On March 8, 2022, Apple introduced the Mac Studio, the most powerful computer at the time, leaving many Mac Pro users a little confused and confused.What’s more, when John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, teased a new processor for the Mac Pro on stage at that event, he said that “there’s only one product left: the Mac Pro, which is another A day.” (via mike rumors (opens in a new tab)).
Could the Mac Pro be released in the next few weeks?We’re not so sure, although four patents were recently published (via Apple Insider (opens in a new tab)) to resolve third-party GPU support issues while bypassing other issues (system memory expansion, third-party accelerators, etc.). Appleinsider is quick to point out, “Apple does keep filing for patents, but there’s no guarantee that even if patents are granted, they will lead directly to products. Plus patents can take years to apply for before Apple can use them.”
The current Mac Pro dates all the way back to December 2019, and the previous model (with its infamous cylindrical design) launched in June 2013, only to be discontinued six years later when its successor was launched. So Apple is content to keep its target audience waiting. If the gap persists, you won’t be able to get a new Mac Pro until at least June 2026, which is roughly double the refresh cycle of any business machine and the length of the MacPro’s AppleCare+ warranty.
change of scenery
Apple relentlessly kills product lines when ROI simply doesn’t exist: Xserve, iPod, and MacBook to name a few. So adding the Mac Pro to that list isn’t a huge deal; it’s not a household name, after all, which makes sense at a time when global desktop and laptop sales are seeing record declines amid tight budgets. Then there’s Mac Studio, which some might say is a great, more affordable alternative for some Mac Pro users.
The arrival of the Arm-based M-series serves the vast majority of Apple’s product lineup, with the Mac Pro being the only one left out due to its specificity. This is great for mobile CPUs with integrated graphics, but it’s more difficult to contend with workstations with up to four dedicated GPUs (like the old Mac Pro) or Windows-based workstations. Therefore, Apple needed to increase the ability to use upgradeable GPUs to satisfy demanding users. The M1/M2 chips also use non-upgradeable unified RAM built into the package, which won’t run with full workstations where users expect to be able to upgrade their RAM at any time.
I spoke with engineers and consultants at Puget Systems, a boutique PC vendor specializing in Windows workstations that has a clear vested interest in the Mac Pro debate.
One of them told me, “Yeah, we’re actually seeing a shift in Mac converts. These are interesting to me because I use both MacOS and Windows, so I think it’s helpful to help these people realize that they can better It’s good to be in control of their experience. The biggest reason is value for money. They realize that a $5000 system is probably better than the Mac Studio they use, or that Threadripper generally outperforms a $24,000 Mac Pro, and a lot of Macs are selected option.”
hardware race
Another supplier told us they’ve also seen a fair amount of Apple defections, “We don’t always know the specific issues that keep them from Apple, but hardware relevance and novelty and overall value are two very common themes ’” our interlocutor told us.
Then there’s the software issue: “Moving to the Apple M1/M2 chips may seem like a confusing move to some, since Apple is now using CPU/GPU chips that they create themselves, and the software that comes with this new hardware has to switch Software it runs on older CPUs that Apple has been using for over a decade. Some customers have come to us and feel like moving to Apple’s own CPUs has left them behind.”
This became apparent when I compiled a list of the best laptops for AutoCAD. Although AutoCAD supports MacOS, many important plug-ins and add-ons do not and only run on Windows. At least one US university has banned the use of Apple computers with AutoCAD, suggesting that getting the software to run natively on the M2 is expensive and time-consuming, and unless you’ve already built a user base for it, it’s a bit of an ROI conundrum.
I don’t believe for a second that Apple engineers can’t solve any technical challenges an M2-based Mac Pro might pose, but it would have a huge opportunity cost and Apple might see it as a distraction to cater to The needs of a small audience. After all, adding multiple GPUs, more than 1TB of ECC memory, RAID, support for external GPUs, and potentially support for multiple processors runs counter to Apple’s unified vision, which tends to be more singular. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future Apple decides to somehow introduce solid state storage on the die.
The final piece of the puzzle is the relentless pursuit of more powerful components at the high end, thanks in part to AMD’s resurgence. Intel and AMD on the CPU side and AMD and Nvidia on the GPU side are delivering hardware upgrades that Apple can’t match, even with the refreshed Mac Pro.
The Xeon processors in the 2019 Mac Pro were introduced almost four years ago, and while comparing them to laptop processors in consumer benchmarks (Passmark) may not tell the whole story, the Xeon W-3223 is faster than AMD Ryzen 7 4980U Slow, with the processor of some 2021 Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 devices.
The same goes for mundane things like graphics cards, storage technology, and Wi-Fi or USB. Paying for better performance isn’t something Mac Pro owners can imagine. Will it be different a month from now? We shall see.
