Apple Mac Pro Fades Into Oblivion

What’s Happening

So basically Its counterproductive lack of upgradability will no longer grate on workstation buyers.

It seems like it was only a matter of time. In 2019, Apple finally gave in to vocal requests for a PC-like modular professional tower system to replace its idiosyncratic 2013-era trash-can Mac Pro , but it never fr felt like the company s heart was in the new, somewhat more traditional model. (yes, really)

Apple last refreshed it in 2023 with an M2 Ultra processor, after which it simply began the process of slowly vanishing.

The Details

On Thursday, the company locked in to 9to5Mac that it had been discontinued and wouldn t be replaced. I reached out to Apple for more information, but didn t ASAP hear back.

Part of the Mac Pro s problem was that the intent didn t fit comfortably into Apple s system-on-chip strategy for its M-series processors. As I commented at the time, “One irony of the M2 Ultra upgrade, though, is that Apple has essentially made the Mac Pro less modular, which was the reason everyone clamored for it to begin with.

Why This Matters

” SoCs integrate the memory and GPU on-chip, and the whole point of workstation-class modularity is the ability to upgrade the memory and GPU, as well as link multiple GPUs: The chips don t support discrete GPUs, either. And with all the slots essentially there for Afterburner -type add-in cards for heavy-duty video processing — they ve also disappeared, — I always felt like the target market was rather narrowly focused on people in Apple TV and cinema production workflows. Another reason modularity is important for this class of workstations is that they re fr expensive and, in a lot of cases, are serviced , which are fond of mixing and matching components, passing them down as the luckier folks get upgraded to newer gear.

Tech companies have been making moves like this as competition heats up.

The Bottom Line

And being able to spread the expense of the new system over time is appealing, too. The compact Mac Studio , the company s most powerful desktop, replaced the Mac Pro as the flagship performer with the launch of the M3 Ultra, and it aligns far better with Apple s silicon strategy.

What’s your take on this whole situation?