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New mac pro, vs current pricing and power Pls read.

R

realizment

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 22, 2012
35
0
Quick question... In general is this how it might work.

Lets say you purchase a current 12 core mac pro now, lets say for example the 2.66ghz for 6 grand just example.. Is it likely that when the new ones come out, the cheaper model will be still about 4 grand, and be faster, more powerful than this model now?

OR

Will it release, be priced a lot higher and be more powerful, or will the lowest option still be less powerful but just more expensive?

Anyone being buying these computers throughout the years should be able to answer this based on the history, the answer to this could really help me right now with certain decisions... I appreciate any help. Thanks.. hope i made the question clear enough!

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I guess what im really asking is, if i spent 4000 now could i get a lot more of a computer that is more current when the new one comes out for the same 4k?

Or will prices increase dramatically because they are new?
 
Pricing has always gone up on dual processor models year after year because Intel's prices go up slightly too. There was also a major pricing increase in 2009. There could be one again if Apple design something new and think people will buy it no matter what price it has, but this is a niche market with an already pissed off customer base that are switching away.

2006: $2,499 (2 x $700 processors)
2008: $2,799 (2 x $800 processors)
2009: $2,499 (1 x $300 processor) and $3,299 (2 x $375 processor)
2010: $2,499 (1 x $300 processor) and $3,499 (2 x $387 processor)
2012: $2,499 (1 x $300 processor) and $3,799 (2 x $550 processor)

In addition to that they also raised the price on upgrading from a $300 processor to a $600 processor from $400 to $500 in 2012.

So yeah always on the up and up. The prices on other components shouldn't have really affected the initial pricing on the Mac Pro because they have always been very basic and just moved with the times as memory and storage pricing as lowered.

If in a years time Apple release a new Mac Pro then for $4,000 it is unlikely you will get a massive performance increase. If they had updated to Sandy Bridge-EP in May then you would probably be seeing either a single 3.2GHz 6-core or dual 2.3GHz 6-core for $4,000. In the future Ivy Bridge-EP will probably only see minor clockspeed increases and only bring more cores on the higher $1,000+ CPU prices - so more than you are looking at spending.
 
Thanks for the update. Well im looking to spend between 4-6000. On just the machine.. Its just a very akward time to buy with all the talk of the new one... The only significant change i can think of is thunderbolt? Will current MP's never be upgradable with a pci slot for TB?

Thunderbolt would be important for me as more and more audio equipment is following suit on that... Thanks.
 
realizment said:
The only significant change i can think of is thunderbolt? Will current MP's never be upgradable with a pci slot for TB?
Click to expand...
I doubt Apple will ever develop something like that. At best they will design a Thunderbolt interface for a hypothetical new Mac Pro in a way that it won't fit older models.

If the music industry is going towards Thunderbolt, you may see PCIe cards offering Thunderbolt ports in the Windows world, but they probably won't run in a MacPro due to missing driver support in OSX.

As a new Mac Pro is probably about a year away and as noone really knows whether it will really come and if so, in which way, i would not worry about a hypothetical future product.

For now, i think Firewire should still be well supported in the music industry for next several years. Firewire is also well supported on a current MacPro.

As there rarely is a thing like "future-proofing" in the IT world, i think you should focus on what's available now:

Mac Pro w/o Thunderbolt (but with everything else and bursting with (silent!) power) or a Classic or Retina MBP (mobile, less power, less room for internal drives, louder/hotter under load) with both FireWire (Classic) and Thunderbolt.
 
Neodym said:
I doubt Apple will ever develop something like that. At best they will design a Thunderbolt interface for a hypothetical new Mac Pro in a way that it won't fit older models.

If the music industry is going towards Thunderbolt, you may see PCIe cards offering Thunderbolt ports in the Windows world, but they probably won't run in a MacPro due to missing driver support in OSX.

As a new Mac Pro is probably about a year away and as noone really knows whether it will really come and if so, in which way, i would not worry about a hypothetical future product.

For now, i think Firewire should still be well supported in the music industry for next several years. Firewire is also well supported on a current MacPro.

As there rarely is a thing like "future-proofing" in the IT world, i think you should focus on what's available now:

Mac Pro w/o Thunderbolt (but with everything else and bursting with (silent!) power) or a Classic or Retina MBP (mobile, less power, less room for internal drives, louder/hotter under load) with both FireWire (Classic) and Thunderbolt.
Click to expand...

Thanks this was a good response, i do have a 2011 maxed out MBP. I dont really put it trough its paces like i should. But i definitely need a MP for the studio.. I kind of like your logic, well mostly because its geared toward getting one sooner haha.. I guess you know what your talking about seen as your here since 2002, mac user since then? Would you mind if I pmed you a few questions for suggestions haha...? thanks again!
 
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