Why Apple Silicon Mac Pro might not support user-upgradable GPU and RAM

The next Mac Pro probably won’t allow RAM or GPU upgrades because memory and graphics are now part of Apple’s silicon processor.

• What’s happening? Mark Gurman says the upcoming Apple Silicon update for Mac Pro “might lack user-upgradable GPUs in addition to non-upgradable RAM.”
• Why care? That would be a step backwards from the current Intel-based Mac Pro, which is modular and offers plenty of expansion options.
• What to do? Don’t get rid of your Intel-based Mac Pro just yet! It could become popular with people who value expansion options after Apple’s silicon model fails.

Will Apple Silicon Mac Pro support PCIe GPUs?

The current Mac Pro is the Mac that Apple produces with the most updates, but the upcoming Apple Silicon update may not support GPU upgrades via PCIe slots like the Intel-based model. You can choose from several GPU upgrades, which are AMD Radeon graphics cards that you plug into one of the available PCI Express slots.

Gurman made an educated guess about the lack of GPU expandability in the next model, noting that Apple Silicon does not support external GPUs.

The next Mac Pro may not have a user-upgradable GPU in addition to non-upgradeable RAM. Apple Silicon Mac does not currently support external GPUs and you will have to use whatever configuration you purchase from Apple’s website. But the Mac Pro GPU will be powerful with 76 cores.

— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) January 26, 2023

The company offers several options for the number of GPU cores, but you have to make a decision when setting up your Apple Silicon Mac in the company’s online store. These GPU cores are part of the chip system and share memory with other pieces of Apple silicon to improve overall performance.

On the other hand, the lack of PCIe GPU expansion might not make a big difference – Gurman said on Twitter that “the Mac Pro GPU will be powerful with 76 cores.”

But what about upgrading the RAM?

It can easily prove harder to swallow. Those people who rely on a productive Apple workstation are accustomed to aftermarket RAM upgrades. But then again, since the RAM chips are now part of Apple’s silicon package, there’s nowhere to plug in additional RAM modules. Read: 30 things to do after setting up a Mac

Even if it were, these RAM modules would not be part of Apple’s Unified Memory Architecture, which shares available on-chip memory across the CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, and other parts of the system-on-a-chip package.

“This will make storage the primary user-upgradable component of the new Mac Pro,”Gurman added. A Bloomberg reporter reports that the Apple Silicon Mac Pro will have the same design as Intel’s current model.

“The big difference between Mac Pro and Mac Studio – in addition to the M1 Ultra and M2 Ultra – should be performance at the expense of more cooling,”he suggested.

This will leave storage as the main user-upgradable component in the new Mac Pro, which will have the same design as Intel’s current model. The big difference between the Mac Pro and Mac Studio – in addition to the M1 Ultra and M2 Ultra – should be performance at the expense of more cooling.

— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) January 26, 2023

To be honest with you, this looks more like a Mac Studio Pro than a proper Intel based Apple Mac Pro silicon reboot.