Mac Pro Launching in December with Xeon Processors, Dual FirePro GPUs and PCIe Flash Storage

[MacRumors]

At today's media event in San Francisco, Apple announced the release window, specs and pricing for the long-awaited update to the Mac Pro. The Mac Pro, which will be released by the end of the year, is Apple's first computer in many years to be assembled in the United States. During the event, Apple noted that more than 2,000 people in 20 states are involved in the Mac Pro's development and assembly.

The new Mac Pro is a complete and radical redesign of the tower/workstation design that Apple has used since the G5 tower was introduced in 2003. The tower includes a unique cylindrical design that wraps all of the machine's components around a unified thermal core which absorbs heat from throughout the machine and disperses it through a vertically-oriented fan that draws air in from the bottom of the machine and vents it out through the machine's top.

The Mac Pro features the latest Intel Ivy Bridge E Xeon processors with up to 12 cores, dual AMD FirePro GPUs, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, and PCIe-based flash storage with ECC memory, USB 3.0, and faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

"The new Mac Pro is our vision for the future of the pro desktop, everything about it has been reimagined and there has never been anything like it," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "The new Mac Pro packs up to 12-core Xeon CPUs, dual FirePro GPUs, ultra-fast ECC memory, new PCIe flash storage, Thunderbolt 2 expandability and more into a radical new design that is one-eighth the size of the previous generation Mac Pro."

In the United States, pricing for the Mac Pro begins at $2,999 for the entry-level model, with a number of additional build-to-order components available at an additional cost. The Mac Pro will begin shipping in December.

Apple gave an unusual sneak peek at the redesigned Mac Pro earlier this year at WWDC, after promising a year earlier that a redesign was forthcoming. The redesigned Mac Pro is the first update the product has seen in more than three years.

Article Link: Mac Pro Launching in December with Xeon Processors, Dual FirePro GPUs and PCIe Flash Storage

 

[SandboxGeneral]

At the entry level price point, I'm even tempted to get one. Just need a nice display to go with it.

 

[keysofanxiety]

At the entry level price point, I'm even tempted to get one. Just need a nice display to go with it.

Right you are! The Xeons are hyperthreaded, right? I'm interested to see what sort of benchmarks the quad-core one would get. The price seems fairly okay for what you get, to be honest. The Apple tax isn't that high in this instance.

 

[milo]

So much for the predictions that the base model couldn't possibly start any less than $6000. I'm dying to see the full price list of the 6, 8, and 12 core versions.

 

[paulrbeers]

I wish I could get one with a single GPU rather than the dual to save myself $300-500 and dump that cash into CPU upgrades, but $3K is not a bad starting point....

 

[blesscheese]

Let others complain, this is a great computer, for a good price.

I just never buy version 1 of *anything*.

 

[george-brooks]

Pretty happy with the base price, but not looking forward to see what the 6 and 8 cores with a decent ssd are gonna cost.

Also, I must say, I'm not terribly happy with the color. Before, it looked like a nice clean black. Now, in the videos from today, it looks more like a highly reflective black chrome. Tacky tacky tacky!

 

[puckhead193]

Happy about the price however, December!!! So much for the fall...
No new displays? ...fail
edit anyone else notice on apple's site on specs in the box, its just the computer and power cord... no keyboard or mouse...

 

[DrFreeman]

Cuda

I am a bit surprised, the CUDA by NVIDIA is something that is being used widely in the industry and I am a bit baffled that they went for ATI ........

 

[2Turbo]

Without a new Apple display, this is useless to me.

 

[Grimace]

It doesn't come with a keyboard and mouse for $3000?????

 

[petsounds]

I like how Apple's endorsement guy for audio recording said, "It's quiet!" Please. I had hoped for an Open CL focused version of Logic, but it appears Apple doesn't care. I'm sad to say, I don't see much justification to buy this machine for audio work. They've left the FirePro cards completely useless with audio, and thus you're spending lots of money on something left unused.

 

[Xerotech]

Happy about the price however, December!!! So much for the fall...
No new displays? ...fail

Yeah, coming fall meant the announcement to announce the Mac Pro in December.
Yes yes yes yes. I have been waiting for them to announce or at least reference to a 4K display. It can drive 3 4k displays, but what do you recommend us buying Apple? Dell.

 

[alvindarkness]

Right you are! The Xeons are hyperthreaded, right? I'm interested to see what sort of benchmarks the quad-core one would get. The price seems fairly okay for what you get, to be honest. The Apple tax isn't that high in this instance.

I agree. If anything I'd go further and say that for the hardware inside, they are good value, irrespective of who is making it.

 

[Grimace]

Looks like you can add RAM yourself after the fact. The base model has only 3 slots filled.

 

[Perfect Score]

I like the design a lot. Actual form improvement! Imagine that!

Although not including display and inputs at this price point is not a good strategy.. Oh well, gotta pay to play I guess.

 

[kylepro88]

I am a bit surprised, the CUDA by NVIDIA is something that is being used widely in the industry and I am a bit baffled that they went for ATI ........

This has been known for months...why are you surprised now?

 

[AtariMac]

You do realize that fall goes to December 20th?

Happy about the price however, December!!! So much for the fall...
No new displays? ...fail
edit anyone else notice on apple's site on specs in the box, its just the computer and power cord... no keyboard or mouse...

 

[NewbieCanada]

It doesn't come with a keyboard and mouse for $3000?????

I doubt it's being bought by many first time computer buyers. No more reason it should come with those than with a monitor.

 

[jdblas69]

Online store is back up at least in Canada

http://store.apple.com/ca/buy-mac/mac-pro

Only shows price to go up to 6 core also get more ram and better GPU for now.
Can also be upgraded to 8 and 12 core, no pricing on those configs

 

[DrFreeman]

This has been known for months...why are you surprised now?

Because it is still a bit odd that they did not give an option even for Nvidia! MATLAB, Cadence and other important industry/research tools all support Nvidia CUDA...

 

[macpro2000]

Yeah, coming fall meant the announcement to announce the Mac Pro in December.
Yes yes yes yes. I have been waiting for them to announce or at least reference to a 4K display. It can drive 3 4k displays, but what do you recommend us buying Apple? Dell.

I second this. In December they will announce a PreSale.

 

[ericinboston]

Let others complain, this is a great computer, for a good price.

...that you can order months from now and get sometime in January likely. Apple's been holding this carrot out since when, June? Sheeeez.

 

[iBug2]

I wonder what the performance of these AMD cards are. We need some benchmarks ASAP when we figure out which chipsets they use. Really thinking about the 4core model with the dual d700 setup and 32 GB's of RAM.

 

[paulrbeers]

Happy about the price however, December!!! So much for the fall...
No new displays? ...fail
edit anyone else notice on apple's site on specs in the box, its just the computer and power cord... no keyboard or mouse...

Ummm, 70% of December is still Fall....

http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/aboutseasons.html