What might the future hold for the Mac Pro?

Question

Considering the historical tendencies of Apple, what do you see as the outlook for the next Mac Pro?

Answer 1

In the past, Apple has had a trend where they would first implement the existing design with a newly developed chip for better performance and then the redesign would take place in the next generation. This pattern has already been replicated in this year’s Mac Pro as the chassis of the Intel Mac Pro has been used but accompanied with the new M2 Ultra chip. It can be expected that the Next Generation Mac Pro will turn a new leaf featuring a complete redesign and possibly new specs or features with the M3 chip integration out in the market.

Comments

I was hoping they would have the unified memory and a ddr5 controller to allow slower system memory not at the unified speed. I was also expecting an m2 extreme, but I guess they didn't get that working in time. I project the m3 generation will be a large upgrade for that system and they just needed to get it out.

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I hear your theory at the end but maybe I'll play contrarian for a second by saying that they might end up keeping this design for the foreseeable future, considering the OG Mac Pro from 2006 carried over the external design of the Power Mac G5 from 2003 all the way to 2013. The G5/Mac Pro design (and the Mac mini) seemed to be the design exceptions for the longest time in their lineup, unlike the rest of their computers during the PPC to Intel transition.

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This was probably a "lazy refresh" because Apple could be unlikely to make another one. Maybe an excuse to cut it out of their product lineup and get people to switch to Apple-silicon, Apple will say this product performed poorly in sales so people are no longer interested in this design, and ignore its actual shortfalls like the fact there is no GPU support, and no upgradeability or real modularity. This could just be Apple's way of saying they completed the transition and allow them to stop software support earlier on older intel Macs.

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10:28 With the small volume of Mac Pro’s sold, I wouldn’t be surprised if an exterior redesign takes another 4 years or so. Which means it’s closer to the M5-generation of Apple Silicon. We’re left hoping Apple spec bumps the processor generation at least once mid cycle.

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The really sad thing is that music and sound studios, who will be the main customer base for this, already bought the Intel based one from three years ago because the last upgrade the Mac Pro had before that was the 2013 trashcan (and to say that thing was difficult to deal with would be an understatement). So the last time sound professionals had a viable option was in 2012 with the Mac Pro 4.1/5.1. Given that the OG cheese grater was already 6 grand at the base model, I cannot imagine many will invest in the M2 Mac Pro.