WEBVTT 00:00:00.879 --> 00:00:05.511 (click sound) (sliding sound) (upbeat music) 00:00:09.930 --> 00:00:14.040 - With Apple transitioning their Mac lineup to run in their own homegrown Silicon, 00:00:14.040 --> 00:00:17.600 what we've seen is a substantial miniaturization of their lineup. 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:21.420 Just look at the new iMac. It demonstrates just how far they are willing 00:00:21.420 --> 00:00:24.600 to slim things. It's a nice computer, 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:28.600 but it calls into question the direction the company will take with their professional lineup. 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 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. 00:00:38.386 --> 00:00:40.969 (upbeat music) 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 00:00:48.210 --> 00:00:53.140 because they weren't well-received. And since the next Mac Pro will undoubtedly be smaller 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. 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. 00:01:03.950 --> 00:01:07.510 Remember those? Oh, I do. 00:01:07.510 --> 00:01:11.000 They both had a lot in common, both introduce stunning visual designs, 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 00:01:16.330 --> 00:01:19.653 and just being mesmerized at a cylindrical computer. 00:01:19.653 --> 00:01:23.010 - Hint, innovate any more, my ass. (crowd laughing) 00:01:23.010 --> 00:01:27.270 - These compact designs had to re-imagine how a computer can be cooled. 00:01:27.270 --> 00:01:30.960 The G4 Cube was designed to be passively cooled by convection. 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 00:01:35.990 --> 00:01:39.720 to replace it, a clever design, but the more expensive Cube 00:01:39.720 --> 00:01:43.700 still didn't perform as well as the large and loud Power Mac. 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. 00:01:50.590 --> 00:01:54.337 It proved to not be enough to cool a CPU and two GPU's 00:01:54.337 --> 00:01:58.180 and eventually Apple put the Mac Pro into a service program. 00:01:58.180 --> 00:02:01.880 The other thing that graded professionals was that it offered little in the way of expansion, 00:02:01.880 --> 00:02:05.440 unless you wanted to hang a cable octopus off the back. 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, 00:02:11.100 --> 00:02:16.100 and a year later gave us this, the 2019 Mac Pro. 00:02:16.281 --> 00:02:19.448 (bouncy upbeat music) 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 00:02:30.510 --> 00:02:33.690 and upgradability not seen in Apple since the 90s. 00:02:33.690 --> 00:02:38.270 There are 12 DDR4 slots for up to 1.5 terabytes of RAM 00:02:38.270 --> 00:02:42.380 and the optional to discard drive cage, easy to access Thunderbolt ports on top 00:02:42.380 --> 00:02:46.020 and eight PCIe slots that you can fill to your heart's content. 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. 00:02:51.670 --> 00:02:56.416 Need a capture card or playback card? Put that in, the sky's the limit. 00:02:56.416 --> 00:03:00.930 (upbeat music fading) Unfortunately, the sky has also been the limit 00:03:00.930 --> 00:03:04.180 for the power consumption of Intel's high-performance processors 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, 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:12.810 more powerful successor to the M1 SoC that launched inside every new Mac 00:03:12.810 --> 00:03:17.520 since the end of last year. Rumors suggest the upcoming Mac Pro's new chip 00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:21.210 will be called M1X and have up to 40 CPU cores. 00:03:21.210 --> 00:03:24.410 And with their current focus on performance per watt and energy efficiency, 00:03:24.410 --> 00:03:28.410 there's little doubt that the ARM Mac Pro will be smaller than the current one. 00:03:28.410 --> 00:03:30.483 So what could that look like? 00:03:31.510 --> 00:03:36.880 Some unofficial renders show that it might channel the nostalgic feeling of the G4 Cube. 00:03:36.880 --> 00:03:41.500 Well, others imagine it as a triple high Mac Mini, which would be kind of boring. 00:03:41.500 --> 00:03:44.680 Or it might even maintain the appearance of this beauty. 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. 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 00:03:54.630 --> 00:03:58.050 heralding their new era of homegrown Silicon. 00:03:58.050 --> 00:04:01.360 Regardless, I worry that going with such a small form factor 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:06.030 could limit the expansion that has earned them so much praise from professional users. 00:04:06.030 --> 00:04:09.040 But maybe it can be shrunk without upsetting the community. 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 00:04:13.670 --> 00:04:18.110 that this video is brought to you by Tunabelly Softwares, TG Pro. 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. 00:04:23.840 --> 00:04:28.760 TG Pro is a robust temperature monitoring, fan control and diagnostics application 00:04:28.760 --> 00:04:34.170 that supports all Macs built after 2008. A lightweight program, it runs unobtrusively 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. 00:04:40.880 --> 00:04:44.420 Check out TG Pro at the link in the description below. 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 00:04:49.290 --> 00:04:52.970 be it for a capture card, audio interface, or to add more storage. 00:04:52.970 --> 00:04:57.860 So in my opinion, the next Mac Pro still needs to have enough width and length 00:04:57.860 --> 00:05:02.440 to accommodate full-size cards. We'll get more in depth on that in a minute. 00:05:02.440 --> 00:05:05.950 I also hope there remains easy access to the internals. 00:05:05.950 --> 00:05:10.510 Apple's Pro desktops have been always remarkably and ingeniously accessible, 00:05:10.510 --> 00:05:15.170 say for the now discontinued iMac Pro, which was a bit more of a nightmare. 00:05:15.170 --> 00:05:19.650 So it should remain here. What about CPU upgradability though? 00:05:19.650 --> 00:05:24.020 Rumors point to a choice between a 20 core model or 40 core model. 00:05:24.020 --> 00:05:27.810 That sounds impressive today, but what about it in another six years time? 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 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:36.670 down the road, but users found they could even flash the Firmware, 00:05:36.670 --> 00:05:39.700 enabling support for the next generation of processors 00:05:39.700 --> 00:05:44.750 on their older machines. So, could Apple possibly offer SoC upgrades 00:05:44.750 --> 00:05:49.153 in the years to come? No, probably not. 00:05:50.570 --> 00:05:53.630 On all M1 Max, not only is the SoC soldered 00:05:53.630 --> 00:05:57.320 onto logic board, but the system memory and even the storage 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, 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:05.950 making it a good strategy to purchase the most powerful config you can afford, 00:06:05.950 --> 00:06:09.740 so that your machine can keep pace with the ever evolving demands of your business 00:06:09.740 --> 00:06:14.610 for years to come. The issue of RAM brings up a more interesting question mark, 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. 00:06:21.550 --> 00:06:25.040 That's obviously not enough for many professional users, so the question is, 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:29.850 how will Apple offer more? Or even crazier, whether there's space for a hybrid design 00:06:29.850 --> 00:06:33.850 with unified RAM on the SoC and extra slots for DDR4 dims? 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 00:06:38.810 --> 00:06:43.700 the lifespan of your machine. (click sound) The other big unknown is whether adding graphics cards 00:06:43.700 --> 00:06:47.010 will be supported, even if there is space to slot one in, 00:06:47.010 --> 00:06:51.520 because right now, Apple Silicon can't even talk to external GPU's 00:06:51.520 --> 00:06:55.530 and all the graphics processing happens on cores integrated in the SoC. 00:06:55.530 --> 00:06:59.970 Apple has supported dual GPU setups before, either switching between them or using them in tandem 00:06:59.970 --> 00:07:03.100 for compatible workloads. But the latter has only been possible 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 00:07:07.470 --> 00:07:11.380 or a Thunderbolt enclosure. And even if we assume it's going to have support 00:07:11.380 --> 00:07:16.530 for an add in graphics card, I'll eat my hat if it uses MPX. 00:07:16.530 --> 00:07:19.980 Of course, we also don't know whether we'll even need 00:07:19.980 --> 00:07:24.630 a graphics card. The rumors claim Apple is working on some huge integrated GPU's 00:07:24.630 --> 00:07:28.890 with 64 or even 128 cores, that could be multiple times faster 00:07:28.890 --> 00:07:33.500 than the current AMD cards that are available with the 2019 Mac Pro. 00:07:33.500 --> 00:07:37.280 Still I'd love to have the option to upgrade or supplement in the future, 00:07:37.280 --> 00:07:41.360 whether it's with a Radeon or some kind of Apple design accelerator. 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:47.450 Could look like something like the Afterburner card, which like, who is it for? 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 00:07:52.190 --> 00:07:58.150 without really trying. Finally, let's talk about Apple's approach to IO. 00:07:58.150 --> 00:08:01.260 The current M1 line, particularly the iMac, 00:08:01.260 --> 00:08:04.510 has fewer ports and supports fewer external displays 00:08:04.510 --> 00:08:08.920 compared to Apple's Intel powered machines. I hope their new Mac Pro gets at least 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, 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:20.040 one SD card reader and support for more than two monitors. 00:08:20.040 --> 00:08:24.370 Apple has demonstrated with this big boy that they do care about integrating 00:08:24.370 --> 00:08:28.460 into professionals workflows more flexibly, but by golly, 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 00:08:33.160 --> 00:08:37.070 for those workloads. We still haven't even seen what a larger, 00:08:37.070 --> 00:08:40.410 more powerful MacBook Pro and iMac looks like, 00:08:40.410 --> 00:08:44.290 but those are pretty straightforward to imagine, with the Mac Pro though, 00:08:44.290 --> 00:08:48.130 Apple's history of veering between two very opposite extremes 00:08:48.130 --> 00:08:52.490 makes me very interested to see if the company will be able to balance them. 00:08:53.386 --> 00:08:56.440 (drum music) Thanks for tuning into this Mac Address. 00:08:56.440 --> 00:09:00.890 Now I am aware there is a very fresh rumor that says that this Mac Pro 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 00:09:05.370 --> 00:09:09.380 is kind of a transition period with a bit of overlap between your Mac Pro 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.