The Mac Pro is the pinnacle Intel Mac in the range, but it doesn’t seem like Apple saved the best for last. The most recent report from Mark Gurman throws cold water on another expected function: graphics card help.
According to Gurman, who recently disclosed a lot of Mac Pro specifications, the Apple silicon Mac Pro “may lack user upgradeable GPUs.” Customers often choose to spend $5,999 on the modular tower for a variety of reasons, including speed and support for RAM and GPU upgrades.
The next Mac Pro may lack user upgradeable GPUs in addition to non-upgradeable RAM. Right now Apple Silicon Macs don’t support external GPUs and you have to use whatever configuration you buy on Apple’s website. But the Mac Pro GPU will be powerful with up to 76 cores.
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) January 26, 2023
That’s another setback for the Mac Pro, which is becoming less amazing with each new rumour. Here’s a summary of the last several weeks’ information:
Instead of the M2 Extreme processor that was speculated last year, the Mac Pro is expected to include an M2 Ultra chip with a 24-core CPU and 76-core GPU, as opposed to the M1 Ultra’s 20-core CPU and 64-core GPU.
The Mac Pro’s CPU, like the rest of Apple’s processors, will have unified reminiscence built into the system-on-chip and hence will not be upgradeable like the current model.
The Apple silicon Mac Pro may have the same design as the Intel model.
Additionally, it supposedly no longer has an upgradeable GPU. According to Gurman, storage is “the principal user-upgradeable component in the new Mac Pro,” and the key difference between the M2 Ultra in the Mac Pro and the M1 Ultra in the Mac Studio is “performance from additional cooling.”
There may be other areas for additional cooling if the inside of the case is as empty as the tales suggest.
