Though Apple has made rapid progress in outfitting most of its Mac lineup with its own silicon, several models are still using Intel processors. The most notable is the Mac Pro, which sits atop Apple’s lineup in cost and performance. The new Mac Pro with Apple silicon should have already been released by now, but it’s obviously delayed. Now a new report says the M2-powered Mac Pro is indeed coming soon, but it will include some big caveats. The most notable is due to its on-package memory, its RAM will not be upgradeable. It will also reportedly use the exact same chassis as the current model, which was introduced in 2019. This is certain to disappoint a lot of Apple’s customers.
News of Apple’s latest plans comes from the typically reliable Mark Gurman from Bloomberg (via 9to5mac). He’s been covering Apple for many years and has many sources inside the company. In the newest issue of his Power On newsletter, he says the M2-powered Mac Pro will essentially offer the same hardware as an updated Mac Studio. It will have an M2 Ultra SoC inside, which will fuse two M2 Max chips into a single package. This is the situation because Apple reportedly cancelled the M2 “Extreme” chip it was going to use. This monster chip would have used four Max SoCs together. It was supposedly cancelled due to the fact that it would result in a Mac Pro with a starting price of around $10,000. It was also difficult to engineer, and the cost wasn’t seen as being worth it for a niche audience.
Over the years Apple has tried some “interesting” designs for its flagship computer. (Image: Apple)
This will put Apple in the odd position of offering two products with the same hardware. If one is drastically less expensive and smaller but just as powerful, it seems obvious which one most people would choose. However, Apple will seek to differentiate the two by making the Pro expandable like the current version. Although it won’t allow for RAM upgrades, it will include two ancillary M.2 slots for additional storage. It will also offer expansion ports for media, networking, and a GPU.
This will be possible because it will also reportedly use its existing tower design as well. Although the current model is sleek and quiet in operation, many were hoping for a redesign. Plus, since its M2 SoC will likely not use as much power as the current Intel Xeons, a full-size tower was also seen as probably being unnecessary. However, that appears to be not the case, pardon the pun.
It’s also unclear if the parity between the Pro and the Studio will lead to the latter’s demise. One leaker on Twitter states the Studio was just a placeholder since the Pro wasn’t ready yet. Therefore, it’ll be replaced by the Pro in 2023. If that’s true, it seems hard to believe Apple would invest all that R&D into a brand-new form factor only to never update it. Still, it would be an awkward product if it faces off with an expandable Pro tower with the same hardware. We suppose pricing will make all the difference here, as the Studio is not a cheap PC once you add a few upgrades. However, its starting price of $1,999 is certainly more palatable than the Pro’s $5,999 baseline price.
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