MP 7,1 There was a final Intel MP in the works

[Flint Ironstag]

Bloomberg article.

As for new Mac Pro hardware, there were two additional models developed by Apple that never saw the light of day: J170 and J190. The former was a new Intel Corp. Mac Pro (yes, even when Apple was making its own silicon) to address certain uses. The latter was an M3 Ultra version that was supposed to launch alongside the M3 Ultra Mac Studio in early 2025. As for the future, I don’t anticipate Apple bringing back the Mac Pro anytime soon — if ever. New Mac Studios with M5 Ultra chips, meanwhile, are coming as early as this fall.

"to address certain uses..." Let your imaginations run wild. What do you think the specs of this Mac Pro would've been? Any chance for Nvidia support? 😂

 

[RetroDan]

Zero chance for NVidia support; that ship sailed long ago, and tensions have not eased. There was never going to be a circumstance wherein Apple signed NVidia drivers, and I'll wager that their deal with AMD included an exclusivity contract for better pricing.

I remember that Apple had promised (for a given value of 'promise' for Apple, ie, 'bugger-all') that there would be "one more generation of Mac Pro with Intel) after the 2019. I remember thinking it plausible because of the MPX power delivery in the 2019, which I thought was brilliant - no extra cables to provide additional power; just plug and play. I was really hoping there would be a change in the standard of PCIe power delivery because of that connecter, and it seemed like such a cool idea to only survive a single iteration.

Alas, Apple screwed us all with the insult that was the Apple Silicon Mac Pro and its eight PCIe slots for...storage. And less than 1/10th maximum RAM capacity. ...which was also shared with the on-die GPU. Eugh. Talk about ending things with a whimper and not a bang.

I know that Intel chips had/have serious power consumption problems, to say nothing of all the baked-in architectural flaws that got exposed during that time frame, but I would have really loved one final Intel machine capable of expansion. I bought my 2019 Mac Pro off of another user here, and it's been the workhorse of my house ever since. Windows, macOS, Linux (of varying flavors)...it can do it all. And it does it well. And it still surpasses my M4 Max Macbook Pro, which is pretty much maxed the hell out, even if only just.

Apple, once again, does its power users dirty. But what do they care? They've got iPhones to carry the market and their bottom line.

 

[curnalpanic]

Probably just a speed bump and maybe some new graphics card.

 

[Regulus67]

I remember that Apple had promised (for a given value of 'promise' for Apple, ie, 'bugger-all') that there would be "one more generation of Mac Pro with Intel) after the 2019.

Tim Cook said, "in fact we got some intel based macs, in the pipeline"
WWDC 2020 Special Event Keynote — Apple;

"Some Intel based macs" caused many to expect another Mac Pro. I believed that as well, a couple of years.

The iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020) was released on 4 August 2020. It had the T2 chip.
And it had soldered SSD modules 🙁

 

[SDAVE]

The biggest issue with the Apple silicon Mac Pro is lack of PCIe lanes, no PCie GPU support or upgradable RAM.

Apparently M5 Ultra with Mac Studio will have up to 1.5TB RAM so that takes care of that i guess....but still NVIDIA is king for GPUs.

 

[RetroDan]

The biggest issue with the Apple silicon Mac Pro is lack of PCIe lanes, no PCie GPU support or upgradable RAM.

Apparently M5 Ultra with Mac Studio will have up to 1.5TB RAM so that takes care of that i guess....but still NVIDIA is king for GPUs.

...Nevermind that the 1.5TB of RAM will be priced roughly equivalent to the GDP of Belgium...