Apple Announces "3rd Transition" for macOS: From Intel CPUs to Apple Silicon

[trs96]

I'd be amazed if anything less than a substantial majority have a real Mac and other bits of Apple hardware

From our polling on this site over 61% own a "real Mac." It's a small sample size but I'd estimate around 50% of people in this community own some Apple hardware. A phone, watch, tablet or Mac.

Do you own a real Mac?

I have 2017 5k 27 inch iMac 3.4 i5 24gb 1tb Radeon Pro 570 4gb 2013 iMac 3.5 i7 32gb 1tb Gt780 M 4gb. i have absolutely no issues with any of my real Macs. I ry to keep 2 variants with Nvidia and AMD gpus. I also have 2013 MacBook Pro 13 2.4 i5 8gb 128 which doesn't have any issues as well. I...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[Ritchie333]

Linus Sebastian has done a nice video about some of the pros and cons about Apple switching to ARM chips. The idea that I could have one version of MainStage running on an iPad and replacing my touring keyboard rig save for a MIDI controller does sound quite appealing.

 

[vistaero]

What if Intel Macs don’t actually end? I mean, Intel is in a very bad position. PC users are migrating to AMD and Apple is migrating to ARM. Do we really think that Intel is gonna wait these 2 years with arms crossed until they die? They better do something. Maybe they manage to keep the Mac Pro with them for a long time, as Apple may find that more profitable than building just a few of super beefy processors.

 

[trs96]

What if Intel Macs don’t actually end ? Intel is in a very bad position. PC users are migrating to AMD and Apple is migrating to ARM. Do we really think that Intel is gonna wait these 2 years with ARMs crossed until they die?

That would be great, especially for Mac Pro owners that use Windows and macOS on the same machine. Here's why it will probably not happen. Apple is one of Intel's smallest customers, that's why they haven't been overly worried about losing Apple. Even if they kept selling them expensive 28 core Xeons for the Mac Pro it would do nothing to save the company. If Intel were to potentially lose HP or Dell as a customer, they would do everything possible to stop that from happening.

Another reason is that Apple can save a major amount of money by using their own CPUs. Look at the cost of an A12 Bionic CPU that powers iPhone XS Max. Intel is charging a retail price of about $749 for their 8 core Xeon the Mac Pro uses. The 6 core A12 Bionic only costs Apple $30 when TSMC makes them in Taiwan. That's why Apple can sell a new iPhone SE for $399 and still keep profit margins high. The cost of the A13 is probably about 40-45 USD. The Apple A series SoCs also have a GPU built in, the Xeons don't.

I doubt the next MP Apple Silicon chips will have that GPU in them. They'll need to combine some kind of discrete GPU for enough compute power. We'll see what they do when the first Apple Silicon Mac Pro ships around 2 years from now ?

8 core Xeon in the new Mac Pro:

When you look at the small part of the total revenue the Mac line brings it's really small and never grows. Most of the (in blue) Mac sales are sales of the MacBook Pro and other Mac laptops. Without the iPhone, iPad and services Apple would be just another computer co. A very small one at that. That seems to be why they took "Computer" out of their name many years ago. They knew that they had to focus on mobile devices to stay relevant.

Mac Pro sales are less than 1% of the total Mac business. Due to their high prices, Mac Pros will never be a significant part of Mac sales. They'll never keep Intel chips in the Mac Pro over the longer term. They've never done that before. Were there any PowerPC G5 chips in the first Mac Pro line starting in 2006 or later ? It's just not the Apple way of doing things. This transition looks a lot like the PPC to Intel switch from 15 years ago. They'll change all Macs over to Apple Silicon.

 

[trs96]

Here's what I'd like to know about the next version of the Mac Pro. Will existing MP owners be able to swap out the motherboard and replace it with the new one in (2022 ?) that comes inside the AS refresh Mac Pro ? The PowerMac G5 came out in October of 2005. The Mac Pro 1,1 in August of 2006. The AL case of each one looked very similar even though the chipset and chip/s inside were completely different. Without the extra front I/O on the MP 1,1 you really couldn't tell them apart from the outside.

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That would help ease the pain somewhat for those companies and individuals that spent a small fortune on a Mac Pro this year and last.

I really doubt that Apple would ever do this but it's not out of the realm of possibility. My guess is that they will re-design the chassis of the next Mac Pro and make it much smaller and lighter than the current '19 version.

 

[tabarus]

My guess is that they will re-design the chassis of the next Mac Pro and make it much smaller and lighter than the current '19 version.

It get's interesting if the return the lower production costs to the customers or do the opposite and make it even more expensive or keep the price.

 

[trs96]

It get's interesting if the return the lower production costs to the customers or do the opposite and make it even more expensive or keep the price.

Imagine a 64 core Apple CPU, that produces 1/3 the heat of an equivalent Intel Xeon. They won't need all the over engineered cooling system that the current 2019 MP has. It won't need the 1.3 megawatt PSU. They will take what they learned from the Cheese grater and make the next AS based Mac Pro completely silent. Pro audio people will love that. It's still hard to believe they will refresh the MP by the end of 2022 but that's what is supposed to happen. I'd estimate a December of '22 release date. Will be the last Mac converted to Apple Silicon.

 

[Bustycat]

Here's what I'd like to know about the next version of Mac Pro. Will existing MP owners be able to swap out the motherboard and replace it with the new one in (2022 ?) that comes inside the AS refresh Mac Pro ? That would help ease the pain somewhat for those companies and individuals that spent a small fortune on a Mac Pro this year and last.

I really doubt that Apple would ever do this but it's not out of the realm of possibility. My guess is that they will re-design the chassis of the next Mac Pro and make it much smaller and lighter than the current '19 version.

I doubt Mac Pro would be much smaller unless Apple takes away its ability for expansions again.

 

[trs96]

I doubt Mac Pro would be much smaller unless Apple takes away its ability for expansions again.

Maybe they'll just fire up the old 6,1 Mac Pro production line in Texas and put the ARM-Apple processors in those. Look at all the R&D money spent on that project. The trash can was not that bad, just way ahead of it's time. They didn't consider the heat the dual AMD FirePro GPUs would create. Now with the lower power Apple Silicon they can make these run way cool. No more overheating.

They could modernize it by putting a blue LED fan in the top this time. Makes it look very cool too.

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[Bustycat]

Maybe they'll just fire up the old 6,1 Mac Pro production line in Texas and put the ARM-Apple processors in those. Look at all the R&D money spent on that project. The trash can was not that bad, just way ahead of it's time. They didn't consider the heat the dual AMD FirePro GPUs would create. Now with the lower power Apple Silicon they can make these run way cool. No more overheating.

They could modernize it by putting a blue LED fan in the top this time. Makes it look very cool too.

View attachment 478229

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The reputation of the trash can has collapsed. Apple won’t release that design again.