“My main machine is a late 2014 27-inch iMac with a 4GHz Core i7 CPU, 24GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD (plus a big external RAID for most of my files). While it runs fine, I would like something with Thunderbolt 3 support, with faster graphics for X-Plane, and with more computing power for ripping Blu-Ray discs,” Rob Griffiths writes for The Robservatory. “It’s also beyond AppleCare age, and if something fails, it will be expensive and time consuming to repair.”
“When the iMac Pro came out, I was intrigued, but the price point is scary high and there was the ‘“new new’ Mac Pro on the horizon—potentially a cheaper alternative, given the display wouldn’t have to be bundled (and upgradeability is a good thing). I was hoping for an update on that machine at WWDC this June,” Griffiths writes. “Instead, we got the update much earlier, though it’s not was I was hoping to hear: The new new Mac Pro won’t be released in 2018.”
“As a result, if I want to replace my iMac this year, I have only two choices: A new iMac non-pro, or a new iMac Pro,” Griffiths writes. “So just what would I be getting for my money with either machine? And how do those machines compare with the Frankenmac homebuilt I put together last year? And perhaps more intriguingly, how do they compare with the 2013 ‘new’ Mac Pro that Apple still sells today?”
“If I’m going to spend money on a new computer this year, and I want it to be notably quicker than what I have today, then it looks like the iMac Pro is the only real option,” Griffiths writes. “So why I haven’t I moved on it yet? I can think of 6,399 reasons why.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Mac pros are either in the niche served by the iMac Pro, are still stuck waiting for vague promises, or have given up and downgraded to lesser platforms with far better hardware options.
SEE ALSO:
Why can’t Apple keep their products up-to-date? – April 10, 2018
Why is it taking Apple so long to update the Mac Pro? – April 10, 2018
Apple’s latest announcements about the modular Mac Pro really ramp up expectations – April 6, 2018
Apple needs to stop promising new products and start delivering them – April 6, 2018
Apple: No new Mac Pro until 2019 – April 5, 2018
Apple reiterates they’re working on an all-new modular, upgradeable Mac Pro and a high-end pro display – December 14, 2017
Why Apple’s promise of a new ‘modular’ Mac Pro matters so much – April 6, 2017
Apple’s cheese grater Mac Pro was flexible, expandable, and powerful – imagine that – April 6, 2017
More about Apple’s Mac Pro – April 6, 2017
Apple’s desperate Mac Pro damage control message hints at a confused, divided company – April 6, 2017
Who has taken over at Apple? – April 5, 2017
Apple’s embarrassing Mac Pro mea culpa – April 4, 2017
Who’s going to buy a Mac Pro now? – April 4, 2017
Mac Pro: Why did it take Apple so long to wake up? – April 4, 2017
Apple sorry for what happened with the Mac Pro over the last 3+ years – namely, nothing – April 4, 2017
Apple to unveil ‘iMac Pro’ later this year; rethought, modular Mac Pro and Apple pro displays in the pipeline – April 4, 2017
Apple’s apparent antipathy towards the Mac prompts calls for macOS licensing – March 27, 2017
Why Apple’s new Mac Pro might never arrive – March 10, 2017
Dare we hold out hope for the Mac Pro? – March 1, 2017
Apple CEO Cook pledges support to pro users, says ‘we don’t like politics’ at Apple’s annual shareholders meeting – February 28, 2017
Yes, I just bought a ‘new’ Mac Pro (released on December 19, 2013 and never updated) – January 4, 2017
Attention, Tim Cook! Apple isn’t firing on all cylinders and you need to fix it – January 4, 2017
No, Apple, do not simplify, get better – December 23, 2016
Rare video shows Steve Jobs warning Apple to focus less on profits and more on great products – December 23, 2016
Marco Arment: Apple’s Mac Pro is ‘very likely dead’ – December 20, 2016
How Tim Cook’s Apple alienated Mac loyalists – December 20, 2016
Apple’s not very good, really quite poor 2016 – December 19, 2016
Apple’s software has been anything but ‘magical’ lately – December 19, 2016
Lazy Apple. It’s not hard to imagine Steve Jobs asking, ‘What have you been doing for the last four years?’ – December 9, 2016
Rush Limbaugh: Is Apple losing their edge? – December 9, 2016
AirPods: MIA for the holidays; delayed product damages Apple’s credibility, stokes customer frustration – December 9, 2016
Apple may have finally gotten too big for its unusual corporate structure – November 28, 2016
Apple has no idea what they’re doing in the TV space, and it’s embarrassing – November 3, 2016
Apple’s disgracefully outdated, utterly mismanaged Mac lineup is killing sales – October 13, 2016
Apple takes its eye off the ball: Why users are complaining about Apple’s software – February 9, 2016
Open letter to Tim Cook: Apple needs to do better – January 5, 2015
Excellent article, well worth the read. It exposes with clear facts the false economy that Apple is offering with its latest machines. While the rest of the computer world continues its incremental improvements year in and year out, Apple makes a spotty update once in a while, and then offers a hobbled machine that offers one thing only – never class leading in both CPU and GPU performance for example. We can only hope some people at Apple are starting to get a clue.
Honestly, at this point hackintoshes are really the best bang for the buck to run OS X which is extremely disappointing. Here’s hoping the board of directors will finally see that Cook needs to go.
because I’m waiting for a real update. SW updates are virus-like and they get nowhere near the machine. My newer MBA is my “cover” for now.
Class-action letter to board? MDN, can you coordinate our voices?
So PLEASE explain — if there are machines out there that are so much better, why don’t you just go and buy them.
Seriously — I would LOVE it if one of you lot explained why you don’t just do that.
I did that – and I’m in the process of migrating my other machines, file storage, etc. away from the Mac ecosystem.
So long, Apple.
It was fun while it lasted.
Kind of like “updating” to a new Honda Ridgeline a couple of yrs ago, (pick-up) when you know a completely new product is coming? Please explain Sean, is this revolutionary to you, or do you just wing it as a consumer and don’t care to maximize your dollars? “Yeah, what the f, it’s better. I’ll just buy new now and again when a newer one comes out in a year,” says Sean.
HP or Dell. Linux or Windows. Look for yourself.
Who is the guy?
Oh, I don’t know, just a whiny attention seeker over a shallow subject.
You just described yourself.
Did you really tattoo a “W” on each butt cheek or did you try to do an “M” while standing on your head?
Better is relative. Better OS, better hardware, better software, etc. The OS isn’t better on competing platforms but there comes a time for other considerations such as hardware and upgradeability. Even cost.
I’m migrating to a PC Workstation in a few months (that’s something for a dyed-in-the-wool Mac fan like me) for reasons of hardware and being able to change that hardware at will or add a RAID inside and PCIe cards. Apple has been taking that away from pros to their detriment. Enough is enough. Some can deal with that and some can’t.
They could easily accommodate everyone but instead seem to want to “cleverly” design themselves into yet an even smaller market share for their pro machines. It’s a bit of a joke really how much they miss the function point.
I will still keep a few Macs around but they won’t be doing the heavy lifting. Apple has ceded that to the PC Workstation and it’s doubtful the 2019 Mac Pro will change that. One bad design phase followed up by inattention did a lot of damage to their pro market.
I gave you 5 for your core sentiment but not for your migration; Seeing that trucks are selling less and less in the PC world, perhaps Apple figures – and is correct – that most top end users are satisfied with a mini truck, the iMac Pro.
Actually it’s the high end PC Workstation models that are the PC’s selling like gangbusters. It’s the one saving grace for PC makers.
The one core lesson for the high end pros are – don’t seal the box and make it upgradeable. A lesson that Apple will never go back to. Many prosumer & pro needs will be filled and many high end pros needs won’t be filled by Apple offerings, now or in the future. And boy do I hate saying that.
Indeed, the market is becoming increasingly segmented:
A light duty laptop with perhaps 8GB RAM & 512GB SSD that runs email, MS-Office, etc, and is bought with a USB-C docking station, keyboard, mouse, 25″ LCD display. Result is a good mobile capability for a machine that’s carried between office & home teleworking, as well as business trips. Retails for $2K plus the dock & desk (+$1K).
And…
A beast of a tower PC that is doing something nonstandard/special. Details vary, but expect a heavy duty GPU, an SSD & HDD, special software, at least 16GB RAM, high TDP CPU, etc. Retails for $8K, plus then the rest of the setup.
Figure for something like an Octagon that’s running in 4K that you’ll plan to run perhaps no more than two screens on each PC to not bog on render, so for a “360 cave”, you’ll be budgeting to be buying four of these PCs.
It’s just a shame it doesn’t come with a mimi truck price.
Good call. It appears Apple ONLY wants well-heeled Pros that are ready to drop large wads of cash on an un-upgradeable machine they’ll probably lease, not purchase for the long run… so expandability doesn’t even factor into their view of the Pro world anymore.
To go back to the Cheese Grater model would admit defeat and how terribly wrong they were to create that darn trash can. So now they must try something else and for some it may be fine but it’ll never go back to being what it was – which was perfectly fine.
In fact Apple is not really bringing anything forward in their thinking, just more difficult and kludgy. I can all but predict there will be zero advantages to whatever design they come up with and in fact will only drive up the cost of specialized options.
I wish Steve Jobs would come down and haunt these guys dreams to tell them what screw-ups they’ve been.
“zero advantages”
Well, there’s at least a couple, but only to those that actually LIKE FCPX or Logic Pro, in that it’s the only platform those will run on.
FCPX is making some inroads but really it’s still a Premiere & Avid world in Hollyweird. Actually the one good thing FCPX has going for it is optimization (oh and price). Something Adobe needs to improve on.
“Mac pros are either in the niche served by the iMac Pro, are still stuck waiting for vague promises, or have given up and downgraded to lesser platforms with far better hardware options.”
Lesser platforms?
You mean like the Mac mini and 21″/27″ iMac?
I would upgrade for a 32″ or 36 screen iMac, owner of a 27″ 2011 iMac.
Numerous studies have shown that user efficiency in general is enhanced most by increased screen real estate. That’s why so many hardcore computer pros use huge displays, often multiple display arrays.
In response to this indisputable fact, Apple:
Killed the 17” mbp
Killed displays over 27” and then forgot to update them for years beyond the freshness date
Refused to keep mini and pro macs competitive — both are gpu constrained
Spends enormous advertising to try to convince buyers to use a thin client tablet with poor second screen and Mac connectivity
Comes late to the 4k party and, one would suspect, will also miss the 8k video rollout which is already bern announced for the 2020 olympics broadcast.
No surprise why Pro video users have moved on en masse. Apple blew it!!!
So true!!!!
Philips announced a 43 inch monitor with awesome connectivity and the absolute best 4k HDR brightness range spec (capable of actual black and actual white instead of the shades of grey we all see today). It costs less than Apple’s lower resolution 27” non-versatile Thunderbolt Display cost when Apple last released a display. It also blows Apple’s partner LG display that was touted to be a nice trash can backboard out of the water. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/04/philips-launches-a-43-inch-hdr-monitor-that-reaches-1000-nits-of-brightness/
Is it any wonder people look at Apple as a has-been company now? It’s like Apple forgot what made the company great.
he sort of lost me at this, to my mind rather naive statement : “new new’ Mac Pro on the horizon—potentially a cheaper alternative,”
cheaper? that’s a fantasy I hope will come true but I ain’t holding my breath.
(typing this on a Mac Pro and have two others in the house).
I would agree, it’s pretty clear that Apple’s no longer interested in having a “Pro” line and a “Consumer” line, with the only difference between the two being that one is more expandable than the other. Now, it’s all about pay for power. If the MacBook doesn’t cut it, pay for the Pro, if the iMac doesn’t cut it, pay for the iMac Pro and if ALLLLL of those don’t cut it, well, here’s another system where the ENTRY level power is above the iMac Pro and goes UP from there.
I guess one way his “potentially cheaper alternative” fantasy comes true is if he’s able to get a good price on a used iMac Pro 🙂
I think the Mac Pro should start out at a lower price than the iMac Pro for the entry level model if you deduct the cost for the screen. Lots of people already own monitors
What irks me is that Apple is too stupid to offer updates to Mac desktops, even simple stuff like desktop accessories.
Backlit full keyboard? Not available from Apple
Displays? Fuhgetttabout it
Plug in iPad or iPhone into Mac for use as remote drive, second display, touchid unlocking, or as a touchscreen input to the Mac? Apple is incapable of thinking to do any of that.
The team of idiots running Apple today are tarnishing the reputation that Jobs gave it.
Like I said I hope you guys are right (as I’m waiting for the MP) but I think you are naive, I’ve bought a bunch of towers from G4 Towers on and i’m always amazed how expensive they are, they are historically not price competitive if you directly measure components (I’ve done comparisons).
Like today if you spec a FIVE year old cylinder MacPro to entry level iMac Pro i.e $4999:
You get 8 core vs 8 core but the Cylinder has Xeons from years ago which should be dirt cheap.
Cylinder get 32 GB of 1866 GB RAM vs the iMac’s 32 GB of 2666 MHz RAM
Thunderbolt 2 vs 3
etc etc.
so
8 core vs 8 core, 32 GB vs 32 GB, etc but….
THE IMAC PRO HAS A RETINA 27 INCH CUTTING EDGE 5K DISPLAY !!
i.e not only are you getting 5 year newer more powerful components but the Display is FREE (compared to the Cylinder pricing).
By logic they would have dropped the Cylinders price… but no.
Makes no sense but there you go…
(Please note the Cylinder does NOT even have the expandability like free PCI slots like the cheese grater ).
From the article:
“yet single core performance, where much of my time is spent”
No, they and EVERYONE using a modern operating system spends 100% of the time taking advantage of multi core performance. The OS is doing all kinds of things in the background that could free up capacity for multiple single threaded apps to perform much better side by side.
What it comes down to is… “I need a faster computer, but… really I don’t, as the computer I have will suffice.” You wonder why they were even looking if their current computer is….ohhh right. Click bait.
Time to get a new CEO with better vision and execution – Please Sign This – https://www.change.org/p/apple-board-of-directors-remove-tim-cook-as-ceo-of-apple
And replace him with… the next SJW in line?
I mean, really, is there even another corporate leader out there that’s available and worth the money? IIIIII’m not seeing anyone 🙂
I mean, they’re all about the iOS execution, and all about executing the Mac, and doing it well!
2019?! Are you kidding me? Holy f’n crap! There’s just no other way to look at this–they’re incompetent or just don’t see a need for it.
Offer a decent desktop model for Pete’s sake, that isn’t $5K.
What the hell is going on in there?
Was it the rush of the Nouveau Apple consumers buying all sorts of nonsense products because they didn’t have the sense of history or understanding of what Apple was previously capable of and represented in its past?
Argh!
“Was it the rush of Nouveau Apple consumers”
Yes. Apple made the products these people wanted and they bought them in HUGE quantities. No one knows exactly what the end state will look like, but everyone realizes that these mobile devices are more personal than any personal computer that came before them. Apple clearly sees iOS as their future just like they saw the Mac as their future when the Apple II ruled their product mix.
The people buying today would need to Google to even know what the Apple I was!