Mac Pro is Apple's last Intel computer standing

Alongside the launch of the new M2 Mac mini, Apple has discontinued the Intel version, meaning that solely the Mac Pro remains available without Apple Silicon.

Apple's MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lineup had already transitioned to Apple Silicon, but despite there being an '';M1 Mac mini, there remained an Intel Mac mini model until today.

This leaves the 2019 Mac Pro as the sole Mac can that be bought with an Intel processor. At present, that Mac Pro has no Apple Silicon option at all.

It means that this Mac Pro is also the last machine that can run Boot Camp and thereby install Microsoft Windows.

The last Intel-based Mac mini remains listed on Apple's comparison page, but only with technical details. There's no longer an option to order it, outside of Apple's refurbished hardware page.

Apple adds power, cuts cost

That final-ever Intel Mac mini was a six-core i5, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, one. It cost from $1,099.

From today, the most affordable version of the Mac mini is the base M2 model with an 8-Core CPU and 8-Core GPU. It comes with 256GB Storage,

and 8GB unified memory.

This version retails for $599, or exactly $500 less.

7 Comments

skippingrock 199 comments · 19 Years

About 1 year ago

Intel Outside, once again.

lkrupp 10521 comments · 19 Years

Old biases die hard. Some here’s till want Apple to use AMD Ryzen or Intel in the Mac Pro and can’t let go of the slots, upgradeable memory, swappable GPU cards, discrete plugin components model. But even Linus from Linus Tech Tips (not the biggest Apple fan) posted a video some months ago by his colleague when the Mac Studio was released declaring that the SOC paradigm now championed by Apple is the future. The major manufacturers know it. They’re not stupid. The efficiency, the speed, the power requirements are too important to ignore.

So the new Mac Pro will be unveiled at some point and will be castigated by the slots crowd. Sure, it may have some slots but it won’t be what they want. But the new Mac Pro will be for real Pros, not prosumer tinkerers.

bobolicious 1173 comments · 10 Years

... the 'final-ever' Intel mini was also available in a 3.2 (4.6) Ghz i7 6 (12) cores and had upgradable ram to 64GB ...
Add to that eGPU (multiple W6900X?) and up to 3 @ 4K monitors and this mac seemed to offer quite a bit of power, upgradability and future proofing...
I understand that the Intel CPU core count generally starts to reach diminishing returns beyond 8 or so,
and would be curious to know how the M macs compare, including perhaps alongside the 8 (16) core base mac pro...?

auxio 2762 comments · 19 Years

lkrupp said:

Old biases die hard. Some here’s till want Apple to use AMD Ryzen or Intel in the Mac Pro and can’t let go of the slots, upgradeable memory, swappable GPU cards, discrete plugin components model. But even Linus from Linus Tech Tips (not the biggest Apple fan) posted a video some months ago by his colleague when the Mac Studio was released declaring that the SOC paradigm now championed by Apple is the future. The major manufacturers know it. They’re not stupid. The efficiency, the speed, the power requirements are too important to ignore.

So the new Mac Pro will be unveiled at some point and will be castigated by the slots crowd. Sure, it may have some slots but it won’t be what they want. But the new Mac Pro will be for real Pros, not prosumer tinkerers.

Thunderbolt 5 will eliminate the vast majority of the need for slots, and it's very likely it'll debut in the Mac Pro. The tinkerers will complain about the cost of TB5 devices compared to cards, but it won't be an issue for pros.

mikethemartian 1485 comments · 18 Years

lkrupp said:

Old biases die hard. Some here’s till want Apple to use AMD Ryzen or Intel in the Mac Pro and can’t let go of the slots, upgradeable memory, swappable GPU cards, discrete plugin components model. But even Linus from Linus Tech Tips (not the biggest Apple fan) posted a video some months ago by his colleague when the Mac Studio was released declaring that the SOC paradigm now championed by Apple is the future. The major manufacturers know it. They’re not stupid. The efficiency, the speed, the power requirements are too important to ignore.

So the new Mac Pro will be unveiled at some point and will be castigated by the slots crowd. Sure, it may have some slots but it won’t be what they want. But the new Mac Pro will be for real Pros, not prosumer tinkerers.

I guess all the enterprise grade 3D engineering applications that simulate Maxwell’s equations, fluid dynamics, structural engineering, etc. (and the licences of many cost more than a house) is all just for tinkering.