WWDC 2023 Thread
- Thread starter Cmaier
- WikiPost WikiPost
- Start date
- Status
Colstan
Site Champ
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2021
- Posts
- 822
Relieved. I can now say that my long computing nightmare is finally over.
My prediction has always been the same for when the Apple Silicon Mac Pro is announced: we will all collectively say "that's it?".
My problem with the speculation concerning the Mac Pro is that it violates Hyman's Categorical Imperative: do not try to explain something until you are sure there is something to be explained.
No "Extreme" chip, no compute modules, no GPGPU, no third-party graphics cards, no DIMM slots, none of the other nonsensical ideas that got out of control because of Apple's silence on the product. The end result is just an M2 Ultra, with a few PCIe slots tacked on, which follows the entire Apple Silicon line thus far. It's almost as if this was entirely predictable and fantasy booking a computer will only lead to disappointment.
Except for me. I said that if Apple has confidence in its GPUs, then so will I. I'm now putting to rest my whimsical fantasies of building a PC, and will be staying with the fruit company for my next desktop machine. The notion of using a Windows PC made my skin crawl. Now, I no longer have to concern myself with that alternative reality living in x86 hell.
The only thing that makes me happier than the transition finally being finished will be the reaction from the ne'er-do-wells over at the Mac Pro forum on MacRumors. I've been waiting years for this moment, and I'm going to drink it in. There's never been a group that deserved their comeuppance more than that crowd.
Nycturne
Elite Member
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2021
- Posts
- 1,374
To be honest, I do suspect there is a bit of the product team being told: "Okay, enough messing around, figure out what we must deliver for the Mac Pro and ship the damn thing. Stop making perfect the enemy of the good and help our customers."
I would not be surprised at all if they have stuff in the pipe for Mac Pro users in the form of engineering samples, but at some point they realized they need to deliver what they do have, rather than everything they could do if X/Y/Z lined up (manufacturing, design, etc).
EDIT: Not saying we will see X/Y/Z in the future, but they probably burned a lot of engineering time seeing if they could.
Colstan
Site Champ
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2021
- Posts
- 822
Continuing with the "Mac gaming is dead theme", a new Game Mode was announced for macOS Sonoma, along with new developer tools for porting games to Mac. Also, Death Stranding announced for Mac by Hideo Kojima, who confirmed he has been a Mac user since 1994, and plans to "bring our catalogue" of games to the Mac. Also notable were all of the game titles that were announced over the past month were in the slide presented in Apple's Sonoma presentation. It's almost as if these were staggered announcements to build excitement for the keynote.
Joelist
Power User
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2021
- Posts
- 211
I think what we are seeing is that "Mac Pro" is now defined as Mac for users needing expandability. It isn't the apex of the performance pyramid because Studio stands on that same peak - they both use Ultra. This is actually a more logical way to differentiate the product lines.
Colstan
Site Champ
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2021
- Posts
- 822
Also, as a side note, it pleases me to no end that Gurman's predictions are falling apart. About a month and a half ago, he was saying that the 15-inch MacBook Air was the only Apple Silicon Mac announcement. A few days ago, he hurriedly pushed out a vague article about new Mac Studios, but falling short of saying that they were expected at WWDC. He completely missed the boat on the Mac Pro. Originally, he stated that the Mac Pro wouldn't make an appearance until late this year, while suggesting the Mac Studio wasn't getting a refresh until the M3 generation. I believe Apple said that both the M2-based Mac Studio and Mac Pro are shipping immediately. I think we can stop taking this guy seriously, he burned his best sources long ago, and has gone down in flames.
That’s its available today makes it much better. Gurman’s original predictions that it wasn’t going to be available until late this year/early next year AND only be an Ultra AND no Studio made no sense. As I said in my earlier long winded screed on that subject if it was just the Ultra there would be no reason not to release it now. Which they did and in fact gives me hope that we’ll get future updates more regularly.
Like @Cmaier. I still believe the Extreme chip will come with the M3. An M2 Extreme chip was always the least likely since, just like with the M1, the Max was clearly never designed to go above 2 dies (unlike Gurman’s “it was cancelled” prediction). So it would’ve required something brand new. In contrast, Hector found strings for an as of yet unreleased chip that can be connected to more dies. This is probably an M3. *However* that doesn’t mean the Extreme will be some sort of 4-die Max if it exists. Given the predictions about TSMC’s new packaging technologies coming with N3, Apple could drastically change how they structure their chips in the future.
Comparing Apple's previously claimed differentials for code compiling on the M2 Pro MBP vs. M1 Pro MBP ("25% faster") with those for the M2 Max Studio vs. M1 Max Studio (also "25% faster") suggests they didn't increase the clock speed significantly on the M2 Studio vs. the M2 MBP. But we shall see....
Nycturne
Elite Member
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2021
- Posts
- 1,374
On one hand, this is what I would expect from Apple in this space.
On the other, it feels a lot like a pastel version of a cyberpunk dystopia come to life. Not really sure what to think about it or if I'm actually excited or not.
Also, what is the cable running to?
On the other, it feels a lot like a pastel version of a cyberpunk dystopia come to life. Not really sure what to think about it or if I'm actually excited or not.
Also, what is the cable running to?
I thought he was fairly spot on with almost everything?
Right? My first impression is exactly the same.
But damn that’s impressive engineering. That UI is slick!
He predicted that the Mac Pro wasn’t coming until late this year/early next year and there would be no Studios and his reasoning for both was bunk. He did get right that the first Mac Pro would only have an Ultra.
