The buyer's guide is not a good tool in regards to Mac Pro release dates. Intel's schedule is a far better indicator. The processors that will be in the next Mac Pro are scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year. Apple have released new Mac Pros twice within 2 months of new processors, once a month before and once 5 months later.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Since Sandy Bridge Imac's are coming on Tues, will a Mac Pro refresh soon follow?
- Thread starter betamax
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The buyer's guide is not a good tool in regards to Mac Pro release dates. Intel's schedule is a far better indicator. The processors that will be in the next Mac Pro are scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year. Apple have released new Mac Pros twice within 2 months of new processors, once a month before and once 5 months later.
Did I even read the thread? My entire post was based on the thread.
Namely, post number 16 of this thread, wherein the poster suggested that I read the buyers guide, a supposedly reputable guide maintained by the site's owners. That information seemed to contradict posts 2, 3, 4, and 10. Which said basically just the opposite. So actually, "reading the thread" is what caused me to have the question in the first place. Your snide remark helped though. Thank you for your genuinely helpful response. That clears up a lot.
This will be sufficient for a lot of users once such a system arrives (i.e. software that either doesn't use n core multi-threading, or a limited version of it; n = 2 - 4). As it happens, audio work is one of the primary usages targeted by Intel for Thunderbolt.
I agree.
Did I even read the thread? My entire post was based on the thread.
Me so sorry! But cut me some slack, those questions about "when will the Pro come, buyers guide says very soon", just come so often, although it has been answered probably a thousand times already within the last couple of months.
You've my apologies.
That's alright. I'm sorry too... I didn't mean to go off on a rant.
I understand that speculation has pointed to early 2012 for a while now. What I haven't seen (until today) is the buyer's guide recommendation to "Wait- Updates Soon". I thought I might have missed something. Why would the admins of the site write a "wait" warning on a product that, by all appearances, won't be updated for almost a year? Is it possible that it will be refreshed with TB and some other things but no CPU bump (rather than putting it off till 2012 just so they can include SB in this revision)? 2011 would be the first year they went without a MP refresh since it came out in 2002.
The warning is generated automatically as the "time since last update" approaches the "average time between updates".
But the admins should put a note, as they have done for other products, explaining other factors affecting release dates, specifically Intel processor availability.
The buyer's guide is a good documentation of past history, but not necessarily a good prediction of the future. The related articles usually provide more insight.
It is pretty obvious. The next update will be shortly after Intel releases the new chips. So it really us more Intel's schedule that places MAc Pro at the back of the upgrade line. Wasn't there a delay in 2010 with the new server grade cpu's that made us wait several more months? Hope they surprise us this time and push them out early. It is had to watch all the other models get their upgrades months ahead of us. Not much we can do.
Not to purposefully invite more flaming on this subject, but a few contradicting signs still are making it hard to believe updates aren't due until end of year/beginning of next. What about the following:
1) Big Price drops from almost ever major 3rd party reseller on Mac Pros, currently over $250 off Apple's price and getting cheaper weekly. Apple of course still sells them at full price, and these aren't rebate or "get a free printer" special offers, they're flat clearing-stock type of price drops.
2) Limited supply. My Pro Audio dealer says there are zero 8-core or 12-core models in stock at any of his reseller chains SoCal locations. Amazon's stock on 8-cores has gone from "only 24 left" to "only 9 left" over the past 2.5 weeks while always displaying "more on the way" in conjunction with stock levels. Pretty similar story on the 4-core. It shouldn't take 2.5 weeks for Amazon to get restock from Apple IMHO. Also, Amazon hasn't had 12 core's in stock for well over a month and currently doesn't even show up in a product search at all.
1) Big Price drops from almost ever major 3rd party reseller on Mac Pros, currently over $250 off Apple's price and getting cheaper weekly. Apple of course still sells them at full price, and these aren't rebate or "get a free printer" special offers, they're flat clearing-stock type of price drops.
2) Limited supply. My Pro Audio dealer says there are zero 8-core or 12-core models in stock at any of his reseller chains SoCal locations. Amazon's stock on 8-cores has gone from "only 24 left" to "only 9 left" over the past 2.5 weeks while always displaying "more on the way" in conjunction with stock levels. Pretty similar story on the 4-core. It shouldn't take 2.5 weeks for Amazon to get restock from Apple IMHO. Also, Amazon hasn't had 12 core's in stock for well over a month and currently doesn't even show up in a product search at all.
Good points. Specific problems in the case of the Mac Pro buyer's guide are that it includes G5 updates which have no bearing on the current landscape and it includes the 2007 Mac Pro update, which has as much significance as the additional option of a 3.33GHz quad-core in december 2009, which isn't included.
The interesting and relevant dates as I see it are:
- June 26th 2006 - Intel release Woodcrest processors.
- August 7th 2006 - Apple launch 1,1 Mac Pro (6 weeks after processors) @ WWDC
- November 12th 2007 - Intel release Harpertown processors.
- January 8th 2008 - Apple launch 3,1 Mac Pro (8 weeks after processors, 520 days since last major Mac Pro launch) 1 week before Macworld
- March 3rd 2009 - Apple launch 4,1 Mac Pro (4 weeks before processors, 421 days since last Mac Pro)
- March 30th 2009 - Intel release Nehalem processors.
- March 3rd 2010 - Intel release Westmere processors.
- July 27th 2010 - Apple announce 2010 Mac Pro alongside new Cinema display and the launch of iMacs.
- August 9th - Mac Pro pre-orders begin.
- August 20th - Mac Pros finally start to ship - 23 weeks after processors were launched, 536 days after the last one.
- Q4 2011 - LGA 2011 processors and boards are set to launch.
What I take from that is Apple will probably release new Mac Pros in October, November or January (no December Mac releases in the past decade), but it could be later if there are supply or development issues. Also worth noting that there have been delays on shipping due to people choosing the high-end graphics cards at launch.
well i need to use a fair amount of samples for my workflow. with omnisphere, hollywood strings, and my drum samples, i can fill 1tb off hdd easily. i want a separate record drive to function solely as a tape machine without any hiccups.
i use pro tools primarily. i like ableton for writing dj style material but i cant stand logic. i also have a maschine but im getting pretty sick of it. they need to fix the sequencer so it can lock to a daw properly. when your doing anything with complex timing, it winds up ******** the bed. im probbably going to use it with another plugin in the future
this is great information and more along the lines of what i was hoping to hear. can you recommend me some other 3rd party dealers? i was going to drive to delaware and use my student id at a mac store for a dual quad mp.
I was thinking the same thing, since the new processors should be released as early as June but as late as August, and I'm skeptical as to think that Apple would release the Mac Pro before the official chip release (i.e Apple gets the chips early to beat competitors to market. The Mac Pro has never been a priority for Apple).
On a somewhat related side note, now that one can purchase an iMac with an AMD Radeon HD 6970 mobile, if Apple doesn't offer the HD 6970 2 GB card as a BTO option then I have truly lost all hope that the Mac Pro engineering team has enough combined intelligence to complete a sentence...
http://www.appleinsider.com/mac_price_guide/
That covers prices on a lot of the most popular online Mac resellers. Just scroll down to the Mac Pro lines and read across.
On a somewhat related side note, now that one can purchase an iMac with an AMD Radeon HD 6970 mobile, if Apple doesn't offer the HD 6970 2 GB card as a BTO option then I have truly lost all hope that the Mac Pro engineering team has enough combined intelligence to complete a sentence...
The next generation of graphics cards will be out by the time of the next Mac Pro.
Wouldn't that be nice, huh?!
If Apple gives us a 6970, they can't even screw it up because it only comes with 2GB of vram.
I suppose that means they'll give us an HD 6950 with 1GB of vram.
The worst part is here we are groveling and begging for a 6970 when the PC people can get a computer with the 6970 for less than 2000 dollars.
.
The next generation of graphics cards will be out by the time of the next Mac Pro.
I know, the HD 7000 series "Southern Islands" gpus will be out.
But I'll be satisfied with an outdated HD 6970, honestly I will.
.
In Apple's defense they always release with the latest GPU technology. Usually a month before it is made obsolete though