Power users will finally be given the option to pre-order Apple’s highly-anticipated Mac Pro enterprise unit from 10 December, according to notifications sent out to customers.
Apple’s high-end workstation was first revealed at the firm’s WWDC conference in June this year and was touted as being available during Autumn, although the company has until now remained quiet about an exact preorder date.
The details arose through a screenshot from an Apple email posted by prominent YouTube host MKBHD on Twitter. IT Pro approached Apple to confirm the 10 December pre-order date, and whether an official release date was set.
The starting price for the Mac Pro’s base configuration is a staggering $5,999, which rises to $10,000 for the fully-loaded version without the cost of the Pro Display XDR monitor, which itself is priced from $4,999.
This entry-level model features an eight-core Intel Xeon processor with 32GB RAM mounted to a stainless steel frame and housed within an aluminium chassis that detaches for full access to these internal components.
The Mac Pro’s most powerful configuration, meanwhile, will be powered with a CPU with up to as many as 28 cores and 64 lanes of PCIe bandwidth, with 300W of power directed into the processor. The maximum memory that can be fitted is also a gigantic 1.5TB, while storage can rise up to 4TB.
The entry-level GPU option is the AMD Radeon Pro 580X, meanwhile, but the top-range model is actually fitted with two AMD Radeon Pro Vega II cards connected via fabric with a total of 64GB of graphics memory.
The 2019 Mac Pro is the third generation of Apple’s high-end system and has been built to meet high-end enterprise demand several years after the previous Mac Pro was last released in December 2013.
Apple has ditched the 2013 Mac Pro’s cylindrical shape in favour or a return to the tower form the system took when it was first released in 2006. The Mac Pro workstation was originally designed to serve as a replacement for the legacy Power Mac G5 systems.
