apple mac pro wwdc

Photo: Apple

Apple WWDC 2019: Here’s what you need to know about the new Mac Pro update

Apple announced at their annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) that the Mac Pro is getting a major software update.

apple mac pro wwdc

Photo: Apple

Amongst the changes to the Apple ecosystem, the tech giant announced an update to their top end power PC range at the WWDC. It will replace the 2013 Mac Pro with a edgier design and serious power under its bonnet.

Trash cans and cheese graters

The 2013 Mac Pro with it’s distinctive “trash can” design was aimed at commercial users. The ones who needed industrial strength machines to handle large scale image, video, and sound processing tasks.

This latest redesign is considerably less trash can and a little bit more cheese grater. The new professional computing solution has reverted to a more traditional PC style chassis; with the cooling grille and exposed chrome and curves.

It almost gives it a real performance car feel. Inside the shiny new box, you’ll find all the power Apple could cram into it and still keep it from melting into a shiny puddle.

Mac Pro stats for nerds

Memory and graphics

The Mac Pro will ship with an Intel Xeon CPU with up to 28 cores and up to 1.5 terabytes of memory. When it comes to graphics, the Mac Pro will run the AMD Radeon Pro Vega II card.

The folks at the WWDC were not feeling modest. They are laying claim to the title of “world’s most powerful graphics architecture. And I don’t know that anyone is arguing with them.

Performance

The Radeon Pro Vega II card will make 14 teraflops of processing power available and 32GB of memory. That is about double that of an Xbox One X or three times that of a PS4 Pro.

If for some reason that’s not enough power for you, you’ll be able to upgrade to the AMD Pro Vega II Duo, which will give you two GPUs per card.

If that’s still not meeting your needs, you’ll be able to fit two of those cards in the Mac Pro maxing out at 4 GPUs and 128Gb of memory for your graphics processing needs.

According to Apple, the Mac Pro will be able to run six 6k displays. That’s a resolution a little bit over 122MP. While the Mac Pro has all the usual warnings, they have at least tried to make the Mac Pro more modular.

The downside

However, power users could be a bit frustrated at the limited options when it comes to upgrading the hardware in ways that Apple did not have in mind.

The ‘trash can’ Mac Pro was retailing for around R70 000. Based on the current exchange rate this new, improved ‘cheese grater’ Mac Pro will be going for around R90 000. The US release date is set for later this year.

Also read – Apple WWDC 2019: Goodbye iTunes, hello Apple Music