“After first teasing its newly redesigned Mac Pro in spots starting this summer, Apple provided the first real details of component specs and prices this week,” Daniel Eran Dilger reports for AppleInsider. “As expected, they are not aimed at consumers, with the base price starting at $2999 and a second tier opening at $3999. Every aspect of the new machine targets the needs of creative Mac professionals.”
“In addition to a fast, multiple core Intel CPU, the Mac Pro makes dedicated use of one GPU for driving video displays while the second is reserved for computing, from audio and graphics processing to scientific number crunching or 3D rendering,” Dilger reports. “Apple directly pitches its new Mac Pro at video editing, 3D modeling and animation, photography, graphic design, audio, and science and technology professionals.”
Dilger reports, “With support for both OpenGL 4.1 and OpenCL (which drives computationally intensive, general purpose tasks on free GPU cores), the dual standard FirePro D300 to D700 GPUs deliver up to 7 teraflops of computational muscle, workstation class graphics power with capabilities and computational accuracy well beyond the typical higher-end consumer, Radeon-style GPUs designed primarily for playing video games.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Apple: Making the all-new Mac Pro (with video) – October 23, 2013
Apple redefines pro computing with all-new Mac Pro starting at $2999 – October 22, 2013
Bitchin’
I’ll say so, and for people who might charge $100 an hour or more for their time, this computer is a cheap, cheap tool. I wish I needed it at my office, but it’s overkill for the work I do.
But I bet a lot of rich consumers will buy it!!
Yes, anyone buying those new Sony 84″ (diag) XBR 4K Ultra HD TV sets for $25,000 will need a MacPro to stream the downloaded video to it. So, a $3,000 MacPro is the cheap accessory you need for that $25,000 4K HDTV your getting for Christmas.
Apple isn’t making stuff for the low end of the population. However, 2 years from now, the MacPro power will be what everyone has in their home. Have some vision and try to see the future. It has an Apple logo on it!
Did you notice no one is worried about Sony selling their 84″ (diag) XBR 4K Ultra HD TV for $24,999.999 Each. Some how, Sony can sell them for $25,000 and everyone is Ok with that. But, Apple selling a MacPro so they can see the 4K HDTV movie on the new Sony set isn’t got a prayer. The tax on the Sony set is half the cost of a MacPro.
Not everyone eats at McDonald’s and some people fly around in their private jets too.
Last weekend, I went sailing with a fellow who flies those private jets — he’s a Mac guy all the way… 🙂
The current state of the art is for UHDTV (It is NOT really 4K and neither is that Sony you mention) is $5,000 for a 50″ class TV and $6,000 for a 60″ class TV. The SONY at $25,000 is old new and effectively superseded.
Oh, and there’s an approximately $2,000 UHDTV out there. It’s pretty poor quality, but it exists.
I dont need it but i want it 🙂
Some of the Pros have already weighed in as that the base configuration’s 256GB SSD is inadequate for their ‘barebones’ installations of their productivity applications.
…and for ‘Prosumers’, the Thunderbolt Tax on storage is still the elephant in the room.
-hh
I hope there are at least two slots for SSD’s. SSD’s are great, but at about a buck per GB, not cheap. Wouldn’t take much effort to configure a $10,000 system. Though I probably don’t need that much power, I’d still like to own one. It’s pretty cool seeing a program like Photoshop boot up in two seconds.
They’re not SSDs, at least not the consumer types you normally buy.
They’re PCIe flash storage, which is 2.5x the speed of SATA-based SSDs and 10x the speed of 7200 rpm drives.
Whats important to see is these are super fast SSD’s as said by mossman. We’re talking over 1GB a second read and write, over twice as fast as current SSD… Thats just scary speed. If you need more for pro work, just pick up a thunderbolt raid with SSDs or harddisks and you’re good to go. I truely don’t think any ‘barebones’ install requires THAT much space. Usually these are programs that include a bunch of additional content of which not all is important and could be put on a secondary drive/raid, while the primary and most important stuff and current document is on the screaming fast internal.
Dontcha just love these new videos?!!
The iPad Air ‘pencil’ ad is easily one of the best Apple has ever produced.
I agree, it’s up there with “Here’s to the crazy ones..”
I dunno, those Microsoft clicky Surface ads are the ones to beat… with a stick into FAIL pulp.
I want to work in that factory.
Am I the only one who can’t watch these in landscape mode on my phone? Is it an MDN thing?
I want it. But the question is can I connect it to my 2012 iMac screen with thunderbolt? Will I be able to use my 2TB iMac HD for both the Mac Pro and the iMac itself?
Did anyone expect this to be a consumer device? I would like to use it as a 4k media hub but waiting for the 4k iTunes library and Apple TV that was supposed to come out 3years ago. /s
I’m still pissed off that the promised time machine is so late, though I guess when it’s perfected they can always sell it yesterday.
There are some hobbyists who owned the 2006-2012 Mac Pros who absolutely hate the fact that there are no PCI-e slots and that the graphics cards can not be easily replaced. They are now left with no Mac that caters to them.
That being said, the title of this article is spot on. This new Mac Pro is most certainly not intended for the consumer crowd, or the hobbyists for that matter.
Apple always leaves old technology in its dust. I hear that the floppy disc was the first thing to go in the new Mac Pro.
Sometimes Apple makes mistakes.
The new Mac Pro’s fortunes are strongly tied to the market success of Thunderbolt. That’s a risk that may or may not play out well for Apple.
There’s more than enough room in the Mac lineup for a mid-size tower with moderate internal expansion. Toss in i7 chips instead of Xeons, discrete upgradeable GPUs, and a price halfway between the mini and the new Mac Pro — and it would fly off the shelves at your local Apple retailer.
I see…..WIRES!!!!
I wonder if the called it Mac Pro for a reason?
But will it blend?
How could you call yourself an Apple fan and not drool and dream and want and BUY ?!!!
I’d have to sell a relative or two into slavery first.
Actually, I’m surpised the Mac Mini didn’t get a facelift: “the NEW Mac Mini! It may be plastic, but it’s round and black. Your non-techie friends will never know you can’t afford a Pro!” 😉
The new Mac Pro is designed to be connected to a server and how many home users have their own servers set up (besides me, that it)? I’m looking forward to getting one of these Vader Macs on my desk at work in the near future.
Not really a server per se (as gigabit ethernet is typically too slow to feed a workstation for most tasks (though it may work for home use))
Typically I would think most would either use a Local Raid (via Thunderbolt) or a SAN (storage area network. (via thunderboltSAN adaptor) We have a fiber SAN (fed via optical fiber) and can feed workstations at 8Gbps (8 times gigabit ethernet speeds, and the newer versions of SAN’s double that to 16Gbps)
Over time, I’ll probably build a stable of new external peripherals to go with this thing. In the meantime, I’ll probably have to keep my old Mac Pro as my expansion chassis for it (optical drive, BluRay drive, 4 internal drives). I just wish that box had Thunderbolt capability, or a way to add it. Ironic – waited all this time for a new Mac Pro, and can’t get rid of the old one.
Of course, I could wait to get the new one until prices on Thunderbolt peripherals come down, but that’s not happening terribly quickly.
And I want one now. Yes I do.
I nominate this as the most obvious story title for the year.
I think we’re going to be a little surprised at how many “consumers” are going to get into an entry-level machine by next summer – It’s pricey, but that’s an aweful lot of power/$100.00.