The new Mac Pro has finally been announced. The news came at an event held by Apple at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco on Tuesday, October 22, 2013. Creative professionals around the world have endured a long wait, ever since Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted at a refresh of the Cupertino company’s pro-level powerhouse back in June of 2012.
The new hardware brings a host of impressive specifications and a drastic redesign, which serve clever functional purposes beyond pure aesthetic. Housed in an all-black cylindrical shell made from curved aluminum, the futuristic tower has been conceived by Apple’s engineers and designers in such a way that airflow is optimized, therefore maximizing performance from the stable of silicon-based power hidden within. The beauty, of course, is not only skin deep. The new Mac Pro has seen a massive upgrade over the previous model, with Apple claiming double the performance of the 2012 model across the board. This significant boost comes from a number of fundamental upgrades that ensure the Mac Pro retains its place at the top of the creative pro’s list. Processing power is provided by Intel’s Xeon E5 chip, available with up to 12 cores. RAM can be configured with up to 64GB, with memory bandwidth doubled to 60Gb/s, up from the old model’s 30Gb/s. It is perhaps no surprise that the new Mac Pro is also a graphics monster, offering dual workstation level graphics cards (AMD FirePro) which can support up to three 4K displays.
The previous Mac Pro saw its most recent refresh in June 2012 but had lacked a significant redesign since its introduction in 2006. Prior to the recent announcement of the updated model, the aging processor and tired graphics card (the Radeon 5770HD, which is over four years old) meant that Apple was running out of time to present a suitably current workstation. Apple was also forced to discontinue the former model in the EU after new regulations were introduced that rendered the design and placement of the cooling fans illegal, as reported by Gizmodo. However, today’s announced looks set to place Apple squarely at the head of the pack with what is quite clearly a formidable system.
The new Mac Pro is also the first hardware to be built entirely in the United States, a fact that was suggested by Tim Cook in May this year and officially reported by Engadget in June. The majority of the production will take place at a dedicated plant in Texas and may signal a future of things to come as Apple brings its manufacturing process closer to home.
The new Mac Pro is available for pre-order now with prices starting at $2999 and will begin shipping in December 2013. Have you been waiting for today’s announcement? Will you be buying a Mac Pro?
Image courtesy of Flickr
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