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Apple defied expectations by introducing an updated Mac Pro today, despite not mentioning the machine at WWDC, and indications that it would kill it off. Creative professionals are most definitely celebrating — it’s the first time their super-powerful computer of choice has gotten a refresh in two years, and it needed some attention in a bad way. So what exactly does the updated machine look like?
Similar to its predecessor, the new Mac Pro comes in three configurations. The base has a 3.2GHz quad-core processor, 6GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive, and the ATI Radeon 5770 graphics chip. If you’re hankering for even more power, the next step up has a 2.4GHz 12-core processor, 12GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive, and the same graphics chip. Once again, there’s also a server model, with a 3.2GHz quad-core processor, 8GB of RAM, two and 1TB hard drives. Mac Pros, of course, can also be built to order, but these are the readymade specs.
Until today, the future wasn’t so certain for the Mac Pro — sales have suffered and there is a growing selection of more affordable alternatives, making it harder to justify the expense. However, with its immense processing power, it’s an aspirational product that’s dearly loved by creative professionals.
The last update in summer 2010 gave it 12 cores of power for the first time.
Catch up on all of Apple’s WWDC announcements here
“Until today, the future wasn’t so certain for the Mac Pro” I would say the future is now very clear for the MacPro, it doesn’t have one! 2010 graphics cards does not an update make, especially for video and graphics professionals.
Well, a close relation of mine works in similar stuff, and he just read your comment, and said that this Graphics card should do fine for 99% of what he needs to do, especially given the new Photoshop’s excellent optimization of common cards such as this. And the video software, Apple’s finest, will no doubt run faster on this than anything else. Of course, given that professionals will keep this around for 5 or more years, it would be nice to start with the newest kit.
As a “Video Professional” I can tell you that a Radeon 5870 card was very good at the time but it is not great for video applications like Premiere Pro that require faster “CUDA” cards and more VRAM. If I bought the ‘new” MacPro today (I won’t ) then I would expect the system to be current for at least 3 years. The fact that they have not updated the Video cards means that the motherboard clearly cannot power a newer card so in 3 years time I would be stuck using a 5 year old video card.
Even Photoshop is starting to offload some of it’s processing to CUDA cards.
Hopefully it’s a stopgap until an actual new MacPro arrives, but I’m not going to hold my breath
Okay, over my head! You win!
I do hope they don’t change the design of the Mac Pro, it is very beautiful.
Was hoping for an update to the iMac, I need a new desktop!
this is a joke of an update, creative professionals are most certainly NOT celebrating
Unimpressive, ’tis such a shame Apple turned its back on the pro market to go all consumer. The one thing I liked about Apple was when it had these beefy workstations we all lusted after, with pro software.
The strange thing is that they didn’t lose this market, they just throw it away, and it isn’t like they don’t have money to throw at some serious pro R&D for a pro market – just too much money in the consumer market to care any more – sad.
Thank you Apple! You’ve just saved me about £3.5K
I was going to replace my current MacPro with a 2012 version but, no SATA3, no SandyBridge Xenon and whoops, the wallet snaps back shut again.
I won’t be moving to Windows PC because of this but I certainly won’t be spending any money either.
Leslie, I don’t think many Graphics professionals will be celebrating this news. It shows the MacPro is coming to the end of it’s life as consumer based hardware takes over at Apple. The only thing you got right in your piece is that the future of the Mac Pro isn’t uncertain anymore. We know exactly where it’s going.
Apple’s changed its mind – the Mac Pro is no longer marked as new, apparently due to complaints. http://9to5mac.com/2012/06/12/apple-rescinds-new-mac-pro-is-no-longer-new/
I say ‘apparently’, but I’m almost certain, due to what I’ve heard around the internet recently… And because I was one of those who complained.