Mac Pro Buyer's Guide: Comparing the Generations

[MacRumors]

With the launch of the new Mac Pro, Apple has finally completed the transition to Apple silicon across the entire Mac lineup. Over the past decade, Apple has only released three new Mac Pros and the latest version starts at $6,999 – the highest starting price of any Mac Pro model to date – making it all the more important to consider if now is a good time to upgrade or even if an older model will suffice for your needs.

The 2023 Mac Pro is the first of its kind to feature Apple silicon and all previous models had Intel processors. While the machine loses support for eGPUs, it is around twice as powerful as the previous top-tier Mac Pro while maintaining a mostly modular design with seven PCIe slots. Even so, some first-time Mac Pro customers or users of the 2013 model may be able to obtain a 2019 Mac Pro second-hand or from a third-party retailer for a substantially lower price, so it will be important to weigh up exactly what was added with each new version of the machine.

See the breakdown below for each new feature, change, and improvement that was added with each Mac Pro compared to its direct predecessor:

Mac Pro (Apple silicon Tower, 2023)

• Apple M2 Ultra chip
• 24-core CPU
• Up to 76-core GPU
• Up to 192GB unified memory
• Non-upgradeable memory
• Dedicated media engine for hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW with two video decode engines, four video encode engines, and four ProRes encode and decode engines
• 32-core Neural Engine
• Seven PCI Express expansion slots
• Eight Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports
• Three USB-A ports
• 3.5 mm headphone jack with advanced support for high-impedance headphones
• HDMI 2.1 port with support for multichannel audio output
• Support for up to eight 4K displays, six 6K displays, or three 8K displays
• 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6E
• Bluetooth 5.3
• Weighs 37.2 pounds (16.86 kg) as tower or 37.9 pounds (17.21 kg) as rack
• Starts at $6,999

Mac Pro (Intel Tower, 2019)

• Silver tower design with lattice pattern and three impeller fans
• Intel Xeon W processor
• Up to 28-core CPU
• Up to AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo GPU with 120 total compute units
• Up to 1.5TB memory
• Up to 8TB storage
• Eight PCI Express expansion slots
• Up to 12 Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports
• Two USB 3 ports
• Dual 10 Gb Ethernet
• Up to two HDMI 2.0 ports
• Support for up to 12 4K displays, six 5K displays, or six Pro Display XDRs
• Bluetooth 5.0
• Weighs 39.7 pounds (18.0 kg) as tower or 38.8 pounds (17.6 kg) as rack
• Started at $5,999

Mac Pro (Intel Cylinder, 2013)

• Space Black cylindrical design with thermal core, single impeller fan, and illuminated ports
• Intel Xeon E5 processor
• Up to 12-core CPU
• Up to Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPU with 64 total compute units
• Up to 64GB memory
• User-upgradeable memory
• Up to 1TB storage
• Six Thunderbolt 2 ports
• Four USB 3 ports
• Dual Gigabit Ethernet
• 3.5 mm headphone jack
• HDMI 1.4 Ultra HD port
• Support for up to three dual-cable 5K displays or six Thunderbolt displays
• 802.11ac Wi-Fi 5
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Weighs 11 pounds (4.9 kg)
• Started at $2,999

Upgrade to the 2023 Mac Pro?

In most workflows, the M2 Ultra chip should offer a massive performance improvement over the Intel Xeon W processors offered in the 2019 Mac Pro, especially in CPU-intensive tasks. Early benchmarks indicate that it delivers around two-times faster overall CPU performance than the fastest Intel-based Mac Pro with a 28-core Xeon W processor.

For machine learning processes, the 2023 Mac Pro has a significant advantage with the M2 Ultra's 32-core Neural Engine. Likewise, its dedicated media engine offers considerable benefits in video editing workflows.

The new Mac Pro can support 8K external displays for the first time. It also has newer Wi-Fi and Bluetooth specifications, as well as two USB-A ports and support for high-impedance headphones.

If you're looking for a high-end, future-proof machine that harnesses the best available performance with Apple silicon, as well as its more modern specifications, it will be worth opting for the new Mac Pro.

...Or Stick With the 2019 Mac Pro?

Not all 2013 or 2019 Mac Pro users should upgrade to the 2023 model. Most notably, the 2019 Mac Pro features an Intel chip. While support for Apple silicon is now much better in professional workflows than it was upon its launch in 2020, some niche applications and legacy software may still work better on an Intel architecture. Likewise, some users may wish to dual-boot Windows via Boot Camp and this is not possible on the new Mac Pro.

If you require support for additional graphics cards, only In... Click here to read rest of article

Article Link: Mac Pro Buyer's Guide: Comparing the Generations

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

5,1 is the 2nd best Mac Pro.

 

[blazerunner]

You used to get a lot of value out of a Mac Pro. Now you pay as much as you would for a car and you can't even add a dedicated GPU into it. Apple has the balls to charge $3,000 more for the Mac Pro over the Studio just to give you PCIe slots.

Ridiculously overpriced.

 

[Sorinut]

The only person I know with a Mac Pro has two 52-channel audio cards that she uses for recording a full orchestra on the regular.

Don't know what else you would use PCI for with the Apple Silicon Pro, other than network cards. If you're not gaming, what would a dedicated video card be good for on a Mac?

 

[yurc]

5,1 outclass 6,1 in GPU department thanks to vacant PCIe slots, anyone can pop newer metal compatible graphic card, albeit the powerful one need PSU to be pixlas'ed.

Not mentioning another expansion like TB3, 10Gb ethernet, nvme raidcard, storage, etc.

 

[Longplays]

Top 5 Companies, Worldwide PC Workstation Shipments, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, 2022 (shipments in thousands of units)

Company	2022 Shipments	2022 Market Share	2021 Shipments	2021 Market Share	2022/2021 Growth
1. Dell Technologies	3,171.2	41.4%	2,979.6	39.8%	+6.4%
2. HP Inc.	2,580.4	33.7%	2,549.3	34.0%	+1.2%
3. Lenovo	1,860.0	24.3%	1,920.9	25.6%	-3.2%
4. ASUS	24.5	0.3%	19.7	0.3%	+24.3%
5. NEC	20.1	0.3%	26.1	0.3%	-22.7%
Total	7,656.2	100.0%	7,495.6	100.0%	+2.1%

Source: https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS50454823

Apple's identified use case for the 2023 Mac Pro are:

• Music production
• Video transcoding
• 3D rendering
• Animation

7.6562 million PC workstations out of 292.3 million PCs.

For those wondering it is a rounded up 2.62%.

When applied to the 28.6 million Macs shipped in 2022 it would be a rounded up approx 75,000 for 2022.

Apple's pro desktops are the Mac Studio & Mac Pro.

Let us assume that the 75,000 units shipped are all Mac Pros.

Are they sufficiently numerous to have Apple make Mac Pro-specific R&D to return removed 2019 Mac Pro features?

At minimum this would return 3rd party RAM & 3rd party SSD back that Apple derives nearly zero revenue from.

 

[bsbeamer]

Seriously, how can this article that includes the MP6,1 trashcan be written and not include any references to the MP5,1?

 

[rpmurray]

Noticed that the 2019 has "Silver tower design with lattice pattern and three impeller fans" but the 2023 doesn't. What are the differences?

 

[CarAnalogy]

Wow that is a long list of caveats. The only compelling reason is that Apple will be dropping Intel support next year, or the year after that at most.

Someone at Apple really wants the Mac Pro gone.

 

[flottenheimer]

Ultimately, Pro users working within 3D are probably way better off going for a PC with an Nvidia card.
I can't believe Apple were not able to or willing to match current PC GPU performance. Such a shame.

 

[rpmurray]

Could we please stop calling the 2023 a "Mac Pro"? It's a Mac Studio Pro at best. And way overpriced for just the addition of some PCIe slots.

 

[Hartley]

Noticed that the 2019 has "Silver tower design with lattice pattern and three impeller fans" but the 2023 doesn't. What are the differences?

The 2019 and 2023 Mac Pro lists only contain changes over their predecessor. Since the designs of the 2019 and 2023 models are the same, it only appears as a change for the 2019 model.

 

[pp_amorim]

Do you think Apple will ever release the R1 chip as an external GPU? It's surprising that there isn't much buzz about it, considering that the R1 seems to handle content processing tasks just like a GPU does.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Beautiful yet the set up is extremely expensive!

 

[3xBoom]

A pretty poor job at organizing information in the review. A table view with columns and rows of related values would have been helpful. Duh...

 

[CWallace]

Do you think Apple will ever release the R1 chip as an external GPU?

I would think not, since it is custom-designed for the Vision Pro headset. However, it is possible it could serve as the basis of a possible "off package" Apple GPU.

It's surprising that there isn't much buzz about it, considering that the R1 seems to handle content processing tasks just like a GPU does.

I am sure there will be technical deep-dives into the R1 in the future once the Vision Pro is in the hands of reviewers and Apple publishes technical and developer data on it.

I am really interested to know what is inside the R1. If it is primarily a GPU, could it be the mythical "Lifuka" Apple GPU rumored way back in 2020 just before the M1 was announced?

 

[Darren.h]

wow. you don't even get dual 10 gig ethernet on the new Apple silicon Mac. 2019 Mac Pro had it

and you still pay $1000 more for the new one.

Geez.

 

[Solver]

Definitely prefer the large expandable Mac Pros over the small stylistic Mac Pros.

 

[jsalda]

I wonder how this new one is going to sell? I doubt it will do very well. Apple is regressing in the Pro department once again and I don’t see them ever truly getting back into it, especially with TC at the helm. People who have the Intel versions are not going to upgrade, they will just switch over/back to Win and never come back. It’s really sad, ‘cause I remember when they were releasing Pro level machines right and left back in the day.

 

[WaxedJacket]

I still love the trashcan model and would love for them to take that chassis and load it up on new Apple chips and RAM.

 

[JackLeBoul]

Näh....

Still loving my 2010 Mac Pro 5,1 with :

- 2 x 6-core 3.46 Xenon
- 96 GB Ram (triple channel)
- 10Gbe Network card
- 4TB NvMe blades
- 24 TB internal storage
- Ventura 13.4

An absolute beast that has worked nonstop for 13 years!

 

[Unami]

If you require support for external graphics cards, only Intel-based Macs can support this..

Not only that, the 2019 macpro also supports INTERNAL GPUs - although, the article just confuses internal, integrated and e-gpus.

For machine learning processes, the 2023 Mac Pro has a significant advantage with the M2 Ultra's 32-core Neural Engine.

Nope, most machine learning nowadays is done on the tensor cores of nvidia cards which the new macpro does not support.

If you're not gaming, what would a dedicated video card be good for on a Mac?

Machine learning, maybe even crypto-mining.

 

[Atarikid]

All new GPU cards have hardware accelerated AV1 encoding. M2 sadly not. That's very probably for M3.
Seeing AV1 is a major video codec nowadays, most pro-level video users need this. Basically this new Mac Pro is not very attractive for those users.

 

[DJC631]

*laughs in 5,1*

For real tho, I'm not replacing this thing until it literally dies.

 

[pp_amorim]

No, since it is custom-designed for the Vision Pro headset.




I am sure there will be technical deep-dives into the R1 in the future once the Vision Pro is in the hands of reviewers and Apple publishes technical and developer data on it.

There's a hint that connecting an M-series chip to an externals R1s co-processors might be possible. Custom-designed for the VP doesn't mean they can't expand this connection to external co-processors, potentially boosting data processing. Picture R1 cards with 192GB VRAM, allowing for mind-blowing capabilities if you could plug in four of them.