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As every year, the WWDC 2019 was an opportunity for Apple to present its novelties in software. But in the midst of announcements about his home systems, the firm has slipped a segment dedicated to Mac Pro. What's better for this announcement than a room full of developers, one of the traditional targets of this machine? It was also during WWDC 2013 that the previous Mac Pro was unveiled and it was during WWDC 2006 that the very first Mac Pro was presented.
The Mac Pro 2019 follows a tradition of several years … except that the developers in the room were seriously chilled at the announcement of the price. Starting at $ 5,999 for basic configuration that is not crazy and how far? Summits probably, we'll come back, but by then, judge the gap with his predecessors. The 2006 Mac Pro started at $ 2,499 and it was a super-powered Mac that you had for that price. As for the 2013 Mac Pro, the range started at $ 2,999, far behind the new entry-level price.
How to justify and explain such a gap? This is what we will see …
Program
A big aluminum tower, practical before being aesthetic
The Mac Pro has a pretty spectacular design, with its multiple holes. It will not please everyone, but Apple has chosen to favor the function rather than the form. And the air of nothing, this tower required a lot of work and reflections.
In many ways, the Mac Pro 2019 is more reminiscent of the PowerMac G5 and the first Intel Mac Pro than its direct predecessor. In 2013, Apple innovated with a brand new design, a metal cylinder that housed components around a triangular cooling system. It was an extremely innovative computer, unlike anything we had seen before and still a beautiful object.
But this splendid achievement was also a bad idea with the use, with big cooling problems and zero scalability that forced Apple to abandon after this first generation. For his new Mac Pro, the manufacturer is starting from scratch … without reinventing the wheel this time. This computer is a perforated aluminum tower, with four feet and two handles to lift it. Does this remind you of something ?
It's impossible not to think about the old Mac Pro, which was also in the vertical tower format, built in perforated aluminum and with metal handles. In terms of overall dimensions, it was roughly the same size as the new model, while the 2013 cylindrical Mac Pro was significantly smaller and lighter.
However, Apple did not just resume its old design and modernize components. If the new Mac Pro took more than two years of work, it is because it is a brand new design despite everything, outside and inside. The handles are made of steel and rounded to avoid being uncomfortable during transportbut they are mostly the outward sign of the general design of the product.
Apple has designed its Mac Pro around a steel frame that is self-sufficient. It could work without the aluminum shell, all components are held on this steel base which also serves as handles on the top and feet underneath. Feet that can be replaced by optional wheels, at a rate still undetermined.
Moreover, the hood is completely removed to access the components: turn a handle on the top and you can lift the entire aluminum grille. This may remind something of the oldest: it is exactly the same concept that Apple had exploited for its Cube in the early 2000s. As on this former Mac, this choice provides access to the components of the four sides, and not one as it is most often the case on a tower.
Under the hood therefore, Apple has organized the space differently compared to the old Mac Pro, even if we find the same general idea in both cases. The goal is to efficiently ventilate the components and organize the space into multiple areas to prevent one element from overheating the entire machine. On older models, the space was divided into three horizontal areas: bottom, processors and RAM, in the middle the area dedicated to graphics cards and other extensions, up the power supply and storage.
On the Mac Pro 2019, the design is different, since the motherboard placed vertically divides the internal space into two areas. On the right side with the computer facing you, you will find the processor, up this time, and the graphics cards and other expansions down. Three large fans draw fresh air to the front and hot air is expelled to the rear. This large area is not separated horizontally, but the top fan will cool down the processor, and those at the bottom will PCIe cards.
On the other side of the motherboard, there are the twelve slots for RAM, as well as storage and other important components, such as the T2 chip that manages many aspects (storage, security …). A fourth vertically positioned fan draws fresh air from the front and also expels it to the back. It is also this smaller fan that will cool the impressive power supply of 1400 W positioned at the base of the Mac Pro.
Four fans in all, three big in front who will do most of the work and should do it silently, even in charge. The graphics cards provided by default are fanless, and the Xeon processor does not have a dedicated cooler to cool it down. This is a cooling system very different from the two old Mac Pro: the 2013 tube had only one fan to cool, when its predecessor aligned no less than nine. Nevertheless, this should be enough to cool all current and future components.
In any case, this is one of Apple's promises: after the unfortunate experience of the 2013 Mac Pro that could not maintain its components temperature, the firm has set the package this year. If needed, all fans can run at maximum capacity and move about 8.5 cubic meters of air per minute. An impressive volume of air, which will allow the processor and graphics cards to run at their maximum capacity continuously, without fear of lower performance.
If so, the Mac Pro will certainly be noisy. But in normal use, this should not be the case: Apple promises that this power monster will be slightly quieter than the iMac Pro or Mac Pro 2013, two references in the field. With 10 dB of base, as much as it will be inaudible and can be placed on a desk, if you want to admire its holes permanently.
This holed design has made a lot of people talk about it, and for good reason. The Mac Pro "cheese scraper" of the time also had a perforated aluminum shell, but the holes were thinner and more consistent. It was a design much simpler, more sober too and in any case more unifying. This new model will no doubt displease everyone who suffers from trypophobia and even if it's not your case, you might find this choice to have a big hole and some strange little holes behind.
This is undeniably a surprising design, which is not found on the first computer came and that we had never seen at Apple (although some Macs of the G4 era had a grid in the same spirit). But it is absolutely not free and in this area, the manufacturer has chosen to focus on the function on the form. The final design was chosen to optimize the proper ventilation of the Mac Pro by maximizing the amount of air that can pbad, while maintaining good rigidity.
This grid, which Apple describes as "lattice", is created by digging an aluminum plate with spheres slightly offset on each side. More than half of the metal is removed in the process, so there is more air than aluminum in this structure. The primary goal is to create an aluminum panel, rigid and open enough to leave as much air as possible, and the Jony Ive team did not have this design in mind before designing the Mac Pro.
It's often the function that dictates the shape at Apple, and the Mac Pro goes to the end of the process. This is a difference with his predecessor, where aesthetic choices dictated certain technical choices, starting with the small size of the product.
Before moving on to the internal components, a word about cable design. For the second time, Apple abandons the traditional white plastic in favor of black cloth cables for its food. The first was for the HomePod and we imagine that the Mac Pro will inherit the same type of cables. Why this choice ? Apple has abandoned PVC in recent years in favor of greener materials, but less solid and less pleasant in hand. We imagine that at this price level, a cable in nicer fabrics is better …
Most observers will note that the power cable comes block the aluminum shell when it is plugged. In theory, the Mac Pro could work with visible components, but the manufacturer has made sure that is not the case.
No compromise on components and prices
The numbers speak for themselves: up to 28 cores for the processor, up to 1.5 TB for the RAM, graphical computing capacity up to 56.8 teraflops or feeding of 1 400 W. its new Mac Pro, Apple has not compromised on internal components, even explode the budget. Let's take a quick tour of its components.
Processor
On the processor side, Apple has opted for the latest generation to date (presented at the same time as the computer, by the way) Xeon W range of Intel Cascade Lake architecture. The Mac Pro uses a good part of the range, from the Xeon W-3223 and its eight-core 3.5 GHz entry-level Xeon W-3275M and 28 hearts to 2.5 GHz high-end . They are all engraved at 14 nm, it should be the last generation at this level of finesse before moving to 10 nm.
This choice is logical, Apple has used exclusively Xeon processors in Mac Pro since their creation. They are more expensive than Core processors found in all other Macs, but they provide additional advanced features, including ECC RAM which provides additional security and is indispensable in some professional areas. They are also essential to manage the 12 RAM and 1.5 TB maximum, and they offer the best performance of the moment at Intel.
The price of options offered by Apple is not known, but we know the prices recommended by Intel. The entry-level price starts at $ 749, and the rates go up very quickly to an impressive $ 7,453 for the 28-core Xeon used by the high-end Mac Pro. Again, it is a recommended price for a purchase by the unit, it is not the price that the Cupertino company pays … nor the one it will charge for the purchase. It would not be surprising if the option alone touches or even exceeds $ 10,000.
Note that Apple no longer offers configuration with two processors, as was the case in older Mac Pro tower format. The builder probably favored the space dedicated to expansion and then it was a good way at the time to multiply the hearts, but the high-end option with 28 hearts should largely be sufficient for all needs.
RAM
Apple has also seen great in this area. The Mac Pro includes twelve slots dedicated to RAM and by default, four will be used with 8 GB bars, for a total of 32 GB of RAM. You will be able to fill them all and reach 1.5 TB of RAM using twelve bars of 128 GB. It is each time of protected memory (ECC) and it is clocked with 2 933 MHz on all the models, except the entry-level that will be content with bars at 2,666 Mhz.
Only Mac Pro with the 24-core Xeon option and those with the 28-core option will handle 32 GB of RAM. The lower models only manage "1". In contrast, the two high-end processors could actually manage 2 TB of RAM. But since we do not yet have more than 128GB of memory, the limit is actually lower.
Before you pack, know that 128 GB RAM arrays are still very rare and mostly used in the world of servers. There is $ 1,500 for one on this site, which makes a total of $ 18,000 for the twelve bars needed to reach 1.5 TB.
Apple does not tend to make a gift on the RAM memory option, its prices often have nothing to do with market prices. To better evaluate this point, it may be better to refer to RAM prices in the iMac Pro. Knowing that the transition from 32 GB to 256 GB is charged $ 5,200, we can estimate that the 1.5 TB option will exceed $ 31,000. Naturally, you can install your own bars after purchase, for a much softer price.
Graphic card
Let's move to the graphics card, or rather to the graphics cards. Comes with only one card by default, the Mac Pro can board two and manage up to four graphics chips. The manufacturer has created a specific module, named MPX (for " Mac Pro Expansion ") That can host something other than a graphics card, but that is primarily used for this. The base computer will come with a Radeon Pro 580X, a mid-range graphics card from AMD, with two additional options. At the top of the range, the MPX Radeon Vega II Duo, a powerful card that integrates two GPUs. According to Apple, it's even the most powerful graphic card of the moment.
And since you can integrate two MPXs to the command, you can install two Radeon Vega II Duo in one Mac Pro. In total, the workstation will have 56.8 teraflops of graphics power (FP32) and 128 GB of dedicated video memory. This is indeed very impressive and a record for Apple as well as in the AMD world. If we look at what is done at Nvidia, we can find even better on paper by combining four Quadro RTX 8000, but besides the prices would be delusional (count around 7,500 € each), the memory used by AMD is faster and the gap may not be significant.
The MPX modules were created by Apple and they have no direct equivalent in the market. We can still speculate on the price based on the Radeon Pro WX9100 which is the equivalent of the old generation of the Radeon Pro Vega II used for the Mac Pro. When it was released, this graphics card was displayed at $ 2,200 and we can estimate that we would be in the same waters. Taking into account the Apple margin, perhaps around $ 2,500 for a MPX Radeon Pro Vega II, $ 5,000 for the MPX Radeon Pro Vega II Duo?
At this point, we can only speculate and we do not know how much Apple will charge for the MPX system, nor how high will be its margin on this professional product. Anyway, we must also remember that the Mac Pro is equipped with standard PCIe ports, which can accommodate any AMD graphics card on the market. A Radeon VII equipped with chips AMD Vega 20 is currently unearthing from 750 € the unit. We should be able to put four without much problem in the Mac Pro, what have a great computing power at a much more reasonable cost.
Other extensions
The expansion capabilities of the Mac Pro will not stop there. In all, it has eight PCIe connectors, including a small one that is used by default to offer a jack, two USB-A ports and two Thunderbolt 3 on the back. Apple will also market an optional extension card named "Afterburner" which is a specialized module responsible for managing video streams in ProRES format, codec used by Final Cut Pro. Thanks to this card, the Mac Pro will be able to manage without any problem three video streams in 8K, or twelve video streams in 4K.
Beyond what the company will offer on its shop, third-party props will be able to use these expansion ports to add other features to the Mac Pro. We already know that Promise will sell a system that allows to have four RAID hard drives in an MPX module, there will surely be others by the fall and thereafter.
Storage
About storage, the Mac Pro remains exclusively on the SSD by default, as its predecessor. Two slots are dedicated to the memory and the computer will be supplied by default with an anemic module of 256 GB. In options, it will be possible to integrate up to 4 TB of storage in the form of two memory modules managed by the chip T2 of manufacturer. It's exactly the same format as the iMac Pro, except that it comes with 1 TB by default.
This component is probably the easiest to encrypt, since the company already markets Macs with 256 GB of basic storage that can be upgraded to 4 TB. Let's take the 15-inch MacBook Pro as a base. It takes 240 € to 512 GB, 720 € for 1 TB and no less than 3700 € for the 4 TB option. It probably does not have to wait much less: even if the prices of the SSD fall, prices Apple are generally very stable.
Mac's built-in SSD performance announced by Apple is lower than the best Macs. It is not clear why the manufacturer may have chosen a more reliable and slower memory. Rest badured, it will remain very fast anyway.
To finish on this point, it will probably not be possible, or at least not easy and not given, to replace oneself installed memory modules. Better to configure the right amount of internal storage – 512 GB seems like a bare minimum in 2019 – knowing that you can always rely on third-party products to increase the available storage in your computer. Without opting for a specific product, a PCIe adapter for SSD M2 format costs only twenty euros.
A Mac expensive, but aligned with its competitors
The Mac Pro will be selling from $ 6,000, but the entry-level model is not very representative of the full range. In addition to its storage of 256 GB only, its processor manages only the RAM slower and it should not be the announced power monster. From what we know, an iMac Pro should do better than this first model, present especially to have a "reasonable" call price.
To stand out from the all-in-one professional, the Mac Pro can count on its scalability and a long list of options, and that's where prices will start to increase exponentially. It is important to point out that Apple has simply given the basic rate, without detailing the prices of options and we can only speculate. This warning, I tried to imagine the price of a Mac Pro all options by taking the prices mentioned in the previous section:
As a reminder, here is how I did my calculations:
- Starting price : I badumed that, like the iMac Pro, there will be only one basic model to configure;
- Processor : the price announced by Intel processor is around $ 7,500, I added a little extra margin to get a round number;
- RAM : I relied on the price of updates for the iMac Pro ($ 5,200 for 256 GB) to get this figure;
- Graphic card : it's the most speculative price of all – we have no idea what Apple will charge for its MPX – but I used the price of an old comparable AMD graphics card to get that estimate;
- Storage : I relied heavily on the price of the update for the MacBook Pro ($ 3,000 to go from 256 GB to 4 TB in the 15 inch).
On arrival, we reach an impressive $ 58,000, or about € 51,200 at current rates. This could make the Mac Pro the most expensive Mac in Apple's history, even allowing for inflation on older models. And again, it's a price without a screen (it will add at least $ 6,000 for the Pro Display XDR and his foot), and some options, such as Afterburner, which is difficult to estimate the price (the card RED Rocket-X which has a similar role costs $ 6,750).
It's incredibly expensive, but is it too expensive? To find out, you have to compare the Mac Pro all options to a similar computer, like the HP Z8 Workstation. The comparison is not perfect, because the manufacturer does not yet offer Xeon processors similar to those of the Mac Pro, and because the graphics card created by Apple has no equivalent on the market. Nevertheless, trying to stick to the maximum, with a 28-core Xeon processor, 1.5 TB of RAM, 4 TB of NVMe SSD and two powerful graphics cards, we get a $ 53,000 machine.
This Mac Pro all options will be very expensive, undeniably, but it will probably not be too far from the market references. The difference between Apple's computer and those of its competitors is that there are really no cheap options. The same HP Z8 Workstation can stay under the $ 10,000 mark while being extremely powerful and well equipped for the majority of uses.
This is not what Apple sought, which directs its Mac Pro to the very high end, no real answer for the entry level. So, the $ 6,000 model should not be very interesting, especially when compared to the iMac Pro. For a close price, you can have an all-in-one with the option Xeon 10 cores which will be more powerful than the Xeon 8 cores of the Mac Pro, 64 GB of RAM and 1 TB of SSD, against 32 GB and 256 Go only.
And for this price, you will have in addition an excellent screen in addition to a very good computer! Already have a screen? The Mac mini updated last year is a great machine, powerful enough for those who do not need a dedicated graphics card. And even if this is the case, eGPUS are an option.
The Mac Pro entry-level should not be a very good deal a priorieven if he has the advantage of being evolutionary. You can add RAM and change its graphics card by avoiding the margins of Apple, but we feel that the manufacturer has not designed the computer for this purpose. In fact, the Mac Pro 2019 is really optimized for a handful of specific uses …
A computer cut for Hollywood
Apple introduced its new Mac Pro against a few thousand developers, but that does not mean they were the target of this new product. It is enough to judge from the examples given by the firm to highlight the qualities of the computer: video, audio and 3D were in the spotlight, not Xcode. The world of cinema, television or video games, not the world of developers.
The technical demonstrations presented during the WWDC are an excellent indicator of Apple's choices for the design of this new Mac Pro:
- The Logic Pro music creation tool can handle a thousand tracks without problems, which will be particularly interesting for the original score composers.
- Video editors will be able to use Final Cut Pro to mount three 8K video streams in parallel without slowing down.
- Pixar will be able to load full three-dimensional animation scenes on a single Mac Pro.
There is a common point between all these examples: they all have a foot in creating video or audio. To caricature, the Mac Pro was developed specifically for Hollywood.
Cinema and television professionals, advertising creators, animators of big studios – Pixar in the lead -, film music composers … that's the customers of this computer. And they will be happy to buy it, because macOS is their only option and the new Mac Pro is much better than the one of 2013. Or even because this machine sold at prices delusional for the common people is not in fact not so expensive for what it can bring them.
Apple has heavily supported this point during his keynote: the Mac Pro is ready for the current production, but also for the future. The care of the 8K responds to a need that will become widespread in the coming years, if not essential today. We imagine that the Afterburner card can be updated in a year or two to manage even more 8K streams, or even allow the computer to handle even larger video streams without problems.
And speaking of the future, one wonders if Apple has not created this new product for its own needs. After all, the company plans to become a major player in video production by launching Apple TV + in the fall. She will produce series, feature films and documentaries, and computers will be needed to edit, animate and put all of these original creations to music. This Mac Pro 2019 is probably the perfect answer …
By concentrating on a specific area, Apple has forgotten entire professional categories that took advantage of the Mac Pro at one time. All professionals can buy it if they wish, of course, but it will be very expensive and oversized in the majority of cases. Developers who were in the room of the WWDC will not really be interested in opting for this computer, the iMac Pro or a Mac mini will respond much more to their needs.
Those who wait for a properly equipped default Apple tower, sold at a reasonable price and easy to update will be for their cost. This computer has not existed in the range since 2013 and the manufacturer probably has no intention of occupying this segment again.
It will take place and if you really want to buy the successor of the Mac Pro 2000, hackintosh have not said their last word.
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