Apple silicon has given the Mac Pro an existential disaster

If I needed to guess, I’d say Apple offered fewer than 1,000 Mac Pros final yr. Between the lengthy anticipate Apple silicon, the arrival of the Mac Studio, and the shortage of significant upgrades, Apple’s costliest Mac probably solely offered to essentially the most determined or unaware Apple consumers.

That wasn’t purported to be the case. When John Ternus teased the Apple silicon Mac Pro for “another day” at Apple’s Peek Performance occasion final March, he appeared to present a nod and a wink to essentially the most fanciful rumors of a machine considerably better than the just-announced Mac Studio and its huge M1 Ultra chip. Fast-forward 10 months, and we’re nonetheless ready for the Apple silicon Mac Pro to reach.

The most secure wager can be the brand new Mac Pro arriving at WWDC, the place the previous three fashions made their debut in 2006, 2013, and 2019. Apple likes to make a giant splash with its Mac Pro, and the WWDC keynote is the right place to do it, with a captive viewers of customers prepared and keen to spend $5,999 on a Mac “designed for pros who need the ultimate in CPU performance.”

However, whereas there’s little doubt that the brand new Mac Pro will once more take its rightful place on the high of the Mac pyramid, the velocity positive factors may not be anyplace close to as spectacular as earlier fashions. When the M1 Ultra introduced a whopping 20-core CPU and 64-core GPU to the Mac Studio, rumors started swirling of an “Extreme” chip with an insane 48 CPU cores and 152 graphics cores, greater than twice as highly effective because the upper-end Mac Studio. It can be the final word show of Apple silicon’s energy and usher in a brand new Mac Pro era that has few if any friends. Now, a report by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg claims that Apple has canceled the workstation-class “Extreme” chip and can accept a barely souped-up Ultra processor as an alternative.

That’s nonetheless quick, thoughts you, however the distinction between it and the Mac Studio–even when it stays with an M1 chip for an additional yr–received’t be as giant as we hoped. So if the Mac Pro isn’t the quickest Mac you should purchase now and the brand new mannequin received’t be considerably sooner when it launches later this yr, why does it even exist?

Identity disaster

According to Gurman’s report, the Mac Pro will characteristic an M2 Ultra processor with a 24-core CPU and 76-core GPU, the identical case design as the present mannequin, and “slots” for storage, graphics, media, and networking playing cards however not reminiscence. (It’s not fully clear how graphics growth would work with Apple’s system-on-chip, however Gurman had beforehand reported that the Mac Pro would have “easy expandability for additional memory,” so it’s potential his supply is flawed on the assist for graphics playing cards.) Expansion is clearly necessary for the Mac Pro, however with the 40Gb/s velocity of Thunderbolt, inside upgrades aren’t as necessary anymore. And the shortage of aftermarket RAM upgrades means Apple doesn’t make any Macs with user-upgradable reminiscence.

But the bigger query is, what’s the identification of the Mac Pro? Over the previous decade or so, the Mac Pro has persistently been Apple’s most modern and highly effective desktop machine, from the fascinating but irritating cylinder to the present mannequin’s state-of-the-art thermal structure and $699 wheels. As the Apple silicon transition has rolled on, nevertheless, the Mac Pro has grow to be much less and fewer related and worthy of its value, and it’s in determined want of a rejuvenation, one which we assumed was on the best way.

Willis Lai/Foundry

But if the brand new mannequin is just somewhat sooner than the Mac Studio and somewhat extra expandable than, say, the MacEbook Pro, it’s probably not a Mac Pro is it? Over the course of the Apple silicon transition, Apple has already killed the iMac Pro and the 27-inch iMac with out a lot as a farewell, and the Mac Pro appears to suit the identical logic: a vestige of an older period that doesn’t stay as much as its personal legacy. After the 24-inch iMac and MacEbook Pro bought spectacular redesigns to accompany their new chips, I assumed the primary Apple silicon Mac Pro can be one thing radical and revolutionary, needing years of growth and a correct introduction to cap the transition.

After all, that’s what the Mac Pro ought to be. If it’s not, once more I ask, is it actually a Mac Pro?

I had beforehand mused that the Mac Studio was a stop-gap machine meant to fill the area between Mac Pro updates, however now I’m not so certain. I assumed the Apple silicon Mac Pro can be nothing in need of a breakthrough, with a brand new class of processor, a radically new type issue, and a brand new identification that put it again on the map. Apple had a possibility to blow our minds with the design and velocity of the Mac Pro and take its MPX modules to the subsequent degree, but when it doesn’t, perhaps the Mac Studio is all the professional Mac we want.

Assuming the worth of the Apple silicon Mac Pro stays at $5,999 and is just about 30 % sooner than a maxed-out Mac Studio, it’s laborious to see why anybody would spend one other $1,000 for a bigger case and inside growth. Apple already sells the Mac Studio with “breakthrough performance, a wide range of connectivity for peripherals, and a modular system to create the perfect setup,” so if the Mac Pro doesn’t deliver a large leap in efficiency, design, and expandability, who do each have to exist?

We may not ever get that reply. Based on the Mac Pro’s replace cadence, the mannequin that Apple launched this yr will probably nonetheless be round in three years. If Apple has a tough time justifying its existence now, how is it going to look in 2026? If the rumors are right and Apple needed the Mac Pro to be one thing a lot larger than it’s going to be, perhaps it’s greatest to easily take away it from the lineup fairly than maintain its title and nothing else.