The Mac Pro is the final Intel Mac in the lineup, but it doesn’t look like Apple saved the best for last. Following reports that the chip wouldn’t be as fast as anticipated and the RAM won’t be upgradeable, the latest rumor from Mark Gurman dumps a bucket of cold water on another anticipated feature: graphics card support.
According to a tweet from Gurman, who has leaked several Mac Pro details recently, the Apple silicon Mac Pro “may lack user upgradeable GPUs.” Along with CPU performance, support for RAM and GPU upgrades are two of the main reasons users opt to spend $5,999 and up on the modular tower.
That’s yet another blow to the Mac Pro, which is looking less impressive with each passing rumor. Here’s a recap of the news from the past few weeks:
- Rather than the M2 Extreme chip that was rumored last year, the Mac Pro is expected to have an M2 Ultra chip with a 24-core CPU and 76-core GPU compared to the M1 Ultra’s 20-core CPU and 64-core GPU.
- Like the rest of Apple’s chips, the Mac Pro’s processor will use unified memory built into the system-on-chip and therefore won’t be upgradeable like the current model.
- The Apple silicon Mac Pro will have the same design as the Intel model despite significant internal changes.
And now, it reportedly won’t have an upgradeable GPU either. According to Gurman, storage will be “the main user-upgradeable component in the new Mac Pro” and the biggest difference between the M2 Ultra in the Mac Pro and the M1 Ultra in the Mac Studio will be “performance from more cooling.”
If the inside of the case is as empty as the reports indicate, there will be a lot of space for extra cooling. We just hope Apple still sells a Wheels Kit that costs more than a Mac mini.
Author: Michael Simon, Executive Editor
Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He's still waiting for that to come back in style tbh.