The long-awaited announcement has finally been made: the new Mac Pro.
At the Worldwide Developers Conference happening this week, Tim Cook revealed the totally revamped top-of-the-line Mac for power users and professionals. Gone is the oft-derided “trash can” form factor that Apple claims stifled upgradability. The old cylinder not only had trouble accommodating more hardware but also had thermal issues with higher-power graphics cards. This go-round, Apple has returned to what is often called the “cheese grater” design of Macs past.
On the technical side, the new Mac Pro boasts Intel Xeon processors with up to 28 processing cores, the capability to power multiple AMD Radeon Pro GPUs, a 1.4-kilowatt power supply, and the ability to accommodate a staggering 1.5 TB of RAM. You read that correctly; this new rig can have more RAM than many personal computers have as storage space.
Obviously, this new device is designed for hardcore tasks, like video rendering, CAD drawing, data science tasks, and other GPU-intensive projects. With all of this power, the price tag is equally staggering. The Mac Pro is predicted to start at $6,000, and additional features could push the price beyond five figures. We’ll learn more about that this fall.
To complement this new Mac, Apple has also unveiled a new display. With Apple being known for their incredible displays for years, this one’s no exception. The Pro Display XDR is a 32-inch display with the ability to display up to 6K resolution. It also packs professional-class color gamut and LED backlight brightness. Pricing on this display is to be announced this fall, as well. Other announcements so far at WWDC include the new macOS Catalina and the introduction of a new iPadOS.
We’re also assuming that these devices will be eligible for your SMU student/faculty/staff discount, so get to saving those nickels!
