MP All Models A Mac Pro 'for the rest of us'?

[CalMin]

The Mac Pro is AWESOME. But I am never dropping $6k+ on it because I don't use it to make a living. It is not a 'personal' computer, it is a work tool. With that said, in the same way that a Power Mac G4 cube and even the trashcan were aspiration personal computers, there has to be something in between a Mac mini and a Mac Pro. You know, for when I want a bit more grunt on the graphics side for photo and video editing. For when I want to push Logic Pro a bit harder.

What I'm trying to say is that I would love to see a Mac Prosumer somewhere in the line up as an aspirational computer 'for the rest of us'. I get the sense that Apple sees the iMac and MacBook Pro in that light. They have a price point in the middle and are powerful enough for most Prosumer tasks, but I would love to see a $2k-ish desktop with more power than a MBP and better hardware options than an iMac.

It probably won't happen (ho-hum), but I do feel that there's an exploitable gap in the market here.

 

[casperes1996]

Literally just came from another thread talking about this.
A lot of people want an xMac, Mac Pro Mini, Mac mini Pro, Mac Plus, whatever. But I don't think it'll happen basically ever. Or at least foreseeable future. But they should definitely call it PowerMac

 

[th0masp]

I've settled on the trashcan for this for the forseeable future.

Going forward I don't see any more Apple hardware in my future - especially with the laptops: Tim Apple has priced me out for what I do with these computers (which includes paid work - but nothing a PC couldn't handle just as well - it's basically just about the nicer OS at this point).

 

[DPUser]

Two Possibilities?

1. Apple releases the xMac after the 7,1 Mac Pro has been out for 9-12 months, so they don't lose any sales of the 7,1. Likelihood: Low.

2. Apple release 8,1 Mac Pro in three years. Owners of base model 7,1 must have the latest and greatest and dump their "outdated" 7,1s. I buy one and pop in a used upgraded CPU and enjoy great performance at a discount. Likelihood: Better than #1.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

The Mac Pro is AWESOME. But I am never dropping $6k+ on it because I don't use it to make a living. It is not a 'personal' computer, it is a work tool. With that said, in the same way that a Power Mac G4 cube and even the trashcan were aspiration personal computers, there has to be something in between a Mac mini and a Mac Pro. You know, for when I want a bit more grunt on the graphics side for photo and video editing. For when I want to push Logic Pro a bit harder.

What I'm trying to say is that I would love to see a Mac Prosumer somewhere in the line up as an aspirational computer 'for the rest of us'. I get the sense that Apple sees the iMac and MacBook Pro in that light. They have a price point in the middle and are powerful enough for most Prosumer tasks, but I would love to see a $2k-ish desktop with more power than a MBP and better hardware options than an iMac.

It probably won't happen (ho-hum), but I do feel that there's an exploitable gap in the market here.

View attachment 882349

Not going to happen in general but never any chance they'll do so at less than the starting price of the 16" MBP with better hardware options. This is not the market Apple wants, dude you're getting a dell.

 

[fastlanephil]

Not going to happen in general but never any chance they'll do so at less than the starting price of the 16" MBP with better hardware options. This is not the market Apple wants, dude you're getting a dell.

I would use the price range of the mid/upper end 27” iMac as that’s what a xMax would probably be mostly cannibalizing. But it’s about the same price point. It would also take from the hackintosh market but that’s no doubt pretty insignificant.

 

[Horselover Fat]

Apple rather likes to sell you a sealed box with poor thermal design and nearly no expandability/choice. Let’s look elsewhere.

 

[archimacpro]

Add my vote, and cash for a macmini pro. User replaceable parts. Single standard card slot. Good design. The Macpro I want is $2,6000 (NZD) And AMD equivilant 3960x /32gb / 2080ti is $10,000 NZD. It's hard to get past that.

 

[flowrider]

Apple rather likes to sell you a sealed box with poor thermal design and nearly no expandability/choice. Let’s look elsewhere.

That's precisely my issues with the current Mac lineup, and why I'm still running with a cMP 5,1. What other Macs in daily use have lasted 10 years

I too would luv to see a semipro Mac. Good cooling and expandability

Lou

 

[Krevnik]

I've settled on the trashcan for this for the forseeable future.

Honestly, I’d be happy if they repurposed the Trashcan design with i7/i9s and desktop Navi. I kinda wish they would.

 

[opeter]

I did build myself an mini-ITX PC and that is. I am not dependent of the Apple ecosystem, so no problem for me.

The Mac mini 2014 still in use from time to time, but only for scanning photos with an older scanner.

 

[th0masp]

Honestly, I’d be happy if they repurposed the Trashcan design with i7/i9s and desktop Navi. I kinda wish they would.

At least eGPU seems possible to do on these, CPUs aren't really the weak point of the current models. But yeah, doesn't make much sense to throw out the entire design when it could have served a purpose and fit nicely between the Mini and the new MP.

Might have been about simplifying the product matrix - but then they went and added another iMac category, essentially to replace this. Oh well... nobody's paying me to understand it all.

 

[fathergll]

I think your only realistic shot is if they release a higher end Mac Mini with a decent eGPU solution...something that doesn't bring you into the cost of a similar-specification iMac 5K.

 

[kfscoll]

I'd be happy with the current Mac mini if you could get one with an i9. Until then, I'll keep rocking my trash can. Well, I guess I'd also be okay with a MacBook Pro that with more power than my nMP and that wouldn't throttle under sustained workloads. Someday...

 

[Horselover Fat]

That's precisely my issues with the current Mac lineup, and why I'm still running with a cMP 5,1. What other Macs in daily use have lasted 10 yearsView attachment 882370

I too would luv to see a semipro Mac. Good cooling and expandabilityView attachment 882371

Lou

I’m in the same boat. I’ve had my MP for 10 years, a period of time I never thought would be possible. Just like you couldn’t foresee that Apple would remove proper cooling & expandability from all their products (all, but one intransigently priced).

 

[Mattww]

I’m very much in the same situation. My upgraded cMP is still going well on Mojave but I’ve had 6 GPU’s in it over the years then the CPU upgrade (8x2.26 to 12x3.06) and don’t want to be stuck with a soldered in GPU (the progress in CPU’s is slower). I also don’t want to pay all that money for something and get really not much better than I have now (RX580 and multi core performance).
Then you add the 32-bit purge and my collection of games.

Not sure what I’d do if I was forced into replacing it soon but given the state of eGPUs it looks like I might have to go with two machines - a PC mini Tower and refurb Mac Mini in the future. That still leaves the issue of sharing the display and mouse & keyboard though as I don’t have space for two displays.

 

[Stephen.R]

Honestly, I’d be happy if they repurposed the Trashcan design with i7/i9s and desktop Navi. I kinda wish they would.

Most “I want a mid level Mac tower” people wouldn’t. Not upgradable with “regular” GPUs if at all, no PCIe slots.

 

[mikeboss]

I'd love a mini Mac Pro similar to the Macintosh Quadra 700. I think this would be a perfect little machine.

 

[mBox]

It's a late Friday night and I'm down to two scenes left on a feature film.
Even in assembly (film edit) mode, a faster robust computer that won't all of a sudden pick up a cold cause I had to take an email from a Nigerian Prince promising me wealth so that I can afford an Afterburner card and possible one stand
I welcome the brute strength these new Mac Pros will come with.
I edited a few features over the summer on an HP Z840 (Premiere/Avid) and it was butter.
But almost the same speed as I was in FCPX on my nMP D700.

 

[JoeG4]

Okay, back in the 2000s, Apple introduced a lower end PowerMac G5 to get it under the $2000 mark. It had the same case as any other G5, but a different motherboard. The rollout was a disaster because they launched it with defective SMC firmware and didn't fix it for months, but it DID achieve the goal!

My ideal Mac Pro would consist of the same exact chassis the $6000 Mac Pro uses. Swap the (gotta be) $1500 motherboard, Xeon processor, and registered ECC ram out for a Z390, i9 9900k, and regular ram. Swap the 1400w power supply for a 700w unit.

We could debate this all day. Get all angry about it. Whatever lol.

Alternatively, they could partner up with asus/gigabyte/some other motherboard OEM, toss apple firmware on a random Z390 intel chipset board, and sell it with a firmware license that forbids reselling commercially. That would probably be the cheapest, lowest hassle way to please the 20 of us that would otherwise just hackintosh some piece of crap together. right?

 

[grad]

The new Mac Pro does not make much sense for me. The cylindrical MP did (for a desktop/workstation) but Apple being Apple ruined a nice idea (incorrect choice of components/marketing/pricing/support) as they did with so many things in the past (e.g. the Cube). The new MP looks as ugly as hell but its real problem is that it is too proprietary for upgrading and too underpowered for serious CPU or GPU crunching. Add the make-US-great-again strategy, the economic wars and loopholes, and niche product pricing and the machine (as well as the whole top-end Apple platform) consequently becomes geo-locked and in practice just for rich YouTubers.

It would be great if Apple launched a more affordable desktop/workstation that is not as limited as the MacMini and that does not come glued with a monitor like the iMac. Declaring a war to hackintosh will NOT force people to regress to MacMini/iMac or overspend and go to the new MacPro.