The new Mac Pro was probably the most surprising announcement this WWDC 2023In fact, it hasn’t appeared in virtually any fund, and those that have included it have done so in a huge list of futures, which could complete Apple’s release for the next two years. Although the main role was for the expected viewer, the announcement and launch of the new Mac Pro is also the most important movement for the Cupertino computer catalog.

Because? In fact, the reason is as simple as it is relevant, and that is until now The Mac Pro was the only system from the company that was still powered by Intel chipsets, more specifically Intel Xeon. So when three years are coming to a close since the company announced Apple Silicon at WWDC 2020. And it’s also important because since then most have been wondering whether Apple’s integrated system will be able to deliver the performance that a computer like the Mac Pro needs designed to perform workstation and server tasks (in fact, it is offered in a tower design and also as a foldingi.e. with a suitable design and form factor for mounting in a server cabinet (rack, that’s why I used the concept).

Well, we can finally begin to clear up these doubts, although it is true that when we see what Apple was able to do with the ARM architecture in the first two generations of Apple Silicon, without a doubt doubts in this regard are much milder than it was in June 2020, when it was not yet entirely clear that this architecture was capable of competing with Intel’s X64 architecture.

The new Mac Pro, whose external design repeats the always striking “cheese grater” aesthetic of the previous generation (the one still valid today), but it can almost be said that this is the only thing it retains from the past. For starters, of course, knowing which SoC is powering it is the most awaited, and we will find the answer in it the new flagship of Apple’s current silicon generation, also introduced today is the Apple M2 Ultrachip, which we will talk about in more detail in another news, but we can summarize it in a few key pieces of information:

• processor: up to 24 cores.
• GPU: up to 76 cores.
• Memory: Up to 192 gigabytes of unified memory.
• Artificial Intelligence: Neural Engine 32 cores

To give some perspective, recall that the top configuration of the previous Mac Pro featured an Intel Xeon W chip with 28 cores and 56 threads and could fit up to 1.5 terabytes of RAM. So seen this way, it might seem like we’re seeing a drop in specs, but in my opinion, while waiting for the first performance tests, I have a clear feeling that just the opposite, the new Mac Pro far surpasses the massive performance of the previous generation.

Another very important aspect of this new Mac Pro has to do with its expandability, which Apple also wanted to focus on. So inside we find nothing less than seven PCIe expansion slots, so it will be possible to add all kinds of expansion cards. To this we must add that he has eight Thunderbolt 4 ports integrated, six on the back and two on top, compared to four such ports in the previous generation. In addition, the new Mac Pro includes tthree USB-A ports, two HDMI ports support for resolutions up to 8K and frame rates up to 240 Hz, two 10Gb Ethernet ports and a headphone jack. And we finish the review of its connectivity with a look at the wireless section, in which we expect to find Wi-Fi 6E and BlueTooth 5.3.

According to Apple the new Mac Pro offers as standard the performance that seven Afterburner cards would provide (an expansion card that provided higher performance in the previous generation). And to give you an idea of ​​what that means, they tell us that a Mac Pro equipped with six video I/O cards is capable of processing and encoding 24 4K camera channels and encoding them to ProRes in real time.

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I insist that what Apple is showing today is more than promising, the new M2 Ultra seems to be the integrated that the company needed to bring Apple Silicon to the Mac Pro and complete its transition. into its own integrated. Now, of course, we just have to wait until we have the first signs of performance measured by its first users. And that will undoubtedly be one of the most interesting information.

While we wait for Apple to open a store in Spain with local information in this regard, we know that in the United States it is already possible to pre-order the new Mac Pro, that deliveries will begin next week and that its price will start from $6,999. We will update this news when we have information about its launch in Spain.

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