MacPro and M1

[Jim]

Has anybody heard anything about the potential to upgrade the latest MacPro7,1 (Intel) to an M1 (or future) CPU?

I recall when the first MacPros were introduced with a possibility of doing so. The only upgrade kits I'm aware of would turn a 4,1 into a 5,1, which is something and not nothing.

I don't know what to think when Apple put out their new PCIe MacPro, and then M1 on laptops and minis a few months later. They're still selling the MacPros for a bazillion dollars. By some accounts, the laptops are running circles around some configurations of the towers.

The new MacPros can be completely user disassembled down to the CPU with two hand tools, for whatever that means.

[Oleg Vostyakov]

I think problem is that MacBook on M1 is pretty expensive

[Michael Canavan]

There's near zero possibility that the Intel Mac Pros are going to be upgradable to M1 or whatever the next chip is called. The architecture is vastly different, cooling needs, power consumption, everything pretty much.

Hard to say really that with what we do the M1 Max Macbook Pro out now would beat a 16 core Intel, plug ins love multiple chips. For Mastering, the M1 Pro beats the Intel since on single cores it's faster, but 16 beats 8 essentially. Not by much though, so waiting to buy makes sense if you can deal with East West and Kontakt libraries being in Rosetta.

[HCMarkus]

Mac Pro-related tea leaves are not yet readable with any degree of certainty.

The current Mac Pro can be upgraded (assuming you don't already have the most powerful model Apple sells), but only with compatible Intel Xeon CPUs. It is not a job for the faint of heart.

[Michael Canavan]

Mac Pro-related tea leaves are not yet readable with any degree of certainty.

The current Mac Pro can be upgraded (assuming you don't already have the most powerful model Apple sells), but only with compatible Intel Xeon CPUs. It is not a job for the faint of heart.

Oh I'll die on this hill, you will not be able to trade out the Xeon chips in the current Xeon Mac Pro for M1 variants, period.
Apple has never even done logic board swaps, so if you own or buy a Xeon Mac Pro, that's the chip it lives with.

When or if Apple puts out a replacement Mac Pro is a tea leaf reading nightmare for sure, but if it doesn't come out by November 2022 it's probably not coming out.

[HCMarkus]

Mac Pro-related tea leaves are not yet readable with any degree of certainty.

The current Mac Pro can be upgraded (assuming you don't already have the most powerful model Apple sells), but only with compatible Intel Xeon CPUs. It is not a job for the faint of heart.

Oh I'll die on this hill, you will not be able to trade out the Xeon chips in the current Xeon Mac Pro for M1 variants, period.
Apple has never even done logic board swaps, so if you own or buy a Xeon Mac Pro, that's the chip it lives with.

When or if Apple puts out a replacement Mac Pro is a tea leaf reading nightmare for sure, but if it doesn't come out by November 2022 it's probably not coming out.

I agree 100% Michael. I was referring to an Intel PCU upgrade to a more powerful, but still Intel, CPU. I have no expectation that Apple, or anyone for that matter, will give us an Intel to AS path for any computer. It's a tad more complicated than dropping an American V8 into a Jaguar.