I went through all the posts here, and didn't see any post by you until today. So what would be a better choice in your opinion then?
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MP All Models Buy cheap 7,1 or Studio
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I expect AS Macs to have the same number of years OS support / security updates as iPads, because that's what they are.
How do I feel going into 2025 with my 2019 Mac Pro? Great.
I began 2024 not really thinking that a new Mac Pro was in the cards. My cMP 5,1 was still going strong but the end was coming.
In April purchased one of the new in box 2019 Mac Pros that I was able to purchase Apple Care for. I love the machine and it is the last of an era.
Will I have an Apple Silicon Mac at some point? Of course but for now I am so happy that I have my 2019 Mac Pro. It will have a VERY long life (even though OS updates will end soon).
Happy New Year all!
I began 2024 not really thinking that a new Mac Pro was in the cards. My cMP 5,1 was still going strong but the end was coming.
In April purchased one of the new in box 2019 Mac Pros that I was able to purchase Apple Care for. I love the machine and it is the last of an era.
Will I have an Apple Silicon Mac at some point? Of course but for now I am so happy that I have my 2019 Mac Pro. It will have a VERY long life (even though OS updates will end soon).
Happy New Year all!
Because we don't even know if Hackintoshs will work after Sequoia 15.x. There's a strong likelihood that macOS 16 or 17 won't even be available for Intel machines, which means Hackintoshes are dead-ends.
The M1 generation of the Mac Studio should get new macOS releases until at least 2030.
You can works many years on Sequoia and there will be at least two more new macOS for Intel . We professionals do not like to change the macOS too often. Today's Silicon Macs hardware won't last three or four years anyway. And it's not worth repairing them. My bet is on Hackintosh. I don't know what will happen in a few years. If I can buy four hackintoshes for one MacPro, there can be only one decision 
Where was the choice for an upgradable M3/M4?
But a new upgradable PC will likely not.
For me there are two reasons. My journey into macOS started with a custom built PC that I turned into a dual boot Hackintosh. It was a lot of fun but also a lot of effort.
Over time I found that I greatly preferred macOS to Windows so when it was time to replace my PC it lined up with nice prices on lower end Apple refurbished cMP's and I made the jump to Apple hardware. I dual booted with Windows (on a separate drive) and with VMWare Fusion could also run Windows VMs.
I upgraded that machine over its life and got 10+ years out of it and was booting Monterey (with manually configured OpenCore on a USB stick), Mojave (for recovery/safety), Sequoia (using OCLP on a USB stick), and Legacy Windows 11 all on separate drives.
As I said above when I was thinking early last year (2024) about what to do as the cMP was really end of life because of AVX/AVX2 I was able to get a new in box 2019 Mac Pro for a very good price.
Can you make a Hackintosh that will out perform my Mac Pro - yes - but I love the build quality of the 2019 Mac Pro and it will handle everything I throw at it. If I want I can upgrade pretty much everything including using a PC GPU for Windows to get the latest and greatest GPU.
Currently enjoying the start of year 5 for my MacBook Pro M1.
I would say a Hackintosh is worth it if you have time to dibble and dabble with it all the time; most creative professionals do not have the time nor the inclination to do that.
For video creatives, Apple Silicon M3 or better is really the way to go forward. I would not have believed it until work got me the M3 Mac laptop. Really the problem with the Xeon CPU in the 2019 Mac Pros is that single core performance just stinks, big time.
If you already have a Mac Pro 2019; it will work and continue to work for quite some time. Honestly spending money on one now really does not make sense unless you *have* to be able to dual boot Windows.
For video creatives, Apple Silicon M3 or better is really the way to go forward. I would not have believed it until work got me the M3 Mac laptop. Really the problem with the Xeon CPU in the 2019 Mac Pros is that single core performance just stinks, big time.
If you already have a Mac Pro 2019; it will work and continue to work for quite some time. Honestly spending money on one now really does not make sense unless you *have* to be able to dual boot Windows.
Just wanted to jump in since we're hackintoshing.. I was a loooooooong time hackintosher (going back to 945 chipset) but bought a Mac Pro 2023 a few weeks ago when Microcenter clearanced them ($6999 down to $3599 - cheaper than a Studio).
1) Feels great to be legit finally (briefly had an M2 studio but returned it because the thunderbolt ports kept disconnecting making external home drive dangerous).
2) Good god the machine is like a piece of fine art. It is so well crafted.
3) Loaded mine up with 5 4TB PCI / NVME cards and this thing flies (only mechanical drive is Time Machine). Going from a hackintosh 6950xt to Mac Ultra 2 GPU hasn't been an issue. I'm probably one of the very few indie game devs working in Unity solely on Mac (for non-IOS stuff) and it has been a very smooth transition. Synthetic benchmarks may not match up, but I'm hitting 60fps+ @ 4K in HDRP so I'm happy.
1) Feels great to be legit finally (briefly had an M2 studio but returned it because the thunderbolt ports kept disconnecting making external home drive dangerous).
2) Good god the machine is like a piece of fine art. It is so well crafted.
3) Loaded mine up with 5 4TB PCI / NVME cards and this thing flies (only mechanical drive is Time Machine). Going from a hackintosh 6950xt to Mac Ultra 2 GPU hasn't been an issue. I'm probably one of the very few indie game devs working in Unity solely on Mac (for non-IOS stuff) and it has been a very smooth transition. Synthetic benchmarks may not match up, but I'm hitting 60fps+ @ 4K in HDRP so I'm happy.
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$3599 for the "new" MP. That's around where a disposable "pro" machine should be priced (even then, a little high). Which I'd known about the clearance.
You’d think an actual “pro” user would have more important things to do…like use their computer for work
Do you work 24 hours a day?
Maybe someone is finished for the day or commuting to work and has time to spare. For some working while commuting on a train for instance is specifically not allowed for security reasons.
Hi Guys,
I was wondering if Apple are in the market for creating "Workstation" computers (in the same way that System76 differentiate their line of desktops from workstations) ir if they just make fast computers. So I asked Apple's dictionary for a definition of Workstation and I got this:
"Workstation | ˈwəːkˌsteɪʃn | noun 1. a desktop computer terminal, typically networked and more powerful than a personal computer."
So this is vague and fluffy terminology.
I began to wonder if we've been arguing all on this thread about what constitutes a Workstation or a just a fast Desktop? I suspect, given this vague definition (and Wikipedia's is longer but no less helpful), that the definition of a Workstation has not truly been agreed.
Personally, I think the Mac Pro 2019 definitely fits my unashamedly assumed (and most possibly incorrect) understanding of the term:
1. Modular Construction (meaning CPU/GPU/RAM/PCIe Expansion)
1.5 Modular Construction (Oh right, already said that)
2. ECC RAM (yeah, I know, but I rest easier thinking that data corruption is unlikely to factor into my workflow)
3. Subjectively, Quite Fast Computing (how fast is fast? Quick enough that my clients don't complain about output).
So the Mac Pro 14,8 (what was that, 2022/23?) and the Mac Studio fit some of these criteria, and they seem blazingly quick by all accounts, so could still marry into the dictionary definition of "workstation". But, what I find to be a shame is:
A) Loss of upgradable RAM (I'm old school, and I still do this when required, I'm a VM junkie)
B) I like ECC RAM. Some of you like cars, some jewellery. I like ECC Memory (don't overthink it).
After our Mac Pro 7,1 coughs and wheezes its final breath, my current feeling is that Apple are prioritising a different kind of customer, and we may not fit into that mould. But hey, they've surprised me before.
Great opinions on this thread, many thanks.
I was wondering if Apple are in the market for creating "Workstation" computers (in the same way that System76 differentiate their line of desktops from workstations) ir if they just make fast computers. So I asked Apple's dictionary for a definition of Workstation and I got this:
"Workstation | ˈwəːkˌsteɪʃn | noun 1. a desktop computer terminal, typically networked and more powerful than a personal computer."
So this is vague and fluffy terminology.
I began to wonder if we've been arguing all on this thread about what constitutes a Workstation or a just a fast Desktop? I suspect, given this vague definition (and Wikipedia's is longer but no less helpful), that the definition of a Workstation has not truly been agreed.
Personally, I think the Mac Pro 2019 definitely fits my unashamedly assumed (and most possibly incorrect) understanding of the term:
1. Modular Construction (meaning CPU/GPU/RAM/PCIe Expansion)
1.5 Modular Construction (Oh right, already said that)
2. ECC RAM (yeah, I know, but I rest easier thinking that data corruption is unlikely to factor into my workflow)
3. Subjectively, Quite Fast Computing (how fast is fast? Quick enough that my clients don't complain about output).
So the Mac Pro 14,8 (what was that, 2022/23?) and the Mac Studio fit some of these criteria, and they seem blazingly quick by all accounts, so could still marry into the dictionary definition of "workstation". But, what I find to be a shame is:
A) Loss of upgradable RAM (I'm old school, and I still do this when required, I'm a VM junkie)
B) I like ECC RAM. Some of you like cars, some jewellery. I like ECC Memory (don't overthink it).
After our Mac Pro 7,1 coughs and wheezes its final breath, my current feeling is that Apple are prioritising a different kind of customer, and we may not fit into that mould. But hey, they've surprised me before.
Great opinions on this thread, many thanks.
I'm not sure why you're asking me this question? His/hers last few posts really do not serve any purpose nor do they give any enlightenment on helping the OP or for stating his case for why the M2 mac pro is a bad choice. Questioning my freetime isn't gonna make the quality of discourse any better.