This sounds very interesting to me. I just sold my 2018 Mac mini and are looking to replace it. Maybe its like a next gen G4 Cube. Loved that Mac. IMO, one of the coolest Macs Apple ever made.
This could be exciting. Whatever it is, hope it has plenty of usb-a and usb-c ports. Also give us an SD card slot and I’m happy. An analog headphone jack would be a bonus too.
You’re sooo funny! You forgot to ask for Rs232 and Centronics ports too!
Apple designing a Mac Pro as the only Intel option is 100% nonsensical. This would send the signal that “Intel is the best” and by now a backwards solution.
Not at all… This new Mac Studio will be much more performant, but not as expandable as the Mac Pro. As such, the Mac Pro will remain Intel only… Until Apple decides to make ASi externally expandable or they no longer need an expandable Mac.
Take current MacPro case where the top 1/3 is all about dealing with Intel heat source. Cut out that 1/3 and most of the need for the back camber of the MacPro goes away as well. What you have left is a power supply at the bottom feeds a Mobo with a bunch of slots. But you are already half the volume of the MacPro. One of those MPX Modules in the bottom half could be stocked with ASi single or dual-SOCs then allow say 1 or to slots on top of that for Afterburner and another specialist card with no 3rd Party GPU options they'd have a machine that would service some market till the full MacPro was ready.
That would reuse some work but still require new casing and engineering design but all parts and drivers would add to future MacPro upgrades.
Still think MacPro and even the "studio" needs 3rd Party GPU support along with specialist cards but they could get away with General GPU support for awhile longer if they get industry people happy.
Back in 1999 or so, I bought a G4 tower for ~1600 or so. It may have been last year's model so I got it a bit cheaper. I had that machine for nearly 10 years. Because it had space for additional HD, I could expand the disk space as I needed it. I could run OS X public beta and also still have OS9 as a backup. Later I would upgrade the CPU, put in more memory, even at a new graphics card.
My point it that it was a lot of fun to have a machine that you could expand on. Offering a small tower could bring back some of those days again. Plus not every power user needs a full blown MacPro.
Offer a machine, with expandable RAM, a few slots for cards and a spare drive (or even better SSD cards) for 2000-2500 and you will have a good number of takers. I would consider it especially if the base model was 2K.
More like the Mac Pro itself is coming in 2 models, a small and large. Mac Pro and Mac Pro Max.
Reportedly, the device will be mostly based on the Mac mini's design but will feature "much more powerful hardware."
This is what threw me in reading the article. If this Mac Studio is the rumored Mac Half Pro, something the size of 3 or 4 stacked Mac mini's or a PowerMac G4 Cube, or a 2013 Mac Pro, or a Mac IIci on its side, at some point it's really not based on the Mac mini's design anymore.
If it is that much larger, there isn't going to be much similarity between a Mac mini and this box.
Then, how is it going to differ from the Mac mini that is rumored to have an M1 Pro and perhaps an M1 Max?
The Mac mini is not going to have 40 cores. Period. The device that is code named Mac Studio will be the smaller Mac Pro. It has been reported for over a year that the Mac Pro will come in 2 distinct models, one being much smaller than the other, and starting with 40 cores. The larger one will have more performance and also come in Intel configs.
Many of us here on Appleinsider have been diligent over numerous years wanting for Apple to release the machine described in this article with many naysayers saying that it is a niche market, blah, blah, blah and it's market that Apple is not interested in.
Stay tuned...
AGREED!
I have a slight preference for a different name because ‘studio’ might send a signal that this isn’t for you if you don’t work in a ‘studio.’
but otherwise, this sounds like the Mac desktop Chosen One that prophecy foretold.
An expandable Mac Pro with Apple Silicon processor and PCIe slots may have to wait until Apple produces a full-blown PCIe bridge for the Apple Silicon architecture.
So we already have Mini Macs, and now we're going to get Midi Macs. And the Mac Pros could be Maxi Macs. Perhaps we can get a free iPad with our Maxi Macs.
Maxi Mac reminds me of Maxi Pads 😁
Maybe Apple will bundle the Maxi Mac with the iPad Pro. Then you get your wish.
An expandable Mac Pro with Apple Silicon processor and PCIe slots may have to wait until Apple produces a full-blown PCIe bridge for the Apple Silicon architecture.
Remembering one of Apples earliest Silicon company acquisitions specialised in low power PCIe switches for network hardware.
Apple designing a Mac Pro as the only Intel option is 100% nonsensical. This would send the signal that “Intel is the best” and by now a backwards solution.
Not at all… This new Mac Studio will be much more performant, but not as expandable as the Mac Pro. As such, the Mac Pro will remain Intel only… Until Apple decides to make ASi externally expandable or they no longer need an expandable Mac.
That still sends a poor message and counters their promise of fully migrating to Apple Silicon in 2 years, for all models.
My guess (because that is what this is after all) is that Apple will only release a Pro when they solved the expansion issue regardless of how long it takes, or they simply don’t care because that type of expansion is less and less relevant to pros (set aside the regular external drives and other basic USB peripherals). Apple might just force hardware vendors to release new product compatible with new standards that Apple has set for Apple Silicon expansion
Apple designing a Mac Pro as the only Intel option is 100% nonsensical. This would send the signal that “Intel is the best” and by now a backwards solution.
Not at all… This new Mac Studio will be much more performant, but not as expandable as the Mac Pro. As such, the Mac Pro will remain Intel only… Until Apple decides to make ASi externally expandable or they no longer need an expandable Mac.
That still sends a poor message and counters their promise of fully migrating to Apple Silicon in 2 years, for all models.
My guess (because that is what this is after all) is that Apple will only release a Pro when they solved the expansion issue regardless of how long it takes, or they simply don’t care because that type of expansion is less and less relevant to pros (set aside the regular external drives and other basic USB peripherals). Apple might just force hardware vendors to release new product compatible with new standards that Apple has set for Apple Silicon expansion
They didn’t “promise” it, they said they expected the transition to take around 2 years.
Something else to add (based on the fact there is apparently a laptop in the regulatory filings for this event): MacBookStudio.
This would not have what Apple considers a Pro display, it would just have the standard 13-inch Retina display. But it would feature the same M1Pro/Max options available in the 14-inch MacBook Pro, just without the Liquid Retina XDR display. This lines up really well with the rumors, and it restores the easily-understood good/better/best structure for MacBooks:
MacBook Air (colors, gets M2 first) : MacBook Studio : MacBook Pro iMac (colors, gets M2 first) : iMac Studio : iMac Pro Mac Studio : Mac Pro Apple Studio Display XDR : Apple Pro Display XDR
So that’s four interlocking good-better-best structures. In a perfect world there would be a fifth as well:
Apple Display (colors, 24-inch same as iMac) : Apple Studio Display XDR : Apple Pro Display XDR
Something else to add (based on the fact there is apparently a laptop in the regulatory filings for this event): MacBookStudio.
This would not have what Apple considers a Pro display, it would just have the standard 13-inch Retina display. But it would feature the same M1Pro/Max options available in the 14-inch MacBook Pro, just without the Liquid Retina XDR display. This lines up really well with the rumors, and it restores the easily-understood good/better/best structure for MacBooks:
MacBook Air (colors, gets M2 first) : MacBook Studio : MacBook Pro iMac (colors, gets M2 first) : iMac Studio : iMac Pro Mac Studio : Mac Pro Apple Studio Display XDR : Apple Pro Display XDR
So that’s four interlocking good-better-best structures. In a perfect world there would be a fifth as well:
Apple Display (colors, 24-inch same as iMac) : Apple Studio Display XDR : Apple Pro Display XDR
If Apple is considering a Tick-Tock model then all the near future desktop models will be M2 varients and use the expanded power and heat envelope* for revising the design with newer cores and increased bandwidth features till they can Tick down a process and get them into the Laptop range. They could do 8 core (2+6) and 12/14core(2+10) varients and bin them to 6,8,10,12 core models.
* sure still lower as a desktop chip than an Intel Laptop chip.
Apple designing a Mac Pro as the only Intel option is 100% nonsensical. This would send the signal that “Intel is the best” and by now a backwards solution.
The reality is that a lot of professionals will be using Intel Macs for a while yet, or switching to PCs. I don't see that possibly changing as quickly as Apple might like, and I don' think they'll just 'move on' and leave them hanging.
tht said: We really shouldn't care about the name or the branding. We should only care about the features+performance for the price for the classes of machines Apple has.
... So, if this Mac Studio occupies price tiers between a Mac mini and a Mac Pro, it is perfectly fine. They can also have iMacs at the same price tiers. Buyers will be able to figure out what they want.
Exactly. It sounds like the machine I've been wanting. I can always put some tape over the name if it is prominently displayed.
The point is a hole has existed in the product lineup for a long time (which we've all been screaming about) for a powerful, but less than Mac Pro machine. If this is true, I'm going to be quite thrilled.
mjtomlin said: Not at all… This new Mac Studio will be much more performant, but not as expandable as the Mac Pro. As such, the Mac Pro will remain Intel only… Until Apple decides to make ASi externally expandable or they no longer need an expandable Mac.
I think I agree. What would be the point of a big (sized) Mac Pro Apple Silicon with a bunch of slots and expansion if you can't expand it or doing so wouldn't be any better than external expansion. Seems like the concept ideas for this 'Mac Studio' could/should be the Apple Silicon Mac Pro.
mattinoz said: Still think MacPro and even the "studio" needs 3rd Party GPU support along with specialist cards but they could get away with General GPU support for awhile longer if they get industry people happy.
Yeah, that is the weak aspect at this point (at least in terms of expandability). I suppose a M1 Max Quad would be approaching the GPU power of a Mac Pro with 2 of duo-GPU cards, on paper anyway. But, having to buy it all at one time with no option to scale would suck.
Comments
Sigh. Probably my favorite desktop Mac.
Not at all… This new Mac Studio will be much more performant, but not as expandable as the Mac Pro. As such, the Mac Pro will remain Intel only… Until Apple decides to make ASi externally expandable or they no longer need an expandable Mac.
One of those MPX Modules in the bottom half could be stocked with ASi single or dual-SOCs then allow say 1 or to slots on top of that for Afterburner and another specialist card with no 3rd Party GPU options they'd have a machine that would service some market till the full MacPro was ready.
That would reuse some work but still require new casing and engineering design but all parts and drivers would add to future MacPro upgrades.
Still think MacPro and even the "studio" needs 3rd Party GPU support along with specialist cards but they could get away with General GPU support for awhile longer if they get industry people happy.
My point it that it was a lot of fun to have a machine that you could expand on. Offering a small tower could bring back some of those days again. Plus not every power user needs a full blown MacPro.
Offer a machine, with expandable RAM, a few slots for cards and a spare drive (or even better SSD cards) for 2000-2500 and you will have a good number of takers. I would consider it especially if the base model was 2K.
I have a slight preference for a different name because ‘studio’ might send a signal that this isn’t for you if you don’t work in a ‘studio.’
but otherwise, this sounds like the Mac desktop Chosen One that prophecy foretold.
This would not have what Apple considers a Pro display, it would just have the standard 13-inch Retina display. But it would feature the same M1Pro/Max options available in the 14-inch MacBook Pro, just without the Liquid Retina XDR display. This lines up really well with the rumors, and it restores the easily-understood good/better/best structure for MacBooks:
MacBook Air (colors, gets M2 first) : MacBook Studio : MacBook Pro
iMac (colors, gets M2 first) : iMac Studio : iMac Pro
Mac Studio : Mac Pro
Apple Studio Display XDR : Apple Pro Display XDR
So that’s four interlocking good-better-best structures. In a perfect world there would be a fifth as well:
Apple Display (colors, 24-inch same as iMac) : Apple Studio Display XDR : Apple Pro Display XDR
* sure still lower as a desktop chip than an Intel Laptop chip.
The reality is that a lot of professionals will be using Intel Macs for a while yet, or switching to PCs. I don't see that possibly changing as quickly as Apple might like, and I don' think they'll just 'move on' and leave them hanging.
Exactly. It sounds like the machine I've been wanting. I can always put some tape over the name if it is prominently displayed.
The point is a hole has existed in the product lineup for a long time (which we've all been screaming about) for a powerful, but less than Mac Pro machine. If this is true, I'm going to be quite thrilled.
I think I agree. What would be the point of a big (sized) Mac Pro Apple Silicon with a bunch of slots and expansion if you can't expand it or doing so wouldn't be any better than external expansion. Seems like the concept ideas for this 'Mac Studio' could/should be the Apple Silicon Mac Pro.
Yeah, that is the weak aspect at this point (at least in terms of expandability). I suppose a M1 Max Quad would be approaching the GPU power of a Mac Pro with 2 of duo-GPU cards, on paper anyway. But, having to buy it all at one time with no option to scale would suck.