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I'm one of those people waiting for a new Mac Pro. I have the M2 Ultra now and while it's still fine, my M4 MacBook Air and M4 Max Mac Studio can render audio from my particular mastering DAW faster than the Mac Pro so based on that, I'd be ready to upgrade to a new Mac Pro if they make one. Time is money.

I have 4 RME PCIe sound cards and two OWC PCIe SSDs as part of my audio mastering setup. Yes, I could get a couple Thunderbolt PCIe chassises from Sonnet for all that stuff but aside from being a bit messy, I feel like it's an invitation for performance loss running all that through a few Thunderbolt cables vs. directly in the machine.

For me, stability and absolutely zero audio dropouts is paramount.

Here's to hoping for an M5 Mac Pro before summer. Otherwise, it's a Mac Studio and a mess of other peripherals to get back to what I have now.
 
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Was hoping that clustering could also be done or older models with thunderbolt 4, not as fast as 5 but cheaper to cluster.
 
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
Not only that, but the Studios should be able to stack together like that WITHOUT that crude stand. And should even come with a way that stacking them also CONNECTS them for a plug and play way to connect them to each other.
I do no think too may folks will care about the demise of the overpriced Mac Pro.
 
Its smaller, saves material, saves manufacturing, saves money.

If it was not that it needs a housing for protecting the components, they would sell you it bare naked. Claiming environmental benefits.
 
Perhaps ironically, but according to estimates by CIRP, the Mac Pro was actually the second most-popular desktop model in the line-up in 2023, making up ~3% of total Mac shipments to the iMac's ~4% and the ~1% each of the Mac mini and Mac Studio.
I appreciate you digging that up. However, I'm perplexed by that report, as are many others in this thread:


It's difficult to tell if the numbers represent total sales or revenue, and, of course, that chart changes every quarter. Even more perplexing is that CIRP's data varies widely even within the same year: (both charts are from 2023)

CIRP-Mac-sales-chart.jpg
mac-share-by-model.jpg
 
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Its only still available because they still have many laying around collecting dust in warehouses. Same thing happened to the HomePod. They will discontinue or release a new one if most of the parts are sold. That is how Tim operates for years now and why design never changes.
Don't forget Airtags!

Apple has a habit of over-ordering for niche products, and then making consumers wait years to get a new version. It's annoying is what it is, because it implies that anything that isn't a blockbuster hit is almost guaranteed to languish and be replaced, rather than iterated on and become great.
 
Don't forget Airtags!

Apple has a habit of over-ordering for niche products, and then making consumers wait years to get a new version. It's annoying is what it is, because it implies that anything that isn't a blockbuster hit is almost guaranteed to languish and be replaced, rather than iterated on and become great.
Do we have a source for this? I thought Apple operated primarily by a just in time manufacturing model, allowing for lean inventory. In fact, I believe Cook implemented this long ago as COO.
 
Do we have a source for this? I thought Apple operated primarily by a just in time manufacturing model, allowing for lean inventory. In fact, I believe Cook implemented this long ago as COO.
Apple still needs to place a minimum number of orders with their suppliers to justify setting up a production line and then continue placing a minimum number of orders to keep that production line operating.
 
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One of the issues that Apple brought up in the April 2017 meeting about what went 'wrong' on the Mac Pro 2013 was that it had one , and only one, internal drive. iMac Pro and Studio didn't (and don't) resolve that at all. If Apple drops the Mac pro their entire line up will have that restriction. Apple's groupthink mindset of "our SSD is the only worthy drive" already pervades ... it will only be a more giant bucket of Cupertino kool-aid if true across the whole line up.
I can't argue with that. I have a 2010 Mac Pro for fooling around (Linux/Mohave/Windows). All four drive bays are full and I have an NVME in a PCI slot. Another PCI slot has a USB 3 card. It has the DVD drive as well of course.

My server is a 2014 Mac mini with two internal drives and an external drive for media. The Linux box has three drives and room for two more without using a PCI slot which I could do. Even the stereo cabinet mini has an external drive. I know Apple is convinced everything should be on their servers for "a low monthly fee," but that is so not going to happen.

If you look at the Mini's competition in the mini-PC category most of them have slots for two NVME cards. Apple doesn't.
 
SSD cards, networking cards, port cards, audio I/O cards, etc.

I haven't sampled the PCIe market in awhile, but this would be interesting for me:

Signal processing cards. Ditto with FPGA cards. High clock rate A/D and D/A cards (assuming the shielding is excellent).
 
Apple still needs to place a minimum number of orders with their suppliers to justify setting up a production line and then continue placing a minimum number of orders to keep that production line operating.
That may be applicable to the Mac Pro. But I have a hard time believing that’s a constraint for HomePods or AirTags.
 
No source just observations.
I don’t think it’s true. Apple prides itself on its supply chain efficiency. They delay releasing new versions of products because of the cost of developing new ones, and the cost efficiency that comes with using older components. Their profit margins are higher on older models than on just updated models. And Apple tends not to lower prices even as the cost to manufacture goes down. (With some exceptions like older iPhones and MacBook Airs) Keeping the supply chain lean is part of how Apple maximizes profits.
 
My New Years wish would be for Apple to re-introduce the Mac Pro using an Intel cpu, as in the i-series, not a server cpu, and you choice of AMD or Nvidia gpu, keep the current case with all the Pci slots and the 12 RAM slots.
Actually, I would be just really happy if they would release AMD drivers for the 2019 Mac Pro so I could move beyond the AMD 6900
 
Think Mac Studio will be the most powerful Mac Apple will offer. Possible for Mac Pro to get a new chip upgrade some time in the future though it looks unlikely.
 
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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.
Business users do not upgrade components mid-cycle. They do add cards for uses other than RAM (like 100Gb/s Ethernet, SDI, etc.), most of those vendors already have macOS drivers for their cards.
 
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