References to Intel's Latest Ice Lake SP Processors in Xcode 13 Beta Hint at Forthcoming Mac Pro Update

[MoJoRo]

Interesting in that the 2019 Mac Pro uses Cascade Lake-W, not Cascade Lake-SP.

Xeon-SP is designed for multiple-socket (2-8) applications so is Apple considering going toe-to-toe with the likes of Dell and HPE and offering 2/4/8 CPU Mac Pros for datacenter applications?

Could we see a bi-furcation of the product line where ASi Mac Pros are single-CPU models (with high core counts) and then Intel Mac Pros are multi-CPU models?

Another poster mentioned they had heard Apple was working on multi-CPU interconnections. I presumed they would be for connecting multiple ASi SoCs (perhaps for Jade2C / Jade4C), but maybe this is for multiple Intel Xeon-SP CPUs...

On the one hand, I would seriously love to see this. On the other hand, if I'm setting up another Xeon-SP system it's going to be running computations all the time anyhow, so I may as well 1: have it running Linux and 2: make sure the money I spend is all going to CPU/RAM rather than any bells & whistles that a Mac Pro will have.

 

[Stephen.R]

Absolute 💯 way to piss off every Mac Pro 2019 owner. Even as one of the first customers to order it, I didn’t receive it until feb 2020. So just over a year old and they are talking about another release. WOW what a way to get pros to spend 10k and then release an update so soon. SHOCKING. A way to basically make sure the nail is in the coffin.

I must have missed the part where the 2019 Mac Pro has a built in self destruct that triggers the moment a new model is released

 

[BWhaler]

I wonder who would buy this really expensive computer knowing that Apple Silicon Mac Pro is less than a year on its way? Even if you absolutely need Intel based mac, the 2019 Mac Pro is a more than decent machine. I don’t get the point of giving it a successor

Companies who need the capability today, e.g. I just hired a 3D video renderer for my movie post-production. Can’t wait 12-18 months to give them tools.

 

[Macintosh IIvx]

It would be sensible to keep the Intel Mac Pro running for a few generations. Big companies invested into the promise to make pro software on its release and users of these machines may not be able to dump their software in the blink of a eye. I also still rather doubt that Apple can take on dedicated AMD GPU's yet.

Many of the apps they utilize aren't yet M1 native and they may run into issues or performance hits because of such.

Certainly reason for many to want to stay on Intel still. The real pro crowd doesn't generally move quick or frequently to new machines or architecture. Or even versions of apps for that matter.

 

[adcx64]

A new blast furnace is in the works I see

 

[visualseed]

Absolute 💯 way to piss off every Mac Pro 2019 owner. Even as one of the first customers to order it, I didn’t receive it until feb 2020. So just over a year old and they are talking about another release. WOW what a way to get pros to spend 10k and then release an update so soon. SHOCKING. A way to basically make sure the nail is in the coffin.

So, Apple showing they are going to continue to support the model with updates pisses you off? Did you think you were buying to one and only model and there would be no updates? If you need a tool you buy the best you can afford the moment you need it. If you can afford to wait, then you don't really need it. Pros with real work to do aren't waiting around a year to see if Apple is going to release a faster model. They are buying today to do work today and if the faster model is justified they will buy it when it arrives and upgrade.

 

[Macintosh IIvx]

Absolute 💯 way to piss off every Mac Pro 2019 owner. Even as one of the first customers to order it, I didn’t receive it until feb 2020. So just over a year old and they are talking about another release. WOW what a way to get pros to spend 10k and then release an update so soon. SHOCKING. A way to basically make sure the nail is in the coffin.

Are you kidding? Do you get upset they release a 2021 model car because you bought the 2020? Or that there will be a 2023 model?

If only they'd only release the iPhone every 5 years so I could always tell myself that I'm awesome cause I own the newest model.

The reality is that 99% of the real pro crowd don't care. They don't let having the very latest and greatest define them or indicate their manhood. In fact, they'd rather have the option to upgrade to more powerful machines as frequently as possible, because they don't care about vanity of telling others what specs their machines have, they care much more about having a machine that can get the job done best and if there's a newer, better machine out there they'd love to have the option.

 

[Grohowiak]

Absolute 💯 way to piss off every Mac Pro 2019 owner. Even as one of the first customers to order it, I didn’t receive it until feb 2020. So just over a year old and they are talking about another release. WOW what a way to get pros to spend 10k and then release an update so soon. SHOCKING. A way to basically make sure the nail is in the coffin.

You crying this loud every time new iPhone is released?

 

[jetjaguar]

To be expected. I doubt Apple has a chip powerful enough for the Mac Pro yet.

 

[visualseed]

Many of the apps they utilize aren't yet M1 native and they may run into issues or performance hits because of such.

Certainly reason for many to want to stay on Intel still. The real pro crowd doesn't generally move quick or frequently to new machines or architecture. Or even versions of apps for that matter.

I believe it is possible that Apple will continue to sell an Intel Mac Pro for a few years after there is an Apple Silicon version. It may not see a lot of hardware updates, but it will remain a SKU for those that need it.

 

[haydn!]

Absolute 💯 way to piss off every Mac Pro 2019 owner. Even as one of the first customers to order it, I didn’t receive it until feb 2020. So just over a year old and they are talking about another release. WOW what a way to get pros to spend 10k and then release an update so soon. SHOCKING. A way to basically make sure the nail is in the coffin.

To be fair, if they do release an update later this year, it will have been pretty much two years. That's not an un-reasonable amount of time between updates for any price point. I'd be more pissed if I was expected to pay 10k for two year old tech when there was no justifiable reason for it not being more up to date (other than apparantly annoying past customers).

 

[coolbreeze2]

After absolutely no hardware revealed at WWDC yesterday, it's going to take me a while to trust HINTS and LEAKERS again.

 

[farewelwilliams]

Nah. The 'trash can' was just a poor design full stop. It's all very well judging how nice it looks and admiring its size, but the concept was ultimately flawed. You can't combine a CPU, two GPUs, a power supply and the remaining components onto a single aluminium (not even copper) heatsink and expect the thermal capacity to be adequate for all under full-load.

Unless you controlled the CPU/GPU design and make that a priority when building out the chip.

Take out the power supply like the iMac and stick a 10Gb port on it. easy.

 

[02275629]

hot take: Apple will probably reuse the trash can mac pro design for the Apple Silicon chips because Apple Silicon solves the thermal issue which was the reason they gave for pivoting back to the tower design.

I Loved that design. I don't get why so many people hated it... so clean. Minimalistic. Absolutely loved it. I don't own a Mac Pro but if I did, that's the design id prefer.

 

[farewelwilliams]

Not a chance. Apple doesn't work like that especially with a product that was seen as "failure"

Magic Mouse is seen as a failure. Yet here we are, 6 years later with new colors to the same design.

 

[jonnysods]

I can see a reason to keep Intel in these machines. Unless Apple have a processor up their sleeve that can shred this. I can see pros needing the ability to run x86 apps like Windows etc.

 

[Stephen.R]

Magic Mouse is seen as a failure. Yet here we are.

If you take forum posts complaining as any measure every Apple product ever created is a failure.

I expect Apple use a slightly more realistic measure for what is or isn’t a failure.

 

[3xBoom]

Intel SillyCon

 

[clive27]

I can't wait to see a Youtube comparison of the new Mac Pro and iPad Pro with an M1 processor.

 

[mi7chy]

Wonder where it's going to slot in under AMD options. Better to just build your own Threadripper 3995wx hackintosh.

https://openbenchmarking.org/test/pts/stockfish
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

 

[Freida]

You are not serious with this, right? Magic mouse was never discontinued and brought back.
Wrong example

Magic Mouse is seen as a failure. Yet here we are, 6 years later with new colors to the same design.

 

[lkrupp]

Wouldn't this mean that Apple WON'T be all Apple Silicon by 2022?

So sue them. Everyone else does.

 

[Bug-Creator]

Absolute 💯 way to piss off every Mac Pro 2019 owner.

If you haven't made your money back in 2 years the MacPro was never the right Mac for you.

 

[Manzanito]

I wonder who would buy this really expensive computer knowing that Apple Silicon Mac Pro is less than a year on its way? Even if you absolutely need Intel based mac, the 2019 Mac Pro is a more than decent machine. I don’t get the point of giving it a successor

Not selling two years old processors when newer ones are available is a pretty good point, I’d say.

 

[chucker23n1]

Interesting in that the 2019 Mac Pro uses Cascade Lake-W, not Cascade Lake-SP.

Xeon-SP is designed for multiple-socket (2-8) applications so is Apple considering going toe-to-toe with the likes of Dell and HPE and offering 2/4/8 CPU Mac Pros for datacenter applications?

Could we see a bi-furcation of the product line where ASi Mac Pros are single-CPU models (with high core counts) and then Intel Mac Pros are multi-CPU models?

I doubt we'll ever see a multi-socket Mac again.

This is either a red herring altogether, or a vestige of them having an internal prototype machine that uses Ice Lake-SP rather than Ice Lake-W for the simple reason that Ice Lake-SP shipped several months earlier, so they can start testing.

The two other interesting questions:

• does this delay the ARM Mac Pro? Not necessarily. There's the rumored half-size Mac Pro — they might ship that, ARM-based, at the same time as offering a Cascade Lake to Ice Lake and RDNA to RDNA 2 speedbump.
• what will they name that half-size model? I'm guessing both are named Mac Pro, just like multiple different sizes and tiers are named MacBook Pro (sigh).