Apple has announced its revamped Mac Pro workstation along with the new 32-inch Retina 6K Apple Pro Display XDR.
The new Mac Pro features Xeon processors up to 28 cores and a memory system with 1.5TB capacity. Also on board are eight PCIe expansion slots.
The Mac Pro also introduces Apple Afterburner, an accelerator that allows users to play back three simultaneous streams of 8K ProRes Raw video.
Apple Pro Display XDR, meanwhile, features P3 and 10-bit colour, with 1600 nits of brightness and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.
The new Mac Pro price tag starts at $5,999, with a release date set for this autumn. The Apple Pro Display XDR price tag starts at $4,999 and will also be released in the autumn.
Apple is also release a Pro Stand, priced at $999, and a VESA Mount Adapter for $199.
The Mac Pro Photographers have been waiting for
It’s finally been announced, the long-awaited, and hugely overdue update to the Apple Mac Pro. From what I’ve seen so far from WWDC 2019 this Mac Pro looks to be the long-awaited update to the Mac Pro 5,1
rather than the ill-fated 6,1 series. Back in the tower design which enables far better upgrade options and the sleek design seems to harp back to the Mac Pro tower design so many of us still use and love. It also seems that Mac has really listened to the user base and supplied something with the specifications that can live up to the demands of today’s creative professionals. Alongside the new Mac Pro, they’ve also announced their first monitor for years, and while your eyes will water at the staggering price tag it looks to be well worth it and on par with similar monitors from other pro manufacturers. Of course, the price tag has already angered some people but then when it comes to monitors unlike Macs there are other options.
What does the Apple Mac Pro 2019 have to offer
It may be a couple of years after the date Apple initially announced it would be released and six years after the previous model but it’s finally here and features all the latest tech and innovation. Starting out the with the case which is based around a stainless steel frame with aluminium housing.
This should ensure that the latest Mac Pro will have the durability and cooling of the old 5,1 models. The aluminium case has been designed so that it can be completely removed giving access to all the components from any direction which is a nice touch. Inside and powering the machine will once again be the workstation-class Xeon processors which will feature up to 28 cores.
The processors are supported by large L2 and shared L3 caches and 64 PCI Express lanes which will provide massive bandwidth in and out of the processor. Taking a careful look at the pictures it looks like these processors will be upgradable in the future if needed.
Upgradability of processors is what has made the Mac Pro 2012’s so popular. Heat for powerful systems can be a real issue and the easy way to keep things cool is with fans. Apple has invested in heat pipes within the casing to direct hot air away from the chip, dispersing it along with aluminium fin stacks, three impeller fans are then used to move air through the system. This system should help to keep the heat down and ensure that the machine stays quiet.
RAM updates for the machine are in another league and this is where the real power of this machine starts to show. There will be six channels of superfast ECC memory and 12 physical DIMM slots. This means that the latest Mac Pro will be able to support up to 1.5TB of RAM. I can’t think of any application we as photographers or even videographers could need that would require this level of memory. The old Mac Pro 5,1 RAM Update for the 12-core would take a maximum of just 96GB in comparison.
Powering the MacPro Graphics
It’s well known that Apple and Nvidia have had a bit of a spat over the last couple of years and unfortunately it appears that they’re still having their differences. in the new Mac Pro there will be the Radeon Pro 580X and the Radeon Pro Vega II. This combination can produce 14 teraflops of compute performance and 32GB of memory with 1TB of memory bandwidth. Apple report that this is the highest of any GPU out there. Inside there will also be an Afterburner accelerator card that will enable the playback of three 8K RAW video streams or 12 4K.
2019 Mac Pro price
Starting prices will be around $5,999, probably around £5,999, and if you want the new monitor that will set you back around another$4,999
From the official Apple press release:
“We designed Mac Pro for users who require a modular system with extreme performance, expansion and configurability. With its powerful Xeon processors, massive memory capacity, groundbreaking GPU architecture, PCIe expansion, Afterburner accelerator card and jaw-dropping design, the new Mac Pro is a monster that will enable pros to do their life’s best work,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Pro Display XDR is the world’s best pro display and the perfect companion to the all-new Mac Pro. With Retina 6K resolution, gorgeous colour, extreme brightness and contrast ratio, and a highly functional design, Pro Display XDR delivers the most comprehensive set of features ever offered on any display at this price point.”
Tremendous Processor Power and Massive Bandwidth
Designed for customers who demand the ultimate in CPU performance — for workflows like production rendering, playing hundreds of virtual instruments or simulating an app on a dozen iOS devices at once — Mac Pro features powerful Xeon processors up to 28 cores, with 64 PCI Express lanes for tremendous performance and massive bandwidth. It also provides over 300W of power along with a state-of-the-art thermal architecture to allow the processor to run fully unconstrained all the time.
Enormous Memory Capacity and Expansion
For pros working with the largest projects, analysing huge data sets or running multiple pro applications, Mac Pro provides enormous memory capacity to meet needs as they grow. Featuring a six-channel memory architecture and 12 physical DIMM slots, the new Mac Pro allows for a massive 1.5TB of memory, the most ever available in a Mac. And with eight PCI Express expansion slots, which is twice that of the previous-generation Mac Pro tower, pros can customise and expand their system in ways never before possible in a single workstation.
World’s Most Powerful Graphics Architecture
For pros animating 3D film assets, compositing 8K scenes and building complex 3D environments, graphics performance is more important than ever. That is why Mac Pro features the world’s most powerful graphics card and up to 56 teraflops of graphics performance in a single system. Its groundbreaking graphics expansion architecture, the Apple MPX Module, features Thunderbolt integration and over 500W of power, both firsts for any graphics card. And for super quiet operation, the MPX Module is cooled by the Mac Pro system thermals.
Mac Pro graphics options start with the Radeon Pro 580X. Mac Pro debuts the Radeon Pro Vega II, featuring up to 14 teraflops of compute performance and 32GB of memory with 1TB/s of memory bandwidth, the highest of any GPU. Mac Pro also introduces Radeon Pro Vega II Duo, which features two Vega II GPUs for an incredible 28 teraflops of graphics performance and 64GB of memory, making it the world’s most powerful graphics card. Mac Pro can accommodate two MPX Modules so customers can use two Vega II Duos for a staggering 56 teraflops of graphics performance and 128GB of video memory.
Introducing Apple Afterburner, a Game-Changing Accelerator Card
The new Mac Pro debuts Afterburner, featuring a programmable ASIC capable of decoding up to 6.3 billion pixels per second. With Afterburner, video editors using high-quality cameras that require the conversion of native file formats into proxies for easy editing can now use native formats right from the camera and decode up to three streams of 8K ProRes RAW video and 12 streams of 4K ProRes RAW video in real time*, virtually eliminating proxy workflows.
Stunning Modular Enclosure with 360-Degree Access
The design of the new Mac Pro starts with a stainless-steel space frame with an aluminium housing that lifts off for 360-degree access to the entire system. The frame provides a foundation for modularity and flexibility, and incorporates smooth handles for easily moving Mac Pro around the studio. The housing also features a stunning lattice pattern to maximise airflow and quiet operation. For customers who want to rack mount their Mac Pro in edit bays or machine rooms, an optimised version for rack deployment will be available this fall.
Performance to Transform the Pro Workflow
With up to 28 core Xeon processors, 56 teraflops of graphics performance and the groundbreaking Afterburner card, the new Mac Pro delivers performance that will transform pro workflows. A number of pro app developers are seeing amazing results that have never been possible in a single workstation.
Blackmagic Design brings full CPU and multi-GPU accelerated 8K real-time editing, effects and colour correction in ProRes 4444 for the first time on any system.
Avid can enable support for up to six HDX cards, resulting in more IO, increased voice count and two times the real-time DSP processing than any other system can achieve in Pro Tools.
Maxon’s Cinema 4D is seeing 20 percent faster GPU render performance when compared to a Windows workstation maxed out with three NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 graphics cards.For additional performance results for the all-new Mac Pro, see apple.com/mac-pro.
Pro Display XDR Features Largest Retina Display Ever
Featuring a 32-inch LCD panel with a 6016 x 3384 Retina 6K resolution with more than 20 million pixels, Pro Display XDR delivers a super-sharp, high-resolution viewing experience with nearly 40 percent more screen real estate than a Retina 5K display. With a P3 wide colour gamut and true 10-bit colour for over 1 billion colours, pros will have a more true-to-life viewing experience — critical for video and photo editing, 3D animation or colour grading. Pro Display XDR also features the industry’s best polariser technology, delivering a superwide, colour-accurate, off-axis viewing angle, so now multiple people can view more accurate content simultaneously. To manage reflected light, Pro Display XDR has an industry-leading anti-reflective coating and offers an innovative new matte option called nano-texture, with glass etched at the nanometer level for low reflectivity and less glare.
Extreme Dynamic Range Brings Content to Life
To better reflect what the eye can see in the real world, Pro Display XDR takes high dynamic range to a whole new extreme. Pro Display XDR uses a direct backlighting system with a large array of LEDs that produce 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness and 1,600 nits of peak brightness, far surpassing that of a typical display. With an advanced thermal system that uses its aluminium lattice pattern as a heat sink, Pro Display XDR can sustain 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness indefinitely, something that has never been possible before on a display at this price point. And with an amazing 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, images will have the brightest specular highlights, super dark blacks and all the details in between.
Stunning, Flexible and Modular Design for the Way Pros Work
With edge-to-edge glass and narrow, 9-millimeter borders in a stunning, aluminium enclosure, Pro Display XDR features a highly functional and flexible design. The Pro Stand has an intricately engineered arm that perfectly counterbalances the display so it feels virtually weightless, allowing users to easily place it into position. The Pro Stand provides both tilt and height adjustment, and also allows Pro Display XDR to rotate into portrait mode, perfect for tasks like retouching photos, designing a web page or writing code. Easily removable, the Pro Stand quickly attaches and detaches so it is easy to take on location. For pros with unique mounting requirements, a VESA mount adapter is interchangeable with the Pro Stand. With a single Thunderbolt 3 cable, Pro Display XDR connects seamlessly to the Mac product line, including the new Mac Pro, which supports up to six displays for a breathtaking 120 million pixels.
For more information on the Mac Pro 2019 check out the apple website