Poll: *** The official 2023 Mac Pro thread (it has an M2 Ultra, PCIe slots and everything!) ***

Are you going to buy the new Mac Pro?

  • Total voters
    13

Feek

Feek

Feek

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Apple have finally replaced their entire product line with Apple silicon, the final system is the Mac Pro. It comes with an M2 Ultra CPU and has PCIe expansion slots.

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www.apple.com

Mac Pro

The new Mac Pro with M2 Ultra combines our most powerful Apple silicon yet with PCIe expansion for the ultimate in workstation-class performance.
www.apple.com
 
The M2 has a pretty decent built in GPU already though so not sure that’s a deal breaker for the vast majority is it?

Mac GPUs have historically been a bit lacking anyway so it’s true to form :cry:
 
Feek said:
The same power as the Studio but with PCIe slots and from reading around, it won't support graphics cards.
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They haven't said it won't support them, only that there's no mention of it that it does. So not impossible down the line.

b0rn2sk8 said:
The M2 has a pretty decent built in GPU already though so not sure that’s a deal breaker for the vast majority is it?

Mac GPUs have historically been a bit lacking anyway so it’s true to form :cry:
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With 7 PCIe you can theoretically put in a ton of GPU power in there, much more than a single M2 Ultra.
 
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This Mac Pro is a very niche product, especially without GPU Support.

Squarely aimed at high end professionals who need PCIE Slot networking or outrageous storage requirements, no point for home users.
 
Feek said:
The same power as the Studio but with PCIe slots and from reading around, it won't support graphics cards.
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That's what I mean, what can those PCIe slots be used for apart from fast storage or networking? What I'm saying is, it would be difficult to justify the expense as you can expand the Studio a fair amount already with USB-C.
 
HACO said:
With 7 PCIe you can theoretically put in a ton of GPU power in there, much more than a single M2 Ultra.
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You can in any PC but ‘why’ is the response I’d be asking. The inbuilt GPU is already pretty good.

If you need that kind of parallel GPU power, you are already using a dedicated render server/server farm which can be shared amongst all your users as it’s significantly cheaper than equipping multiple work stations with multiple AXXX GPUs.

The point I was making is that all you could get in the old Max Pros was a couple of very underpowered Radeon cards, it was never a GPU powerhouse.

Combat squirrel said:
This Mac Pro is a very niche product, especially without GPU Support.

Squarely aimed at high end professionals who need PCIE Slot networking or outrageous storage requirements, no point for home users.
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They already covered that in the keynote. It’s basically for the music industry so they can plug in all their legacy audio interfaces.

Edit: as far as I can tell, GPUs are not supported because nVidia and Apple refuse to work with each other because of the dodgy GPUs dating back nigh on 15 years at this point and no pro’s want to use AMD GPUs even if they were available.
 
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b0rn2sk8 said:
You can in any PC but ‘why’ is the response I’d be asking. The inbuilt GPU is already pretty good.

If you need that kind of parallel GPU power, you are already using a dedicated render server/server farm which can be shared amongst all your users as it’s significantly cheaper than equipping multiple work stations with multiple AXXX GPUs.

The point I was making is that all you could get in the old Max Pros was a couple of very underpowered Radeon cards, it was never a GPU powerhouse.


They already covered that in the keynote. It’s basically for the music industry so they can plug in all their legacy audio interfaces.

Edit: as far as I can tell, GPUs are not supported because nVidia and Apple refuse to work with each other because of the dodgy GPUs dating back nigh on 15 years at this point and no pro’s want to use AMD GPUs even if they were available.
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Fair point about the previous Mac Pro never being a GPU powerhouse, I don't think this is worse than the old one in that spect. This seems more like a case of missed opportunity.

As you say later, this isn't solely up to Apple. To support GPUs AMD and Nvidia will need to develop and maintain macOS and Metal drivers too. This market is small enough that this collaboration isn't worth it for either side.
 
I suppose you'll probably get better thermals out of this than the Mac Studio. Will be interesting to see if that helps it perform a bit better.

Sort of thought they might have gone with a dual M2 ultra setup for this but I guess it's probably technically infeasible with the current design (in that an M2 ultra is already two M2 maxes stuck together).
 
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Lightnix said:
I suppose you'll probably get better thermals out of this than the Mac Studio. Will be interesting to see if that helps it perform a bit better.
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I don't think the Studio really has any issue with thermals but yes, you're right, that huge case should be easier to ventilate.

I've don't think I've ever felt mine get warm.
 
Feek said:
I don't think the Studio really has any issue with thermals but yes, you're right, that huge case should be easier to ventilate.

I've don't think I've ever felt mine get warm.
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Since buying the Studio I've set the fan at a constant 1100rpm (minimum it allows), and it's never gone above 55 degrees even at full power. This thing is the coolest and most quiet computer I've ever had, the only way to beat this would be to go fanless.
 
Feek said:
I don't think the Studio really has any issue with thermals but yes, you're right, that huge case should be easier to ventilate.

I've don't think I've ever felt mine get warm.
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I'm not sure the thermals would be any better at all.
It's important to remember that the entire "computer" is effectively contained within the top left corner of the case (as seen from the picture in the OP) - it is effectively a Mac Studio contained within a case.
 
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Now that the new Mac Pro is available as rackmount, I'm curious if anyone is using them for colo in a datacentre somewhere. I can think of several use cases where this would be useful.
 
Cromulent said:
Now that the new Mac Pro is available as rackmount, I'm curious if anyone is using them for colo in a datacentre somewhere. I can think of several use cases where this would be useful.
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We replaced our XServe's with Mac Minis rack mounted a few years back, and our Xsans with normal block storage - but other than Jamf we don't have a huge amount of use for MacOS specific stuff anymore. I miss OSX Server.
 
The new Mac pro 8.1 is not really a Mac pro at all. No GPU or CPU or ram upgrades. a Studio with PCIe slots and shared bandwidth amongst those PCIe slots.

the 4060ti is faster lol

wccftech.com

Apple M2 Ultra SoC Isn't Faster Than AMD & Intel Last Year Desktop CPUs, 50% Slower Than NVIDIA RTX 4080

Apple's M2 Ultra SoC is being benchmarked right and left and we can compare those numbers to AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA chips.
wccftech.com wccftech.com

The end of the true Mac pro as Apple ditch any upgrades, and after 2 years your out of date. this compares to the ill fated trashcan Mac pro.
 
Cromulent said:
Now that the new Mac Pro is available as rackmount, I'm curious if anyone is using them for colo in a datacentre somewhere. I can think of several use cases where this would be useful.
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2019 Intel MP was available as rackmount as well i believe but, i would think cost is one of the biggest hurdles for DC's compared to filling shelves with Mini's in various configurations - https://twitter.com/Merocle/status/1646537132649897986.

Throrik said:
I miss OSX Server.
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Yup and Apple server (business orientated) hardware, which i wished they had continued.
 
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