We’ll have to wait until we get the Mac Pro into PC Labs to really judge performance. But Apple clearly went out of its way to create a powerhouse workstation, with a new modular approach to some of the parts.
(Photo: BRITTANY HOSEA-SMALL/AFP/Getty Images)
The wags have already chimed in: Apple’s new Mac Pro looks like a giant cheese grater. But behind the aluminum casing is a configurable desktop PC made to easily add or swap out components.
The refreshed model has eight PCI Express slots—more than double the number on the last Mac Pro—so you can slide in additional graphics cards or other expansion cards, and use some new modular carrier hardware (which Apple dubs «MPX Modules») to outfit the machine with up to four extremely high-end workstation-grade GPUs.
SEE ALSO: What’s New in macOS CatalinaA Configurable Monster
If you need more RAM, no problem. The new Intel Xeon-based motherboard has 12 DIMM slots, which can be configured with up to 768GB or 1.5TB of RAM, depending on the CPU chosen. (Full specs can be found on Apple’s website; Apple notes that the actual installable RAM maximum is 1TB or 2TB, the latter with the two highest-end Xeon CPU choices.)
Apple designed the Mac Pro to address any and all needs from professional users, such as software engineers, graphic designers, and data scientists. So the company focused on providing a solid foundation on which owners can build using modular parts. The result is a machine that looks nothing like the last Mac Pro, which sported a rounded, canister-like shell. Instead, the new model looks more like a standard desktop tower (more along the lines of the old Power Mac desktops), making it easier to swap in off-the-shelf components.
