That Mac Pro is such an amazing design, truly a classic! I have a few retro Macs but that is one I would like to add one from that era my collection - it's just a matter of space because they are pretty big!
Thinking of the Pro though, I really do find it very odd what Apple are doing with the current Mac Pro at the moment. Literally all people want is basically a Mac Studio in a bigger chassis with just two extra things - replaceable drives, and two to four PCIe slots for professional audio interface cards, SDI video capture/playout cards, etc... Ideally rack-mountable too.
The Mac Pro is just so overkill in some ways but limited in others, and way too expensive - it just misses what people want and need on every axis...
It's overkill because they preserved nearly every aspect of the Intel version when switching it over to ARM, even when those design elements no longer made any sense. It's built around cooling GPUs that aren't supported anymore, has a power supply with about 4x more wattage than the system will ever draw, and has way more physical I/O than the new silicon is actually equipped to support, requiring heavy oversubscription via expensive mux chips.
IMO that points to the Mac Pro being on its way to retirement in favour of the Studio - they would have made more of an effort if it were sticking around.
I really think that they probably wanted to do something that makes more sense, but they couldn't get the silicon to pencil out for it. I've been hearing rumors for 5 years of the Mac Pro getting 2 Mx Ultras stitched together, but it just never showed up.
I still wish they would try. I can't put HDMI capture cards into a Mac Studio. I can't rack mount it. I can't easily add network cards to it. Hell, I can't even put it on the floor to keep my desk clear. I don't want a Mac Studio. I want a Mac Pro.
> I really think that they probably wanted to do something that makes more sense, but they couldn't get the silicon to pencil out for it. I've been hearing rumors for 5 years of the Mac Pro getting 2 Mx Ultras stitched together, but it just never showed up.
IIRC the Asahi Linux devs were quite confident that those rumors were bunk and a quad-die part was never on the table, at least not for the M1 or M2 generations. The hardware was only set up to support two dies.
The cruelest hardware lineup that Apple ever destroyed started with the MacPro6,1 ("trashcan" ~2013-2018), continued into the MacPro7,1 ($$$$$ and immediately depricated towards Silicon), then into the current MacPro disaster [as you describe].
Fortunately I was broke when the last Intels were being released, so didn't waste any money on them. The current MacMini lineup is absolutely incredible; even the entry-level $500 M4 is much faster than $10k Intels from five years ago.
I've been keeping up with Apple since 2004 when I was in high school. Even back then, a lot of Mac fans wanted Apple to release an "xMac": a Mac with one or two expansion slots, user-serviceable, and priced less than an entry-level Power Mac G5/Mac Pro, somewhere in the $1,499 range. Yet Apple never delivered. Sure, the Mac Mini was introduced in 2005 and has remained part of Apple's lineup ever since, and there's also the 2013 Mac Pro and the modern Mac Studio, but these lack expansion slots.
Sadly I think it's even less likely we'd have something like an xMac today. Consider the MSRPs of base-level Mac Pro models from 2006 onward. During the cheesegrater days, entry-level Mac Pros were available in the $2000s. The "trash can" Mac Pro had a starting MSRP of $2999; more expensive than the cheesegrater models, but still not a gigantic leap from its predecessor. But when Apple released the 2019 Mac Pro tower, the MSRP took a dramatic leap to $5999, pricing out many people who had the budget for a $2999 or even $3499 computer. As a user of a 2013 Mac Pro, I would've bought a 2019 Mac Pro in a heartbeat in 2019 had Apple maintained a $2999 entry price. The ARM Mac Pro is even higher priced at $6999.
The message from Apple for over 20 years has been loud and clear: Apple does not want to sell an affordable, expandable, user-serviceable desktop, and Apple at times doesn't always look committed to expandability and user-serviceability. I expect the Mac Pro to be unceremoniously discontinued, though I could get shocked like I was in 2019.
I bought a G5 Pro back in the day, the last with the Motorola chips. The thing was a beast, even though the hardware was superseded by the intel architecture. I used it as my rendering rig throughout university, and the machine kept chugging along for years and felt perfectly fine and snappy all the way up to when OSX dropped support for it.
I ended up gutting the case and building it into an ATX machine, and eventually sold it to a friend. But it was a fantastic computer.
Among the craziest things about the MacPro5,1 community is that they're still discovering firmware/feature hacks fifteen years later (e.g. EnableGOP). MartinLo and DosDUDE are incredibly gifted dorks.
I only retired my 5,1 three years ago, with Apple Silicon's bonkers performance-per-watt. Definitely the machine that brought be back to childhood geekdom. Really enjoyed my 8awg Pixla's mod adaptation (direct to PSU pads); which honestly was too technical even for Greg's blog.
I have been reading through this guide a bit at a time on my phone simply because it's so well written and interesting. I don't even own a Mac Pro, it's just fascinating to read through all the challenges and workarounds to keep the platform modern. Kudos to the author and all the contributors who made it possible.
I hate the original Mac Pro case so much!!! The metal box is so heavy and the edges of the aluminum top handle is so sharp that you definitely need a pair of heavy-duty gloves to move it around.
That Mac Pro is such an amazing design, truly a classic! I have a few retro Macs but that is one I would like to add one from that era my collection - it's just a matter of space because they are pretty big!
Thinking of the Pro though, I really do find it very odd what Apple are doing with the current Mac Pro at the moment. Literally all people want is basically a Mac Studio in a bigger chassis with just two extra things - replaceable drives, and two to four PCIe slots for professional audio interface cards, SDI video capture/playout cards, etc... Ideally rack-mountable too.
The Mac Pro is just so overkill in some ways but limited in others, and way too expensive - it just misses what people want and need on every axis...
It's overkill because they preserved nearly every aspect of the Intel version when switching it over to ARM, even when those design elements no longer made any sense. It's built around cooling GPUs that aren't supported anymore, has a power supply with about 4x more wattage than the system will ever draw, and has way more physical I/O than the new silicon is actually equipped to support, requiring heavy oversubscription via expensive mux chips.
IMO that points to the Mac Pro being on its way to retirement in favour of the Studio - they would have made more of an effort if it were sticking around.
I really think that they probably wanted to do something that makes more sense, but they couldn't get the silicon to pencil out for it. I've been hearing rumors for 5 years of the Mac Pro getting 2 Mx Ultras stitched together, but it just never showed up.
I still wish they would try. I can't put HDMI capture cards into a Mac Studio. I can't rack mount it. I can't easily add network cards to it. Hell, I can't even put it on the floor to keep my desk clear. I don't want a Mac Studio. I want a Mac Pro.
> I really think that they probably wanted to do something that makes more sense, but they couldn't get the silicon to pencil out for it. I've been hearing rumors for 5 years of the Mac Pro getting 2 Mx Ultras stitched together, but it just never showed up.
IIRC the Asahi Linux devs were quite confident that those rumors were bunk and a quad-die part was never on the table, at least not for the M1 or M2 generations. The hardware was only set up to support two dies.
The cruelest hardware lineup that Apple ever destroyed started with the MacPro6,1 ("trashcan" ~2013-2018), continued into the MacPro7,1 ($$$$$ and immediately depricated towards Silicon), then into the current MacPro disaster [as you describe].
Fortunately I was broke when the last Intels were being released, so didn't waste any money on them. The current MacMini lineup is absolutely incredible; even the entry-level $500 M4 is much faster than $10k Intels from five years ago.
I've been keeping up with Apple since 2004 when I was in high school. Even back then, a lot of Mac fans wanted Apple to release an "xMac": a Mac with one or two expansion slots, user-serviceable, and priced less than an entry-level Power Mac G5/Mac Pro, somewhere in the $1,499 range. Yet Apple never delivered. Sure, the Mac Mini was introduced in 2005 and has remained part of Apple's lineup ever since, and there's also the 2013 Mac Pro and the modern Mac Studio, but these lack expansion slots.
Sadly I think it's even less likely we'd have something like an xMac today. Consider the MSRPs of base-level Mac Pro models from 2006 onward. During the cheesegrater days, entry-level Mac Pros were available in the $2000s. The "trash can" Mac Pro had a starting MSRP of $2999; more expensive than the cheesegrater models, but still not a gigantic leap from its predecessor. But when Apple released the 2019 Mac Pro tower, the MSRP took a dramatic leap to $5999, pricing out many people who had the budget for a $2999 or even $3499 computer. As a user of a 2013 Mac Pro, I would've bought a 2019 Mac Pro in a heartbeat in 2019 had Apple maintained a $2999 entry price. The ARM Mac Pro is even higher priced at $6999.
The message from Apple for over 20 years has been loud and clear: Apple does not want to sell an affordable, expandable, user-serviceable desktop, and Apple at times doesn't always look committed to expandability and user-serviceability. I expect the Mac Pro to be unceremoniously discontinued, though I could get shocked like I was in 2019.
I bought a G5 Pro back in the day, the last with the Motorola chips. The thing was a beast, even though the hardware was superseded by the intel architecture. I used it as my rendering rig throughout university, and the machine kept chugging along for years and felt perfectly fine and snappy all the way up to when OSX dropped support for it.
I ended up gutting the case and building it into an ATX machine, and eventually sold it to a friend. But it was a fantastic computer.
Have you looked at the Mac Pro Rack version?
Among the craziest things about the MacPro5,1 community is that they're still discovering firmware/feature hacks fifteen years later (e.g. EnableGOP). MartinLo and DosDUDE are incredibly gifted dorks.
I only retired my 5,1 three years ago, with Apple Silicon's bonkers performance-per-watt. Definitely the machine that brought be back to childhood geekdom. Really enjoyed my 8awg Pixla's mod adaptation (direct to PSU pads); which honestly was too technical even for Greg's blog.
I have been reading through this guide a bit at a time on my phone simply because it's so well written and interesting. I don't even own a Mac Pro, it's just fascinating to read through all the challenges and workarounds to keep the platform modern. Kudos to the author and all the contributors who made it possible.
I hate the original Mac Pro case so much!!! The metal box is so heavy and the edges of the aluminum top handle is so sharp that you definitely need a pair of heavy-duty gloves to move it around.