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What's Happening With the Mac Pro?

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Apple hasn't updated the Mac Pro since 2023, and according to recent rumors, there's no update coming in the near future. In fact, Apple might be finished with the Mac Pro.

Mac-Pro-Feature-Blue.jpg

Bloomberg recently said that the Mac Pro is "on the back burner" and has been "largely written off" by Apple. Apple apparently views the more compact Mac Studio as the ideal high-end pro-level desktop, and it has almost replaced the Mac Pro.

Apple is working on an M5 Ultra chip that will come out next year, but Bloomberg says the company is only planning to use it in the Mac Studio, and not in an updated Mac Pro. Apple has no plans to update the Mac Pro in 2026 in a "significant way." If we are truly at the end for the Mac Pro, will we see Apple discontinue it when the next-generation Mac Studio launches?

The current Mac Studio has a newer, higher-end M3 Ultra chip that supports more CPU cores, more GPU cores, more maximum storage (16TB vs. 8TB), and more maximum unified memory (512GB vs. 192GB). The Mac Studio can support up to four 8K displays, while the Mac Pro is limited to three, and the Mac Pro doesn't have Thunderbolt 5.

The Mac Pro has fallen behind, and the gap will only increase with the launch of an M5 Ultra Mac Studio. The only benefit that the Mac Pro offers over the Mac Studio is PCIe expansion slots. It's heavier, bulkier, and more expensive than the Mac Studio when comparing equivalent RAM and storage. For most people, there's no reason to choose a Mac Pro over a Mac Studio, but some of Apple's high-end customers still need the space for things like RED capture cards and specialized audio interfaces.

Over the years, Apple has struggled with meeting the needs of pro users who want a desktop. The now-infamous "trash can" Mac Pro that came out in 2013 prioritized design over functionality, and the machine ended up being a failure. Apple was criticized for misunderstanding its pro user base because there was no space for internal upgrades like additional GPUs.

Apple was never able to update the trash can Mac Pro because it wasn't thermally capable of supporting rapidly evolving GPUs. In 2019, Apple unveiled a modular Mac Pro that had a more traditional enclosure able to support expansion with eight PCIe slots and three impeller fans. Apple did update the Mac Pro a couple of times after that, but it has once again been sidelined.

Apple is still selling the M2 Ultra version of the Mac Pro and it hasn't been discontinued or removed from the company's website. Until it's officially discontinued, there's a chance we could get another Mac Pro at some point in the future, but it doesn't sound like 2026 will be the year.

Article Link: What's Happening With the Mac Pro?
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/12/31/mac-pro-2026-situation/
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They better have something for local LLM development, which means huge GPUs or TPUs. Likely will need PCIe slots for those. (although it may be possible for low-bandwidth interconnect between machines or external accelerators through Thunderbolt, like what they just announced)
 
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Duh. If you can't upgrade anything, all components are soldered in or integrated, Then what's the point? Why would parts makers(PCI Cards, ect) make stuff if you can't use it in the machine for? Apple know what it's doing to keep the money in their own hole. Screw the consumer, the users and the creatives with BS.
 
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Apple knew that Nvidia's market cap would exceed it's own, so it made sure not to allow it go up even more with sales to Mac users. Clearly a smart move!

Except...more people would buy a Mac Pro, improving it's own sales, and seeing a viable place in the ai market.

I bet it took its advice from Siri.
 
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applicious84 said:
Apple knew that Nvidia's market cap would exceed it's own, so it made sure not to allow it go up even more with sales to Mac users. Clearly a smart move!

Except...more people would buy a Mac Pro, improving it's own sales, and seeing a viable place in the ai market.

I bet it took its advice from Siri.
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The Mac Studio is incredibly cabable with running LLMs, especially if you chain a few together. I don't think this will ultimately harm AI development on the platform in the long run
 
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krakenrelease said:
Not only that, the cluster functionality of Thunderbolt 5 seals the deal. https://appleinsider.com/articles/2...-boost-from-new-rdma-support-on-thunderbolt-5


66149-138645-mac-studio-cluster-1-hero-xl.jpg
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That's interesting really interesting. This looks exactly like something I imagined around 2003 from a modular point of view. So I like a lot!

Can the same be done with Mac minis?

If Apple reimagined the Mac Pro they would create something stupidly powerful and even more efficient than this rig since there are multiples of same components etc,,i.e. using materially less as it's a whole-design and giving more.

Or is this really economy of scale more efficient to produce right now.

Apple can carry a signature top end product as the cap stone to its pyramid, in a manner that does not have to worry about sales. As long as it washes it face maybe.

Apple might decide to walk into the own-compute Ai game and give people a game changer.

Will Apple make MacPro Blades the thinest blades ever, each with a capacity for 10 M5 Max per blade... here is the RAM blade, here is the SSD blade and so on, when clustered they form a giant heat sink too. 🤔
 
ifxf said:
Bet there is not enough demand for a company the size of Apple to invest in a niche machine.
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And yet...

www.macrumors.com

Apple Spent More Than $10 Billion on Apple Car Before Canceling Project

Apple spent more than $10 billion working on the Apple Car over the last decade, according to a report from The New York Times that details the issues the project faced during development. Apple first launched the project in 2014 and let it flounder for more than a decade before calling it off...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com


But yeah, I don't see a new Mac Pro any time soon.

Mac Pro will be like the Apple Car. Apple will let it flounder for a decade before officially killiing it.
 
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The clustering of Mac Studios has proven that Apple can still offer a very tempting option for LLMs, but the question is whether they’re happy with the cable mess or whether an enclosure with several Apple C/GPUs is more desirable.

The Mac Pro needs reframing as a science and LLM computer rather than the old thinking of a video editor.
 
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Apple Knowledge Navigator said:
The clustering of Mac Studios has proven that Apple can still offer a very tempting option for LLMs, but the question is whether they’re happy with the cable mess or whether an enclosure with several Apple C/GPUs is more desirable.

The Mac Pro needs reframing as a science and LLM computer rather than the old thinking of a video editor.
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That's an interesting take, perhaps the Mac Pro could go rack mount only and be positioned this way 🤔
 
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Another Tim Cook drop the ball IMO.

There are a bunch of reasons why

1. The M-chips don't have multiprocessor support, and at the same time, they pushed their top end chips into the Studio and lower tiered macs. So where is the opportunity to distinguish the model line from a performance perspective?
2. The major use of PCIe slots would have been GPUs. Guess what Macs don't support the latest and greatest of?

Looking at other uses of PCIe, not sure...

* Server drive cards - no Mac OS Server, why would you bother?
* Network cards - would be nice to have an ONT switch, but again, mostly server use
* Sound cards - Apple doesn't really give a **** about creator markets such as sound production anymore. If they did, things like SoundSource wouldn't be necessary. Get an external USB audio interface like everyone else.
* Capture cards - This has also moved to external usage.

Sure there are other niche usages. But the reality is Apple is not a "pro" company anymore in that sense. Hell, they are the iPhone company with a legacy PC business.
 
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iluvcrap2000 said:
Duh. If you can't upgrade anything, all components are soldered in or integrated, Then what's the point? Why would parts makers(PCI Cards, ect) make stuff if you can't use it in the machine for? Apple know what it's doing to keep the money in their own hole. Screw the consumer, the users and the creatives with BS.
Click to expand...
Y’all i still think the Intel Mac Pro would be more worth it. The Apple silicon one no one wants it as the soldered in unified memory and processor did away with the bulk of customization
 
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MacRumors said:
Apple was never able to update the trash can Mac Pro because it wasn't thermally capable of supporting rapidly evolving GPUs.
Click to expand...

GPU were not the singular problem with the Mac Pro. In the April 2017 Apple outlined three issues. First, The trend of two GPUs not getting as much traction as they thought. (Mac Pro 2019 still shipped with a DUO option though. It also shipped by default with a W580X which would not be a stretch for the MP 2013 chassis. ). One, and only one, internal storage drive was a problem in workstation user space ( iMac Pro and Mac Studio still did nothing to solve that issue). And Apple leaned to heavily on Thunderbolt ( again iMac Pro , Mac Studio still doing the same thing).

Software wise Apple also did a 'left turn' with the foundation. Mac Pro 2013 was suppose the leverage OpenCL for extracting most of the value out of the 2nd GPU. In 2014, Apple decided to shift focus to Metal ( in part because of impediments from anti-OpenCL folks like Nvidia ('OpenCL has to loose for CUDA to win' ) and others plus the long term unifying effect of Apple GPUs would have across whole product line.

The iMac Pro has basically the same power and very similar thermal constraints as the Mac Pro 2013 .. and yet Apple managed to get a decent GPU inside of it. It was far more the Apple induced coupling of the thermals (shared heat sink) that was a problem, not the thermal limit. The limitation was the dogma that had to 100% reuse the exact same case design down the the fans and thermal core. [ Similar dogma of making RAM door disappear on iMac Pro because it was a priority to 'hide' the large exhaust vent behind the pedalstal arm so there is no immediately obvious vents visible. And same reason Mac Studio is a vacuum cleaner for dust on your desktop. ].
 
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