Apple Mac Pro fades into oblivion

It seemed like it was only a matter of time. In 2019, Apple finally responded to vocal requests for a modular, PC-like professional tower system to replace its premium system. The trash of the 2013 era, the Mac Probut I never felt like the heart of the company was in the new, somewhat more traditional model. apple It was last updated in 2023 With the M2 Ultra processor, after that it simply started to slowly fade away. Thursday company Confirmed to 9to5Mac It has been discontinued and will not be replaced.

I reached out to Apple for more information, but did not immediately receive a response.

Part of the problem with the Mac Pro was that Target didn’t fit comfortably into Apple’s system-on-a-chip strategy for its M-series processors. As I commented at the time, “One of the ironies of the M2 Ultra upgrade is that Apple made the Mac Pro less modular, which is why everyone was clamoring for it to begin with.”

SoCs integrate memory and GPU on a chip, and the primary goal of workstation-class modularity is the ability to upgrade memory and GPU, as well as interconnecting multiple GPUs: the chips don’t support discrete GPUs either. And with all the openings basically burning– Heavy video processing add-on cards – they’re gone too, by the way – I always felt like the target market was fairly narrowly focused on people in the Apple TV and cinema production workflow.

Another reason why modularity is important for this class of workstations is that they are really expensive and, in many cases, they are serviced by IT departments, which very much like to mix and match components, passing them along as the more fortunate ones upgrade to newer equipment. The ability to spread the cost of a new system over time is also attractive.

Agreement Mac studiothe company’s most powerful desktop computer, replaced the Mac Pro as the flagship device with the launch of the M3 Ultra, and better aligns with Apple’s silicon strategy. the Pro Display XDR It debuted simultaneously with the Mac Pro and was intended for the same audience. It was also discontinued this year and replaced by the smaller, more consumer-friendly version compatible with Mac Studio Studio Display XDR.

Now that much of the high-end workstation market has shifted to GPU-intensive AI processes like machine learning (particularly deep learning) and related development like robotics, the lack of upgradability has become an even bigger downside. It makes sense that Apple would want to move its Ultra chips into the more popular Mac studios.

I suppose the upside is that Apple won’t have to scramble to scramble memory and other components that are in short supply, thanks to AI-induced shortages, or have to revamp its ties with Nvidia, which Apple spun off in 2018.