Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MP All Models Waiting for MacPro 8,1

davidec

davidec

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 31, 2008
453
496
M5 released and now we ask the question. Are we getting a MacPro M5 based machine early 2026? How long do we wait before we abandon ship and purchase PCIe expansions and move to Mac Studio? I'd like to think there's an update due in the next few months but given I am on a maxed out 2019 Intel and don't want to spend $ on the M2 I'm in limbo.

Curious for everyone's thoughts?
 
  • Like
Reactions: aaronhead14
I would just wait and see.

No new Mac Pro is going to do what the 2019 could do, namely being able to run Windows natively and MacOS, plus you have up to 2.0TB RAM on the top models.

The M2 Mac Pro just is not worth it. Who knows what will come down the track.

At least for me, the two 7,1s I have are working fine and not a limitation.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Fastsavage, H2SO4, Flint Ironstag and 1 other person
I believe there is a good chance that a Mac Pro is coming.
Why?
Mac Studio M3 Ultra has already launched.
Reason?
A new Pro XDR Display seems to coming soon. In the past, Apple presented their top tier displays along a Mac Pro. And I assume that both will have Thunderbolt 5, without the need for Display Stream Compression (DSC).

I am not going to speculate on the specifics of the hardware. Because I am not in the Pro market.
I am just an enthusiast, who loves the Mac Pro 7,1. And I would like to avoid the “intelligence” stuff as much as possible.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MacHeritage, Macintosh IIcx, keksikuningas and 2 others
Idk, if you're a new buyer, the M class Mac Pro just isn't worth it, unless you need to use your current PCIe cards and want to add internal storage. Even then, without PCIe GPU support, the box itself becomes a nuisance for Apple. The margins must be paper thin on the Mac Pro, they haven't done anything for it in a while.
 
Regulus67 said:
Is that not how Apple treats all their Mac Pros since the 6,1 in 2013?

edit: you will experience this with Apple support. They have no clue what machine you have, and offer answers and suggestions based on the MacBook Pro models
Click to expand...
doesn't help that they have hundreds of people every week saying they have a mac pro when they mean macbook lol
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: navaira, H2SO4, rb2112 and 1 other person
SDAVE said:
Idk, if you're a new buyer, the M class Mac Pro just isn't worth it, unless you need to use your current PCIe cards and want to add internal storage. Even then, without PCIe GPU support, the box itself becomes a nuisance for Apple. The margins must be paper thin on the Mac Pro, they haven't done anything for it in a while.
Click to expand...
Ain't broke, don't fix.

15 years and still going strong.

THAT'S VALUE :p
 
Regulus67 said:
Is that not how Apple treats all their Mac Pros since the 6,1 in 2013?

edit: you will experience this with Apple support. They have no clue what machine you have, and offer answers and suggestions based on the MacBook Pro models
Click to expand...

I've been an Apple user since the mid 1990s, they've always been this way tbh. They always dumped products that have paper thin profit margins.
basslik said:
Ain't broke, don't fix.

15 years and still going strong.

THAT'S VALUE :p
Click to expand...

The lack of care for tower users started since the final sales of 5,1 ended. It's still crazy to me that they built the 7,1, as beautiful and functional as it is (including MPX modules) to quickly abandon it.

This is true, but as an example I put my M1 Max 16" 64GB MBP (4-5 year old computer) and my 7,1 28core 192GB w/6900XT (5-6 year old) computers side by side and the M1 Max wins it hands down every time in many tasks (except for GPU power of course, and the M1 Max is no slouch).

I think once the 6,1 came out and quickly abandoned, a lot of people who still needed PCIe slots (especially audio and video folks) moved over to Thunderbolt and USB-C.

It will be interesting what they will do with the 9,1, that is even if they'll do anything with it. I really think without PCIe GPU support in M class Macs, for me personally, the Mac Pro serves no purpose. If you really need storage and audio/video PCIe support, then you can do something externally without issues.

I think Apple is taking the road of slowly killing off the Mac Pro. I would personally be surprised if they release another Mac Pro. What are they going to put in it a M5 Ultra? Still limitations with RAM and lack of PCIe GPU support...still a great and functional chassis tho.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rb2112
Regulus67 said:
edit: you will experience this with Apple support. They have no clue what machine you have, and offer answers and suggestions based on the MacBook Pro models
Click to expand...
This is quite true, actually even the Apple store folks are pretty shocked when you mention you have two 2019 Mac Pros!

They mostly oniy know the laptops and iDevices.

When they realise it is not a laptop but a hulking big tower desktop than can go 2.0TB ram they are pretty surprised.

The Mac Pro market is gone, they use high spec Lenovo PX or similar.
 
avro707 said:
This is quite true, actually even the Apple store folks are pretty shocked when you mention you have two 2019 Mac Pros!

They mostly oniy know the laptops and iDevices.

When they realise it is not a laptop but a hulking big tower desktop than can go 2.0TB ram they are pretty surprised.

The Mac Pro market is gone, they use high spec Lenovo PX or similar.
Click to expand...
tangent, but I love how these Aston Martin designed Lenovo workstations look. If I had a use case for so much power I'd love to own one
 
keksikuningas said:
tangent, but I love how these Aston Martin designed Lenovo workstations look. If I had a use case for so much power I'd love to own one
Click to expand...
They are definitely not going to release a Mac Pro.

Business wise, it's something they want to eliminate any upgrade, third party options. Conventional wisdom would say.
 
basslik said:
They are definitely not going to release a Mac Pro.

Business wise, it's something they want to eliminate any upgrade, third party options. Conventional wisdom would say.
Click to expand...

Be careful what you wish for, they might just eliminate all external storage devices in favour of using only Apple specific devices or cloud storage from Apple, slow connections be damned.

Really, they could just do cloud computing and have everyone running the lowest spec Mac Mini or some tiny portable device and you use the cloud computing power you have paid for. Need more? You pay more.

As for a screen, everyone can buy AVP headsets outright or on plans.

Drop OS support for those and other recent M devices to force people to move over, as they did for Intel to prevent people holding out.
 
  • Like
Reactions: basslik
avro707 said:
Be careful what you wish for, they might just eliminate all external storage devices in favour of using only Apple specific devices or cloud storage from Apple, slow connections be damned.

Really, they could just do cloud computing and have everyone running the lowest spec Mac Mini or some tiny portable device and you use the cloud computing power you have paid for. Need more? You pay more.

As for a screen, everyone can buy AVP headsets outright or on plans.

Drop OS support for those and other recent M devices to force people to move over, as they did for Intel to prevent people holding out.
Click to expand...
IDK if Apple will dump USBC for external storage, they know their Pros use it. I just think they saw diminishing returns/usage from Mac Pros over the years, and possibly intentionally tried to kill it off a slow death in the past 10 years, but it still doesn't make sense they made the 2019 MP with M class chips in the pipeline, it was already outdated almost a year in by 2020/2021. It's probably the most irrational launch I've ever seen Apple do especially considering how much money went into R&D for the 7,1. I think for them the Mac Studio + Studio Display/XDR are the replacement for Mac Pros. The MS is seeing good sales, so I would assume most Pros who really need a Mac go that route anyway. Graphics are still a big downside on Macs, but with the M5 that just came out, we're seeing great GPU gains. The M5 Pro/Max/Ultra are going to be pretty solid.

I'm definitely considering the Mac Studio Ultra once it comes out, let's see what happens next year at WWDC. One downside is of course (for me at least) is internal PCIe storage, but I guess I can Thunderbolt, but I already have a NAS over 10GbE (I get around 800MB-1GB/sec, which isn't as fast as NVMe but good enough for what I do). I do dual boot into Windows 11 for gaming with the 6900XT, but even that GPU is showing it's age in games. I most likely will build an SFFPC for gaming and use KVM switch with the Studio Displays.
 
avro707 said:
The M2 Mac Pro just is not worth it. Who knows what will come down the track.
Click to expand...
I agree "not worth it", having used the studio, I really cannot see going with a Mac Pro unless some weird workflow came up needing that chassis / PCI-E connections.
 
rb2112 said:
I agree "not worth it", having used the studio, I really cannot see going with a Mac Pro unless some weird workflow came up needing that chassis / PCI-E connections.
Click to expand...
i've been wondering recently. Are PCIE lanes on Mac Pro M2 shared with Thunderbolt? If someone had some insane workflow where they saturated all available TB buses on a Mac Studio, would Mac Pro PCIE slots be a solution for the lacking bandwidth?
 
keksikuningas said:
i've been wondering recently. Are PCIE lanes on Mac Pro M2 shared with Thunderbolt? If someone had some insane workflow where they saturated all available TB buses on a Mac Studio, would Mac Pro PCIE slots be a solution for the lacking bandwidth?
Click to expand...

The MP M2 has enough PCIe lanes (I think its 32) but less than the Intel ones, but it should be enough for most audio/video/storage PCIe. I dont think it shares the lanes with Thunderbolt.
 
SDAVE said:
The MP M2 has enough PCIe lanes (I think its 32) but less than the Intel ones, but it should be enough for most audio/video/storage PCIe. I dont think it shares the lanes with Thunderbolt.
Click to expand...

IIRC the M2 Mac Pro doesn't provision the PCI slots separately to the IO card, that MAY be just for the USB bus. On a 7,1 the built in USB ports don't use PCI lanes, whereas plugging in a TB3 to USB cable adds a 4 lane overhead.
 
Last edited:
basslik said:
They are definitely not going to release a Mac Pro.

Business wise, it's something they want to eliminate any upgrade, third party options. Conventional wisdom would say.
Click to expand...
If that were the case wouldn’t they state that publicly to move people like me across to Mac Studio and stop the waiting game? I do think they hold their creative market in high regard.
 
mattspace said:
Given how much og Apple's basic


IIRC the M2 Mac Pro doesn't provision the PCI slots separately to the IO card, that MAY be just for the USB bus. On a 7,1 the built in USB ports don't use PCI lanes, whereas plugging in a TB3 to USB cable adds a 4 lane overhead.
Click to expand...

After a little digging, it seems that the IO card uses PCIe lanes, but not the Thunderbolt ports (Intel used them as PCIe lanes).

Also it seems that after all said and done there are 24 lanes available on the M2 Ultra. In comparison, there are 64 lanes available in the 28 core Intel.
 
davidec said:
If that were the case wouldn’t they state that publicly to move people like me across to Mac Studio and stop the waiting game? I do think they hold their creative market in high regard.
Click to expand...
They want you to spend big $$$ on a computer without much future and then spend even more on another one soon after. ;)

Fortunately I have the 2019 7,1, two of them which are good enough (they are exceptional) that I could skip the M2 Mac Pro and wait to see what happens.

We will see soon enough what Apple does and then you can see if you want to stay with Apple for a workstation or if what they do (if anything) is unsuitable and it’s time to go for a big PC workstation.
 
Last edited:
avro707 said:
They want you to spend big $$$ on a computer without much future and then spend even more on another one soon after. ;)

Fortunately I have the 2019 7,1, two of them which are good enough (they are exceptional) that I could skip the M2 Mac Pro and wait to see what happens.

We will see soon enough what Apple does and then you can see if you want to stay with Apple for a workstation or if what they do (if anything) is unsuitable and it’s time to go for a big PC workstation.
Click to expand...

How do you feel about single core performance on the 7,1? I'm starting to feel it especially with browsers and snappiness haha
 
I am using browsers ALL day, massive numbers of tabs open, multiple different browsers, virtual desktops as well - and they are all working in a snappy manner.

Oh and a local dev instance of a big enterprise CMS is also running at the same time. Running builds for that is also very fast.

No problems with any of them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rb2112
avro707 said:
I am using browsers ALL day, massive numbers of tabs open, multiple different browsers, virtual desktops as well - and they are all working in a snappy manner.

Oh and a local dev instance of a big enterprise CMS is also running at the same time. Running builds for that is also very fast.

No problems with any of them.
Click to expand...
nice to see a dev with a MP. Seems like those are a rarity. A game dev I watch on twitch also had a 7,1 but replaced it with a M2U studio.

Do you struggle with single threaded stuff? I remember working on a TypeScript codebase and tests took several minutes to finish cause they ran on a single thread of my cMP5,1 and the testing framework didn't have parallelization options
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back