Apple Unveils Redesigned Mac Pro Desktop and Pro Display XDR at WWDC

[stevep314]

It does seems like the hackintosh still has a bright future with this release? Or am I mistaking?

 

[trs96]

It does seems like the hackintosh still has a bright future with this release? Or am I mistaken?

Yes it does. These MPs have Intel Xeon CPUs. They are highly upgradable so people who buy them should keep them longer term and upgrade as needed. That means long term support for Intel CPUs. Good for us. If they had come with an ARM based server CPU that would not be good. I had no doubt whatsoever that they would use Xeons in the Late 2019 MP.

Just imagine how much longer it would take to produce an ARM MP with all of the R&D needed to make it work. Pros would be waiting another 2-3 years for that Mac to be released. By then they would have moved on to other computers/brands for their needs. At least those who hadn't already done that because their 2010/12 MP just couldn't keep up with their workflow. We all know how big of a failure the 2013 MP was.

If history is any indicator then these latest versions of the MP should get at least 6-7 years of support in macOS.

Tim Cook telling everyone how insanely grate the new cheese grater MP is:

 

[trs96]

Apple is dropping support for the 2012 MP in Catalina. Obviously they want old MP owners to buy the new one. Hence they are cutting off support. I'm sure it could handle Catalina just fine as all other 2012 Macs will. They want their loyal MP customers to trade their old cheese grater for a shiny new one, with round handles that don't slice into their hands when they lift it.

from Cult of Mac:

Not many Macs left out

The enhancements don’t appear to bring much additional strain to Mac hardware because almost every device that can run last year’s macOS Mojave can also handle Catalina. That only leaves out some fairly old devices.

The newest MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac or Mac mini that can‘t upgrade debuted in 2011. The standout is the 2012 Mac Pro, which can‘t install macOS 10.15.

 

[oreoapple]

Then we probably should add apple tax, so maxed out config will be 100k, mark my words.

From www.theverge.com

No one seems to figure in just how much it costs to make the custom machined Aloominium case as Jony Ive calls it.
I'd estimate that case alone costs close to 2,000 USD. It looks like the only "parts" you'll be able to upgrade yourself are the CPU and ram. In every YT review I've seen, they all say "Expensive" more than a few times. trs96

Here’s how it all breaks down for the maxed out Mac Pro.

One (1) Mac Pro: $6,000

We start with the base Mac Pro itself, which we know Apple is selling starting at $6,000 for the base model. Because you can’t just buy an enclosure on its own, this price also includes things like the motherboard, power supply, heat sink, cooling system, and chassis (the optional wheels may cost extra). It’ll probably also come with a CPU, a GPU, and some RAM, but we’ll be replacing those shortly anyhow.

Twelve (12) 128GB DDR4 ECC RAM sticks: $17,867.88

The easiest thing on our shopping list is RAM. The new Mac Pro has 12 user-accessible DIMM slots that take DDR4 ECC memory. For the maximum of 1.5TB of RAM, we need 12 128GB sticks of RAM; at roughly $1,388.99 each, that rings up to a whopping $17,867.88 for memory. But just imagine: with $18K of RAM, you might even be able to keep three whole Chrome tabs open at once!

Two (2) 2TB SSDs: $2,400

This one’s easy: Apple charges $2,400 to upgrade its iMac Pro to 4TB of storage, so we can extrapolate that it’ll probably charge the same to upgrade the Mac Pro to the same. It’s not clear whether this storage is user upgradable or not (especially considering that it’s encrypted by Apple’s T2 chip, which implies some hardware level integration on Apple’s end), so we’ll take Apple’s far pricier number as the minimum here for now.

One (1) 2.5GHz 28-core Intel Xeon W processor: approximately $7,453

Next up: we need the best CPU we can get: in this case, a 2.5GHz, 28-core Intel Xeon W processor that can Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz, with a 66.5MB cache and support for up to 2TB 2933MHz memory. Now, Apple doesn’t specify what 28-core Xeon processor it’ll be shipping with the Mac Pro, but looking at Intel’s product database, the closest option out there is the Intel Xeon W-3275M, which the company lists a recommended customer price for of $7,453, which we’ll assume to be the bare minimum here. Now Apple’s processor probably isn’t the W-3275M (Apple lists a much higher cache size, to start), but the rest of the specs are pretty close.

Two (2) AMD Radeon Pro Vega II GPUs: Price unknown, but let’s say $12,000, minimum

Here’s the tricky bit. AMD announced its Radeon Pro Vega II GPUs alongside the Mac Pro, which means we’ve got no idea how much it’ll cost to buy them. We also don’t know if you’ll even be able to buy them separately at all; depending on how Apple’s MDX Module system works, that might not be an option.

Apple will sell you up to four Vega GPUs in total: Two Vega II Duo cards, each with two GPUs, linked together with Apple’s Infinity Fabric Link across two of Apple’s MDX Modules. Whatever the grand total is there, it won’t come cheap.

Assuming AMD prices the Vega II similarly to Nvidia’s professional grade Quadro RTX offerings, though — the Quadro RTX 6000, for instance, cost $6,300 new with only a little more raw compute than Apple’s promising here — we’ll say Apple’s solution will cost at least $12,000 for the whole quad-GPU package. Add the MDX Modules and Apple’s markup, though, and we wouldn’t be totally surprised if it was double that.

One (1) Apple Afterburner accelerator card: price unknown

Technically this is an optional accessory, but it comes from Apple so I’m including it here. No idea how much it’ll cost, though.

One (1) Apple Pro Display XDR monitor: $5,000

Apple announced the Pro Display XDR monitor alongside the new Mac Pro. Sure, you could use a cheaper (and lesser display), but the Pro Display XDR was designed specifically to pair with the Mac Pro, so you’ll probably want to pick one up. Or six. It supports six.

One (1) Apple Pro Stand for the Pro Display XDR monitor: $1,000

Stand sold separately.

One (1) Apple Magic Keyboard and one (1) Magic Trackpad 2: $228

You probably should buy a mouse and keyboard, too. Apple currently sells these separately on the existing Mac Pro, so I doubt they’ll start giving them away for free now.

Total cost: Somewhere around $50,000 to $60,000 for a maxed out Mac Pro 2019.
You asked for a Pro machine and you got it. Along with astronomical prices.

 

[Wingfat]

We don't need new proprietary hardware from apple. We are here because for the most part we don't like walled gardens or the apple tax. We just love MacOs. It may be time for the open source community to look at MacOs as they did with Solaris. At some point (maybe as iPhone revenue slows) they may TRY to end hacks. Hope there will other options when apple pulls the plug.

 

[thedocbwarren]

Well from an opensource perspective there are other options... Linux. But that costs use of Adobe software or Apple software.

We don't need new proprietary hardware from apple. We are here because for the most part we don't like walled gardens or the apple tax. We just love MacOs. It may be time for the open source community to look at MacOs as they did with Solaris. At some point (maybe as iPhone revenue slows) they may TRY to end hacks. Hope there will other options when apple pulls the plug.

 

[izo1]

We don't need new proprietary hardware from apple. We are here because for the most part we don't like walled gardens or the apple tax. We just love MacOs. It may be time for the open source community to look at MacOs as they did with Solaris. At some point (maybe as iPhone revenue slows) they may TRY to end hacks. Hope there will other options when apple pulls the plug.

I love Macs in general, I hadn't owned an actual PC since 2004 where I used Macs exclusively until 2015 when Apple stopped producing decent desktops.

For me tinkering is a waste of time, I just want to do my job and move on.

Now the base 2019 Mac Pro has priced out a lot of people. I can afford it, but it's not going to be faster than my iMac Pro clone, that's for sure. And mine cost about the same and even less.

$6k base Mac Pro, then another $6k for the display or whatever, that's $12k for an average performing computer and a very good monitor. Yeah I can use my current monitors, but at $6k the base model is really dumb for me.

The previous gen Mac Pros started at $2999 which was a fair price.

 

[Midphase]

Yeah, I agree. If they said the base 8-core (or ideally 10-core....COME ON APPLE, IT'S NOT 2010 ANYMORE!!!) started at $2999, I would have thought it was pricey but I would have given them my money to get back on the "Apple proper" bandwagon. But $6k for 8-cores and 32M of RAM and a GPU that costs $300 (or less) at Amazon is basically a big F.U. to any creative freelancer.

Hackintosh is it then -- thank you Apple for at least solidifying Intel CPU's for at least another few years, and thank you for twisting the arms of Redshift and Octane into bringing their tools to Metal!

 

[GideonBlack]

I had high hopes for the Mac Pro, and while it's no doubt a beast of a machine, it still missed the mark IMO. What Apple's lineup lacks is a prosumer-grade Mac that is not an all-in-one and comes with a decent graphics card. Perhaps a larger Mac mini that can accommodate (and effectively cool) a Vega card. As things stand, there is no standalone desktop option between the mini and the Pro, and the cost of entry for a Pro is now simply ludicrous, particularly for people who have powerful hacks running something like a 9900K.

That display, though. Aside from the ridiculous price of the stand, that one simply stole the show. I'd love one of those on my desk.

 

[trs96]

What Apple's lineup lacks is a prosumer-grade Mac that is not an all-in-one and comes with a decent graphics card.

They don't want this because they lose control of what you can upgrade to. You can then also do your own repairs so they lose revenue at the Apple store. With the new Mac Pro they are going to make you jump through their hoops instead of having many choices of upgrade parts that you can get on Newegg, Amazon etc. This is classic Apple, lock you in and keep you dependent on them for everything Mac related. Look at the new T2 chips in the mini, MBP and iMac Pro. You will only be able to take them to Apple certified techs to repair or upgrade them for most everything but the ram. Sad but true.