Posted on 06/11/2019 11:46:04 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Apple's been teasing a redesigned Mac Pro for years now -- in fact, it's been well over a year since the company said it would be shipping the computer at some point during 2019 after originally promising it would arrive in 2018. Well, today, we're finally getting a look at the successor to that beautifully-designed trash can that Apple introduced in 2013 and then basically failed to upgrade for years. And guess what? It looks a lot like the old, cheese-grater style tower that Apple sold for years.
The Mac Pro has a stainless steel frame built around modularity and easy access to the components, something that should make it a lot easier to upgrade than the older model. The entire external case can be lifted right off after you unlock it.
There's a new Intel Xeon processor on board that has up to 28 cores, and the computer supports a positively insane 1.5 terabytes of RAM. And Apple is bringing PCI expansion back, finally -- there are four double-wide slots, three single-wide slots and one half-width slot that Apple populates with its I/O card. That card features two Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB-A ports and a 3.5mm audio jack. There are also two ethernet ports, as well. As for graphics, Apple will support up to two Radeon Pro Vega II GPUs, though that's not the default configuration.
For video editors out there, Apple is including its own custom hardware called Afterburner. It'll make the Mac Pro capable of playing three simultaneous 8K RAW video streams, or 12 4K streams. The card is capable for processing 6 billion pixels per second. To keep things cool, the Mac Pro has three fans and a blower that Apple says shouldn't be any louder than the iMac Pro when it's under load. (We'll have to hear that to believe it.)
Oh yeah, the Mac Pro has wheels! And Apple is even making its own display to go along with it, a 32-inch LCD display that Apple is calling a 6K Retina display with HDR and 6,016 x 3,384 resolution.
The base Mac Pro will include an eight-core Xeon CPU, 32GB of memory, a 256GB SSD and the Radeon Pro 580X graphics card and will start at $5,999. It'll ship this fall... start saving your couch change.
Hi Swordy!
Is this a lap top or a tower configuration? I had not realized they were coming out with something like this! Thanks!
Um...wheels???
If you want on or off the Apple/Mac/iOS Ping List, Freepmail me.
Tower, with 8 PCIe expansion slots.
Optional wheels are available, but what the 0 to 1000 mph time is is anyone’s guess.
Tower, with 8 PCIe expansion slots.
Optional wheels are available, but what the 0 to 1000 mph time is is anyone’s guess.
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ROFL!
Thanks for clarifying that!
Meet your next new paperweight.
“The company is promoting video editing performance in particular, touting a new video card called “Afterburner” that Apple claims can decode more than 6 billion pixels per second. The company says this can allow the new Mac Pro to play back up to 12 streams of 4K ProRes RAW video or up to three streams of 8K video in real time.” — Ars Technica
$6.000 for a computer is REALLY HIGH!!!
LOL! Strange you should say that. I have two of the 2013 Mac Pros I’m my office, one runs our entire office data system with 20 or so iMac and MacBook Air workstations. The other is dedicated to rendering 3D false color CAT scan radiographs from our $160,000 3D panelipse X-ray machine which takes over 1000 radial x-ray slices and builds a 3D image accurate to 1/1000 inch which we can manipulate in all 3 dimensions and build accurate prosthetics with to exactly fit a patient when we surgically open them up. That one is sitting on a ream of paper.
I bought it two years ago to replace a six year old Mac Pro that was no longer able to be updated. This one has a 2017 XEON processor with 12 cores, 64GB of ECC RAM, and a 2TB SSD (IIRC, it cost around $4500), connected to a 6TB raid drive for backups. The main server is a mere basic Mac Pro with a 2013 XEON six core, 2TB SSD, also connected to another 6TB raid. Alas, no ream of paper under it. It’s been plugging away 24/7 for almost six years without a hicough.
Not for a workstation grade computer. They are different animals than consumer grade machines. Configure a Dell similar to the Apple, although you wont have as many slots or as much power, nor the same custom Xeon processor Intel is providing Apple, and the price is about $8500.
Many workstation class machines price out at $50,000, where a fully loaded Mac Pro with more power than any of those, with the 28 core XEON, quad GPU, turning out 56 Teraflops, will likely be around $30,000. That’s supercomputer level performance that not so long ago cost multi millions of dollars to achieve. This is, right now, the only desk top level machine capable of streaming three different 8K video stream simultaneously, . . And adding FX in real time.
People are knocking Apple’s $4,995 price of their new 32” 6k monitor as well, but ignoring that it has better specs and more features, with a larger screen and more resolution, than the nearest competitor in reference grade monitors in its class, a 27” 5k Sony CRT monitor that retails for over $43,000. The Mac Pro can drive EIGHT of those 6K monitors WITH INDEPENDENT PROGRAMS SIMULTANROUSLY!
40LBS, lots of heat sinks.
Kronos.
Great movie. The first Transformer.
“$6.000 for a computer is REALLY HIGH!!!”
For what they are, the Mac Pros have actually always been a great value. And they even run a real operating system... ;-)
For comparison, here’s a Dell workstation (note: not “desktop computer”):
https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/cty/pdp/spd/precision-7920-workstation/xctopt7920us_4
That was as close as I could get to the entry-level new Mac Pro. It has older Xeons, a lesser graphics card, no Thunderbolt, no macOS, and mediocre design and engineering by comparison.
As configured, it comes in at $6229.
It’s pretty wild that macOS is essentially the last commercial Unix variant left standing...especially considering how late Apple was to the Unix game. I was in the process of giving up on Apple as a serious computer company, but this is an interesting development.
I’ll be getting one to evaluate.
“That was as close as I could get to the entry-level new Mac Pro.”
This is actually a bit of a mis-statement, sorry. The 12 core option looks like a sweet spot for the Mac Pro, so I configured the Dell with the closest processor I could find. It’s a 16 core, but with much lower clocks and less total cache split across more processors.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Dell can take two processors. Many feel (apparently including Apple) that the various tradeoffs involved in using dual processors aren’t worth it though.
I just did an HP Z8 G4 workstation to match the entry level Mac Pro.
And, it doesn’t have eight PCIe slots. . . and what slots it does have are taken up with cards to bring it up to the specs of the Mac Pro.
I added in thunderbolt 3, dual 10Gb Ethernet, and wireless mouse and keyboard and it came up to $6333.00. I then added the older Xeon that HP was offering at their (HP’s) price and it would have jumped the Dell price to over $8500 if they offered it. . . And neither of them still equaled the hardware in the base Apple Mac Pro!
On top of a six grand screen a grand for the monitor stand?
Add another grand for the nano screen coating?
I can’t wait to see the sales numbers. But they only need to sell a few. But they better hurry before they phase out the OS.
Their target market is obviously the more money than brains club.
Fully loaded you’re looking at $50K+
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