Archive notice: This article was originally published on December 19, 2013. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The new Mac is only one-eighth the size of its predecessor, and the aluminum enclosure is 25.1 cm tall. The equipment options include a 4-core, 6-core, 8-core or 12-core Intel Xeon processor. The Mac Pro ships with two AMD FirePro GPUs and PCIe-based flash storage. Speaking of delivery: This is expected to be delayed. Originally, the Mac Pro was supposed to reach customers in December 2013, but even in the USA the delivery date will probably not be until December 30; in Germany, availability is stated as January 2014.
According to Apple, 4K video streams can be edited thanks to the ECC DDR3 memory with a bandwidth of 60 GB/s, including simultaneous rendering of effects in the background. In addition, it has six Thunderbolt 2 ports, each with 20 GB/s of bandwidth per device, which are intended to allow 36 peripheral devices, including 4K displays, to be connected.
Price
The Mac Pro with a 3.7 GHz quad-core Intel Xeon E5 processor with a speed of up to 3.9 GHz, dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs with 2 GB VRAM each, 12 GB of memory and 256 GB of PCIe-based flash storage is available from 2,999 euros including VAT (2,520 euros excluding VAT).
With a 3.5 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon E5 processor with the same speed figure, dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs with three GB VRAM each, 16 GB of memory and 256 GB of PCIe-based flash storage, it is available from 3,999 euros including VAT (3,360.50 euros excluding VAT).
Configuration options include up to a 12-core Intel Xeon E5 processor, AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6 GB VRAM, up to 64 GB of memory and up to 1 TB of PCIe-based flash storage. Fully equipped, the new Mac Pro comes to around 9,600 euros, but a weight of around 5 kilos makes the model a lightweight portable workstation. Further technical specifications, configuration options and accessories are available online at www.apple.com/mac-pro.
Mac Pro versus PC Model
The DP editorial team once carried out a configuration-test comparison of the new Apple Mac Pro with a PC model comparable in terms of performance. On this page you can put together your own new Mac Pro.
Our personally cobbled-together Mac Pro had a 3.7 GHz quad-core with 10 MB L3 cache, 16 GB (4 x 4 GB) DDR3 ECC memory at 1866 MHz, the largest possible 1 TB PCIe-based mass storage, two AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6 GB GDDR5 VRAM each, including an Apple mouse and a keyboard with no preinstalled software. The proud price of our personal Mac Pro was 4,997.01 euros (including VAT).
By comparison, we configured a workstation with a Lian Li enclosure (which admittedly is considerably larger than the Mac Pro enclosure, but can also be expanded in terms of equipment), with an Intel Xeon E5 processor with a 3.7 GHz quad-core, 16 GB DD3 RAM (4 x 4 GB) memory and mass storage with 2 x 512 GB Samsung SSD 840 Pro. Instead of AMD, we chose two Nvidia GeForce graphics cards with 3072 MB and additionally equipped the workstation with two 1,000 GB Seagate hard drives, for which there is unfortunately no room in the Mac Pro enclosure. A Logitech mouse and keyboard were also included. At a price of 3,539 euros (including VAT), this PC configuration comparable to a Mac Pro, including two hard drives, resulted in savings of around 1,500 euros. And we did not even choose the cheapest offer, but an arbitrary one, so further savings would be possible with more care in the selection.
Since the Mac Pro cannot be upgraded internally, but only externally through Thunderbolt ports, a greater need for performance is likely to give the new Apple model a certain "octopus look". Anyone who wants to remain flexible in terms of performance equipment even after buying their workstation should therefore not choose the new Mac Pro, but look at a PC alternative.
