1 00:00:00,879 --> 00:00:05,511 (click sound) (sliding sound) (upbeat music) 2 00:00:09,930 --> 00:00:14,040 - With Apple transitioning their Mac lineup to run in their own homegrown Silicon, 3 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:17,600 what we've seen is a substantial miniaturization of their lineup. 4 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:21,420 Just look at the new iMac. It demonstrates just how far they are willing 5 00:00:21,420 --> 00:00:24,600 to slim things. It's a nice computer, 6 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:28,600 but it calls into question the direction the company will take with their professional lineup. 7 00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:33,180 Rumors have been swirling and they indicate that not even Apple's next hyper powerful Mac Pro 8 00:00:33,180 --> 00:00:38,386 will be spared from the shrinking. And I think it's worth exploring what that could mean. 9 00:00:38,386 --> 00:00:40,969 (upbeat music) 10 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:48,210 The story of the two compact professional Macs from the company's history is relevant to this discussion 11 00:00:48,210 --> 00:00:53,140 because they weren't well-received. And since the next Mac Pro will undoubtedly be smaller 12 00:00:53,140 --> 00:00:58,410 than the present one, it's possible that it could suffer the same pitfalls as those from the past. 13 00:00:58,410 --> 00:01:03,950 The two machines I'm speaking about are of course, the G4 Cube and the 2013 Mac Pro. 14 00:01:03,950 --> 00:01:07,510 Remember those? Oh, I do. 15 00:01:07,510 --> 00:01:11,000 They both had a lot in common, both introduce stunning visual designs, 16 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:16,330 unlike anything we expected from a computer before, and I'll never forget the retracting handle of the Cube 17 00:01:16,330 --> 00:01:19,653 and just being mesmerized at a cylindrical computer. 18 00:01:19,653 --> 00:01:23,010 - Hint, innovate any more, my ass. (crowd laughing) 19 00:01:23,010 --> 00:01:27,270 - These compact designs had to re-imagine how a computer can be cooled. 20 00:01:27,270 --> 00:01:30,960 The G4 Cube was designed to be passively cooled by convection. 21 00:01:30,960 --> 00:01:35,990 This means the hot air captured by the heat sink would rise up and cold air would rush in from the bottom 22 00:01:35,990 --> 00:01:39,720 to replace it, a clever design, but the more expensive Cube 23 00:01:39,720 --> 00:01:43,700 still didn't perform as well as the large and loud Power Mac. 24 00:01:43,700 --> 00:01:50,590 2013 Trash Can Pro met a similar fate, with its unified triangular heat sink and single fan. 25 00:01:50,590 --> 00:01:54,337 It proved to not be enough to cool a CPU and two GPU's 26 00:01:54,337 --> 00:01:58,180 and eventually Apple put the Mac Pro into a service program. 27 00:01:58,180 --> 00:02:01,880 The other thing that graded professionals was that it offered little in the way of expansion, 28 00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:05,440 unless you wanted to hang a cable octopus off the back. 29 00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:11,100 In a round table discussion with reporters in 2018, Apple explained that they recognize these past shortcomings, 30 00:02:11,100 --> 00:02:16,100 and a year later gave us this, the 2019 Mac Pro. 31 00:02:16,281 --> 00:02:19,448 (bouncy upbeat music) 32 00:02:24,450 --> 00:02:30,510 Reverting back to the traditional tower form, it is a thermal beast and allows for a degree of expansion 33 00:02:30,510 --> 00:02:33,690 and upgradability not seen in Apple since the 90s. 34 00:02:33,690 --> 00:02:38,270 There are 12 DDR4 slots for up to 1.5 terabytes of RAM 35 00:02:38,270 --> 00:02:42,380 and the optional to discard drive cage, easy to access Thunderbolt ports on top 36 00:02:42,380 --> 00:02:46,020 and eight PCIe slots that you can fill to your heart's content. 37 00:02:46,020 --> 00:02:51,670 One more MVMe storage, slap that in there, need HDX accelerator for Pro Tools? Just slide it in. 38 00:02:51,670 --> 00:02:56,416 Need a capture card or playback card? Put that in, the sky's the limit. 39 00:02:56,416 --> 00:03:00,930 (upbeat music fading) Unfortunately, the sky has also been the limit 40 00:03:00,930 --> 00:03:04,180 for the power consumption of Intel's high-performance processors 41 00:03:04,180 --> 00:03:08,560 for the last several years. It's almost certain that the new desktop will use a larger, 42 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:12,810 more powerful successor to the M1 SoC that launched inside every new Mac 43 00:03:12,810 --> 00:03:17,520 since the end of last year. Rumors suggest the upcoming Mac Pro's new chip 44 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:21,210 will be called M1X and have up to 40 CPU cores. 45 00:03:21,210 --> 00:03:24,410 And with their current focus on performance per watt and energy efficiency, 46 00:03:24,410 --> 00:03:28,410 there's little doubt that the ARM Mac Pro will be smaller than the current one. 47 00:03:28,410 --> 00:03:30,483 So what could that look like? 48 00:03:31,510 --> 00:03:36,880 Some unofficial renders show that it might channel the nostalgic feeling of the G4 Cube. 49 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:41,500 Well, others imagine it as a triple high Mac Mini, which would be kind of boring. 50 00:03:41,500 --> 00:03:44,680 Or it might even maintain the appearance of this beauty. 51 00:03:44,680 --> 00:03:49,850 Though, I hope that it has a single centrally placed handle at the top, like a suitcase. 52 00:03:49,850 --> 00:03:54,630 None of these would be as interesting as if Apple were to give a completely new industrial design 53 00:03:54,630 --> 00:03:58,050 heralding their new era of homegrown Silicon. 54 00:03:58,050 --> 00:04:01,360 Regardless, I worry that going with such a small form factor 55 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:06,030 could limit the expansion that has earned them so much praise from professional users. 56 00:04:06,030 --> 00:04:09,040 But maybe it can be shrunk without upsetting the community. 57 00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:13,670 Let's take a crack at it. (click sound) But before we do, allow me to inform you 58 00:04:13,670 --> 00:04:18,110 that this video is brought to you by Tunabelly Softwares, TG Pro. 59 00:04:18,110 --> 00:04:23,840 If you're wondering how we get censored information for thermals on the Mac, well, it's this. 60 00:04:23,840 --> 00:04:28,760 TG Pro is a robust temperature monitoring, fan control and diagnostics application 61 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:34,170 that supports all Macs built after 2008. A lightweight program, it runs unobtrusively 62 00:04:34,170 --> 00:04:40,880 in the background allowing you to quickly view and log CPU, GPU, logic board, and hard drive temperatures. 63 00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:44,420 Check out TG Pro at the link in the description below. 64 00:04:44,420 --> 00:04:49,290 To integrate any computer into the workflow, many pros need at least a couple of PCIe slots 65 00:04:49,290 --> 00:04:52,970 be it for a capture card, audio interface, or to add more storage. 66 00:04:52,970 --> 00:04:57,860 So in my opinion, the next Mac Pro still needs to have enough width and length 67 00:04:57,860 --> 00:05:02,440 to accommodate full-size cards. We'll get more in depth on that in a minute. 68 00:05:02,440 --> 00:05:05,950 I also hope there remains easy access to the internals. 69 00:05:05,950 --> 00:05:10,510 Apple's Pro desktops have been always remarkably and ingeniously accessible, 70 00:05:10,510 --> 00:05:15,170 say for the now discontinued iMac Pro, which was a bit more of a nightmare. 71 00:05:15,170 --> 00:05:19,650 So it should remain here. What about CPU upgradability though? 72 00:05:19,650 --> 00:05:24,020 Rumors point to a choice between a 20 core model or 40 core model. 73 00:05:24,020 --> 00:05:27,810 That sounds impressive today, but what about it in another six years time? 74 00:05:27,810 --> 00:05:33,360 Back in the days of the early 2009 Mac Pro, it was not only possible to eBay higher end chip later on 75 00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:36,670 down the road, but users found they could even flash the Firmware, 76 00:05:36,670 --> 00:05:39,700 enabling support for the next generation of processors 77 00:05:39,700 --> 00:05:44,750 on their older machines. So, could Apple possibly offer SoC upgrades 78 00:05:44,750 --> 00:05:49,153 in the years to come? No, probably not. 79 00:05:50,570 --> 00:05:53,630 On all M1 Max, not only is the SoC soldered 80 00:05:53,630 --> 00:05:57,320 onto logic board, but the system memory and even the storage 81 00:05:57,320 --> 00:06:01,360 are permanently installed in the same manner. So it's more likely we'll see more of the same, 82 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:05,950 making it a good strategy to purchase the most powerful config you can afford, 83 00:06:05,950 --> 00:06:09,740 so that your machine can keep pace with the ever evolving demands of your business 84 00:06:09,740 --> 00:06:14,610 for years to come. The issue of RAM brings up a more interesting question mark, 85 00:06:14,610 --> 00:06:21,550 the new unified RAM system in the current M1 Max come in two possible configurations, 8 or 16 gigabytes. 86 00:06:21,550 --> 00:06:25,040 That's obviously not enough for many professional users, so the question is, 87 00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:29,850 how will Apple offer more? Or even crazier, whether there's space for a hybrid design 88 00:06:29,850 --> 00:06:33,850 with unified RAM on the SoC and extra slots for DDR4 dims? 89 00:06:33,850 --> 00:06:38,810 The integrated RAM is faster than anything you can plug in, but it's still nice to have the option to extend 90 00:06:38,810 --> 00:06:43,700 the lifespan of your machine. (click sound) The other big unknown is whether adding graphics cards 91 00:06:43,700 --> 00:06:47,010 will be supported, even if there is space to slot one in, 92 00:06:47,010 --> 00:06:51,520 because right now, Apple Silicon can't even talk to external GPU's 93 00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:55,530 and all the graphics processing happens on cores integrated in the SoC. 94 00:06:55,530 --> 00:06:59,970 Apple has supported dual GPU setups before, either switching between them or using them in tandem 95 00:06:59,970 --> 00:07:03,100 for compatible workloads. But the latter has only been possible 96 00:07:03,100 --> 00:07:07,470 with two similar cards, like an onboard radio on GPU and a second one in a PCI slot 97 00:07:07,470 --> 00:07:11,380 or a Thunderbolt enclosure. And even if we assume it's going to have support 98 00:07:11,380 --> 00:07:16,530 for an add in graphics card, I'll eat my hat if it uses MPX. 99 00:07:16,530 --> 00:07:19,980 Of course, we also don't know whether we'll even need 100 00:07:19,980 --> 00:07:24,630 a graphics card. The rumors claim Apple is working on some huge integrated GPU's 101 00:07:24,630 --> 00:07:28,890 with 64 or even 128 cores, that could be multiple times faster 102 00:07:28,890 --> 00:07:33,500 than the current AMD cards that are available with the 2019 Mac Pro. 103 00:07:33,500 --> 00:07:37,280 Still I'd love to have the option to upgrade or supplement in the future, 104 00:07:37,280 --> 00:07:41,360 whether it's with a Radeon or some kind of Apple design accelerator. 105 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:47,450 Could look like something like the Afterburner card, which like, who is it for? 106 00:07:47,450 --> 00:07:52,190 It just does ProRes decoding. I work at LMG and I can't even take advantage of it 107 00:07:52,190 --> 00:07:58,150 without really trying. Finally, let's talk about Apple's approach to IO. 108 00:07:58,150 --> 00:08:01,260 The current M1 line, particularly the iMac, 109 00:08:01,260 --> 00:08:04,510 has fewer ports and supports fewer external displays 110 00:08:04,510 --> 00:08:08,920 compared to Apple's Intel powered machines. I hope their new Mac Pro gets at least 111 00:08:08,920 --> 00:08:16,000 the same ports from the 2017 iMac Pro, four USB-C, four USB-A, one 10 gig Ethernet, 112 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:20,040 one SD card reader and support for more than two monitors. 113 00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:24,370 Apple has demonstrated with this big boy that they do care about integrating 114 00:08:24,370 --> 00:08:28,460 into professionals workflows more flexibly, but by golly, 115 00:08:28,460 --> 00:08:33,160 this new ARM Silicon leaves so many questions open about how they plan on scaling the technology 116 00:08:33,160 --> 00:08:37,070 for those workloads. We still haven't even seen what a larger, 117 00:08:37,070 --> 00:08:40,410 more powerful MacBook Pro and iMac looks like, 118 00:08:40,410 --> 00:08:44,290 but those are pretty straightforward to imagine, with the Mac Pro though, 119 00:08:44,290 --> 00:08:48,130 Apple's history of veering between two very opposite extremes 120 00:08:48,130 --> 00:08:52,490 makes me very interested to see if the company will be able to balance them. 121 00:08:53,386 --> 00:08:56,440 (drum music) Thanks for tuning into this Mac Address. 122 00:08:56,440 --> 00:09:00,890 Now I am aware there is a very fresh rumor that says that this Mac Pro 123 00:09:00,890 --> 00:09:05,370 is actually gonna get a spec bump, which is interesting. I imagine what we're gonna actually see 124 00:09:05,370 --> 00:09:09,380 is kind of a transition period with a bit of overlap between your Mac Pro 125 00:09:09,380 --> 00:09:14,853 and the Intel Mac Pro. But I'm curious what you think, make sure to like, subscribe and comment below.