New Mac Pro: Giant Cheese Grater Filled With Power

Apple knows that its glossy Mac Pro 2013 was a mistake, and the team decided to make it up to it customers with the next update to its most professional computer line. Here comes more modular, less thermally constrained computing — WWDC 2019 revealed an all-new redesigned Apple Mac Pro.

First, it’s a throwback to Apple’s classic “cheese grater” look. The interior is all about modularity and flexibility. The powerful system features the new Intel Xeon processor with up to 28 cores, 300W of power and heavy-duty cooling, “so it can run unconstrained at full power at all times.”

The team states that its system memory can be maxed out at 1.5TB with six-channel memory across 12 DIMM slots. It also has eight PCI Express slots, two USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 and two USB-A ports.

With this Mac Pro, Apple is presenting a custom expansion module called an MPX Module with a dedicated Thunderbolt 3 backbone that Apple built into the motherboard for additional power and high-speed connectivity to components. It is basically a quad-wide PCIe card that can feature two graphics cards, its own dedicated heat sink, and a custom Thunderbolt connector.

The team will sell an I/O module for two additional Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB-A ports and a 3.5mm audio jack, plus an optional “Afterburner” dedicated video editing card with an FPGA to process up to 6 billion pixels per second.

So, what’s the price? The new Mac Pro will be available this fall with a starting price of $5,999. You can learn more here.