Since the first announcement of the transition from Intel to Apple Silicon, many of us have wondered about the future of the Mac Pro, the Cupertino workstation that, as we sensed from the start, would be the last system to make the leap to Apple’s integrated ones. And it seems incredible, because of how quickly time passes, but in a few months it will be two years since the announcement that the company would start using its own packages, with the presentation of the first ARM-based systems in November 2020.
Since then we have been seeing how the different families of Apple computers were making their transition to M1 chips, with which Apple has shown to have done a great job, since the performance of its systems has shone by its own light during the nearly year and a half since its debut on the market. Now, the great litmus test, the final verification that ARM can play in the major leagues, will come in the last quarter of this 2022.
And it is that the popular leaker Dylan has stated, in a tweet, that the arrival of the first Mac Pro based on Apple Silicon will take place at the end of the year, compared to what Mark Gurman stated, who dated said launch in June of this year. Thus, the prediction of one or the other is fulfilled, what already seems totally certain is that we will not have to wait until next year to see if Apple engineers have managed to create an ARM chip capable of facing, in performance, the Intel Xeon W that mounts the Mac Pro presented by Apple in June 2019 and that ended up reaching the market in December of the same year.
The Apple Silicon transition will end by Q4 of 2022. The Mac Pro will be the last device to be replaced. The Mac Pro’s processor will not be an extension of the M2. The processor of the Mac Pro will instead be a further extension of the M1 beyond the cores of the M1 Max.
— Dylan (@dylandkt) January 17, 2022
Regarding which chip the new Mac Pro will mount, Dylan pours a jug of cold water on those who hoped that the second generation would also debut from his hand of those integrated from those of Cupertino with the Apple M2. Instead, the analyst claims that the M1 Max still has some way to go and that, consequently, it will be an improved version of it. This, however, is the point that surprises me the most, since the performance of the M1 Max has been excellent for personal computers, but I wonder to what extent it will be able to compete with solutions designed specifically for workstations.
This time, yes, I will not venture to predict a drop in performance, because I already did when the announcement of Apple Silicon took place and, as I have already recognized on more than one occasion, I was completely wrong. Instead, this time I’ll wait for the Mac Pro to arrive. Except, of course, that WWDC 2022 brings us more information about it.
