You Can Order a New Mac Pro This Week

Apple’s modular new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR will be available for order on December 10. But Apple has declined to reveal when the incredibly expensive workstation-class products will ship to customers.

This news comes courtesy of an Apple email, which notes only that the Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR will be available for well-heeled customers to order starting on December 10. The Mac Pro starts at an incredible $5,999 for a configuration with an 8-core Intel Xeon processor, 32 GB of RAM, and a 256 GB SSD. And the Pro Display XDR starts at $4,999, plus an additional $999 for an aluminum stand. Yes, really.

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Apple has been plotting a replacement for its garbage can-like previous-generation Mac Pro almost from the moment it released it, but the more modular replacement, which now resembles a cheese grater, was delayed repeatedly while the firm’s professional customers stewed. Apple shipped an interim iMac Pro to satisfy some of the complaints, but that PC’s $4,999 price tag and lack of internal expansion ensured slow sales.

The good news? The new Mac Pro is made in the United States. Actually, given the quality problems they’ve had at that plant, maybe that’s not really good news.

Anyway, the wait is almost over.

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Conversation 21 comments

  • webdev511

    Premium Member
    08 December, 2019 - 12:20 pm

    <p>Well It's going to sell as well as the price will allow. So very well initially (pent up demand) and then drip drip drip. I hope there is enough business to keep the assembly folks in Texas engaged.</p>

  • bob_shutts

    08 December, 2019 - 1:53 pm

    <p>Surprised Mac Pro is covered here. This beast is for production houses and not mere mortals. <img draggable="false" role="img" class="emoji" alt="?" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/12.0.0-1/svg/1f911.svg"></p&gt;

  • MikeGalos

    08 December, 2019 - 3:42 pm

    <p>But how many configurations did they include in the email?</p><p><br></p><p>We know the base model with monitor and stand is $12,000 (OK, OK, $11,997) but that's not really a viable configuration for the target market. One of the big hidden items has been the cost of anything more realistic than that "get 'em in the store then upsell 'em" model.</p>

    • MikeGalos

      10 December, 2019 - 1:44 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#496570">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p>And while we still don't know pricing on the full top of the line configuration, we now know that you can easily go well over $50,000 for the system unit with what's orderable today.</p>

  • pecosbob04

    08 December, 2019 - 6:25 pm

    <p>Hey Mikey has gone upscale!</p><p>From the premium comments section:</p><p><br></p><p>"But how many configurations did they include in the email?</p><p>We know the base model with monitor and stand is $12,000 (OK, OK, $11,997) but that's not really a viable configuration for the target market. One of the big hidden items has been the cost of anything more realistic than that <strong>"get 'em in the store then upsell 'em" model."</strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Th</strong>e clientele who are the target audience for this class of device would seem to me to be pretty much immune to this type of marketing tactic. The people in the market for this class of device usually make their buying decisions after doing due diligence on many factors certainly including the value of time and likely return on investment.</p><p><br></p><p>Also I've spent a lot of time at the Apple store and have yet to see any type of high pressure or upsell tactics. Obviously Mikey's mileage must vary, MMMV.</p>

    • bob_shutts

      08 December, 2019 - 7:45 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#496585"><em>In reply to pecosbob04:</em></a><em> LOL. You’re going to be scolded by the moderators here for daring to comment on premium comments while sitting in the cheap seats. </em></blockquote><p><br></p>

      • Paul Thurrott

        Premium Member
        09 December, 2019 - 8:11 am

        What? Why.

    • MikeGalos

      08 December, 2019 - 11:33 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#496585">In reply to pecosbob04:</a></em></blockquote><p>You're right. Apple doesn't do marketing like that to the PRO market. That's why it's a $1,000 monitor stand and a $6,000 unusable base model and a $5,000 monitor and not $999, $5,999 and $4,999 like they would price products for the sucker (oops, I mean non-commercial) market. :-)</p><p><br></p>

  • red.radar

    Premium Member
    09 December, 2019 - 8:28 am

    <p>this product is too late to market. For the targeted workflows the recent AMD announcements are to compelling to ignore. </p><p><br></p><p>at least the architecture is modular so if Apple wanted too they can go another way. </p>

    • lvthunder

      Premium Member
      09 December, 2019 - 10:48 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#496680">In reply to red.radar:</a></em></blockquote><p>I doubt it. If you are a Final Cut or Logic user then the AMD announcements don't mean much to you.</p>

  • Stooks

    09 December, 2019 - 9:13 am

    <blockquote><em><a href="#496671">In reply to pecosbob04:</a></em></blockquote><p>Same question goes to you. </p><p><br></p><p>You admitted that at one time you "loathed" Microsoft and now that time has marched on you only "dislike" them.</p><p><br></p><p>If this is true why do even come to this Microsoft focused site, much less comment on here, if you have such a negative feeling towards Microsoft?????</p><p><br></p><p>I am not a fan of Google and guess what….you wont catch me going to sites like 9to5Google or any other Google/Android related sites.</p><p><br></p><p>Mike does have a strong distaste towards Apple, not as bad as Paul but close and Mike is a fan of Microsoft for sure, hence he is making comments at this site….which makes sense.</p><p><br></p><p>For me I have used Apple products for a long time. I still have a Macbook…my last for sure as I feel they only keep the Mac alive because it has high margins and once it stops being a money maker it will be gone. I will still use their iOS products until there is a better option, because I will never be an Android user. </p><p><br></p>

  • Stooks

    09 December, 2019 - 9:30 am

    <p>The price for the starting model is not out of this world. I just priced out a Dell 7920 with the same parts for $5391 (32gigs of DDR 2666, Xeon 6134 8C, 256gig SSD, NVIDIA Quadro RTX4000).</p><p><br></p><p>That said the Dell has a better video card for sure and has insane options, like 3TB of RAM, and more importantly dual CPU's up to Xeon 8180 28C with 38meg of cache. I think the Mac Pro is only a single socket box?</p><p><br></p><p>The only people that really "need" this box is high end professionals that use Apple software like Final Cut Xor Logic Pro X. If you run software that has a Windows version (Adobe etc) then you have way more options on the PC side and complete support for NVIDIA and usually a lower price. The price gap is lower than it was in the past though.</p>

    • bob_shutts

      09 December, 2019 - 10:16 am

      <blockquote><a href="#496708"><em>In reply to Stooks:</em></a><em> Mostly agree with Stooks, but recall the Mac Pro has something called an Afterburner card for video editors. AppleInsider.com has a detailed description of the card. People have asked why this thing as a rather anemic graphics card. You don't need much in the way of graphics power if you're using it with Logic.</em></blockquote>

      • Stooks

        09 December, 2019 - 7:13 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#496750">In reply to Bob_Shutts:</a></em></blockquote><p>If that "Afterburner card" does not support NVIDIA it does not matter. NVIDIA right now is killing AMD when it comes to top end performance.</p>

        • bob_shutts

          10 December, 2019 - 12:27 pm

          <blockquote><a href="#497010"><em>In reply to Stooks:</em></a><em> From AppleInsuder: " </em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(22, 29, 39);">By using Afterburner, Apple intends for video production to be able to use the original video file codecs and formats without creating proxy versions. Eliminating this step can save time, both in removing the transcoding process for the proxies at the start of editing, and in compiling the final edits at the end."</span></blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><blockquote>Looks like this is something different from what the GPU does, but you're right about NVIDIA. Apple needs to kiss and make up with NVIDIA.</blockquote><p><br></p>

  • lvthunder

    Premium Member
    09 December, 2019 - 10:46 am

    <p>I bet these machines are built to order like Gateway computers used to be back in the late 90s. I bet that's why they don't list a shipping date. I bet you get the date once you place your order.</p>

  • TEAMSWITCHER

    09 December, 2019 - 11:32 am

    <p>My last three DIY PC's have all had All-In-One Water Coolers from Corsair… This new Mac Pro has inspired me to consider an All-Air cooled design for my next build. It's not that I don't want to buy a desktop Mac, I kinda do.. But my daily MacOS driver has always been a MacBook Pro with AMD graphics, and my daily Windows driver has always been a DIY PC with Nvidia graphics. It's a great combination for a 3D Graphics Developer to have all three GPU manufactures (Nvidia, AMD, and Intel) on only two machines. One of them is mobile when I need to leave my office, and the other is great for gaming. It's a winning combination.</p>

    • Stooks

      09 December, 2019 - 7:19 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#496804">In reply to TEAMSWITCHER:</a></em></blockquote><p>"consider an All-Air cooled design for my next build"</p><p><br></p><p>If you do not care for RGB bling then I highly suggest Noctua case fans and CPU cooling. They do a fantastic job of cooling and keeping the noise to a min.</p><p><br></p><p>If you care about the RGB bling then Noctua is the last thing you want. They are a fugly peach/tan/brown mixture. I personally use them in my DIY builds.</p>

      • TEAMSWITCHER

        09 December, 2019 - 9:57 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#497011">In reply to Stooks:</a></em></blockquote><p>Noctua makes some black fans now. They are on my list. </p>

  • oscar1

    09 December, 2019 - 1:45 pm

    <p>Oh, my new HTPC is on the way….nice.</p>

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    10 December, 2019 - 3:37 am

    <p>Still showing up as "coming this Autumn", here in Germany. No option to buy at the current time.</p>

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