Will the 2019 Mac Pro 7,1 get an Ice Lake Xeon refresh in 2021 ?

[Bustycat]

From the outcome of the WWDC 2022, it look like the answer is "no". The Mac Pro will not get an Ice Lake upgrade before being replaced by the upcoming Apple Silicon model.

Or will it get a Sapphire Rapids upgrade?

Still little hopes of a Xeon refresh as I don't expect any M2 variant supporting RAM as much as 1.5 TB.

M1 16 GB; M1 Pro 32 GB; M1 Max 64 GB; M1 Ultra 128 GB
M2 24 GB; ...

The M2 variant of two Ultra chips combined may support 384 GB under this trend.

 

[etorix]

Or will it get a Sapphire Rapids upgrade?

The workstation variant of Sapphire Rapids may not be released this year. I do not expect Apple to introduce a new Intel Mac so late into the transition to Apple Silicon—but would be pleased to be proven wrong.

Still little hopes of a Xeon refresh as I don't expect any M2 variant supporting RAM as much as 1.5 TB.

M1 16 GB; M1 Pro 32 GB; M1 Max 64 GB; M1 Ultra 128 GB
M2 24 GB; ...

The M2 variant of two Ultra chips combined may support 384 GB under this trend.

Fair points. But are these figures hard limits on what the SoC can support, or limits of what Apple solders onboard? Could a M CPU support more channels/more memory (possibly at higher latency)?
And how many PCIe lanes could be exposed?
The Mac Pro is about (internal) expandability; hopefully Apple still understands it this way, and that's why the Mac Studio, which is about as expandable as a 2013 Mac Pro is not the replacement for the 2019 Mac Pro. But it is not yet clear what are the design goals for the Apple Silicon Mac Pro—it may not be required to support as much memory and/or provide as many PCIe slots as the current model.