Someone just upgraded a 5,1 Mac Pro with a 6800xt. It has better video for pro apps and games than a Mac studio. Fact. It basically is endlessly upgradable after 12+ years.
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MP 7,1 cMP 8,1: will you switch to Redfern or stick with Intel?
- Thread starter TECK
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I would go with the Intel for compatibility, particularly with external hardware. I am also weary of putting too much money into any first generation Apple device. I do not, however, do a bunch of video encoding. If H265 was my bread and butter, I would probably just grab a base model Mac Studio and plan on upgrading it frequently (well as frequently as the codec I needed got built into AS hardware anyway).
That is primarily only because the 5,1 is being hackintoshed to fit the drivers meant for the 7,1. If the 7,1 stops getting drivers, the 5,1 isn't going to be endlessly upgradable at all. Hackable and technically commercially supported are two different things.
The 5,1 doesn't have any AVX. The virtualization support is woefully slower. etc. The niche where the 5,1 is 'fully capable' is shrinking. It hasn't shrunk to zero for some , but it is a non starter for some others also. Sockets and slots won't save it from that over the long term just by themselves.
That tweet is dated from before Apple announced there would be no more M1 generation SoCs coming. More leaks/rumors since then that M1 solution not coming.
WWDC 2022 came and went so the likelihood of there being a Mac Pro 2022 gets slimmer each day. M2 foundation which is still rolling out ( no Pro, Max shipping ) and no 6 month leading sneak peak at a new system makes for a pretty good chance that something new will be a Mac Pro 2023.
That Redfern thing is not specifically two Ultras hooked together. In the picture on the upper right those are four dies (not necessarily "M1 Max" dies" ) coupled to a different set of UltraFusion like interposers. It is "two Ultras" in the very general abstraction sense have 4 dies as the primary components to the package. But that isn't two Ultra Packages hooked together into an even bigger package with additional layers.
Pretty good chance that the next Mac Pro will also have just two of those dies packaged together for a "Ultra like" collection of CPU and GPU cores to start off at something closer to the current starting pricing point. Some folks will want something bigger core counts , but more than a few won't. The I/O not in those diagrams is the more significant issue. ( gotta support more than just 1-3 x4 PCIe v4 bundles as slot provisioning infrastructure. ) . If Apple rolls out a "one slot x8 PCI-e v3 wonder" the core counts isn't what is going to drive the most fire.
There was a lot of speculation at the time that a) either this diagram is fake or b) it's poorly understood. Experts who looked at it said it wouldn't be suitable for any *known* version of M1 Max or Ultra. So whatever this is/was, it was likely more complicated than a bridge that just stitched two M1 Ultras together.
Rhetoric rhetoric rhetoric... 'only because'... YET, it does in FACT play video games faster and on most pro workflows that use a GPU, it SMASHES the studio. All the hand waving in the world isnt changing that.
Where we agree is that yes, it literally cannot go on forever. But a 12+ year and still superior-to-studio machine for many pro work flows tells just how valuable modularity is for those pro work flows.