Apple’s new Mac Pro is something to talk about. Despite it cheese-grater like appearance, it’s a true powerhouse. But there’s a lot of information with this Mac, and sometimes it can be difficult to comprehend what Apple are saying about it. So below is all of the information about the Mac Pro, and everything we know about it so far!
Design
First off, let’s talk design. This Mac Pro allows you 360º access to the internals of the machine, which allows you to swap out certain parts such as RAM, GPUs, and more. The Logic Board is double-sided, which allows you to swap out and add/remove components. You can also change the storage of the machine.
Due to the extreme performance of this machine, you need to be able to cool it efficiently. Apple has claimed that they have designed a “tremendously capable thermal system”, and from the looks of it, it seems to do the job pretty well. The Mac Pro has three impeller fans which are dedicated to cooing just the GPU and CPU. On the opposite die of the computer, there is a blower which pulls the air across the memory, power supply, and storage. The air continues through and exits the machine through the cheese-graterish vents at the back of the machine.
The cheese-grater design is actually created by a pretty intricate process, and is not a decorative shell to cover the internals of the computer. This design helps air flow and it helps maintain the air pressure that enables thermal dynamics throughout the system. the cheese-grater part of the body is a spherical array which is machined onto the internal and external surfaces of the aluminium. The result is a pattern that maximises airflow.
The Mac Pro has handles, which enables the user to pick up and move the computer. It also has a handle on the centre top of the machine, which enables the use to open the case of the Mac Pro, which will allow the user access to the internals of the Mac Pro. That’s not all though. You can actually get wheels added onto the case of the Mac Pro (yes – they’re extra to the cost), so you can move the computer around without having to lift it.
Internals
The internals of this Mac are something else. You can get it customised to up to 28-cores of the new Intel Xeon processor. This is the most amount of cores ever found in a Mac, and the processors also come with large L2 and shared L3 caches and 64 PCI Express lanes to provide bandwidth in and out of the processor. The processors start out with a 3.5GHz 8-core Intel Xeon W with 8 cores with 16 threads and Turbo Boost up to 4.0GHz. It also has 24.5MB cache and supports 2666MHz memory. You can get this customised up to a 28-Core 2.5GHz Intel Xeon W with 28 cores and 56 threads with Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz. This also comes with 66.5MB cache and supports 2933MHz memory.
Memory is important in any computer, and this computer is no exception to the rule. This Mac Pro is featuring six channels of ECC memory and 12 physical DIMM slots. This means that the new Mac Pro allows for up to 1.5TB of memory (which is HUGE!). The memory starts out at 32GB with four 8GB DIMMs, and this is customisable up to 1.5TB with 12 128GB DIMMs. However, getting this configuration requires 24-core or 28-core processor due to the power required to power the RAM.
These machines are built for pros – and pros LOVE to modify. This computer is no exception to that rule, and Apple have made this Mac Pro the most customisable Mac Pro so far. With four double-wide slots, three single-wide slots, and one half-length slot preconfigured with the Apple I/O card — it has twice as many slots as the previous Mac tower. This means you can customise it more ways than previously available with old Mac Pros.
Of course, Pros need good graphics, and Apple are claiming that the Mac Pro has the “world’s most powerful graphics card”. The Mac Pro features an MPX Module that has a PCI Express connector. Alongside that, for the first time in a graphics card, additional PCIe lanes were created to integrate Thunderbolt and provide increased capability. With up to 500 watts, the MPX Module has power capacity equivalent to that of the entire previous-generation Mac Pro (which is pretty awesome). This Mac Pro is also featuring Radeon Pro Vega II Duo Processors. With up to 14 teraflops of compute performance, 32GB of memory, and 1TB/s of memory bandwidth, the MPX Module with Radeon Pro Vega II is a powerhouse. Alongside this, two Radeon Pro Vega II GPUs combine to create a graphics card called the Vega II Duo. With double the graphics performance, memory, and memory bandwidth, it’s the world’s most powerful graphics card according to Apple. The two GPUs are connected through the Infinity Fabric Link, which allows data transfer up to 5x faster between the GPUs. The new Mac Pro supports configuration of two Radeon Pro Vega II Duo MPX Modules. The four GPUs combine to add up to 56 teraflops and 128GB of high-bandwidth memory.
The Mac Pro’s graphics start off with a AMD Radeon Pro 580X, 36 compute units, 2304 stream processors, 8GB of GDDR5 memory, up to 5.6 teraflops single precision, two HDMI 2.0 ports on card, four DisplayPort connections routed to system to support internal Thunderbolt 3 ports, support for up to six 4K displays, two 5K displays, or two Pro Display XDRs. The highest end model has an AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo, two Vega II GPUs, each with 64 compute units and 4096 stream processors, 64GB of HBM2 memory (32GB per GPU), each with 1TB/s memory bandwidth, up to 28.2 teraflops single precision or 56.4 teraflops half precision, onboard Infinity Fabric Link connection connects the two Vega II GPUs at up to 84GB/s, four Thunderbolt 3 ports and one HDMI 2.0 port on card, four DisplayPort connections routed to system to support internal Thunderbolt 3 ports, support for up to eight 4K displays, four 5K displays, or four Pro Display XDRs, full-height MPX module fills an MPX bay and uses extra power and PCIe bandwidth.
Due to the the power of this machine, you need to have a lot of power to power it. That’s why Apple are making this computer require approximately 300 watts. A massive heat sink keeps the system cool, enabling it to run fully unconstrained. The Power Supply for this computer is a MASSIVE 1.4 kilowatts!
With this Mac Pro, Apple are introducing something called ‘Afterburner’. Afterburner is a hardware accelerator card built with an FPGA, or programmable ASIC. It can process up to 6.3 billion pixels per second and is capable of handling up to three streams of 8K ProRes RAW or 12 streams of 4K ProRes RAW.
Mac Pro has some pretty cool I/O. It has four Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB-A ports, and two 10Gb Ethernet ports. With every MPX Module you add you get more capability. You can connect up to 12 4K displays or up to six Pro Display XDRs. It also features a 3.5mm Headphone Jack (thank God) and a built in speaker.
Storage in any computer is important, and Mac Pro has a lot of it – if you get it configured that way. Base Model has 256GB SSD, which can be configured up to 4TB SSD with two 2TB modules with up to 2.6GB/s sequential read and 2.7GB/s sequential write performance.
The new Mac Pro is the most secure tower Apple has ever built. It features a Secure Enclave coprocessor provides the foundation for encrypted storage and secure boot capabilities. It also features the T2 chip, which is a super secure chip found inside the latest iMacs and MacBooks.
Extras
When ordering, you get to choose between a Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad (silver and black), a Magic Mouse 2 (silver and black) or a Magic Trackpad 2 (silver and black). It weights 39.7 pounds, which is about 18KG. It comes with One Year Warranty and inside the box, you do get the Mac Pro, a Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad, Magic Mouse 2, a 1-metre long USB-C to Lightning Cable, and a 2-metre long Power cord.
It will run macOS Catalina upon launch in the Fall of this year.
Conclusion
The Mac Pro is a truly awesome machine, and I cannot wait to see how it looks in real-life! It seems like we’ve been waiting so long for it, and now that it’s finally here, it’s kind of difficult to believe.
If you want to see how the new Mac Pro will look in your workspace, you can actually use AR to visualise it through your iPhone or iPad! Try it out here! Just scroll down to the bottom of the page and you should see an option for “Use AR to see Mac Pro in your Workspace”.
Will you be getting the Mac Pro? Let us know down in the comments!
Thank you so much for reading!