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Mac Pro Now Starts With 512GB of Storage and Radeon Pro W5500X Graphics

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Apple this week upgraded its base model Mac Pro to include 512GB of storage and AMD's Radeon Pro W5500X graphics for the same $5,999 starting price. Previously, this configuration included 256GB of storage and Radeon Pro 580X graphics. These changes apply to both the tower and rack versions of the Mac Pro.

mac-pro-tower-close-up.jpeg

As we previously reported, Apple has also made AMD Radeon Pro W6600X graphics available as a $300 upgrade option for the Mac Pro.

Released in December 2019, the Mac Pro continues to use Intel's Xeon processors, but Apple confirmed during its "Peek Performance" event on Tuesday that an Apple silicon version of the high-end desktop computer is planned. Apple did not provide a release timeframe or any additional details about the future Mac Pro.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has previously reported that an Apple silicon version of the Mac Pro will have two chip options, including one with a 20-core CPU and a 64-core GPU and the other with a 40-core CPU and a 128-core GPU.

Article Link: Mac Pro Now Starts With 512GB of Storage and Radeon Pro W5500X Graphics
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/03/09/mac-pro-now-starts-with-512gb-storage/
According to this then this M1 Extreme will be 4 x M1 with "ExtremeFusion" interconnect. Then max memory goes to 256GB and unified memory will be 128GB. That will be a powerhouse and probably still sold in the cheese grater to allow additional specialised cards to be included.
 
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Spock said:
A machine that cost $6 grand should start at 1tb. I am starting to think that Apple is a trillion dollar company because of its RAM and storage prices.
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RAM and STORAGE prices are what make the whopping profit for Apple. I think it’s been like that ever since iPhone was announced. This is where Apple realized they could up-sell.

Now, Services for Apple started to take over too. Generating nothing but pure profit. 💰
 
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Kylo83 said:
What’s the point of this anymore
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RAM, upgradability, Apple’s Afterburner accelerator card, the rackmount form factor, getting the top of the line x86 Mac. There’s a lot that the Intel Mac Pro offers that we won’t have in an Apple Silicon Mac until the Apple Silicon Mac Pro ships, and there are still a few holes that likely won’t ever be filled by Apple Silicon (unless Microsoft makes ARM based versions of Windows available to end-users or someone creates a Virtual PC-like virtualization system for Apple Silicon).
 
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TheYayAreaLiving ? said:
RAM and STORAGE prices are what make the whopping profile for Apple. I think it’s been like that ever since iPhone was announced. This is where Apple realized they could upsell.

Now, Services for Apple started to take over too. Generating nothing but pure profit. ?
Click to expand...
For sure, Apple ram prices have always been high but before you had the option to upgrade it yourself..
 
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iBluetooth said:
According to this then this M1 Extreme will be 4 x M1 with "ExtremeFusion" interconnect. Then max memory goes to 256GB and unified memory will be 128GB. That will be a powerhouse and probably still sold in the cheese grater to allow additional specialised cards to be included.
Click to expand...
Why stop at 4? :). Anyway, I think we can speculate once M2 is out.
 
iBluetooth said:
According to this then this M1 Extreme will be 4 x M1 with "ExtremeFusion" interconnect. Then max memory goes to 256GB and unified memory will be 128GB. That will be a powerhouse and probably still sold in the cheese grater to allow additional specialised cards to be included.
Click to expand...
It would have been M2 at least, as Ultra is the final of M1 Silicon family.
 
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TheYayAreaLiving 🎗 said:
RAM and STORAGE prices are what make the whopping profile for Apple. I think it’s been like that ever since iPhone was announced. This is where Apple realized they could upsell.

Now, Services for Apple started to take over too. Generating nothing but pure profit. 💰
Click to expand...
Nah, goes back even further than that. The 512k Mac was just a 128k Mac with a RAM upgrade and a couple of new ROMs. While there were traces on the board for RAM upgrades, I believe it technically would have voided your warranty to upgrade it yourself. So your only official options were to buy a new 512k Mac or spend $1000 on an Apple RAM upgrade. And purchasing RAM from Apple has always been more expensive than purchasing that same RAM third party, even back in the day of easily user upgradable RAM.

And Services isn’t “pure profit”, FYI. Servers have an expense, all that content (and the content deals) for Apple TV+ has an expense, the App Store has an expense, and the time spent maintaining it all has an expense, too. It’s profitable, but, like any line of business, Apple’s Services business has both fixed and variable expenses. (And Apple TV+ may be Apple’s only loss-leader product/service. It might not actually make enough to pay back Apple’s investments in it yet.)
 
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I guess that's nice, but I don't think anyone outside of the rare few who need to run Mac OS and Windows will need this machine.

And for those looking to sell one, it's going to be IMPOSSIBLE to get anywhere near what you paid for it.
 
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At $6k, you have to really want a 7,1 to be buying the base spec. I think most intel holdouts would be better off with the 2018 mini w/ 64GB RAM, an 10ths, and a 5700egpu. You’d probably end up around half the price of the base Mac Pro, but with around 80% of the performance. I guess it would come down to how much you need ECC RAM, and how much money you plan on spending on a dead end system. In 2022, I’d buy another 6,1 before buying a 7,1.
 
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maxsquared said:
It would have been M2 at least, as Ultra is the final of M1 Silicon family.
Click to expand...
I don't think so. They'll probably release the new Pro with an M1 Extreme (or whatever they're going to call it) and then we'll see an M2 sometime later in the low-end machines - Mini, Air, etc.

I doubt they want to get on an annual release cycle with chips - it's just too difficult to sustain. A new base chip every 2 years seems more appropriate. Start with the base then over a couple of years, roll out the Pro, Max, Ultra, Extreme.
 
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