The Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR were released three years ago today | Jobs Vox

The current Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR were released three years ago today, marking Apple’s return to a modular tower design for its flagship desktop Mac, as well as the company’s re-entry into the outdoor display market.

In April 2018, Apple unusually confirmed that a redesigned Mac Pro would be released in 2019 to replace the controversial “trash can” model from 2013. The new machine was officially unveiled at WWDC 2019 alongside the Pro Display XDR, Apple’s first new display since the Thunder1. display The Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR were finally released on December 10th of that year.

The 2019 ‌Mac Pro‌ features the prominent grille originally designed for the Power Mac G4 Cube in 2000, and internals can be easily accessed by sliding the case. The machine includes eight PCIe slots for expansion and has been praised for its modularity and repairability. It can be purchased in a rack mount configuration or with wheels for an additional $400.

The Mac Pro includes three pulse fans that allow it to run at peak performance and supports up to 1.5TB of memory, two AMD Radeon Pro GPUs, and Intel Xeon chips with up to 28 cores. It can also be configured with Apple’s custom Afterburner card for ProRes acceleration. The Pro Display XDR shares the lattice design of the Mac Pro and offers a high-resolution 32-inch 6K panel that can replace the reference monitor.

The Mac Pro starts at $5,999, but can reach nearly $53,000 with configuration options. The Pro Display XDR starts at $4,999, but can go up to around $7,200 with options.

Three years after its release, the ‌Mac Pro‌ is one of the last Intel-based Mac models still on sale and the only remaining Mac product line without Apple’s silicon chips. The all-new model, which finally brings Apple silicon to the company’s top-tier Mac professionals, has been anticipated for more than two years. At its “Peek Performance” event earlier this year, Apple outright kissed the release of Apple’s silicon Mac Pro, saying, “That’s for another day.”

Previously, rumors of a Mac Pro model that sits somewhere between the Mac mini and the Mac Pro made it difficult to know what to expect from the future of the high-end Mac Pro line, but now it’s clear that many of these rumors are related. Mac Studio goes some way to explaining what we can expect from the next generation Mac Pro.

Many reports BloombergMarc Gurman on Apple’s silicon Mac Pro chip options and specs gives a pretty clear picture of what to expect from the new flagship professional Mac. According to Gurman, users will be able to configure the new Mac Pro with “M2 Ultra” and “M2 Extreme” chip options.

However, beyond its basic specifications, little is currently known about the device’s design, ports, performance, and potential for modularity and customization, really. Apple is expected to introduce the Apple Silicon ‌Mac Pro‌ next year, and it may come with a “Pro” version of the Studio Display with a mini-LED panel and ProMotion support.