“It’s sad. A few years ago, the Mac Pro was the best workstation value on the market.”
For whatever reason (Thunderbolt?) Apple has elected to skip the Sandy Bridge Xeons and go with Ivy Bridge. I agree with you, it was bad to go so long without either an update or a price drop.
I think the video card situation will be better going forward as Apple switches to NVIDIA for this next round. I’m not sure there’s really a point in supporting the “pro” cards, as the only real difference is drivers except possibly at the very high end. We’ll see what Apple does there.
I’m hopeful that the Mac Pro refresh will include the long-rumored xMac, a “prosumer” mini-tower to sit between the iMac and the Mac Pros. That would boost Mac popularity quite a bit, IMO. With fresh thinking driving Apple forward, it seems quite possible.
The first iMac with Thunderbolt was Sandy Bridge, so that couldn't be a limitation. There must be another reason.
I’m not sure there’s really a point in supporting the “pro” cards, as the only real difference is drivers except possibly at the very high end.
A long time ago, they were the same cards. A quick solder and a driver could change an old GeForce to a Quadro. But these days there is quite a bit of hardware difference, and we are talking about high-end here.