This Mac Pro costs same as 2BHK flat or Mercedes-Benz

Apple, earlier in the year announced to bring the new Mac Pro with top-of-the-line specifications and now, the premium desktop is finally up for sale in select global markets.

However, the price of the new Mac Pro is drawing flak on social media platforms, as the top-end model with all the accessories and software costs an eye-watering $53,047.99 (approx. Rs 37,46,488- based on online forex rates) same as a 2BHK apartment in Bengaluru or, a Mercedes-Benz B-Class variant car in India.

The Mac Pro (2019) is touted to house the world’s most powerful graphics card and can support up to 56 teraflops of graphics performance in a computer. It comes with Apple MPX Module, which features Thunderbolt integration and over 500W of power, both firsts for any graphics card. And for super smooth and noise-less operation and, the MPX Module is cooled by the Mac Pro system thermals, Apple claims.

Furthermore, the Mac Pro graphics options start with the Radeon Pro 580X. The Mac Pro, for the first time, brings the Radeon Pro Vega II, featuring up to 14 teraflops of computing performance and 32GB of memory with 1TB/s of memory bandwidth, the highest of any GPU.

Also, the Mac Pro brings Radeon Pro Vega II Duo, which features two Vega II GPUs that can offer 28 teraflops of graphics performance and support 64GB of memory, making it the world’s most powerful graphics card. Mac Pro can accommodate two MPX Modules so customers can use two Vega II Duos for a staggering 56 teraflops of graphics performance and 128GB of video memory.

Apple Mac Pro top-end configuration (Picture credit: Apple)

The new Mac Pro comes with a powerful Xeon processor up to 28 cores, with 64 PCI Express lanes for seamless performance and massive bandwidth. It also provides over 300W of power along with a state-of-the-art thermal architecture to allow the processor to run fully unconstrained all the time. Also, it supports 1.4 kilowatts power supply, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, built-in speaker, 3.5mm headphone jack with headset support, six Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40 Gbps), two USB-C (up to 10 Gbps), and two 10Gb Ethernet ports.

It boasts a six-channel memory architecture and 12 physical DIMM slots and allows for a massive 1.5TB of RAM, the most ever available in a Mac. And with eight PCI Express expansion slots, which is twice that of the previous-generation Mac Pro tower, device owners will have the freedom to customise and expand their system configuration over time.

Here's what is coming in the top-end Mac Pro model:

It includes 28‑core 2.5GHz Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz, 1.5TB (12x128GB) of DDR4 ECC memory Two Radeon Pro Vega II Duo with 2x32GB of HBM2 memory each, 4TB SSD storage (encrypted by the Apple T2 security chip.), stainless steel frame with wheels (or fixed feet), Magic Mouse 2 + Magic Trackpad 2, Apple Afterburner card, Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad - US English and Final Cut Pro X.

It can be noted that the Pro Display XDR Monitor is not part of the aforementioned configuration and the consumers have to buy it separately. The generic variant costs $4,999 (roughly Rs 3,53,826) and the fancier model with nano texture will set you back by $5,999 (around Rs 4,23,826).

The Pro Display XDR features a 32-inch Retina 6K display with 1,600 nits of peak brightness, 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and a super wide viewing angle.

With a P3 wide colour gamut and true 10-bit colour for over 1 billion colours, users will have a more true-to-life viewing experience — critical for video and photo editing, 3D animation or colour grading.

Apple Mac Pro (2019) with Pro Display XDR Monitor (Picture Credit: Apple)

Also, Apple claims that the Pro Display XDR features the industry’s best polariser technology, delivering a superwide, colour-accurate, off-axis viewing angle, so multiple people can view more accurate content simultaneously. To manage reflected light, Pro Display XDR has an industry-leading anti-reflective coating and offers an innovative new matte option called nano-texture, with glass etched at the nanometer level for low reflectivity and less glare.

Besides the Pro XDR Display, the user has to buy the stainless steel stand separately for another $999. In total, the price shoots to a whopping $60,045.99 (roughly Rs 42,42,220). This is the most expensive Mac Pro series to date.

However, the price can go further north once the 8TB SSD storage option goes on sale in the coming months.

Is the top-end Mac Pro model worth buying?
The price may look exorbitant for common people, but for the big motion picture production houses or a video music composing company, it doesn't matter to them. They work on huge multimedia files and this top-of-the-line configuration for the Mac Pro makes the process seamless. It can be noted that the aforementioned configuration can support multiple (more than six) 4K, 5K & 6K resolution screens, which come in handy for video editors and even for graphics content creators working on animation movies.

For professional software developers or architects or graphics engineers, a standard Mac Pro configuration is more than enough to work on their projects. It comes with 3.5GHz 8‑core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.0GHz, 32GB (4x8GB) of DDR4 ECC memory, Radeon Pro 580X with 8GB of GDDR5 memory, 256GB SSD storage and more. Also, they can go for cheaper monitors.

If you are planning to buy Apple Mac Pro, please do share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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