It is easy to assume that Apple would be focusing solely on devices powered by its in-house M1 chip, but it wouldn’t be a valid assumption considering Apple has just updated its Intel Xeon-powered Mac Pro.
The cheese grater-resembling workstation has gotten three new graphics card additions that are based on the AMD Radeon Pro W6000 series. These additions are the Radeon Pro W6800X MPX, the Radeon Pro W6800X Duo MPX, as well as the Radeon Pro W6900X MPX.
The new Radeon Pro W6000 series are replacing the Pro Vega II GPUs and are said to improve performance-per-watt by 50% as well as boosts performance speeds. When using Octane X, the GPUs offer render speeds of up to 11x faster than their predecessors, while in DaVinci Resolve, the render speed increases up to 6.5x. Final Cut Pro usage sees faster speeds of up to 3.3x, and Maxon Cinema 4D sees up to a 6.5x increase in 3D real-time performance.
The modules also use additional power and PCIe bandwidth to provide four Thunderbolt 3 ports as well as an HDMI 2.0 port. There’s also support for AMD’s Infinity Fabric Link which allows for super-fast data transfer speeds between up to four GPUs.
AMD Radeon Pro W6800X
The Radeon Pro W6800X comes with 32GB of GDDR6 RAM which is able to deliver a memory bandwidth of up to 512GB/s. The RDNA2 architecture allows for up to 16.0 teraflops of single-precision computing or 32.0 teraflops of half-precision computing. The Pro W6800X can connect up to six 4K displays, three 5K screens or three of Apple’s own Pro Display XDRs. The Radeon Pro W6800X will cost you an additional RM9,600.
AMD Radeon Pro W6800X Duo MPX Module
The Radeon Pro W6800X Duo MPX Module is suited to handle multi-GPU pro applications while packing high-end graphics. As its name suggests, this MPX Module features two W6800X GPUs that feature a total of 64GB of GDDR6 RAM. Together the dual GPU option allows up to 32.0 teraflops of single-precision or 60.4 teraflops of half-precision computing.
Since there are two GPUs in this module, the Infinity Fabric connector comes pre-installed. With this module installed, the Mac Pro can run up to eight 4K screens, four 5K displays or six Pro Display XDRs. The Radeon Pro W8600X Duo MPX Module will set you back an additional RM18,400.
AMD Radeon Pro W6900X
Apple says that the Radeon Pro W6900 is designed for maximum workstation-class graphics and demanding pro apps. The 32GB GDDR6 RAM and 512GB/s memory bandwidth is the same as the Pro W6800X variant, but the Pro W6900X yields up to 22.2 teraflops of single-precision or 44.4 teraflops of half-precision computing. The Radeon Pro W6900X powers up to six 4K displays, three 5K screens or three Pro Display XDRs. The module costs an extra RM22,400.
Touted as the most powerful Mac ever built, the base model of a Mac Pro Tower can be purchased at RM25,999 while the Mac Pro Rack’s pricing starts at RM27,999.
The Mac Pro lets you customise it to feature a better processor with up to 28-cores, RAM of up to 1.5TB, storage of up to 8TB plus the highest graphics option of two Radeon Pro 6900X GPUs.
Should you add in wheels, an Apple afterburner card as well as a mouse and trackpad, the total for a fully specced out Mac Pro Tower (minus the software) will cost you a whopping RM220,948. A fully specced Mac Pro Rack also without the pre-installed software is slightly pricier, coming in at RM221,348.
If you’re interested, you can build your custom Mac Pro here.
