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MP All Models Is there any chance the next Mac Pro will have an Intel option or is it GG at this point?
- Thread starter darkus
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Rumors have a final refresh on the 2019 Mac Pro, Ice Lake Xeon CPUs (which means a new mobo) & 7000-series RDNA3 GPUs; this would be the Intel Mac Pro to hoard...!
More rumors have a smaller Mac Pro with Apple silicon, taking design cues from the 2019 Mac Pro & "invoking nostalgia" for the G4 Cube...
I would expect WWDC 2022 to feature the Mac Pro lineup, focusing on the Apple silicon Mac Pro (Cube) & a (possible) 30" or 32" iMac Pro; shipping December 2022 at the latest...
It's fun to speculate, so I'll throw in my two cents.
No, I don't think we're ever (or at least for the next 5-7 years) going to see an Intel Mac again. It doesn't really make sense. Apple has spent tens of billions on the R&D for their own silicon, so as to be able to control their entire stack. Why would they want to undermine the message that "Apple Silicon > anything else" by launching a new Intel Mac.
Now, I'm not a "Pro" user, so perhaps there's an industry reason to keep intel around for a bit. Maybe there's some highly specialized software that simply does not run well on Apple Silicon right now - things like Houdini, Maya, along those lines. That would probably be the only reason to launch a refreshed and updated Intel Mac.
No, I don't think we're ever (or at least for the next 5-7 years) going to see an Intel Mac again. It doesn't really make sense. Apple has spent tens of billions on the R&D for their own silicon, so as to be able to control their entire stack. Why would they want to undermine the message that "Apple Silicon > anything else" by launching a new Intel Mac.
Now, I'm not a "Pro" user, so perhaps there's an industry reason to keep intel around for a bit. Maybe there's some highly specialized software that simply does not run well on Apple Silicon right now - things like Houdini, Maya, along those lines. That would probably be the only reason to launch a refreshed and updated Intel Mac.
they can do an small bump even on the older chipset.
But does there own silicon have the power of an pro workstation + ram and pci-e lanes that are needed?
They could release both. An intel giant tower like we currently have. It's a major update because it will have at least PCIe4 (that makes it more major than even any core boost).
Alone with that, a minitower Mac Pro Mini that is apple CPU powered. They can rave how its more powerful than the intel version, but the intel version is there for those that have lots of virtualization, GPU expansion needs (since there is a chance the Apple Mac Pro might not let you use PC graphics cards, which greatly hamper its usefulness for many pros that need a lot of GPU power).
Alone with that, a minitower Mac Pro Mini that is apple CPU powered. They can rave how its more powerful than the intel version, but the intel version is there for those that have lots of virtualization, GPU expansion needs (since there is a chance the Apple Mac Pro might not let you use PC graphics cards, which greatly hamper its usefulness for many pros that need a lot of GPU power).
I think that there’s no hurry to remove the Intel Mac Pro from the pricelist anytime soon because it’s what let’s them pursue their Apple Silicon product strategy without having to get distracted with things like how to support PCIe GPU cards and the like. Whether that’s just carrying the current model or if a spec bump or motherboard upgrade happens is anyone’s guess. I strongly suspect the purpose of the 7,1 was always to facilitate this.
