Update: The new Mac Pro model aimed at rack mounting also passed FCC clearance today, ahead of the computer going on sale tomorrow. Apple previously announced that a ‘optimised version for rack deployment’ would be released in the fall.
The Mac Pro has appeared today on the FCC registry site, with its regulatory testing information publicly released. This usually means a product launch is imminent.
Apple has said that the Mac Pro will be released ‘this fall’. The FCC filing indicates it has a A1991 model number. The professional workstation machine will be manufactured in Austin, Texas, like the previous trashcan iteration.
The 2013 Mac Pro was highly controversial in the pro market, as it eschewed expandability in favor of a sleek all-in-one cylindrical design. Apple also never updated the machine as it hit what it called a ‘thermal corner’ with its design.
This year, Apple unveiled the new Mac Pro which harkens back to the beloved cheese-grater tower generation. The new Mac Pro will start from $5999 with an 8-core Intel Xeon processor, 256 GB SSD, AMD Radeon 580X graphics card and 32 GB RAM. Addressing the thermal issues, Apple designed the new chassis to support a wide range of hardware with custom fans for airflow and a 1.4 kilowatt power supply to drive everything.
The new chassis will allow for the machine to be specced up to a beast of a workstation, featuring up to a 28-core CPU, 4 GPUs and 1.5 TB of RAM. Pricing for these kind of build-to-order upgrades is yet to be announced. Unlike most Macs, the Mac Pro will support aftermarket upgrades.
Alongside the new Mac Pro, Apple also unveiled the companion Pro Display XDR. Again, this is a product aimed at true professionals and bears a $6000 price tag. The Pro Display XDR is a 32-inch LCD panel with extreme dynamic range, sporting up to 1000 nits of sustained peak brightness. Apple compared it to video reference monitors in terms of quality, which can easily cost in excess of $20,000. The Pro Display XDR attracted praise from video creative professionals but other pros like audio engineers or developers are frustrated that Apple will not make a more affordable Apple-branded 5K display that could cater to a wider segment of the market. For the Pro Display XDR, the adjustable stand on its own will cost $999.
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