Apple’s transition to Apple Silicon is complete now that the Mac Pro has finally been unveiled. But the reality is that Apple met its deadline last year when it rolled out the Mac Studio, a computer that for many customers fulfilled the Mac Pro’s role as the Mac with the most processing power. . In terms of mass-market appeal, Apple was able to deliver Macs with its silicon for just about any use case in two years.
The Mac Pro is a computer that very few customers will consider buying. Apple probably could have dropped the Mac Pro from the lineup after the arrival of the Mac Studio and few would have complained. But after the Mac Pro trash can debacle in 2013, Apple is especially aware that the needs of those few are extremely important. It’s not just that they need powerful CPUs and GPUs, PCIe slots for expansion cards, and support for multiple high-resolution displays. It’s that they want a Mac to do things on a PC.
That’s why Apple brought back the Mac Pro tower design in 2019 and, in fact, still uses the same case for the M2 Ultra model. While it might be disappointing to us regular folks that the new Mac Pro has the same design as the Intel model, it doesn’t really need to change. And best of all, the new Mac Pro can literally slide into the same place as the old Mac Pro, whether on a desk or a server rack.
The Mac Pro is the most niche of niches. It doesn’t sell in enough numbers to have a huge impact on Mac sales, and companies and users who buy one won’t replace it for several years. But in the PC market where Apple touts the power of its silicon, the company needs the Mac Pro to complete a picture that shows how its Mac lineup can accommodate users from the most basic to the most demanding professionals. It should satisfy users who want a Mac but need a PC.
Apple’s silicon Mac Pro is a far cry from the Intel model it replaces. It costs $1,000 more on the low end and $40,000 less on the high end. It has no user-upgradeable RAM. There are no $2,400 graphics card options at checkout. And the Afterburner card that was a $2,000 upgrade is now standard – and Apple claims the M2 Ultra’s media engine is equal to Seven of these cards.
But the Mac Pro is still the Mac Pro, and now it’s all Apple inside and out. The Mac Pro is like the icing on the cake of a delicious ice cream sundae that is the Mac range. Most users who need the power provided by a Mac Pro can turn to the Mac Studio, which is available with the same M2 Ultra chip, memory and storage. It comes down to PCI slots, which are limited to audio and video I/O, network, and storage cards. More than ever, the Mac Pro seems like a superfluous remnant of the old Apple.
But the Mac Pro is not a frivolous part of Apple’s lineup. Even with performance equivalent to the Mac Studio, the Mac Pro has an important role: to keep its most demanding users from changing.
