The 2019 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) sees the iPhone maker reveal a redesign of the Mac Pro-- one with a look reminiscent of the Power Mac G5, lovingly known as the "cheese grater."
Like the 2003 machine, the 2019 Mac Pro comes in an aluminium housing. Users can easily open it by simply twisting a built-in handle, thus revealing the internals. Apple claims the latest Mac Pro is "a modular system with extreme performance, expansion and configurability." It features workstation station-class Intel Xeon processors with up to 28 cores, memory capacity reaching 1.5TB via x12 DIMM slots, x8 PCIe slots and either AMD Radeon Pro Vega 2 or Radeon Pro Vega 2 Duo GPUs. The graphics card fit inside the MPX Module, a quad-wide PCIe card fitting two GPUs, and customers can spec the machine with a pair of Radon Pro Vega 2 cards, bringing the total of GPUs to four.
Another (optional) feature of the 2019 Mac Pro is something Apple dubs "Afterburner"-- a dedicated video editing card featuring an FPGA able to process up to 6 billion pixels per second. As one might imagine the machine requires a big power supply, one pushing up to 1.4kW, while cooling comes through three fans set behind the aluminium grille.
Readers familiar with the way Apple does things will not be surprised the Mac Pro announcement comes complete with a display. The "Pro Display XDR" is a 32-inch LCD monitor offering 6016 x 3384 resolution, P3 wide colour gamut, 10-bit colour and what the company claims is the "best polariser technology." An optional matte version, dubbed "nano-texture," promises less glare through glass etched at the nanometer level, and the display can placed on any VESA mount or the Pro Stand, whose "intricately engineered arm" can rotate the display into portrait mode. Connectivity comes via Thunderbolt 3 cable.
Both Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR are available on Q3 2019.
Go Apple Unveils Powerful, All-New Mac Pro and Groundbreaking Pro Display XDR
