The Powermac G5 had a (then) new PPC processor which (arguably, at least) outperformed anything Intel had to offer at the time. It had a beautiful, custom-designed aluminium case with tool-free access and quiet running - at a time when PCs almost universally came in boring beige boxes made out of finger-shredding mild steel. It cost from $2400 (or $3340 after inflation - not that inflation is particularly applicable to computer equipment) - or $200 more than the highest spec iMac at the time.
In 2019, the only real architectural difference between the new Mac Pro and a bog-standard Xeon workstation is the T2 chip (...bringing lots of physical security features that may be invaluable on a laptop or tablet that you might leave on the train but, on a workstation, mainly just tie you into using Apple's overpriced SSD blades). The MPX slots are a neater alternative to having flying power and DisplayPort leads hanging from your PCIe cards (although the only reason you need the internal DP-to-Thunderbolt leads is that only Apple makes/endorses high-end displays that
can't just plug directly into the DP output on your GPU) - but you're going to pay for that little bit of neatness in the form of a limited range of MPX cards at inflated prices (because a Mac-only MPX module is
always going to cost more to make than a generic PCIe card). What
is neat about MPX is the way that the slots can also be used for standard PCIe cards - but since every other Xeon tower can take standard PCIe cards that's what XKCD would call
Asbestos-free breakfast cereal.
Apart from that, most of what Apple demoed wasn't
Apple technology but Intel and AMD technology that will be coming to a beige box near you by the time the new Mac Pro ships. Afterburner? Brings Apple's Pro apps into line with other pro apps for which hardware acceleration is available.
8 PCIe slots? You can get specialist PC motherboards with
11 x16 PCIe slots (for serious GPU-powered computing... and if the cheaper options only have 4
that's because its all that most people - even those buying Xeon workstations - need) .
28 CPU cores? You can already get Xeon towers that can take
dual 28-core CPUs. Of course, the latest, only-just-launched Xeon-W CPUs aren't showing up in the online configurators, yet, but they will by the time the MP is in the shops. Anyway, if you're the sort of super-demanding user that is likely to be buying the higher-spec Mac Pros your alternative is not going to be buying off-the-peg from HP.
That brings us to the entry-level: $6000 for a Xeon tower with a
non-user-upgradeable 8-core CPU (so, no, you're not going to buy this model if you also want to fill those PCIe slots with high-end goodies), the same GPU as the high-end iMac (not Pro) and a 256GB SSD that's going to be a bit tight by the time you install some Pro apps and (e.g.) sound libraries. The iMac Pro has a better spec and includes $1000 worth of display... You're basically paying $2000 for more PCIe slots than you need, because the only alternative that Apple offers is none.
Even if you think the fully-expanded monster that they were showing off at WWDC is something special that true pros will pay the price for, the entry-level Mac Pro
is not that system and is still nearly twice the price of previous entry-level Mac Pros. That's a massive slap in the face for people who previously bought Mac Pros because they wanted a moderately powerful, expandable desktop.
Sorry - but if you take off your rose-tinted specs, the new Mac Pro is a cynical attempt to wring more money out of customers who are so committed to FCPX or Logic that its cheaper to just shell out for overpriced hardware than bear the costs of re-training and re-tooling. This isn't a new dawn for Apple - its more like Apple seeing how many fish they can pull out of a shrinking pond before it dries up.
