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Mac Pro Turns 20 Today, Five Months After Apple Killed It
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Compared to the old G4 PowerMacs, they were absolutely enormous; and at the time, your desktop choice was an iMac, or this. (The Mini was not powerful enough for serious work.)
Now of course, you can do video and audio work on a Mini...
Now of course, you can do video and audio work on a Mini...
con2apple
macrumors 6502
By definition, design and professionalism are mutually exclusive.
As someone outside the target audience, you might have thought the device was great, but the customers it was actually meant for wanted to use it for work.
Perhaps a car analogy will help.
2013 customers wanted a Ford Transit/VW Crafter and Apple delivered a stunning Ferrari Testarossa.
Two worlds that just don’t mix.
From the outside, the discounted new old Mac Pro was finally a Transit/Crafter again. But with the interior of a Chevrolet Malibu/VW Golf.
boswald
macrumors 68040
iMac The Knife
macrumors 65816
Im not a Mac Pro user (no need, no desire) , but I hope Apple does return to its design base. I'm concerned that they're too busy trying to compete with "me too" products from Samsung and Lenovo. Apple invented the first user-friendly laptop (PB 145) and the first user-friendly phone (iPhone). I love the Apple Vision Pro because it's an incredible piece of design machinery which really makes for a fantastic user experience. I hope more such products appear. Hopefully with the advent of the AI powered portable speaker that's coming out that Apple's former designer is pushing Apple will reinvigorate design as the core principle of its product and user experience line.
Velin
macrumors 68020
And powering that Mac Pro compared to your Mac Mini is like powering an AI Datacenter today!
chaosbunny
macrumors 68020
The 2013 cylinder was pretty, yes, but "function follows form" is not perfect design, quite the opposite. The 2006-2012 Mac Pro was a much better design than the 2013 Mac Pro. Not as pretty but still much more beautiful than every PC tower case, while being way more functional.
The Mac Pro I bought in 2010 is still useful today, as an archive/backup for my video and photo work. Until 2023 it also was my only gaming machine. Having one machine with Mac OS for work and Windows for gaming was great. Out of the 8 Macs I have bought new and operated as my primary machines in my life it's my favorite Mac by far. But well, one has to move on, en********ation has its toll.
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JeffPerrin
macrumors 6502a
5,1 was the best computer I've had to date! Upgradability gave it long-lasting power and flexibility for the studio. Yeah, the Mac Studio is powerful, but requires tons of extra cabling, hubs* and dongles to get the same functionality. RIP Mac Pro.
*3rd party peripherals are all but mandatory with Apple Silicon Macs. I had to purchase a Caldigit TB hub, OWC PCI expander, and multiple external drive bays. Plus all the external cabling to match...
*3rd party peripherals are all but mandatory with Apple Silicon Macs. I had to purchase a Caldigit TB hub, OWC PCI expander, and multiple external drive bays. Plus all the external cabling to match...
Mac Pro was amazing in design and function. I bought many for work, primarily for video editors / media production. The Mac Pro was a key part of our production workflow. We got a lot of value out of them. They were a bit toasty in acoustically isolated rooms, so we ended up keeping them outside the rooms and running cables through the walls to the workstations.
But these days, the Studio is a better solution for our class of workflow.
The Pro had its place, and that place is squarely in the past. Hopefully some are still providing value to people, but computing hardware never ages well, particularly when considering its performance per watt.
But these days, the Studio is a better solution for our class of workflow.
The Pro had its place, and that place is squarely in the past. Hopefully some are still providing value to people, but computing hardware never ages well, particularly when considering its performance per watt.
This.
The original $2500 Mac Pro was actually a keen price for a dual Xeon workstation, and a tolerable level of "Mac tax" for people who just wanted an expndable tower Mac.
The 2019 forced everybody to pay $6000 for an insane level of PCIe expansion slots/bandwidth and RAM capacity - but that base spec made zero sense and was barely comparable in power to a $3000 iMac of the day. That wouldn't pay off unless you wanted to stuff it with another $10k+ worth of GPUs, afterburners and RAM.
Really, in 2017 when their "pro" plans (probably iMacs all round) got laughed off stage, Apple had one job to do: call Foxconn and order up a few container loads of generic i7/i9 PCs (they only needed to check the Hackintosh sites to see what components "just worked") in nice premium cases, bless them to run MacOS and sell them as "xMacs". They could have had those on the market in 6 months.
People wanted a pickup truck, Apple delivered an F1 car (2 years late).
Today, the success of Apple Silicon across the actual money-making part of Apple's range renders the Mac Pro Tower idea obsolete - Apple Silicon just isn't right for big monolithic PCIe tower workstations (which is a shrinking market anyway) and the Mac Mini/Studio concept is actually closer to what some of the competitors are doing. 10 years ago, though, it would have made sense.
By the time the 2019 actually hit the shelves Apple must have known that it was going to be a one-and-done once Apple Silicon came out.
Quicksilver867
macrumors 6502
Seconded.
I do have an Intel Mac Pro too, and that one is a great design. The dual Xeons and RX580 can certainly heat the room.
I can't help but agree that the 2013 Mac Pro was a bad design. It was not practical, and even in terms of the visuals, when you have a nickname "Trash can".. well.. I'd argue the Cube was even more loathed, but it was still called "the Cube". Nobody disputed its visuals being nice.
However, the original, large cheese grater Mac Pro was pretty amazing. I still have one, collecting dust. I'm waiting to figure out some kind of refurb project.
However, the original, large cheese grater Mac Pro was pretty amazing. I still have one, collecting dust. I'm waiting to figure out some kind of refurb project.
I hope to get my hands on a 2019 Intel model in the future and make it a project box. It was a lovely example of what a professional tower should be (despite the original cost), and it was the last time a lot of expansion cards could be used. I don’t hate the trash can, but that’s a perfect example of putting form before substance (and the lack of internal expansion options never made sense to me).
Agreed, I miss that chassis, though my specific preference is the B&W G3 (which I still have running).
I bought a used one 2013 off ebay just for the design. And to run virtual Windows. This, after sending my 2008 MP to apple for recycling (occasional crashes, USB getting wonky, warmed my office like a space heater, BUT still booted, and functioning 95% with all tasks 14 years later).
curnalpanic
macrumors 6502a
I still remember when the original Mac Pro was introduced (by Phil Schiller). Never owned one myself, for some reason.
This is core! The mac pro was the combo of standards in very nice shape with a modest tax on top. Made sense. And at the time macos was leaps and bounds beyond what you could get from other vendors. Sadly a short era that many of use wished would have continued. The also loved the design language of the 2013 but like some have said, it was not a macpro, rather macstudio predecessor. 2019 seemed priced to fail. Like the purpose was to show that the form factor was not selling. And the m2 ultra version? Yeah, a sick joke.
In any case, we live in serverely confusing times when it comes to what a personal computer is. With so many services, most people need only a thin access point.
The one use case that require massive compute is genai and there we are still talking about the need for something like a 4xultra for anything approaching what you get from frontier model providers. So, in single desktop form factor in say 10 years? Less with purpose built chips? Maybe that is apples bet? M7ultra being the first truely personal AI machine? Does it need a expansion? I sure think a few slots for storage and networking would be great but general PCI seems to be a thing of the past.
I really hope Apple ups their design game again. Mac Studio has to be the most boring looking product they have produced. I mean seriously, the 2013 mac pro with AS components would have been quite sick
ThailandToo
macrumors 65816
With RAM prices, $60,000 with 512GB or $120,000 with 1TB. Haha probably not far off.
I have a Cube. It doesn't connect to any wireless network, and if I could be bothered using Ethernet I'm pretty sure it would be unable to load any modern website or app. So I was about to ask what possible use you had for yours...
...then I scrolled down!
thefredelement
macrumors 65816
Excellent machines, I had the 4,1 (should have never sold it) and a 6,1. On the 6,1 I had to have the D700s replaced in 2019, still going strong though it doesn't get as much use as it used to. There's a lot to gripe about on that machine, especially coming from the 4,1 which was so flexible (I even had an EFI flashed Nvidia card, and a ton of storage) I always felt constrained on the 6,1 but at the same time, everything was so clean and neat and I loved how it looked on my desk and for years, it was fast, probably not the best single core speeds but it could do a lot at the same time and it never missed a beat.
Either does my M5 MBP but it just doesn't feel the same.
Either does my M5 MBP but it just doesn't feel the same.