Apple admits that 2013 Mac Pro had problems, Promises a Radical new Modular Mac Pro for next year

[RedRound2]

So there's a bunch of news, TLDR version is that

• Apple couldn't update 2013 Mac Pro due to space and thermal constraints put on by the design
• Promises a new Radically reworked modular Mac Pro, that can easily be upgraded to satisfy all the disappointed pro users for next year
• Apple will also be releasing a new display with the Mac Pro, and update iMacs with a lot more horsepower later this year
• But for now, Apple has released a slightly updated Mac Pro with a few spec bumps

 

Quotes from Apple

Quote

Apple is currently hard at work on a “completely rethought” Mac Pro, with a modular design that can accommodate high-end CPUs and big honking hot-running GPUs, and which should make it easier for Apple to update with new components on a regular basis. 

 

 

 

The company admitted that its 2013 model approach hasn’t been as upgradable in practice as it had hoped.

Quote

At some point [Apple] came to the conclusion that the 2013 Mac Pro concept was fundamentally flawed. It was tightly integrated internally, which allowed for some very nice features: it was small and beautiful (a pro machine that demanded placement on your desk, not under your desk) and it could run whisper quietly. But that tight integration made it hard to update regularly. The idea that expansion could be handled almost entirely by external Thunderbolt peripherals sounded good on paper, but hasn’t panned out in practice. And the GPU design was a bad prediction. Apple bet on a dual-GPU design (multiple smaller GPUs, with “pro”-level performance coming from parallel processing) but the industry has gone entirely in the other direction (machines with one big GPU).

 

 

2

Phil Schiller acknowledged that the 2013 Mac Pro had not been well received by many pros, and it was this that had led to the radical rethink.

Quote

With regards to the Mac Pro, we are in the process of what we call “completely rethinking the Mac Pro”. We’re working on it. We have a team working hard on it right now, and we want to architect it so that we can keep it fresh with regular improvements, and we’re committed to making it our highest-end, high-throughput desktop system, designed for our demanding pro customers.

 

As part of doing a new Mac Pro — it is, by definition, a modular system — we will be doing a pro display as well. Now you won’t see any of those products this year; we’re in the process of that. We think it’s really important to create something great for our pro customers who want a Mac Pro modular system, and that’ll take longer than this year to do.

 

In the interim, we know there are a number of customers who continue to buy our [current Mac Pros]. To be clear, our current Mac Pro has met the needs of some of our customers, and we know clearly not all of our customers. None of this is black and white, it’s a wide variety of customers. Some… it’s the kind of system they wanted; others, it was not.

In the meantime, we’re going to update the configs to make it faster and better for their dollar. This is not a new model, not a new design, we’re just going to update the configs. We’re doing that this week. We can give you the specifics on that.

 

The CPUs, we’re moving them down the line. The GPUs, down the line, to get more performance per dollar for customers who DO need to continue to buy them on the interim until we get to a newly architected system.

 

 

 

The meeting was a high-profile one, with Craig Federighi, and John Ternus, who heads Mac hardware, also present. Schiller was unusually frank.

Quote

As we’ve said, we made something bold that we thought would be great for the majority of our Mac Pro users. And what we discovered was that it was great for some and not others. Enough so that we need to take another path. One of the good things, hopefully, with Apple through the years has been a willingness to say when something isn’t quite what we wanted it do be, didn’t live up to expectations, to not be afraid to admit it and look for the next answer […]

 

The current Mac Pro, as we’ve said a few times, was constrained thermally and it restricted our ability to upgrade it. And for that, we’re sorry to disappoint customers who wanted that, and we’ve asked the team to go and re-architect and design something great for the future that those Mac Pro customers who want more expandability, more upgradability in the future.

 

 

 

Even among pro users, however, Apple said that notebooks are by far the most popular form factor, followed by the iMac. This is why it has prioritized the new MacBook Pro machines, and would also be making new iMacs with a pro focus.

Quote

Schiller also said that new iMacs are in the works, slated for release some time this year (no specifics other than “this year”), including “configurations of iMac specifically with the pro customer in mind and acknowledging that our most popular desktop with pros is an iMac.”

 

Craig Federighi then jumped in, and said: “That is a pretty incredible evolution that we’ve seen over the last decade. The original iMac, you never would’ve thought as remotely touching pro uses. And now you look at today’s 5K iMac, top configs, it’s incredibly powerful, and a huge fraction of what would’ve traditionally — whether it’s audio editing, video editing, graphics, arts and so forth — that would’ve previously absolutely required the Mac Pros of old, are being well-addressed by iMac. But there’s still even further we can take iMac as a high performance, pro system, and we think that form factor can address even more of the pro market.”

 

 

2

Apple reiterated that they're still focused on Macs and were keen to dispel the rumors about going all iOS

Quote

Ternus put it plainly: “Some of our most talented folks are working on [the Mac]. I mean, quite frankly, a lot of this company, if not most of this company, runs on Macs. This is a company full of pro Mac users.”

Schiller added: “As far as our horizon line can see, the Mac is a core component of the things Apple delivers, including to our pro customers.”

 

 

1

My Thoughts: I'm definitely excited for the new model, though I'm not going to buy one. But it's unusual for Apple to admit they had few issues and moreover detail their upcoming plans but I think this is a great move especially since the Mac Pro had been stagnated for 4 years bringing about various claims and rumours about Apple ditching the Pro users

 

Source: https://9to5mac.com/2017/04/04/apple-upgrades-mac-pros-signals-radical-new-modular-mac-pros-next-year-with-apple-displays/

[Shepanator]

So apple is finally going to create new hardware for actual pros and not starbucks pros?

good news, I guess. Especially about the macbook pro. I'll probably still never buy one.

[SCHISCHKA]

Regarding the outdated hardware; The CEO must have read all my comments on LTT about my foot and his ass

[RUWO_builder]

Wow Thats good News. Exceptie for snazzylabs. He Will have to find another thing to do than making better mac pro versions

[alexyy]

New Apple Mac Pro! Equipped with Dank Touch Bar at the Low cost of $2199.99 For the Base model i5!

[WereCat]

Waits till warranty period ends. Admits the problem. Profit twice.

[RedRound2]

Just now, WereCat said:

Waits till warranty period ends. Admits the problem. Profit twice.

lol, you didnt even read the tldr. Seriously people like you make this forum annoying

[WereCat]

1 minute ago, RedRound2 said:

lol, you didnt even read the tldr. Seriously people like you make this forum annoying

Come on, I was just making a bit of fun. You don't have to take it seriously at all, I occasionally make fun and immediately get shut down... always... while other people go on complete OT rampage.

[Starelementpoke]

What I find hilarious is that a "radical" rework is probably putting actual hardware into the thing. Thermal constraints my arse, Vortex did it fine Apple. 

[KE2012]

The 'bin' does have a place in the market, as like it or not some people do think it looks sort of cool and unique and are willing to dish out for it because apple, but it is far from 'pro' because of the reasons the article states. Why not relabel it 'cylinder' or some other hipster name and leave the pro as towers actual pro's want? 

[PigWithAMustache]

It's gonna look like a toilet i swear.,

[Erbyy]

Woah there are people who waste money on macs? Rip...

[KE2012]

2 minutes ago, PigWithAMustache said:

It's gonna look like a toilet i swear.,

Yeah nah, they are upgrading so its going to be a skip! 

[Erbyy]

Unrelated reply, grow some stones, catch a few build and buyers LTT guides and save 600 Bucks and do-it-yourself. 

[thenastyjbenny]

32 minutes ago, alexyy said:

New Apple Mac Pro! Equipped with Dank Touch Bar at the Low cost of  $2199.99 For the Base model i5!

That low?

 

Geez! I'm gonna preorder!

[Deli]

30 minutes ago, KE2012 said:

The 'bin' does have a place in the market, as like it or not some people do think it looks sort of cool and unique and are willing to dish out for it because apple, but it is far from 'pro' because of the reasons the article states. Why not relabel it 'cylinder' or some other hipster name and leave the pro as towers actual pro's want? 

I do like Apple tried to break the mold. Powerful computer doesn't have to be big and like a refrigerator. The non-upgradeable and external storage parts are low points. Hey, it's Apple. Who often goes for form over function.

[dexT]

43 minutes ago, alexyy said:

New Apple Mac Pro! Equipped with Dank Touch Bar at the Low cost of  $2199.99 For the Base model i5!

There's no way it'd be that cheap.

[DocSwag]

Now I'm just curious if it'll be "modular" enough to put in different GPUs...

 

Probably not, but it'd be interesting if you could.

[ashypanda]

i find their reasoning a load of bull, as the CPU TDP has been the same since 2013 so heat nor power constraints are the issue, for the GPUs they could have used custom SKUs like they done before, the only minor issue could be the height of DDR4 modules, but they could have stretched the tin can a few centimetres, to fit them in, but a lot of it sounds like they are too lazy to bother updating it.

[Valentyn]

5 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Now I'm just curious if it'll be "modular" enough to put in different GPUs...

 

Probably not, but it'd be interesting if you could.

If it went back to the old MP chassis it would be perfectly fine for replacing everything bar the motherboard which would be Apple designed itself.

On my old 2009 Mac Pro I upgraded the CPU, added RAM, changed Wifi card, added Blu-Ray, and changed the GPU several times ( using normal nmon mac ones ).

 

NVIDIA still supply unified Quadro/GeForce drivers for their GPUs for OSX. Fantastic support really, if a few months behind the PC launch.

[goodtofufriday]

My reaction to apple

 

[Sauron]

Took them long enough... but at least they aknowledged it. I'm interested to see if by "modular" they mean what every other workstation ever built is like or if they have something special in mind.

[Citadelen]

1 hour ago, alexyy said:

New Apple Mac Pro! Equipped with Dank Touch Bar at the Low cost of  $2199.99 For the Base model i5!

They'll probably go Ryzen or Opterons in the future.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Only 4 years later lol.

[Coaxialgamer]

New from apple , the Mac Pro 2017 . Now with innovative® cooling system .