The Evolution of Expansion Slots: A Look at Apple's Latest Mac Pro

When it comes to expansion slots, few things are as specific and dedicated as those found on certain high-end workstations used by professionals in various industries. These slots are designed to accommodate a wide range of cards, including sound cards, I/O cards, storage cards, and networking cards. The idea is that these professionals need a machine that can handle their specific workload without any compromises or limitations.

For many pros working in production studios, post houses, music studios, and other creative fields, this Mac Pro is the perfect fit. These individuals already have desktops with PCI slots, but they simply cannot make their existing machines work unless they design one specifically for them with PCI slots. The new Mac Pro is a game-changer for these professionals, offering unparalleled performance and flexibility.

However, there's also an underlying issue here. The new Mac Pro doesn't support video cards, which means that users who need powerful GPU cores for tasks like 3D modeling or Premiere Pro won't be able to take full advantage of this machine. It also doesn't work with or even require the old Afterburner cards, which were essentially specialized video accelerator cards. The M2 Ultra has enough power to make up for this limitation, though – it's equivalent to seven Afterburner cards.

The Power of Apple Silicon

One aspect that sets the new Mac Pro apart is its reliance on Apple silicon. Specifically, the M2 Ultra chip offers a significant boost in performance and efficiency. When considering applications like After Effects or Premiere Pro, this means that users can achieve incredible results without the need for specialized hardware like Afterburner cards.

The Real Power of Apple Silicon

So what's behind the real power of Apple silicon? For those who shoot prores, it's all about the processing speed and efficiency. The M2 Ultra chip is designed to handle these demanding workflows with ease. In fact, according to some reports, the M2 Ultra can accelerate ProRes video encoding by as much as 7 times compared to its Intel-based predecessors.

The Storage Revolution

When it comes to storage, the Mac Pro has taken a significant leap forward. The new machine comes equipped with an 8TB PCI SSD that boasts read and write speeds of up to 67,000 megabytes per second. But what's truly remarkable is that users can upgrade this machine with even more storage capacity using specialized PCI expansion cards like the OWC 1000A series.

These cards feature multiple NVMe SSDs that can be combined to create a staggering 64TB of storage. With such speeds and capacities, this Mac Pro becomes an absolute beast for anyone who needs to store and manage massive amounts of data – including video footage, audio files, or even large datasets.

The Storage Options

One aspect that's both exciting and intimidating is the sheer scale of storage options available with this Mac Pro. The standard 8TB setup provides ample room for most users' needs, but for those who require more space, the PCI expansion card opens up a world of possibilities. With multiple NVMe SSDs to choose from, users can create customized configurations that cater to their specific workflow.

Storage Options for Every Need

For those who need more storage capacity than what's built into the Mac Pro, the OWC 1000A series offers an incredible range of options. These specialized cards feature up to four NVMe SSDs in a single module, allowing users to create configurations that support everything from 16TB to 64TB of storage.

The Storage Implications

While having so much storage capacity on hand might seem like overkill for many users, the reality is that most professionals require more space than they can possibly utilize. By providing this level of customization and flexibility, Apple has essentially given Mac Pro owners a blank canvas to work with – one that will undoubtedly become even more exciting as future generations of hardware are developed.

The Future of Expansion Slots

As for what's next? The author speculates that the new Mac Pro is likely following a familiar pattern set by previous generations. With the M3 chip on the horizon, it's almost certain that Apple will introduce significant upgrades and changes to the machine – perhaps even a complete redesign.

This theory is based on past trends, where Apple would release an updated model with minor design changes while inside, they'd be working on new hardware. It's a pattern that holds true for both MacBook Air and MacBook Pro iterations, so it's only natural that the Mac Pro will follow suit in the future.

A Special Note

Finally, there's something peculiar about the new Mac Pro's behavior when you remove the top half while still plugged in. This is not a feature of any other Apple machine, which makes for an intriguing observation point. Whether this has a practical use or simply serves as a curiosity remains to be seen – but it's certainly worth noting.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso Apple's done it they finally completed their apple silicon transition they said it would take two years it took closer to three but now every single Mac that was running Intel processors just a few short years ago is running Apple silicon from the top to the bottom of their lineup and the very last one to get it was this one right here the new Apple silicon Mac Pro and it got it in a weird way so let's talk about it so there's a whole lineup of Max and the bottom of the lineup was the MacBook Air and the Mac Mini getting M1 and then M2 just this the base smallest version of Apple silicon on a chip already a massive improvement over the Intel machines but then the further up you go you get the MacBook Pros with M2 Pro this is double the M2 then the M2 Max is again double the M2 Pro and at the top of the lineup is the new King of the Hill most powerful chip they make in the new Max studio which is called the M2 Ultra which again double levels up the M2 Max literally I mean it's two M2 Maxes fused together this ship is absurdly impressive which shouldn't be a surprise I mean the M1 Ultra was already awesome and it's what I've been editing on for basically the past year it's been out but M2 Ultra is actually meaningfully better at a lot of stuff than that one it's a solid 15 to 20 faster on single core performance which is already excellent taking it to the highest Mark of any Mac ever and it also benchmarked 15 to 20 faster in multi-core CPU performance again making it the fastest Mac ever tested it got better scores in everything across the board geekbench metal scores are up by 20 in the GPU department now that it has this new 76 core GPU which is the one I'm testing and there are even certain software optimizations that improve workflows even more than expected so the New Media engine is a good one where it would typically Excel mainly at parallel workloads like that's why you'd always see them talking about 22 8K prores videos at the same time or whatever it was but it can now also Point all of its core is at a single workload for those of us doing back-to-back exports instead of parallel exports so the export time for a sample project I built with five minute prores video went down from a ridiculous one minute 45 seconds all the way down to a hilariously fast 57 seconds which is something like an 80 Improvement it's amazing M2 Ultra is truly excellent so then the Mac Pro would be the last Mac to get the Apple silicon upgrade and when it finally did look a lot of us Hardware nerds were getting really excited about maybe something like a M2 extreme which would once again double the M2 Ultra chip by fusing two together and being just something Mammoth and absurd but it didn't it didn't it's actually the exact same M2 Ultra chip in both the Mac Studio and the new Mac Pro so the natural question that this begs is why would anyone buy the new Mac Pro like why would anyone in their right mind spend 3 000 more dollars on a machine that gives you the exact same performance from the exact same chip in a much bigger heavier machine well I'll tell you why because I am one of them one of the few I'll warn you but one of the few people that will actually take advantage of some unique things about this new Mac Pro but the fact is yeah most people shouldn't and won't get the new Mac Pro because the Mac Studio exists so what's the reason well there are some smaller details that are potentially interesting about the new Mac Pro like for example okay it's the same chip in each but hang on a second they're dramatically different sizes so maybe the Mac Pro in a much bigger chassis with three gigantic fans at the front and way more space for airflow surely there's a slight thermal advantage to getting the Mac Pro or maybe more sustained performance over a longer time before throttling and technically yes I found that to be slightly True by only like a single digit percentage in most cases and often by a rounding error but I did do the cinebench 10 minute stress test back to back three times each on the Mac Pro and the Mac Studio and while the Mac Studio dropped a tiny bit on the second run and the Mac Pro technically increased slightly with each run suggesting it wasn't near its limit yet it wasn't really that dramatic like I've seen some people get maybe closer to eight to ten percent out of their tests but it's not enough to spend three thousand more dollars for more performance out of this machine put it that way but another thing is there is more i o on the Mac Pro technically I mean it doesn't have the SD card slot on the front unfortunately which is one of the most important ones but it does have a new card at the top here with six Thunderbolt ports and two more at the front so totaling eight which is two more than the Mac Studio and it also has has two HDMI 2.1 ports instead of one and two ethernet ports instead of one so technically true yes but also you wouldn't spend three thousand dollars more on the Mac Pro just for that I think people would get dongles for one extra Port but no the real difference the reason the Mac Pro exists is PCI slots like that's that's really it like the next time you see a comment or a tweet or something of someone going why does the Mac Pro even exist when you can get the same computer in a Mac Studio is because this one has PCI slots that's the real reason the Mac Pro has six open PCI expansion slots that the Mac Studio does not have five of them PCI Gen 4 the last one a compatibility slot it's kind of funny how empty it looks when you get it like you open this computer up and the entire thing is just air the M2 Ultra is just under this cooler at the top the CPU GPU shared memory the media engine neural engine everything is just under there and then there's just an expansive room for all these PCI slots and these PCI slots aren't even for video cards or gpus at all actually because as we know the GPU which has 192 up to 192 gigs of shared memory is built into the Apple silicon chip so really all we're getting the PCI slots for is expansion slots the pure dedicated expansion slots that a lot of Pros in certain industries use a lot sound cards i o cards storage cards networking cards that's it so yeah it is really specific and it will sound ridiculous to most people that it literally doesn't support video cards like you could pull a crazy AMD Radeon card out of the Old Mac Pro right now and put it into this thing and basically nothing would happen but also at the same time most of the buyers of these Mac Pros are you know Production Studios post Houses music studios things like that those people already had desktops with PCI slots and they literally could not make a Mac work unless they made one with PCI slots so that's who Mac Pro is for it really is too bad though that technically this Mac Pro will be less versatile than the old one because there are people who would want to throw powerful GPU cores at certain applications whether it's after effects or some 3D modeling stuff or Premiere even that just can't do that with this one it also doesn't work with or apparently even need the old After Burner carts so I don't know if you remember the afterburner cards and the old Mac Pro were basically these dedicated cars a two thousand dollar video accelerator card uh but apparently the M2 Ultra has enough power that it's the equivalent of like seven afterburner cards so that right there is the real power of Apple silicon if you're shooting prores but the more I think about it just so much of this Pro machine stuff is specific to workflows and it's it's very difficult to build one computer with no expansion or upgrade ability or modularity at all that works with everyone's workflows so there did need to exist a Mac that could accommodate some more interesting workflows but like I don't shoot prores I shoot r3d so I'm not going to need the exact machine that's built super well for Pro for me it's actually storage uh right here I'm holding owc's 8m2 PCI SSD this is basically a PCI expansion card with a bunch of nvme ssds on it so the max storage you can get built into the Mac Pro is eight terabytes and it's pretty fast it's six seven thousand megabytes per second read write cool uh but you can max out one of these cards at 64 terabytes and it will read right at 25 000 megabytes per second which is absurd uh so that's a totally different level this is what I'm going to dump footage on this is what I'm going to back up to this is going to replace my current external Thunderbolt backup which is where I was keeping all my old footage it was sitting next to the Mac Studio plugged in and I'll still have plenty of room left over to work on and edit multiple video projects off of it at the same time it's going to be awesome for what I do and I only need one but also I fully acknowledge and you should all realize that most people don't need those specialized ssds that's why it looks crazy that this Mac Pro exists just on the website next to all the rest of the Macs but most people should get this one Mac Studio is kind of a revelation for Apple it's offering their top of the lineup performance for way less than the old top of the lineup and that's why most people should end up getting that one I do have one last thing though I have a theory if if I know anything about Apple it's that you can sort of predict the future pretty well based on the past and this Mac Pro is a pretty classic lazy refresh from Apple pretty similar to what they've already done like look at the MacBook Air when they first went from the last Intel MacBook Air to the first Apple silicon MacBook Air they reused the exact same design and just moved the new chip on the inside for all the performance gains then the second generation of it got the redesign same thing with the MacBook Pro right they took the MacBook Pro with the touch bar and just reused the same design new chip and then the next Generation got a redesign so now this Mac Pro has just done the same first half of that transformation it's the same exact chassis more or less as the Intel Mac Pro but I can expect the Next Generation now I'm already thinking about the M3 and that's probably kind of unhealthy but that's that's where my mind goes that's just my theory so anyway now you know why the macro exists now you know why I'll have one on my desk and I'll also leave you with this there was no other place to put it in the review but I did realize that this Mac Pro does something kind of weird when you take the top halfway off when it's still plugged in the old one didn't do it so I'm just going to leave you to it thanks for watching catch you guys in the next one peace\n"