If the M2 Ultra can go in the Mac Studio, then Apple would be foolish to put it in a Mac Pro instead. No one wants a Mac Pro that isn't any better than a Mac Studio.
The Mac Pro really isn't about CPU performance - it's about internal upgradability. The $6000 entry-level 2019 Mac Pro is no faster than the ~$3000 top-end Intel 5k iMac - but you could stuff it with, RAM, internal storage and specialist AV interface cards... even if you didn't need the higher-end GPU cards.
So there
would be some people who - given a choice between a M2 Ultra Studio and a M2 Ultra "Mac Pro" with PCIe slots, would pay extra for the Mac Pro - given that
Sonnet can sell these for up to $2000 even though they don't address the RAM issue or support GPUs... Apple
could do that without producing any expensive MacPro-only silicon (beyond the M2 Ultra itself) - the M2 Ultra would raise the max. RAM limit (but not to MP 7.1 levels) and while using a TB-to-PCIe bridge would be a kludge it's
conceivable that the TB ports on the M2 might be re-configurable as PCIe.
There's nothing particularly implausible about the "M2 Ultra with slots" rumours except they would be a disappointment for anybody wanting the extreme RAM and AMD discrete GPU support of the Mac Pro. OTOH those rumours could also describe lash-up systems used by Apple to test new processors (or, if you want a more romantic theory, you know how car makers disguise their unreleased new models during testing...?
)
I can imagine the following options for Apple:
- Produce an Apple Silicon Xeon-killer exclusively for the Mac Pro - that's an expensive investment into a shrinking market for super-powerful standalone workstations. That's going to cost $xx,000. for a worthwhile configuration, and leaves plenty of space for $2000 and $4000 Studios.
- Give up on the 7.1-style Mac Pro on the grounds that Apple Silicon just isn't the tool for that job. In that case, the Mac Studio could be bumped to M2 and effectively become the New Mac Pro (even if it doesn't get re-named).
- Produce the somewhat kludgey M2 Ultra + a few 4/8-lane PCIe slots of rumour. That will fit the bill for some, but will disappoint a lot of MP customers. No particular reason this couldn't co-exist with a M2 Ultra Studio - a bit like the MP 7.1 comes in desktop and rackmount versions.
- Make the Mac Pro a 1U rackmount version of the Mac Studio. Rack em up to make a cluster, add storage and TB-to-PCIe units to taste (could be particularly attractive to media producers if it would fit in a lightweight AV rack rather than the full-depth variety).
- Do something exotic - like a cheesegrater case that takes multiple MPX-like compute units.
None of those
have to be incompatible with having Mx Max & Mx Ultra Studio options - if the Mac Pro is a good product it will appeal to a completely different market. If Apple have to cut/knobble the Studio range to "force" people to buy the Mac Pro then they're holding it wrong...
Personally, I'd go for (2) or (4). Existing Mac Pro power users won't like it - but IMHO what they
really need is a Xeon or Threadripper tower with AMD or NVIDIA GPUs, and HPDelNovo can make those just as well as Apple (unless you have "pretty" as an engineering requirement). The last 10 years and 3 one-and-done Mac/iMac Pros have pretty much shown that Apple have no clue what to do with the Mac Pro line.
Yes..that is why I am guessing that Apple put off Mac Pro for M3, and not an ultra M2 chip. My guess is that they will just announce Mac Pro with M3 and release it sometime later.
First, a M3 Mac Pro is going to have to stand in the queue behind the MacBook Air and Pro range, because they are Apple's big sellers
and will get the most benefit from the likely performance-per-watt improvements of 3nm.
Maybe the move to 3nm will mean a big change to the regular/pro/max/ultra cadence and allow something truly new for a M3 Mac Pro, but that's pure speculation. Otherwise, in a large desktop with no thermal throttling issues, the "predictable" M3 Ultra might as well be an over-clocked M2 Ultra - and the M3 Max MacBook Pro is going to be snapping at its heels on any job that doesn't exploit all the cores in an Ultra. As I said above, Mac Pro is more about expansion potential than which chip has the highest Geekbench.
What the M3
might knock out is the Mx Max Studio - if it runs cool enough to make a M3 Max Mini.
