2019 Mac Pro is Now Available at Apple.com

[trs96]

The "Long Haul" Mac Pro Perspective​

In a 2010 interview Steve Jobs said "PCs (desktop towers) are like trucks. They're gonna still be around for getting real work done but fewer people are going to be using them." He was being asked about how the new iPad would change computing post 2010. ATX PC mid towers are like trucks and they're not going away just because of iPhones and iPads. Apple will sell more iPhones in one day than they'll sell Mac Pros in 5 years or more but they'll still sell Mac Pros anyway.

Having looked at nearly all the teardown and benchmarking videos, I had to think about how Apple could completely make the current hackintosh movement completely unnecessary. Those of us here that can't get our work done on an iPad Pro or even the new Macbook Pro 16" still need capable desktops. Yes, I know it's a crazy idea that will probably never happen but think about this.

Sell a base model 2019 Mac Pro that is really worth buying at an affordable price.

Give us these specs at half of what the current asking price is. Approximately $3,700 USD
OK, even that may be too low a price for what you're getting. Lets say $3,999 to make it more Apple like.

That is still a lot of money for most people but I think many would be willing to pay it. Think how long a MP with these specs could keep going for you given all the possible upgrades to CPU, graphics and memory. All the TH3 expansion capability. It might be the last Mac you'd ever need to buy. With upgrades years down the road of course.

Maybe even make the Radeon RX 5700 8GB Navi graphics card the one in the base model. That would be perfect.

So the argument against this would be that Apple wouldn't make any money selling at this price. Probably some, but not much. The main thing they'd gain is tens of millions more loyal customers that stay in their ecosystem and keep using all of their services and buying Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro to run on these.

The server farms, video production houses in Hollywood are still going to buy the $50,000 plus maxed out versions. That's where all the real profits are going to come from. This way they can keep everyone happy and using everything else they offer to their customers. They can keep selling the XDR displays at $5,000 and a grand more for the stand. Most people hardly need a 32" 6K monitor for what they do on a daily basis. Even if they edit photos and videos. There are many very good lower cost options.

That is the way they could actually end up making more money over the long haul. No one could really accuse them of being nothing more than a greedy mega corporation if they offered this.

What do you think ? Would you hesitate at all to buy a 12 Core base model with Navi graphics for the $4,000 price tag ?

 

[pastrychef]

The "Long Haul" Mac Pro Perspective​

In a 2010 interview Steve Jobs said "PCs (desktop towers) are like trucks. They're gonna still be around for getting real work done but fewer people are going to be using them." He was being asked about how the new iPad would change computing post 2010. ATX PC mid towers are like trucks and they're not going away just because of iPhones and iPads. Apple will sell more iPhones in one day than they'll sell Mac Pros in 5 years or more.

Having looked at nearly all the teardown and benchmarking videos, I had to think about how Apple could completely make the the current hackintosh movement completely unnecessary. Those of us here that can't get our work done on an iPad Pro or even the new Macbook Pro still need capable desktops. Yes, I know it's a crazy idea that will probably never happen but think about this.

Sell a base model 2019 Mac Pro that is really worth buying at an affordable price.

Give us these specs at half of what the current asking price is. Approximately $3,700 USD
OK, even that may be too low a price for what you're getting. Lets say $3,999 to make it more Apple like.

That is still a lot of money for most people but I think many would be willing to pay it. Think how long a MP with these specs could keep going for you given all the possible upgrades to CPU, graphics and memory. All the TH3 expansion capability. It might be the last Mac I'd ever need to buy.

View attachment 441126
Maybe even make the Radeon RX 5700 8GB Navi graphics card the one in the base model. That would be perfect.

So the argument against this would be that Apple wouldn't make any money selling at this price. Probably some, but not much. The main thing they'd gain is tens of millions more loyal customers that stay in their ecosystem and keep using all of their services and buying Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro to run on these. That is the way they could actually end up making more money over the long haul. No one could really accuse them of being nothing more than a greedy mega corporation if they offered this. I know it's only a dream but what's wrong with that ?

What do you think ? Would you hesitate at all to buy a 12 Core base model with Navi graphics for the $4,000 price tag ?

I'd buy one and I'm sure a whole lot of others would too.

I think that the resistance to build such a machine is because of the extremely long life cycle it would have. Think about how long the MacPro5,1 remained relevant. It's a decade old system and there are still people using them as their daily driver.

I think this is why the MacPro6,1 was what it was... Proprietary graphics cards and connectors. Zero PCI-e slots. This severely limited the useful life span of the system. This would force people to update hardware more frequently.

I'm sure that the new MacPro7,1 pricing puts all of this in to consideration.



Edit:
I want to add that the reason why PCI-e slots are so important is that GPU is so important. By simply upgrading the video card every few years, users can easily keep their systems' performance relatively comparable to new systems. This is true for rendering as well as gaming.

 

[trs96]

I think that the resistance to build such a machine is because of the extremely long life cycle it would have.

The people that buy these would stay in the Apple ecosystem long term instead of switching to Windows 10 or Linux. It would be interesting to see real numbers in relation to how many have done this since 2013 and the trashcan MP boondoggle.

 

[pastrychef]

The people that buy these would stay in the Apple ecosystem long term instead of switching to Windows 10 or Linux. It would be interesting to see real numbers in relation to how many have done this since 2013 and the trashcan MP boondoggle.

I was recently offered a MacPro6,1 for free from a buddy who's company is upgrading and, after a bit of thought, I declined. Every aspect of that thing is already so outdated with no room for upgrades. My current hack runs circles around it in every metric.

I told him to let me know when they upgrade their MacPro7,1s.

 

[trs96]

I was recently offered a MacPro6,1 for free

All I can say is that Apple learned from most of their mistakes made back then. The 7,1 has great airflow and mega graphics upgrade options that could never work in that tiny black cylinder that had 4 cores, lousy graphics, 12 gigs of ram and a 3000 dollar base price. At least it was relatively quiet and power efficient.

 

[trs96]

Have a look at how well the 12 core version with a single 32GB Radeon Pro Vega II card does in terms of thermals and noise with the GPU and CPU completely maxed out by stress testing. None of the fans spin at more than 615 RPM during the whole stress test. Compare that to a PC with a custom loop liquid cooling system that makes a lot of noise and is really expensive in terms of the parts and labor and maintenance it requires.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

As a side note, I'd just like to say that if Apple chooses to go with air-cooling and gets such great results, then I don't see the point of water going anywhere near my expensive components! Indeed water-pumps aren't quiet either, so that's both touted advantages disproved in one, fell swoop. Thank you Apple

 

[trs96]

Indeed water-pumps aren't quiet either, so that's both touted advantages disproved in one, fell swoop.

Plus you need to be a plumber to build and maintain these custom loops. Constantly checking for leaks, draining and refilling the coolant. Not my cup of tea.

 

[negatv]

Recently watched some old videos of “Computer Chronicles” online, and it’s entertaining to get some perspective on pricing.

Damn awesome looking machine, and out of pure gluttony I am interested in buying the base model. Not enough upside over my hacks just yet.

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

One perspective we have to remember here is this : this latest Mac Pro was never designed for, or aimed at, 99% of the population. It was aimed at true graphics professionals, such as animation studios, movie studios and suchlike. They will have no issue paying the costs of the maxed out versions, and will likely buy many at a time. The cost to those companies is not even enough to raise an eyebrow.

For the rest of us mere mortals, who will likely never need that kinda horsepower, it is a nice machine to look at, grossly overpriced and very well engineered.

If I had £20K lying around, would I buy one ? Not ever.

If I ran a business that depended on producing mass amounts of video related output, would I buy one ? I sure would consider it.