The new Mac Pro was finally released last December 10 as first announced during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June 2019.
As Apple declared at the WWDC, the latest Mac Pro was produced with artists and technicians in mind. The company reportedly recruited several creative professionals and observed how they used both Mac Pro’s software and hardware for real projects so they could launch an improved version.
Design
The cylindrical Mac Pro model unveiled six years ago was completely redesigned. The 2019 model now comes with a rectangular and metallic tower case, bearing a closer resemblance to the first-generation Mac Pro. The lattice pattern of the casing is inspired by molecular crystal structures. Apple says that it optimizes airflow and structural rigidity. The processor is a rack-mounted system that can come with optional wheels attached at the base. The housing can be lifted by rotating a semicircular handle on top of the chassis. When it’s removed, you have a complete 360-degree view and access to the computer’s internal system.
The “cheese grater,” as people call it, is made of stainless steel and has a dual-sided logic board: the storage and memory are on one side while the graphics, processor, and expansion are on the other side. It stands 20.8 inches tall, 8.58 inches wide, and 17.7 inches long. The processor is 21.9 inches tall including the wheels.
Internals
The new Mac Pro can accommodate up to four AMD Radeon Pro Vega II graphics cards, which could permit up to six simultaneous streams of 8K video, and eight PCI Express expansion slots. An acceleration card called Afterburner makes the six simultaneous video streams possible.
It has two USB-A ports, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, and two 10GB Ethernet ports.
Raw Horsepower and Storage
The Mac Pro Intel Xeon processor starts at eight cores with 32 gigabytes of RAM, a Radeon 580X graphics card, and 256GB SSD. However, it can be configured up to 28 cores—the highest ever made available by Apple—with 1.5 terabytes of RAM and four Radeon Pro Vega 2 GPUs.
The processor can be configured with up to 8TB of SSD storage.
Pro Display XDR
The 32-inch Retina 6K Pro Display XDR (extreme dynamic range) has up to 1,600 nits of brightness, way beyond the 350 nits offered by typical desktop displays. The lattice cooling pattern on the processor that’s also found at the back of the display helps make these high-quality visuals possible.
Due to its 10-bit color depth and Retina display of 218 pixels per inch, the monitor can produce over a billion colors accurately, resulting in true-to-life imagery. The screen has a very slim nine-millimeter border. It comes with standard or nano-texture glass, the latter of which can bring glare to a minimum.
To further optimize your viewing experience, Apple created a Pro Stand for the monitor that allows precision tilting and 120-millimeter height adjustment. You can also rotate the screen for landscape and portrait view.
Price
The base model of the new Mac Pro sells for $5,999—making it the priciest processor sold by Apple so far—while the Pro Display XDR is worth $4,999 for the standard version. The nano-texture model is worth $5,999. The processor is around $53,000 if you go for the maximum specs.
The staggering price tag may encourage you to delay selling your MacBook to buy a desktop workstation. But if you want the most powerful machine for photo and video editing and you have enough funds for the purchase, then the new Mac Pro is worth investing in.
