At Apple’s ongoing WWDC 2019 annual developer conference, Apple has announced the all new Mac Pro to replace the previous model that was launched six years ago. The PC comes with monstrous specs and plenty of customisation options. Alongside it, Apple also unveiled a professional grade monitor called Pro Display XR for Mac users.
Apple Mac Pro Specifications
The new Mac Pro sports a tower-style design that was reminiscent Mac Pro models launched between 2006 and 2012. The aluminum-bodied device comes a grill in front and a handle on top. A knob enables you to unlatch the enclosure for access to its internals from all four sides.
The 2019 Mac Pro excels at expandability since it features eight PCI Express expansion slots. Among them are four dual-wide x16 slots, one single-wide x16 slot and two single-wide x8 slots. There is one half-length x4 slot with comes preinstalled with an I/O card by Apple. The latter comes with 2 x Thunderbolt 3 ports, 2 x USB-A ports and a 3.5mm audio jack. Apple has provided two additional Thunderbolt 3 ports on the top of the device.
There are three fans positioned on the front of the Mac Pro’s case that pull in cold air. There is another fan for the power supply. The Mac Pro Expansion Module (MPX Module) can amplify the graphics performance of the device. The MPX Module can be connected via Thunderbolt 3. The Mac Pro can accomodate two MPX Modules.
The Mac Pro comes in 8-core, 12-core, 16-core and 28-core editions of Intel Xeon W processor along with Hyper Threading. There are 12 DIMM slots can support 32GB, 48GB, 96GB, 192GB, 384GB, 786GB or 1.5TB DDR4 EEC. The Mac Pro offers between 256GB to 4TB of storage. Apart from company’s T2 security chip for encryption, there are two SATA ports on the motherboard.
The Mac Pro can have up to four AMD Radeon Pro Vega II graphics cards for unmatched graphics performance. The base model comes with Radeon Pro 580X GPU. To accelerate video encoding and decoding, the Mac Pro is equipped with Afterburner, a programmable ASIC that can handle up to 3/12/16 streams of 8K/4K ProRes RAW at 30fps. The other features of the Mac Pro include a pair of 10Gb Ethernet ports, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0 and 4x Thunderbolt ports. The highest configuration model comes with a 1,400W power supply.
Apple Pro Display XDR Specifications
The professional-grade Pro Display XDR features a 32-inch IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 6,016 x 3,384 pixels and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The display is dubbed as Retina 6K and it is equipped with the DCI-P3 color gamut. It allows users to choose from various formats such as HDR Video P3-ST 2084 (HDR10/Dolby Vision), BT.709, BT.601, P3-DCI, P3-D65, P3-D50, and sRGB.
The Apple Pro Display XDR has 4x Thunderbolt 3 ports which can be also used as USB Type-C. The display does not feature a stand. The Cupertino company is separately selling a special designed “Pro Stand” for the Pro Display XDR. It comes with features like height adjustments and tilting. A button is available on the Pro Stand for conveniently detaching it from the monitor.
Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR Price and Availability
The Mac Pro starts at $5,999 and the Pro Display has a starting price of $4,999. The Pro Stand is priced at $999. Both devices will release this fall.