The New Mac Pro

The New Mac Pro – Not for the normal computer user

I have been waiting for this for years. Well, so much for that. 

My first thought was: “Where is the air filter? “

My original 2012 Cheesegrater Mac Pro 5,1 required opening it up about once a month and blowing it out with a can of compressed air. This process is not a lot of trouble but it really made me wish for a case with a nice big and fine air filter on it so that I could just vacuum it on the outside when I dust everything else and not need to open the case for anything apart from uprades.

I really don't understand why this is not a standard feature on PC cases.

Next, I looked at the base 8 Core model that they have actually priced: 6K US bucks for it. What big advantage would I get over my current rig if I bought one of these new Mac Pros?

For the moment I will ignore the pricing, and just look at the specs since there aren't any prices yet apart from the base 8 core model which I would not bother with. Okay, so we have . . .
 

Faster memory, with ECC - well Linus of Linus Tech Tips asked Intel if he could test the difference between ECC and non- ECC memory . . . but Intel didn't want to do it. I suspect that for all normal uses (since there are already other systemwide features designed to deal with memory errors) that ECC might even be slower for the same clockspeed since it needs to do more – or putting it another way, if you are building a server, yes, fine, but for normal users there is probably no need anyway.

Special Video card – I don't edit 8K video so it doesn't really mean anything to me – but then that IS the point wit the New Mac Pro : it really is for “Pro” users.

Cooling – here we hit what has been a complaint from many buyers of recent Apple PCs and laptops – a lot of them thermal throttle when put under load which, if one looks at the design of the iMac or Macbook should not be a surprise since they seem to be made to be thin rather than cool.

The New Mac Pro has three fans at the front and one inside cooling the CPU. We won't get to see how well it cools or how loud it gets until the online geeks get their hands on them - but to me it looks like Apple will have to do some serious wizardry to keep all that hardware cool and quiet at full power. It better though, for the prices they are asking.

A few real “Creative Pros” asked in a Verge column said they wanted Nvidia GPU support since AMD just doesn't make powerful enough GPUs for them.

Even ignoring the prices, Even if I didn't need Nvidia GPU power for my preferred art tools, would I get one then?

Well, more CPU power is always good - another ten cores surely wouldn't hurt. Faster clocks? Same. 

Mac OS? Well, now that I have been using Windows 10 for some time I don't really see any great advantage to Mac OS. Windows has more software, more options and is no less or more secure than Mac OS. Supposedly the Mac OS is more stable and better able to handle task switching.

I guess this could be important if you were looking to do "serious" work – but I don't have that problem.

The price – well, it just means I won't be getting one. Ever. This is not the sort of price I can accept for the machine they are providing – and I am not the only one who is saying that either: the net is full of computer geeks saying the same as me. Sorry Apple, maybe you are only making this one for the elites and corporate video editors because you sure aren't doing it for the majority of users. In simple terms, even a tech pro would probably be better off making their own PC from parts, the prices are so astronomical.

Finally, the aesthetic element. The old Cheesegrater case actually looked good. No, it looked GREAT and still does. It was also very practical in the way parts were easy to remove and upgrade: if I had found any more upgrades for mine I would have kept it, but the limit was hit. (I have looked on eBay and the same basic config as my final upgrade is apparently still for sale at about 2K$, the price I sold mine for.)

The new Mac Pro looks . . . well, it REALLY looks like a cheesegrater. Other than that, nah, I don't really like its look – and it has no air filters and no way to fit any either - well, not that it really matters, after all I just hide the box behind the screen and look at that instead.

Oh. That new screen? Maybe my eyes are just not as good as the experts, I can't really see myself spending that much on a display regardless of how perfect it's lighting and colour is, and even that is a matter of some debate as apparently some tech geeks say it doesn't fit the specs everyone else is running on. Oh well, that's the Apple way huh?

You can bet that Apple's own TeeVee Network will have banks of 2019 Mac Pros for it's production crews.  Oh, riiiight, THAT's what this is REALLY for.  Look, drool and pine, o poor plebs in your trailer homes, this is what they use at Apple HQ to make the shows you watch on your 2020 iPads.

 As a long  time Mac User and owner it makes me a little sad to see Apple price its best equipment way, way, WWAAAAAYY out of my price range.
Bye Mac, it was nice knowing you.