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MP 7,1 Mac Pro 8.1 - WHAT IF...
- Thread starter maikerukun
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Ok, good, so you know what's on the other side...
Yeah, I can't wait for iFixit to do a teardown and show us if that side has changed. But I'm sticking with my guns that all they changed is the LoBo.
I really doubt this is the last Mac Pro. It seems pretty clear this is the new normal. It doesn't take much to put the Studio bits on a different board, and it costs a fortune, so I'm sure Apple are happy with the business case.
I expect it'll do fine with the usual audio / video folks. Everyone else uses a PC anyway.
That's the hard part...I'm still trying to figure out if the M chip will be UPGRADEABLE every year or we are buying a brand new Mac Pro every generation lol.
Oh, the latter. You can take that to the bank.
Not that anyone's forcing you to buy everything Apple releases.
If that is the case, will wait for PCI5 and M3. But worried this will be the last ever Mac Pro... I gambled on the 7,1 correctly, but may gamble the opposite way and wait here.
Why??? It's tightly coupled to the surrounding RAM chips. And upgradable processors are about the least Apple thing ever.
If anything, the way they've gone makes it likely to get regular updates. If they went with some exotic configuration, it would have been updated every 4 years and there would be constant speculation about its discontinuation. This way, it should get updated whenever the Studio does. Just think of it as a Studio+.
Well let's see. Curious if anyone will be able to jerry rig a GPU. I doubt it, but still curious.
Did they show what goes into the RAM compartment? Or what used to occupy the space.
Without GPUs there are more than enough slots and space for storage cages, NVMe cards, SFP cards and AV I/O cards. This thing will be a beast for those who don't need that much GPU / compute.
Without GPUs there are more than enough slots and space for storage cages, NVMe cards, SFP cards and AV I/O cards. This thing will be a beast for those who don't need that much GPU / compute.
Wait for M3, if anyone can.
Maybe we’ll finally see the M3 Extreme. Maybe.
If not, I am willing to bet we’ll see around 256 GB on offer in the M3 ultra.
If you cannot wait, then perhaps the studio is a better machine if you don’t need PCI-e expansion. GPUs are busted anyway. Other peripherals can be run off TB4.
Maybe we’ll finally see the M3 Extreme. Maybe.
If not, I am willing to bet we’ll see around 256 GB on offer in the M3 ultra.
If you cannot wait, then perhaps the studio is a better machine if you don’t need PCI-e expansion. GPUs are busted anyway. Other peripherals can be run off TB4.
If Apple gets to a regular update cadence with the Mac Pro, I think that singular benefit outweighs all the limitations of the new design. Even if you were in the target market for Apple's last pro Macs—whether Tube, iMac Pro, or NuCheesgrater—the fact that you had no idea when a new one would come out and if it'd just spin in a whole new direction was a huge liability towards investing in the product. "A more expandable Studio" is still a market Apple can cater to that isn't addressed by the lower products. They just have to actually update the thing, which has been a perplexing issue for them in the last 10 years...
Interesting. Seems like RAM compartment just becomes backside space for heat sinks
And the SSDs looks quite likely the same “cards” as the ones used in Mac Studio, interchangability will be beneficial for future replacement or even 3rd party possibility?
Yes.
Apple clearly wanted to transition to Mac Pro users to smaller, non-upgradable machines, first with the trashcan, then with the iMac Pro (you couldn't even get to the RAM on the latter without ungluing the screen). They relented with the 2019, which set the new price level, but as an Intel machine could never be representative of ASi.
In the past, the MP always kind of stood on its own; everything else was essentially a laptop. Now the Mac Pro is just a Studio in a different case, there's no reason they'll have any problem updating it along with the other Studio models.
Yeah, I'll be curious to see if they're swappable. Seems weird they'd come up with a new part, especially since you've got to Apple Configurator the storage too.
Hard to tell since they pulled the old Mac Pro pages, but it looks like the whole area up top with the SATA headers is identical? So existing 7,1 owners could at least migrate whatever storage they stuck up there as well.
One thought, looking at the tech specs: why the heck does it still have a 1100W PSU if it's not going to need to drive GPUs with 200-300W+ footprints? What non-GPU cards need the kind of power available?
I cannot tell if there is room for the cages that the 7,1 uses there. Seems kind of a sub optimal layout now. There is a chance the next Mac Pro will be a new case and big re-design.
For HDDs? Mountings look identical to me. Same with SATA ports etc. And the CPU heatsink is slightly smaller, so space is there too.