MP 7,1 Mac Pro 2023 Teardown

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

iFixIt's posted their teardown of the new Mac Pro

Despite the lack of RAM expansion or GPUs, there are positives to the new Mac Pro. The RAM compartments now hold the SSD and it's easy to remove now. Hell, everything is easy to remove and replace now, including the logic board.

Also spoilers: it still is crap at grating cheese.

 

[rondocap]

Thank you for sharing, love seeing this!

The Intel Mac Pro was full of little surprises and capabilities, and even though this one is less so surprising, still nice to have the internals for some other possibilities for those who need it.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Thank you for sharing, love seeing this!

The Intel Mac Pro was full of little surprises and capabilities, and even though this one is less so surprising, still nice to have the internals for some other possibilities for those who need it.

Fingers crossed we can get new PCIE stuff that could be used with those slots besides just BlackMagic and Avid cards to justify the extra $3000

 

[BeatCrazy]

had a genuine LOL moment when she actually grated the cheese.

 

[DrEGPU]

Fingers crossed we can get new PCIE stuff that could be used with those slots besides just BlackMagic and Avid cards to justify the extra $3000

It seems like the consensus (for now, anyway) is that any pcie card compatible with MacOS that isn’t a GPU will work, ie nvme expansion, etc

 

[avro707]

It seems like the consensus (for now, anyway) is that any pcie card compatible with MacOS that isn’t a GPU will work, ie nvme expansion, etc

Has anyone tried a standard Radeon 6800XT or a 6900XT in the final released 2023 machine? Note I’m not talking about the MPX modules, just the standard AMD reference cards.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Has anyone tried a standard Radeon 6800XT or a 6900XT in the final released 2023 machine? Note I’m not talking about the MPX modules, just the standard AMD reference cards.

GPU cards will not work period on the ARM Mac Pro. The M series chips don't support any extra GPUs at all. Not even eGPUs.

 

[DrEGPU]

GPU cards will not work period on the ARM Mac Pro. The M series chips don't support any extra GPUs at all. Not even eGPUs.

Yeah, Apple will have to provide drivers in order for GPU’s to work.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Yeah, Apple will have to provide drivers in order for GPU’s to work.

Which they won't, because it's Apple

They made it clear they have no interest in supporting those GPUs anymore. They want everyone on the iGPUs of the M series chips. These GPUs are insane no doubt and are capable of great things, but for industry professionals it's not enough.

 

[NewUsername]

It’s actually a very nice product imho, just a pity it’s 3000 USD above the Mac Studio and the RAM/GPU options are limited.

Still, I miss the times of the Power Macs and original Mac Pro when these machines were also affordable for simple enthusiasts. Though we don’t really need it anymore with the Mac mini with M2 Pro and the Mac Studio.

 

[320949]

Mac users taking a joke challenge (Impossible Difficulty)

The first time I heard this joke, I smiled shortly. It was almost twenty years ago, when Рower Mac come out. Do we still need to take on the challenge?

 

[Calaveras]

GPUs don't work.
Apple's Pro Res video acceleration cards are no longer an option when you build to order.
Again we are in a position of wondering what is the point of the Mac Pro?
It seems Apple can only get it right every other iteration, like a Trek movie.
If I get a replacement for my Mac Pro, I'm going for the Studio. The Pro is just a status symbol.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

The first time I heard this joke, I smiled shortly. It was almost twenty years ago, when Рower Mac come out. Do we still need to take on the challenge?

Yes. It never ends

 

[Longplays]

Apple's Pro Res video acceleration cards are no longer an option when you build to order.

Mac Pro's M2 Ultra chip has the equivalent power of seven Afterburner cards.

Do you have a professional need for more than 7?

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Mac Pro's M2 Ultra chip has the equivalent power of seven Afterburner cards.

Do you have a professional need for more than 7?

Afterburner isn't the issue. It's 3D graphics. Those dGPUs are used for more than just exporting

 

[Longplays]

Afterburner isn't the issue. It's 3D graphics. Those dGPUs are used for more than just exporting

I agree with you. I was asking @Calaveras why they needed more than what is built-in?

For 3D graphics it can be improved further into the future that I see as Q1 2025.

 

[GMShadow]

GPUs don't work.
Apple's Pro Res video acceleration cards are no longer an option when you build to order.
Again we are in a position of wondering what is the point of the Mac Pro?
It seems Apple can only get it right every other iteration, like a Trek movie.
If I get a replacement for my Mac Pro, I'm going for the Studio. The Pro is just a status symbol.

You don't need Afterburner cards because those features are built into Apple Silicon. That's why they're not available to order.

 

[curnalpanic]

I could see myself buying this just for grating cheese. 🧀

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

GPUs don't work.
Apple's Pro Res video acceleration cards are no longer an option when you build to order.
Again we are in a position of wondering what is the point of the Mac Pro?
It seems Apple can only get it right every other iteration, like a Trek movie.
If I get a replacement for my Mac Pro, I'm going for the Studio. The Pro is just a status symbol.

The Afterburner Card is obsolete. It was turned into retroware with the advent of the M1 Pro and the introduction of the Media Engine which does the Afterburner card's job a lot better in a smaller package, and the M2 Ultra is equivalent of seven of these Afterburner Cards.

 

[Longplays]

M2 Ultra's limitation covers ~80% of the most common use cases for a Mac Pro. Give it time and future 2025 Mac Pro address higher-end use cases.

If you're happy with the 2019 Mac Pro Intel then Apple will likely address almost all relevant shortcomings as late as 2027 when it receives its final Security Update.

 

[DrEGPU]

M2 Ultra's limitation covers ~80% of the most common use cases for a Mac Pro. Give it time and future 2025 Mac Pro address higher-end use cases.

If you're happy with the 2019 Mac Pro Intel then Apple will likely address almost all relevant shortcomings as late as 2027 when it receives its final Security Update.

80% doesn’t sounds very professional to me. That’s what mildly irritates me. Apple claims to be developing this for the “pros”, but what they really mean is just for the A/V crowd.

Deep-leaning professional? Not for you. Scientific modeling professional? Not for you? Advanced financial analysis/prediction? Not for you. Scientific modeling? Not for you!

 

[Longplays]

80% doesn’t sounds very professional to me. That’s what mildly irritates me. Apple claims to be developing this for the “pros”, but what they really mean is just for the A/V crowd.

Deep-leaning professional? Not for you. Scientific modeling professional? Not for you? Advanced financial analysis/prediction? Not for you. Scientific modeling? Not for you!

On the product page these are the expected typical use case

• Music production
• Video transcoding
• 3D rendering
• Animation

The previous workflows did not have the volume to necessitate the extra R&D to cover them for the next 15 months.

 

[deconstruct60]

The first time I heard this joke, I smiled shortly. It was almost twenty years ago, when Рower Mac come out. Do we still need to take on the challenge?

The video is on Youtube. The cheese stuff is click-bait to crank up 'ratings'. Pragmatically almost says so in the video when she made remarks to the effect of 'the cheese grading part was the most talked about part of the MP 2019 teardown' video ( also on YouTube). If the mass audience says 'do it again' then they 'do it again'. Until the masses do a 'thumbs down' on the cheese stuff, it will remain part of the 'gladiator games' .

When the teardowns were only static photos of labeled chip components didn't get this kind of stuff. Now, it has more in common with the generic 'unboxing' videos you get for random products; more entertainment than informative.

 

[impulse462]

80% doesn’t sounds very professional to me. That’s what mildly irritates me. Apple claims to be developing this for the “pros”, but what they really mean is just for the A/V crowd.

Deep-leaning professional? Not for you. Scientific modeling professional? Not for you? Advanced financial analysis/prediction? Not for you. Scientific modeling? Not for you!

Simple peasant, you dont understand. Video editors are mount olympus. us mere scientific/research professionals are not qualified to breathe the rarefied air of the video editors

On the product page these are the expected typical use case

• Music production
• Video transcoding
• 3D rendering
• Animation

The previous workflows did not have the volume to necessitate the extra R&D to cover them for the next 15 months.

Yet despite people ditching the mac pro for the last decade since the trashcan debacle the 2019 mac pro did support those workloads inherently through expandability. this was evidenced by their boasting about performance of their computers in matlab (which btw has a pretty lousy reputation in some scientific circles outside of mechanical engineering, image processing, and control people). but at least it was something. now of course those matlab comparisons are gone so **** those people amirite?

The video is on Youtube. The cheese stuff is click-bait to crank up 'ratings'. Pragmatically almost says so in the video when she made remarks to the effect of 'the cheese grading part was the most talked about part of the MP 2019 teardown' video ( also on YouTube). If the mass audience says 'do it again' then they 'do it again'. Until the masses do a 'thumbs down' on the cheese stuff, it will remain part of the 'gladiator games' .

When the teardowns were only static photos of labeled chip components didn't get this kind of stuff. Now, it has more in common with the generic 'unboxing' videos you get for random products; more entertainment than informative.

doesn't change the fact that its cringe and they ruined such an expensive machine

 

[deconstruct60]

The Afterburner Card is obsolete. It was turned into retroware with the advent of the M1 Pro and the introduction of the Media Engine which does the Afterburner card's job a lot better in a smaller package,

Pragmatically more so dead when Apple put some ProRes acceleration into the A15 SoC in September 2021. The ProRes subsystems are not completely the same, but the writing was on the wall a month before the M1 Pro ever showed up ( October 2021).

ProRes wasn't going to be some high end, 'rarified air' , Mac Pro only feature locked to a $2K card. Afterburner card was a field deployed prototype before they stuff the feature into the vast majority of the whole line up. Once mass deployed , then do not need the 'test mule' prototype anymore. (extremely likely there is no Afterbuner 2 or major changes coming; the job is done. ).