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Apple's ill-fated Mac Pro might not get an M5 Ultra upgrade in 2026, with the company pushing the Mac Studio instead. Griffin presents two possible paths forward.
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0:00
[Music]
0:01
This is uh very very tragic news. Apple
0:03
has quote largely written off the Mac
0:06
Pro and does not plan to significantly
0:08
upgrade its expandable desktop computer
0:10
in 2026. Apple reportedly doesn't plan
0:12
to upgrade the Mac Pro with the M5 Ultra
0:14
chip next year. Uh quote from uh Mark
0:19
German. The sentiment internally is that
0:22
the Mac Studio now represents both the
0:24
present and future of Apple's
0:25
professional desktop strategy. The Mac
0:27
Pro has quote been overshadowed by the
0:29
Mac Studio, which received the M3 Ultra
0:31
chip earlier this year, while the Mac
0:33
Pro stayed put. Now, there's the bad
0:35
news. That doesn't look set to change
0:37
anytime soon. There's no longer an M4
0:39
Ultra in the works. Uh, and the Mac Pro
0:42
that was supposed to support that chip
0:44
was also nixed. And the next high-end
0:46
desktop chip will be the M5 Ultra.
0:49
However, Apple is only focused on
0:50
putting the M5 Ultra in the Mac Studio.
0:53
This suggests the Mac Pro won't be
0:54
updated in 2026 in a significant way.
0:57
So, another year where it'll only exist
1:00
on the M2, which is depressing.
1:02
I could not give a fig, but um
1:06
uh as Ed Hardy wrote about, one of our
1:08
writers wrote about this earlier this
1:09
year and this week, and he said that,
1:12
you know, that the only advantage that
1:13
this the the Mac Pro has over the Mac
1:15
Studio is it has four internal uh slots,
1:19
right? which you can maybe put in some
1:22
more storage into it, but you can't
1:23
expand the RAM.
1:25
Yeah. But you can't do like the
1:26
meaningful upgrades like since Apple's
1:28
switched to Apple silicon,
1:30
the the meaningful internal upgrades
1:32
like people used to increase RAM, they
1:34
used to increase it storage and so you
1:35
can't increase RAM anymore. You you you
1:37
you're stuck with what you bought. Um
1:40
and GPUs. People used to expand GPUs,
1:42
but you can't do that with Apple Silicon
1:43
either,
1:44
right? But they had the eGPU, didn't
1:46
they? the external one that no one ever
1:47
bought or used. Um, and then Thunderbolt
1:50
is fast enough now to make external
1:52
storage almost as good as internal
1:54
storage. Correct. So, um, there's almost
1:57
no it's a product that has aged out,
2:01
isn't it? I mean, you don't need this
2:03
this internal expandability anymore. So,
2:07
it doesn't really make any sense to keep
2:08
updating it. It's like, you know, it's a
2:10
dinosaur.
2:11
The real benefit that it has is that
2:12
it's much bigger. So, if Apple were
2:14
interested in it, they could develop a
2:17
much higherend chip that could actually
2:19
take advantage of the extra cooling and,
2:21
you know, put a giant slap a giant heat
2:23
sink in it and give it a giant power
2:24
supply. You know, really overclock it,
2:26
maybe like get some fancy like vapor
2:28
chamber in there. I think that could
2:30
really take it to the extreme. But the
2:32
problem is that Apple can't fabricate
2:35
any chip bigger than the Ultra. it
2:37
wouldn't be profitable enough because it
2:39
would be too expensive to fabricate
2:40
because, you know, the bigger you make
2:42
it make a chip, the the more ones that
2:44
come off the manufacturing line that are
2:46
broken or aren't entirely functional.
2:49
Um, and you know, not to mention the R&D
2:51
cost of like actually developing the
2:53
thing. There there are two possible
2:54
paths forward they could do. Uh, if they
2:57
wait out another few years, then there's
2:59
this uh it's called a wafer level
3:02
multi-chip module technology, WMCM.
3:05
basically how Apple currently can stick
3:08
two max chips together to make an ultra
3:10
chip. Uh it's basically that on a
3:12
smaller level where at some point uh
3:15
they'll be able to manufacture uh tiny
3:18
tiny little segments of you know modular
3:21
CPU segments or modular GPU segments.
3:24
And so it would be easier for them to
3:26
build, you know, an M7 extreme chip that
3:30
would have double the size of an M7
3:32
Ultra chip because they could just piece
3:34
together as many GPU segments as they
3:35
want or as many CPU segments as they
3:37
want. And then they could make that
3:39
really big bespoke chip without uh
3:42
expending as much money, without it
3:43
being ludicrously expensive. That could
3:45
that could uh help the Mac Pro fulfill
3:47
its potential. The other path forward
3:49
they could do is nyx the Mac Pro, but in
3:54
order to keep the uh PCI card
3:57
expandability, my idea is they they
3:59
develop a sort of proprietary uh
4:02
breakout box like unscrew the bottom of
4:04
your Mac Studio and then clip it into
4:06
this giant aluminum box and it has like
4:07
a custom connector that basically adds
4:10
PCI cards to your Mac Studio and that
4:12
way you can
4:13
the next CEO of Apple,
4:14
[Laughter]
4:17
Tim Cook. Casey replaced a a product guy
4:21
with vision that no one else has. Uh
4:25
yeah, I mean the Mac Pro is basically a
4:28
Mac Studio with expansion card slots. If
4:30
they build like a custom breakout box
4:32
that adds expansion card slots to the
4:33
Mac Studio, then they don't need the Mac
4:35
Pro anymore. You know, the the sad part
4:36
there is that then they're committing
4:38
themselves to only ever building a chip
4:40
as powerful as the Ultra. I I prefer
4:42
path one because that that's still
4:44
trying to pursue the the making the the
4:46
fastest personal computer in the world.
4:49
Go all out balls to the wall. Let's
4:51
let's let's see what it looks like when
4:52
you put a when you have a computer that
4:54
has 128 GPU cores in it. That would be
4:57
really cool.
5:00
Well, the custom chips sounds very
5:01
exciting, but this of course is a kind
5:02
of a return. This reminds me of Steve
5:04
Jobs, you know, like he he was
5:05
vehemently opposed to putting expansion
5:07
slots in the early Macs because, you
5:09
know, adding hardware added that extra
5:10
layer of complexity and it it made it
5:13
much more unstable. You know, it was a
5:15
cause of crashes and he wanted to keep
5:16
that control over the internal
5:18
component. Steve Wnjak, I think, was the
5:19
one who was pushing for the
5:20
expandability in like the Apple 2 or I
5:22
can't remember what the machine was. The
5:24
same with the Mac, you know, like he
5:25
wasn't he was totally against any kind
5:27
of expandability in the Mac as well in
5:28
the early days. This is kind of a return
5:30
back to the the very early stage, the
5:33
beginnings of the Mac, you know, where
5:34
it was all totally locked down. You
5:36
could not expand it at all with any
5:37
hardware capabilities. And it kind of
5:39
makes sense, you know, like it it's
5:41
actually quite a it's a good strategy, I
5:43
don't I think, right? If you if you just
5:45
if you make all the expand all of the
5:48
expansion options external, it makes it
5:51
so much simpler, doesn't it? And so much
5:52
more stable. You just plug stuff into
5:54
it. It makes a lot more sense.
5:58
There's also a story where the original
5:59
Mac team uh started development on an
6:02
expansion slot in the Mac and they just
6:03
called it a diagnostic port and they got
6:06
away with that for a few months until
6:07
Steve Jobs was like, "What is this
6:08
thing? Are you just trying to sneak by
6:10
an expansion port on me? No, get rid of
6:12
that."
6:14
Well, I I for one will not miss the Mac
6:17
Pro. Although I I you know, down in my
6:19
basement, I've got a the cheese grater
6:21
of the the Power Mac G5. We we mentioned
6:23
this already. still can't quite bear to
6:25
throw my to throw it out to get rid of
6:27
it. I even though I it's completely it's
6:29
just a dust magnet. You know, I haven't
6:31
used it for years.
6:32
Of course, you shouldn't throw it out.
6:32
You live in San Francisco. If you put it
6:34
on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist,
6:36
you'd have people knocking down your
6:37
door within minutes take taking it off
6:38
your hands and giving it a loving home.
6:40
I am a little skeptical about that, but
6:42
I could definitely I should definitely
6:43
give it a try. I mean, I it's got to be
6:45
better than recycling it taking down to
6:46
recology and then see going to the
6:48
landfill. Yeah, it's a huge tragedy. Uh,
6:50
any any listeners, if you live in San
6:51
Francisco and you would like Leander's
6:53
Power Mac G5, uh, send us a text using
6:55
the using the link in the show notes.
6:58
Not a bad idea. I've got a bunch of old
6:59
broken MacBooks, too. You can answer my
7:01
I've got a whole old iPods, old iPhones,
7:05
uh, some old iPhones. There's a whole
7:08
bunch of electronic waste in my e-waste,
7:11
you know.
7:11
No, they're collectibles. Collectibles.
7:13
Leander.
7:15
Signed by Leander Kaney.
7:17
Yeah. If anyone's interested, you come
7:19
on over. I'll give you the whole lot. If
7:21
you take it off my hands,
7:23
it's all Some of them work.
7:25
Yeah,
7:26
I think the Mac Pro still works. I
7:28
sorry, the Power Mac. I'm pretty sure it
7:30
still works.
7:30
Take it over to Louis and he can use it
7:32
to to heat his house.
7:34
That's right. Good point. There's your
7:36
furnace replacement there, Louis.
7:39
Probably not as uh efficient as a heat
7:42
pump.
7:42
Well, let's do a poll today. If anyone's
7:44
going to miss the Mac Pro, maybe we'll
7:45
put that in the newsletter. Um,
7:47
it's it's definitely the end of an era
7:49
anyway, so it's kind of sad. Of course,
7:50
you can't spend How much do the wheels
7:51
cost? $700. Do you think anyone ever
7:53
bought those? And what would they use
7:54
them for? Are you going to ride around
7:56
on it like a skateboard?
7:57
Uh, Steven Hacket bought the wheels.
7:58
Well, he briefly had a Mac Pro.
8:01
What for? What did he use it for?
8:03
Putting wheels on it.
8:05
Right.
8:07
Well, anyway, yeah. RIP Mac Pro.
#Computer Components