a PCI FC card, it means you are on a 64GB FC network. Have you priced dual-port FC cards?
Dell Emulex LPe36002 Dual Port 64Gb Fibre Channel SFP+ HBA No Bracket
xByte Technologies offers a 100% money-back guarantee. Every item passes strict quality control by certified technicians to ensure top standards.
64GB FC Switches cost about $80K
And this is only the "cheap stuff". Wait untill you get the quote from EMC for a storage server. You are looking at $300K at the entry level. Some will go with NetApp for a little less.
I worked at a place where we had "millions" in the server closet, just in storage. And then add in the Argon fire suppression system, redundant power and the cooling.
But of course, most Mac Pros were bought by people with more money than sense, for were used to watching cat videos on YouTube.
The problem is that the processor / SoC is identical to that in a machine half its price, which is a hard pill ti swallow. I always felt they missed a chance by not making the whole SoC on a socket, so that you could buy later generation SOcs as they came out. That would have made it a far better value preposition. The actual case itself, the 7,1 case, is an amazing bit of design. It's a pity that, currently, they are not exploiting it. Apple made an amazing case, they just haven't made anything specifically to go inside it.
I just don’t think Apple have any interest at all in the “dara centre” market all. They are interested in selling services, and those services need large scale systems, but that’s not the same thing. Beyond a relatively small office setup, Apple are not tying to sell servers.
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