WWDC 2019: US$5,999 Mac Pro Doesn’t Even Come With a Display, Which Costs an Extra US$4,999

Pictured: Mac Pro
 Credit: Apple

After six years, Apple has finally announced the new Mac Pro and ditched the “trash can” design, going back to the more standard tower style they used to sell back in the day. Even better for Apple fanboys, the company has also announced their own Retina 6K display, the Pro Display XDR, to be used with the Mac Pro.

Pictured: Mac Pro (left), Pro Display XDR on Pro Stand (right)
 Credit: Apple

The downside? Each is sold separately with the base Mac Pro configuration costing US$5,999 and the base display costing US$4,999. The whole collection will cost you close to US$11,000 and that’s not even factoring in the ludicrous US$999 price tag of the matching Pro Stand for the monitor.

The specs really do justify the price however, with configurations that allow for up to a 28 core Xeon Processor, 1.5 terabytes of RAM across 12 DIMM slots and eight internal PCI-e slots with four being double-wide to accommodate larger expansion cards. Four Thunderbolt 3 and two USB-A ports will be available across the rear and top of the case.

Taking advantage of the PCI-e slots, Apple has introduced two modules, one called the MPX module and an I/O module. The MPX module allows users to choose between using AMD’s Radeon Pro Vega 2 or Radeon Pro Vega 2 Duo, with support for two MPX modules available. This means users could use four GPUs together for a total of 128GB of HBM2 graphics RAM.

Pictured: Pro Display XDR
 Credit: Apple

The Pro Display XDR is not to be scoffed at either. This factory calibrated 32-inch Retina 6K display has P3 colour gamut, 10-bit colour and Apple’s True Tone technology. Pair that with 9mm bezels and you’ve got yourself a sleek, high performing monitor.

There’s Thunderbolt 3 on the back as well, and up to six displays can be daisy-chained to the new Mac Pro. Apple has actively targeted the glare issue by introducing a version of the display with etched glass in a “nano-texture” pattern, boasting a 1000-nit typical brightness with a peak brightness of 1,600-nit.

The price puts this out of reach for most casual users but then again, was the Mac Pro ever targeted to people who didn’t truly require all that computing power?

The Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR will be available to order in Fall 2019.