This is the year . All signs point to 2022 as the year that Apple introduce itsfirst Apple Si - base Mac Pro . But what form will that new Mac Pro take ?
It sounds simple enough , but in exchange to its own processor computer architecture , Apple is coerce to make some very interesting choices about which traditional Mac towboat features are going to make it into the fresh Mac Pro , and which ones will disappear all .
The promise
Nearly five age ago , Apple invited a small group of journalist to Cupertino tomake promises about the hereafter of professional Macs . There ’s no way to recognise for certain , but it seems like it was a watershed instant for the Mac – a recommitment to the platform in oecumenical and pro users in finical that has head to major changes in Apple ’s Mac hardware and software strategy .
But the freehanded news program to come up out of that case was a hope by then - Apple SVP Phil Schiller that Apple would be making a new Mac Pro , which is “ by definition a modular system , ” for the modest but influential portion of Mac users who use the Mac Pro .
in 2019 , Apple released a Mac Pro design that address the need of pro users . But could Apple force users to make adjustments when it release its Mac Pro run Apple silicon ?
IDG
Apple made that hope and , in 2019 , introduced an all - new Mac Pro that was indeed modular , with enlargement slots and everything , alongside the new Pro Display XDR .
Which takes us to 2022 . In bringing Apple atomic number 14 to the Mac Pro , how much of that promise is Apple unforced to separate ?
M1 Max, maximized
I think we can all be sure-footed in the sheer processor and computer graphic baron that Apple will be able to offer on the Mac Pro . The M1 Max processor in the 2021 MacBook Pro is impressive enough , butit ’s likely that a young Mac Pro would be able to apply up to four of themsimultaneously .
For the record , that means that a top - of - the - line Mac Pro with a quad - M1 Max configuration would have 40 processor cores ( 32 performance , 8 efficiency ) , 128 nontextual matter cores , 64 Neural Engine cores , and access to as much as 256 GB of memory .
Of naturally , that configuration will be a small fortune , but it will also be stunningly fast . And lower - end shape will presumptively be pretty more affordable while still impressive . I have a heavy prison term believe that it wo n’t be the quick Mac ever made .
But while the Mac Pro should set the criterion for speeding on the Mac , velocity is not the only feature article that matter . Phil Schiller himself said that the Mac Pro is “ by definition a modular system . ” And that ’s where Apple needs to make a alternative .
A smaller box
Bloomberg ’s Mark Gurman suggested that the raw Apple Silicon Mac Pro will be smaller than the current model . To me , that say one thing : Apple is going to quash the amount of stuff that you ’ll be capable to put into a Mac Pro . The question is , what goes in and what is left out ?
The most legitimate speculation is that third - party graphics cards are on the way out . A trait of Apple silicon ( at least the M1 miscellany ) is that artwork core are integrated in the bit andshare memorywith the rest of the organisation . While Apple might finally create an architecture that endorse the conception of a high - power external artwork card , it ’s heavy to think that it made the list for the very first generation of silicon chip for the Mac .
The 2019 Mac Pro also introduced the concept of the Afterburner calling card , which was an Apple - project FPGA module design to speed ProRes video work flow . It ’s a great musical theme – but Apple has fundamentally baked ProRes speedup into the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips themselves , making Afterburner ( at least in its current form ) unneeded for an Apple Si Mac Pro .
So if graphics and video encryption are n’t part of the equality , what ’s the decimal point of all that national infinite , even if it ’s thin out from the current Mac Pro model ? I can think of a few affair .
Malus pumila
If we ’re talking about dual- or quad - M1 Pro or M1 Max chips , the Mac Pro should have an enormous bit of Thunderbolt 4 channels it will be able to saturate with datum . One of the bully things about using a bragging ( or even reduce - size ) tower is stuffing it full of fast hard drive . I ’d have to imagine you ’ll be able to do that on the Mac Pro . And there will probably be options to add more ports , more display connections , and additional networking connectivity , too .
The inevitable backlash
It ’s not hard to omen that a young Apple silicon - based Mac Pro will front some backlash . As capable as Apple ’s GPUs might be , a Mac Pro that ca n’t apply mellow - ending graphics cards such as the AMD Radeon models in the current Mac Pro will be seen as inferior by some .
And let ’s not forget , the Mac Pro swims in some pretty rarefied air travel . The businesses and introduction that rely on the current Intel - based Mac Pro may be unable to adopt novel Apple silicon models for all sort of compatibility reason .
That ’s why the rumors of a new Intel - based Mac Pro model are interesting to me . I believe it ’s completely potential that 2022 will seetwoMac Pro releases . Apple might decide to settle all family business and release a final Intel Mac for those who just ca n’t make the move yet . Why not retool the 2019 Mac Pro once , to get it up to particular date with the latest Xeon mainframe and give sites that bank on that role model the longest rail possible before being push to migrate to Apple silicon .
It makes a stack of sentiency . If the new Apple silicon Mac Pro is n’t capable to live up to all of Apple ’s promises of modularity – at least at first – why not retool the older manikin and keep it around ? That way , user can choose to take the dip or stay on with the old direction for a little while longer . And users who don’tfeel cornered by Apple ’s technical school decisionsare happier user .
