New Mac Pro, Maybe Not For a While

2012-04-08 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: gear, Mac Pro

See my March 19 commentary on what to consider with a Mac Pro system

What will it be?

A few points on what might happen with a Mac Pro. An educated guess, only.

• I don’t expect a new Mac Pro before August. It’s just not a priority for Apple.
• It is best not to assume that a new model will be faster than the current model. We might see more CPU cores running at a slower clock speed for lower power consumption. Which means lower performance for Photoshop/Lightroom and many other programs.
• There might be SATA III and a “faster” video card, and it won’t make any difference to the vasty majority of Photoshop/Lightroom users. Besides, the OWC PCIe card is a solution that exists today (imminent), for the current Mac Pro.
• There is a significant risk of an unappealing design change (e.g., , a tangled mess of Thunderbolt cables connecting a heap of noisy external building-block boxes each with its own low-quality power supply, instead of one nice Mac Pro box with its ultra high quality power supply).

I hope to be proved wrong, but I am not optimistic.

My top pick for most users remains the 3.33 GHz 6-core Mac Pro (thank you for buying via my gear page), outfitted as an MPG Pro Workstation.

Where to Buy a Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, iMac?

Looking for an in-stock Mac Pro or other Mac at a great price?

How about a price substantially lower on AppleCare than Apple?

Check out B&H Photo. See my gear page for links to my recommended Mac systems and AppleCare.

See also my Where to Buy a Mac Pro page, Where to Buy a MacBook Pro, Where to Buy an iMac pages.

Need help deciding what is right for your needs, or how to backup reliably? I offer consulting.