PSA we could see Mac Pro announced in June

[KevWind]

If this prediction is correct we could see a new Mac Pro announced at WWDC June 5-9

And it "could" possibly be upgradable power wise (which would be a real benefit ). No mention of possible price though

[jim1960]

If it starts at less than $7k I'd be very surprised. I think the Mac Pro is really geared, now and in the future, for professional video production houses. Both the home and higher end audio people have great options now in the Apple lineup (something that arguably wasn't true prior to the upgrades to the Mac mini and the release of the Mac Studio).

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by jim1960

If it starts at less than $7k I'd be very surprised. I think the Mac Pro is really geared, now and in the future, for professional video production houses. Both the home and higher end audio people have great options now in the Apple lineup (something that arguably wasn't true prior to the upgrades to the Mac mini and the release of the Mac Studio).

While I think that is one viable prediction.
I am thinking that they will try to hold the current $5999 base price for the current Intel machine (which is what they done for basically all the Mac models when transitioning from Intel to Apple Silicon.) Because I think they would still want to market it to audio studios who have HDX cards and would like to not have to run an external PCIe box ???? I guess time will tell

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by jim1960

If it starts at less than $7k I'd be very surprised.

Apple came in with a starting price of $6999 just to make me wrong. And it looks like the Mac Studio is an M2 machine now too. That makes sense given what I've heard about Apple having too many M2 chips in stock.

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by jim1960

If it starts at less than $7k I'd be very surprised. I think the Mac Pro is really geared, now and in the future, for professional video production houses. Both the home and higher end audio people have great options now in the Apple lineup (something that arguably wasn't true prior to the upgrades to the Mac mini and the release of the Mac Studio).

We'll see. Once bitten, twice shy. We have around a hundred stations at my plant. When Apple baled out on us before we had to replace the lot. It was a major disruption and financial hit. Company administrations will be wary of returning to a fickle platform.

Bob

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

We'll see. Once bitten, twice shy. We have around a hundred stations at my plant. When Apple baled out on us before we had to replace the lot. It was a major disruption and financial hit. Company administrations will be wary of returning to a fickle platform.

Totally understandable when dealing with a large number of stations, but I only have to think about one station and I don't have a full time tech on staff to sort out the weird and annoying bugs for which my PC has created a warm and loving environment. When I need help with my Mac, it's almost always because I don't know how to do something rather than something is not working properly.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by jim1960

Apple came in with a starting price of $6999 just to make me wrong. And it looks like the Mac Studio is an M2 machine now too. That makes sense given what I've heard about Apple having too many M2 chips in stock.

Well you were only off by $1 so good on you I was $1k off

It is interesting that the Studio will offer the same M2 Ultra chip starting a $3999
I can only guess that Apple must anticipate that the customers looking at the Pro must have significant PCIe needs as well as more connection needs ?
And then the Mini getting the M2 starting at $599 up to the M2 Pro chip at $1299 is quite the little bargain powerhouse for many many users

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Well you were only off by $1 so good on you

It is interesting that the Studio will offer the same M2 Ultra chip starting a $3999
I can only guess that Apple must anticipate that the customers looking at the Pro must have significant PCIe needs as well as more connection needs ?

The rumor out there was that Apple had way more M2 chips on hand than they liked. I think that was, in some part, due to the fact that the M2 chip wasn't a significant improvement over the M1 so people weren't rushing out to get the 'latest and the greatest.' I suspect that will be different when they come out with the M3, but if they didn't update the Mac Studio, they'd have been in the position of having M1, M2, and M3 models all in production at the same time. They may have wanted to avoid that in order to not completely tank M1 computer sales.

Now bring on the iPhone 15 so I can give myself over completely to the dark side.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by jim1960

The rumor out there was that Apple had way more M2 chips on hand than they liked. I think that was, in some part, due to the fact that the M2 chip wasn't a significant improvement over the M1 so people weren't rushing out to get the 'latest and the greatest.' I suspect that will be different when they come out with the M3, but if they didn't update the Mac Studio, they'd have been in the position of having M1, M2, and M3 models all in production at the same time. They may have wanted to avoid that in order to not completely tank M1 computer sales.

Now bring on the iPhone 15 so I can give myself over completely to the dark side.

Ha! my family has been on the dark path since 2003

[FrankHudson]

Probably my ignorance, but I'm not sure what MacOS things are still out there that use PCIE card slots. I know they existed, "legacy" hardware things, but by the current MacOS I doubt many are still useable even if the new MacPro has them.

A lot of hot takes that seem to say that the MacPro is now even more niche product as time goes on, and that the Mac Studio is it's equal at a lower price for most power users.

Yes, yes, I know by stories about the big video special effects business where the capital costs of a loaded Mac Pro are chickenfeed, but still.

For myself, I think about replacing my 2018 Intel I7 Mini with an M2 Pro mini or a Studio and I ask myself what my Parlando Project will gain after the work of transferring all my VIs and effects over, and I can't find the easy win this year for me. Right now, knock on dark gray brushed aluminum, I'm not having CPU or RAM issues with my Logic sessions. Savings in bounce times for sub 5-minute compositions just aren't going to change my life.

I might finally swap out my ancient live recording Mac Mini in the studio space, again not because of issues, but because of shear age, 12 years may be long enough for me to expect it to continue to just work.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

Probably my ignorance, but I'm not sure what MacOS things are still out there that use PCIE card slots. I know they existed, "legacy" hardware things, but by the current MacOS I doubt many are still useable even if the new MacPro has them.

A lot of hot takes that seem to say that the MacPro is now even more niche product as time goes on, and that the Mac Studio is it's equal at a lower price for most power users.

Yes, yes, I know by stories about the big video special effects business where the capital costs of a loaded Mac Pro are chickenfeed, but still.

For myself, I think about replacing my 2018 Intel I7 Mini with an M2 Pro mini or a Studio and I ask myself what my Parlando Project will gain after the work of transferring all my VIs and effects over, and I can't find the easy win this year for me. Right now, knock on dark gray brushed aluminum, I'm not having CPU or RAM issues with my Logic sessions. Savings in bounce times for sub 5-minute compositions just aren't going to change my life.

I might finally swap out my ancient live recording Mac Mini in the studio space, again not because of issues, but because of shear age, 12 years may be long enough for me to expect it to continue to just work.

I would tend to agree that the new Mac Pro may well be a bit more niche and aimed towards the more extreme Audio or Video users , but the PCIe option is not really related to or tied to "Mac OS things" .
For example Avid Pro Tools HDX and Matrix users use PCIe cards
Those wanting significant PCIe base SSD's storage with fastest possible transfer rates
There may also be specialty graphics applications on PCIe cards
Networking cards etc.

But I would agree and think that the Studio and even the Mini Pro will be the choice of the majority of Audio and Video users

[DupleMeter]

It's pretty clear to me that the Mac Pro is aimed at the high end video market. People running Media Composer suites. I think they learned from the last Pro that they need to control the costs more if they want to sell a lot of them & this seems like the right price point for that market.

I think they (wisely) see the Mac Studio as the answer to most of the audio professional needs, and are going to keep it up to date for that market. It also is a really great bargain for video editors who aren't in need of the expansion slots for render cards or fiber connections to a media server.

They have a great lineup right now. I do wonder if we'll see a 27" (or better) iMac update. I'm not sure how they intend to target that system within the lineup, but we'll see.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by DupleMeter

I think they (wisely) see the Mac Studio as the answer to most of the audio professional needs, and are going to keep it up to date for that market.

I hope so. Apple created a hole in their lineup when they went from the cheesegrater to the trashcan. Suddenly they really didn't have a computer that fit my needs and I had to make some adjustments in order to move to the iMac because I was using a few UA PCIe cards at the time.

Adjustments made but the iMac was a little underpowered for my needs. Then the new Mac Pro came along but it was cost prohibitive for me. The Mac Studio wasn't cheap but I expect this computer to be overpowered for a long time and I love the small footprint. It takes up no more room on my desk than the iMac did because the computer fits under the riser upon which I sit my monitor. I'm totally loving this machine!

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by DupleMeter

They have a great lineup right now. I do wonder if we'll see a 27" (or better) iMac update. I'm not sure how they intend to target that system within the lineup, but we'll see.

Hard to know how that will pan out. There was some speculations last year that is may be coming, but nothing solid yet. The base price of the 24" iMac with 512 GB is $1599. So they could base a 27 " iMac at say $1999 and be more or less in the price range of the Mini base with Apple display range, and figuring the market is big enough and can handle an "all in one box" option,, in the same price ranges and as you say maybe even bump up to say a 30" or 32" . Or they may decide they have the market covered with between the 24" iMac -- the Mini-- and the Studio --????

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by KevWind

I would tend to agree that the new Mac Pro may well be a bit more niche and aimed towards the more extreme Audio or Video users , but the PCIe option is not really related to or tied to "Mac OS things" .
For example Avid Pro Tools HDX and Matrix users use PCIe cards
Those wanting significant PCIe base SSD's storage with fastest possible transfer rates
There may also be specialty graphics applications on PCIe cards
Networking cards etc.

But I would agree and think that the Studio and even the Mini Pro will be the choice of the majority of Audio and Video users

By MacOS dependency I mean that PCIe cards as hardware may exist in the overall computer universe, but to use them in a new Apple Silicon Mac Pro they need to supported inside the current MacOS.

Honestly, I'd forgotten about ProTools HDX cards. I have no idea how much they are still in use, but that's obviously a use case for the Pro.