Much has been said already about the new Mac Pro and iMac Pro being developed at Apple. Since everyone has their own idea for what would make such a product successful, I thought I’d throw my two cents in the pile: VR. To me, this is the biggest blind spot in Apple’s desktop lineup: none of them can run VR games using modern hardware. If VR does indeed take off on the desktop, not just on consoles like PlayStation VR, Apple will be unable to offer anything to those consumers. To that end, the iMac Pro, presumably the more “prosumer” of these two upcoming desktops, ought to be able to handle VR gaming. If it can’t, I’ll consider that a failure.
The Mac Pro, on the other hand, is decidedly professional. It won’t be enough for it to simply play VR games. The Mac Pro needs to be able to create VR content. Whether this means one incredibly beefy graphics card, two, or more, as it stands today the Mac is behind in this regard. This also offers a nice dichotomy in the two machines if we use VR as the standard; the iMac can play VR games and the Mac Pro can create them. Here’s hoping.
