The Mac Pro is Apple’s workstation. It’s designed for professionals who need a powerful and flexible machine, and is ideal for applications that use as many processing cores as possible—video-editing applications, image-editing software, 3D programs, and the like.

The Mac Pro is getting a revival of sorts. The company released a brand-new, redesigned Mac Pro in December 2019, after years of stagnation with the previous, cylindrical Mac Pro.

Apple

Apple doesn’t offer a standard configuration choices for the Mac Pro. It’s really meant to be customized by the customer. To give you an idea of where pricing starts: if you configure the Mac Pro with the base components, it’s $5,999 for the standard tower configuration, or $6,499 for a rack mountable version. Learn more about the Mac Pro by reading about its main features below.

Update 01/14/20: The rack-mount version of the Mac Pro is now available, starting at $6,499.

Processor

Apple uses Intel Xeon W processors, starting with a 3.5GHz 8-core CPU. Apple also offers 12-, 16-, 24-, and 28-core processors.

Memory

The Mac Pro uses DDR4 ECC memory, and has 12 DIMM slots. However, the memory configurations that Apple offers don’t always fill all of the slots. Here’s what Apple offers:

  • 32GB (four 8GB DIMMs)
  • 48GB (six 8GB DIMMs
  • 96GB (six 16GB DIMMs)
  • 192GB (six 32GB DIMMs)
  • 384GB (six 64GB DIMMs)
  • 768GB (six 128GB DIMMs or 12 64GB DIMMs)
  • 1.5TB (12 128GB DIMMs; for models with a 24-core or 28-core processor)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAC9NPSYzCk

Graphics

The Mac Pro has room for two graphics cards. Apple has three different AMD cards from which to choose.

  • 8GB AMD Radeon Pro 580X
  • 32GB AMD Radeon Pro Vega II
  • 64GB AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo

According to the Mac Pro ordering page, Apple will be offering soon a 16GB Radeon Pro W5700X, and a 32GB Radeon Pro W5700X Duo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUIt-YrFOKw

Display

apple mac pro displayApple
The Pro Display XDR and pivot between landscape and portrait modes.

Along with the new Mac Pro is a new display, the Pro Display XDR. There are two models available: one with standard glass (glossy) for $4,999, and one with nano-texture glass (matte) for $5,999.

The Pro Display XDR doesn’t include a stand, however. That’ll cost an addition $999. If you want a Vesa mount, it’s $199.

Storage

The Mac Pro has room for two SSD modules. You can get a single 256GB SSD in the base configuration, or you can get 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB of storage that’s installed as a pair of SSDs.

Afterburner

Apple offers a special component with the Mac Pro called Afterburner. This is an accelerator card with a Field-programmable Gate Array (FPGA) designed for video production. According to Apple, Afterburner can handle up to six streams of 8K ProRes RAW video at 30 fps; up to 23 streams of 4K ProRes RAW video at 30 fps; and up to 16 streams of 4K ProRes 422 video at 30 fps.

If you want Afterburner, it’s a $2,000 option.

External ports

The Mac Pro…

https://www.macworld.com/article/3208028/mac-pro-features-specifications-prices-faq.html#tk.rss_all

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