Mac Pro Refresh...

IIRC the current coffee can pro came out this spring. I am still liking this system even though I think the lack of more internal storage is hurting the system sales. I would have love to see a 1 TB Fusion array in the base model, but as most everyone knows by now. Its Flash only due to space restraints and 1TB flash is ridiculously to costly. But anyhow.. Its now 2015.. Do you think it will get an update thus spring, this fall or in 2016.. I am not familiar with their update cycle on the Mac Pro, which is why I am asking.

As much as I do want the new Mac Pro, the current model just isn't worth the upgrade for me at this time. I was hoping the Mini would have been, but as we also now know, its been scaled down to a entry level system only. So that leaves me with the Mac Pro. I am wondering what the new specs may be and when they will update the current model to something faster. If were lucky they will update the price to something lower.. hehe I doubt it though..


Cheers,
Joey

Exodist said:

Its now 2015.. Do you think it will get an update thus spring, this fall or in 2016.. I am not familiar with their update cycle on the Mac Pro, which is why I am asking.

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The Mac Pro 5,1 was released July, 2010. The Mac Pro 6,1 (the new one) was released October, 2013. That's over 3 years between releases.

Sure the 6,1 was a BIG update. But during those 3 years that the 5,1 wasn't being updated (which Apple could have done something)...everyone was speculating that the Mac Pro model line was dead. Then finally came the 6,1.

If Apple wanted to...they could do something with the Mac Pro 6,1 if they wanted to (speed bumps, different video setup, different internal storage, different ram setup, etc.). But I'm guessing that Apple may not be putting much resources behind the Mac Pro (focusing on other things). We should be happy we finally got the 6,1!

I could be wrong of course.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

...

We should be happy we finally got the 6,1!

I could be wrong of course.

- Nick

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Indeed I am happy we got a new Mac Pro. The desktop market has been declining and tablet market sky rocking. No wonder why Apple took so long to update it. But the older system was how can I put it, a old design that really wasn't nothing other then a PC tower with OS X. The new design is completely updated and while I am not expecting anything revolutionary in design changes, or really anything other then minor updates. Its in their best interest to keep it updated, even if the design doesn't change. Just to make back R&D cost alone.. Which I am sure they have at this point. But it would be nice to see them on a 18 to 24 refresh cycle on that nice new system. Reason being, I do plan on getting a new Mac Pro next year. June 2016 to be exact. But thats only if they have a new one out by then. Personally I can't understand any computer company that will not at least update current models yearly.. Seriously CPUs, GPUs and storage doesn't change shape that often. Yea a little voyage and pin changes, but nothing to keep them from keeping with the current form factor.. But if they haven't updated by then, I am going to have to go back to windows, which is completely un wanted. Or build a hackentosh that is unpredictable. Got way to to much invested in software for the Mac at this point. But heck by then they may forget they changed the Mini to an intro system and put a quad core back in it.. LOL

Exodist said:

The new design is completely updated and while I am not expecting anything revolutionary in design changes, or really anything other then minor updates. Its in their best interest to keep it updated, even if the design doesn't change. Just to make back R&D cost alone.. Which I am sure they have at this point. But it would be nice to see them on a 18 to 24 refresh cycle on that nice new system.

Personally I can't understand any computer company that will not at least update current models yearly.. Seriously CPUs, GPUs and storage doesn't change shape that often. Yea a little voyage and pin changes, but nothing to keep them from keeping with the current form factor.. But if they haven't updated by then, I am going to have to go back to windows...

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All of this sounds great...but like I said earlier. Before the Mac Pro 6,1 was released (3 years between 5 the 5,1 and 6,1)...many experts were predicting the end of the Mac Pro. With 3+ years of inactivity...Apple could have quietly did away with the Mac Pro line...just like they did with the 17" MacBook Pro.

And also realise that when the Mac Pro 6,1 was released...part of the press release/into presentation for it...the statement was made that Apple designed the Mac Pro 6,1 to be relevant for the next 10 years. It wasn't 100% clear what was meant by this (no hardware updates for a long time or none).

When it comes to the bottom line...Apple doesn't sell a lot of Mac Pro's...thus they don't make a lot of money selling Mac Pro's. If Apple is going to spend R&D cash to update a computer...it's going to go where they can get the "most bang for the buck".

There are some rumors that there are newer CPU's and GPU's that could be incorporated into an updated Mac Pro 6,1. I guess it all comes down to whether Apple wants to invest in this or not at this time (good business decision).

- Nick

I guess it all comes down to whether Apple wants to invest in this or not at this time (good business decision).

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I kind of suspect that the Mac Pro 6,1 will be around for quite a while before any (if) updates to it are made. With the introduction of the 27" retina iMac this year (poor man's Mac Pro) that kind of reinforces my thinking. But to repeat what Nick stated, "I could be wrong".

chscag said:

I kind of suspect that the Mac Pro 6,1 will be around for quite a while before any (if) updates to it are made. With the introduction of the 27" retina iMac this year (poor man's Mac Pro) that kind of reinforces my thinking. But to repeat what Nick stated, "I could be wrong".

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I think you hit this on the head. Apple gains little from doing major updates to this line as the machine is already plenty powerful for most. On top of that, Apple has really been pushing the expandability of the machine which I read as "if it doesn't do what you want, buy addons to do it." I could be wrong but I, in light of this, wouldn't expect much in the way of major updates (minor at most is my guess).

Yea Minor is all one should expect with the current Mac Pro. Just every year or two update it to the current CPU, GPU and RAM offering to keep performance competitive. But really thats all most people want anyway. At least thats all I really care about. It would be a shame if they spent all this money and manufacturing cost on a new system design to not keep the basic internal hardware updated. Not doing so would only hurt sales.

Working in R&D before I retired to the Philippines, I can see why they waited 3 years on updating the old Mac Pro. 1) being they wanted to do something innovative with it to set it apart. And 2) makes the newer model sell better when its released. Over all while it sucks on the consumer end, it helped sales with the new Mac Pro out. Personally I think the only thing that is hurting any of the sales of the current Mac Pro is the crap storage. I say crap as I am referring to the size. Performance wise its insane at over 950MB/s Read and Write. But regardless the 256GB on the sales paper makes many cringe and the upgrade to the 512 is overkill. Seriously you can get the 512GB flash in the new Macbook Pro.

Now updating the Mac Pro or heck any computer also depends on the CPU and GPU manufactures updating their chipsets. Both the Xeon CPU and ATI Fire GPU line doesn't get updated every 6 months like the consumer versions do. That and Apple or any other sane computer manufacture needs to wait a good 4 to 6 months after a new CPU or GPU is released to update the systems. So wait for CPU and chipset, plus GPU, then wait 6 months for the chip makers to be able to reliably get stock out, then update systems. So 2 year refresh would not surprise me. But it would still suck.


Now I could look at getting a MBP, but I would want something more portable and they don't offer quad core CPUs in the 13" model, which spits on the whole PRO name. One would be better off with a Mini price to performance wise. Now I like the 15" model a lot and its likely I may get that instead if they haven't updated the Mac Pro by then. I could use something to travel with anyway and I already just purchased a 2.5k 32" Professional display, plus new bluetooth KB and mouse. So making on of those doc-able would be sweet and handy..