“When Apple promised that new iMacs later in the year would include pro machines, it wasn’t messing around,” Ben Lovejoy writes for 9to5Mac. “The new iMac Pro slated for release later this year won’t just be the most powerful iMac Apple has ever made, it will be ‘the most powerful Mac ever.'”
“So if you get these kind of specs from Apple’s all-in-one offering, and it’s promising an all-new Mac Pro machine later, surely that one has to deliver truly incredible performance to remain ahead of the iMac?” Lovejoy writes. “Well, maybe – but not necessarily.”
“The iMac Pro is going to be a phenomenally powerful machine – but it’s not going to be very upgradable,” Lovejoy writes. “Sure, you’ll be able to hang things off those Thunderbolt 3 ports, including external graphics cards, but it looks like internal upgrades won’t be an option. Not even the RAM.”
“Expect the new Mac Pro to be a higher spec than the iMac Pro – Apple has promised that much – but don’t necessarily expect it to be in a different league,” Lovejoy writes. “What you should expect is the ability to configure it to you own needs, and to be able to upgrade it over time.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Think iMac Pro, but in a user-extensible case and with the option of buying very nice, very expensive Apple-branded, Apple-designed display(s) to go along with it. Sans displays, the new Mac Pro is very likely to cost significantly less than the breathtaking (but, when you peruse the specs, actually very well-priced) iMac Pro.
The iMac Pro will be a brute and well worth the money to its target market.
And, yes, we’re still amazed that Apple let themselves fall so far behind on Mac desktops. That iMac Pro doesn’t ship until “December” (meaning not until Q1 2018 in quantity) is an appalling display of utter mismanagement. It’s a good thing for Tim Cook and Apple’s brass that Steve Jobs left them the iPhone to mask over all of their mistakes that the casual observer can’t even see, but which are painfully obvious to the rest of us.
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s all new iMac Pro, the most powerful Mac ever, starts at $4,999; arrives this December – June 5, 2017
Well my question is that since the previous Mac Pros have come in around $5k, what will the next iteration be? Since the iMac Pro is now that price. (In Canada)
You are wrong MDN,
If you can’t realise what Apple has been doing for the last year, keep writing non sens and side with the trolls.
Their take on AR and VR is right on the spot. Watch and learn.
The powerhouse is awaking…
MDN isn’t wrong about anything. A properly-managed company with $250+ billion on hand and thousands of engineers on staff should have been able to get new Mac Pro units out the door with regularity, not leaving it to languish for 4+ years.
The Mac Pro is indicative of, as MDN has written in the past, “misplaced priorities.” Cook took his eye off the Mac ball when his very job description is to keep his eye on all aspects of the business. He blew it with desktop Macs and he blew it in education (Chromebooks are eating Apple’s lunch), to name just two colossal mistakes.
Ok Superior Being.
Time to repaint your mom’s basement.
Besides, tell me who’s doing better now at all tech beside Apple…
I want names.
Apple is now offering : AR / VR / ML in a stable environement with enough gigaflop…
I know, you want to insert that new ssd. Ask your mom to buy a Dell for your next Christmas gift.
Hey suppy,
I only stick around here because people like you don’t seem to know… there are other kinds of computers and operating systems.
So no need to complain. I’m sure you can find one more suitable for your needs. Have a nice life.
I will love to get one.
That with the display, it’ll cost more than my house?
And I disagree, realspike. Neither AR or VR have proved to be good for much beyond recreation, and I doubt that’ll change for most people anytime soon. For now, that technology is a red herring.
AR and VR are just Geek (Google) talking points, no profit any time soon.
I can’t remember, did they say specifically they were going to build a new MacPro, or build something new for Pro users?
They said, specifically, that they were creating a new ‘modular’ Mac Pro and a new professional display to be released sometime in 2018.
You are correct up until the release date. All Apple has publicly said is that it would not ship this year. We infer that this means 2018, but Apple has not yet promised that.
I think the iMac Pro will be the a top professional Mac for users not wanting to get involved on anything inside the machine, that is fine, and Apple says most professionals prefer the iMac. But the iMac Pro has the same disadvantage the 2013 MP had. As powerful as the AMD Pro GPU will be in December, in 3 years your machine will have an ok Pro GPU, defying the purpose to have a ultimate GPU soldered inside a 5-10K machine. So in maybe 2 years, iMac Pro users may think again in replacing the entire machine. So, think about what you do if you care or depend a lot on that top GPU.
After just 2 years of your investment a user of a PC with a current $1000 desktop GPU may again leave you behind the curve, on hardware for top and demanding jobs.
I broke one iMac glass, and another one died on me doing rendering and I had enough with it. It is not the machine I want, but I think it is nice to have the option. I will wait for the modular Mac Pro as hopefully I will be able to grow with it much better.
Thunderbolt 3 = GPU breakout boxes = extensibility.
Apple today announced yesterday that, as part of its updated Metal 2 graphics tech in macOS High Sierra, Macs will support external GPUs via the Thunderbolt 3 port.
Most of the iMacs I’ve owned have been reliable machines for many years. I am typing right now on the 2011 27″ iMac I use in a professional content creation capacity every day (gobs of RAM and SSD have extended its useful life). But I’ve got an iMac at home that has a wonky display. I have to use it by sharing its screen on my MBPro. I will be hoping to hold out for the promised modular Mac Pro, but the iMac Pro is tempting.
If a Pro is really doing top and demanding jobs and NOT making enough to stay on the forward edge of the curve, maybe they aren’t really a Pro?
That right now the status of the mod Mac Pro is vaporware. No mention yesterday and they update the trash can Mac Pro at the same time they made the announcement of the new mod Mac Pro. No time frame announced.
“It’s a good thing for Tim Cook and the Apple’s brass that Steve Jobs left them the iPhone to mask over all of their mistakes that the casual observer can’t even see, but which are painfully obvious to the rest of us.”
This is the best thing you’ve said in months. Between this and the speaker, you’re really looking at 2018 products. Their just trying to “freeze” the market until they have something. Apple has done a good job with the phone and operating systems. And I’ll give them a passing mark on music, Apple TV and the rest. As for hardware, they’ve done nothing until they found out that it was starting to hurt there other businesses like education and medium to large corporate sales. I’m happy for the upgrade to the iMac but I’ll have to wait until January or February to get the box I need now. That means we’re getting into the 5 year time period before I can get an upgrade to the machine I’m writing this on. Apple has more resources, more people, more money, than they ever have had in it took them years to put a new board into the same form factor has they’ve had for years. I hope this signals a change in direction. Less politics and social issues and more taking care of your customer’s needs is what is needed.
“mistakes that the casual observer can’t even see”
Mainly because the casual observer has iOS devices and don’t see themselves getting a computer for checking emails and surfing the web (which is all they do) ever again.
The folks that really “care” about macOS are shrinking every day. Some have already moved to other platforms because they see where Apple is headed (it’s not hard to see given the focus on iOS) and it’s not the future they want. The transition wasn’t easy, but now that it’s behind them, they’re more concerned with which component of their custom built system their budget will allow them to update next quarter and not about whatever it is that fruit company is doing 🙂
Mac Pro: Starts at 6,999.99
That’s reasonable. I’d guess that since the iMac Pro can have 18 cores now, the Mac Pro will be assuming that, in looking at the entire product line, you need more power, then just assume you’re going to spend more than however much the 18 core monster will go for. So, 6,999 makes sense.
Problem is the price quoted during the Keynote was $4,999 for the base model. So 18 Cores and 128GB RAM will put it in the range of $10,000+
I want on line and priced a regular iMac 27″ to upgrade RAM from 8GB to 64GB was a whopping $1,680 Canadian for me to purchase the same type of RAM at a computer supply store is just under $700 WTF are they trying to do to the Mac market.
To fully Upgrade a 27″ iMac in Canada it goes from $3,079 to $6,679 Insane Numbers for a consumer desk top in 2017.
The iMac Pro looks fantastic. Here’s the concern: Will the fans be spinning hard all the time to deal with the thermal issues? Personally, I HATE it when my iMac (late-2009 i7, 16gig, ssd) fans start sounding like a jet taking off when doing anything other than the basics.
You are right. Lets keep an eye on how these new iMacs Pro behave. I am giving Apple all the credit, but the machines should earn their reputation doing what they should.
Apple calls the heat sinks inside the new iMac Pro “massive” and what I expect is not the same turbine sound coming from none pro iMacs ( x2 ) because they have twin fans. I hope the machines to stay under control under continuous torture to give you peace of mind and focus on your work.
If Apple follows the path they are currently on do not get too excited. They have decided to concentrate on throwaways that are priced like real computers. I really think the meeting with Gruber and Co was a ruse to shut up the grumbling and they will declare the IMac Pro a success and claim there is now no longer a need for proper workstation.
Otherwise you can have any kind of Pro Mac you want as long as it is a laptop or iMac.
Not really to shut up the grumbling, but just to define in broad uncertain terms who they were NOT expecting to serve with these new systems. I think, more than an attempt to “please Pro’s”, they saw that there were people with tons of money, wanting to spend $10,000 or more on Apple hardware. Whether they are Pro’s or not, at that price point, the R&D makes it worth their while even if they only sell just over a million (a very generous estimate) over 5 years. So, they are working on a system that will start out Professionally priced and just head up into the stratosphere from there.
There’s a need for a proper workstation, and there are a LOT of folks making proper workstations that aren’t Apple. So, really, Apple just sees no need for a lower cost Apple workstation.
I don’t understand the thin fetish with the iMac. I have to believe we’d have a better, faster, cheaper computer if Apple didn’t constrain the thickness. They end up throttling their devices to make up for their poor cooling capacity. Apple needs to let the iMac be as big as it needs to be. People aren’t carrying them around.
People do carry iMacs around but only to the nearest specialist to get the fried screen or hard disk replaced – I, like many others know this……….
Hang on, are we sure that this iMac Pro isn’t THE new Mac Pro? That was kind of my assumption, that you wanted a new Mac Pro, well it’s an iMac. Has Apple clearly stated otherwise?
To answer the question: It tells us that the Mac team is still is being treated as an insignificant business group as iOS and iCloud gets all the resources.