Finally, it is here: The new Mac Pro! Meet Apple’s answer to 8K RAW, NVIDIA implementation, and professionals’ criticism. The unique characteristics of this machine are aiming for industry editors and high-end content creators. Explore it below.
After months full of rumors and leaks, the Mac Pro is probably one of the most anticipated Apple’s product ever (apart from the iPhone). This product was developed for years under massive secrecy and compartmentalization. Even though there were leaks regarding design and general specs, this beast was shrouded in mystery. However, here it is as presented at Apple’s WWDC 2019.
Important: We report here live, and the article is built on the go and will be continuously updated. The pictures below are taken from Apple’s keynote.
Modularity
The new Mac Pro acts like a real machine for pros (finally) which means that you can make your customization regarding spec, cards, and performances. Read more below regarding how to boost GPU utilization. The Mac Pro is made from with a stainless-steel space frame with an aluminum housing that lifts off for 360-degree access to the entire system.
Specs highlights
- Intel Xeon processor with 28 cores
- Six memory channels, with 2933 MHz ECC RAM, in 12 slots, with up to 1.5 TB of system memory
- Two Thunderbolt 3 ports
- 14 teraflop Radeon Pro Vega II, with 32GB of HBM2
- 8 internal PCI Express slots
MPX module
The MPX Module is a giant quad-wide PCIe card that fits two graphics cards. It also owns a Thunderbolt 3 connector. Apple claims it compatible with AMD’s Radeon Pro Vega 2 or Radeon Pro Vega 2 Duo — and you can configure the system and utilize 4 GPUs in total. As stated by Apple: “The MPX Module starts with an industry-standard PCI Express connector. Then, for the first time in a graphics card, additional PCIe lanes were created to integrate Thunderbolt and provide the increased capability. With up to 500 watts, the MPX Module has power capacity equivalent to that of the entire previous-generation Mac Pro”.
Dedicated for 8K RAW editing and workflow
The new Mac Pro is dedicated to high-end content creators. Apple has developed graphics hardware accelerators, like the Afterburner below, which accelerates ultra high-resolution editing and workflow.
With Afterburner, video editors using high-quality cameras that require the conversion of native file formats into proxies for easy editing can now use native formats right from the camera and decode up to three streams of 8K ProRes RAW video and 12 streams of 4K ProRes RAW video in real time
Afterburner – elimination of proxy editing
The new Mac Pro debuts Afterburner, featuring a programmable ASIC capable of decoding up to 6.3 billion pixels per second. With Afterburner, video editors using high-quality cameras that require the conversion of native file formats into proxies for easy editing can now use native formats right from the camera and decode up to three streams of 8K ProRes RAW video and 12 streams of 4K ProRes RAW video in real time, virtually eliminating proxy workflows.
8K RAW and ultra-resolution workflow
The keynote demonstrated awe-inspiring capabilities concerning 8K editing and workflow. The demonstration showed 8K RAW files on FCPX timeline (3-layers) and flowable playback. For the first time, an 8K RAW 3-layers timeline is playback for presentation. RED Digital Cinema did this with the new release of the REDCINE-X. However, it was only 1-layer. It makes a massive difference in how many 8K RAW layers you’d like to edit.
According to Apple, the performance potential is outstanding. It appears that Apple has worked closely with these partners to test the Mac Pro with specific codecs and software:
- Blackmagic Design: Which brings full CPU and multi-GPU accelerated 8K real-time editing, effects, and color correction in ProRes 4444 for the first time on any system.
- Avid: Which enable support for up to six HDX cards, resulting in more IO, increased voice count, and two times the real-time DSP processing than any other system can achieve in Pro Tools.
- Maxon’s Cinema 4D sees 20 percent faster GPU render performance when compared to a Windows workstation, maxed out with three NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 graphics cards.
The keynote demonstrated very impressive capabilities concerning 8K editing and workflow. The demonstration showed 8K RAW files on FCPX timeline (3-layers) and flowable playback, According to Apple, the performance potential is outstanding
Price and availability
Mac Pro models with an eight-core Xeon, 32GB of RAM will start at $5999 and will be available in the fall.
Watch Apple’s Mac Pro promotional video below: BTW, the video also shows Apple’s new XDR Display that will be covered on a dedicated article, so stay tuned.
Final thoughts
It seems that this beast tries to eliminate the need for proxies and to allows ultra resolution RAW workflow (NVIDIA expertise – NVIDIA CUDA, NVIDIA Studio).
So what do you think? Would it be enough to convince migrated PC (and NVIDIA) professionals to go back home?
[…] via AppleInsider, MacRumors, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, Y.M.Cinema […]
Wow! I want one of those machines!
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