The idea that expansion could be handled almost entirely by external Thunderbolt peripherals sounded good on paper, but hasn’t panned out in practice. But that tight integration made it hard to update regularly.

It was tightly integrated internally, which allowed for some very nice features: it was small and beautiful (a pro machine that demanded placement on your desk, not under your desk) and it could run whisper quietly. At some point you came to the conclusion that the 2013 Mac Pro concept was fundamentally flawed. For multiple reasons, you haven’t shipped an update to those machines since. Three years ago you launched a radical new lineup of Mac Pros. No USB-C, no Thunderbolt 3 (and so no support for the LG UltraFine 5K display).Īpple has “great” new iMacs in the pipeline, slated for release “this year”, including configurations specifically targeted at large segments of the pro market. Nothing else is changing, including the ports. The $3999 model goes from 6 CPU cores to 8, and from dual D500 GPUs to dual D800 D700 GPUs.

The $2999 model goes from 4 Xeon CPU cores to 6, and from dual AMD G300 GPUs to dual G500 GPUs. (I hope that means “next year”, but all Apple said was “not this year”.) In the meantime, Apple is today releasing meager speed-bump updates to the existing Mac Pros. These next-gen Mac Pros and pro displays “will not ship this year”. They’re also working on Apple-branded pro displays to go with them. I have great news to share:Īpple is currently hard at work on a “completely rethought” Mac Pro, with a modular design that can accommodate high-end CPUs and big honking hot-running GPUs, and which should make it easier for Apple to update with new components on a regular basis.

2017 mac pro design