Perhaps more interesting is the fact that Apple is now working on a completely new generation of Mac Pros – reported to be modular, this time round – and a new Pro display. The 2018 Mac Pro: a new modular design, and a new Pro display
Whether this is a significant incentive to buy is debatable: it’s still a single-CPU system, DDR3 has now been superseded, and even the D700 is a mid-range GPU compared to AMD’s new Radeon Pro WX cards.Īnd, of course, the chassis design hasn’t changed, so there’s no option to upgrade later. The $3,999 model moves from a six-core Xeon E5 CPU and dual AMD G500 GPUs to an eight-core Xeon E5s and dual AMD G700s, although here, RAM remains unchanged at 16GB of DDR3. Whereas the $2,999 model used to come with a quad-core Xeon E5 CPU, 12GB of DDR3 RAM and dual AMD D300 GPUs, that has now been upgraded to a six-core Xeon E5, 16GB of DDR3 RAM and dual AMD D500s. The latter, at least, has now been addressed by the refreshed machines, which became available on Apple’s online store this week.
The 2017 Mac Pro: same design, but better CPUs and GPUs
The problem was compounded by the fact that the machines were non-upgradeable – the downside of having a unique chassis design – and that, for three years, Apple failed to update the system specs. While the cylindrical aluminium ‘trash can’ design was impeccably stylish – for a while, Mac Pros became de rigueur in promo photos for post houses – many artists felt that the machines were overpriced.Īpple’s gamble on a dual-GPU/single-CPU system being the way of the future also failed to pay off. The current Mac Pros divided opinion in the industry on their release in 2013. The 2013 Mac Pro: a stylish, but impractical product The new models, which are available now, increase the CPU cores, GPU processing power and RAM available in the machines, but retain the existing cylindrical design and overall architecture.Īpple is also reported to be working on a completely new modular design for the Mac Pro, including a Pro display monitor, although those models won’t ship until next year. Apple has updated its Mac Pro line of professional graphics workstations for the first time in three years.