Apple's new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR to begin shipping in December

AppleInsider · November 13, 2019 1:35PM

In addition to launching a new family of 16-inch MacBook Pros, Apple said Wednesday it will narrowly meet a self-imposed deadline for the release of its new Mac Pro professional workstations by making them available for purchase sometime next month.

The new Pro Display XDR and Mac Pro 2019 were first revealed at WWDC in June

Apple has announced that the Mac Pro and the Pro Display XDR monitor will be released in December. The Mac Pro will start at $5,999 and the 32-inch Pro Display XDR will be available for $4,999 or $5,999 for a nano-etched version that gives better anti-glare, for $5,999.

While the Mac Pro is unlikely to sell in the same quantities as the iMac does, releasing it in December will allow Apple to ramp up production to meet the demand we've already learned is there from professionals in medicine, video and science for the purchasing cycle in the first quarter of 2020.

The December date was already expected, given the company's previous history of releasing Pro desktop hardware only just before its promised deadline. When Apple gave a sneak peek of the Mac Pro in June, it took a middle ground between being too specific and too broad. Where, for instance, both the previous 2013 Mac Pro and the 2017 iMac Pro had June sneak peeks, Apple gave them respectively a wide and a specific timescale.

"[The 2013 Mac Pro is] coming later this year," said Phil Schiller at its unveiling, before adding: "did say it was a sneak peak."

"It's going to be available in December," John Ternus, vice president of hardware engineering, told us straight as he revealed the iMac Pro in June 2017. In comparison, showing off the new Mac Pro, Pro Display XDR, and monitor stands in June 2019, Ternus just said that "they'll all be available in the Fall."

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While Apple has not commented on this, supply chain sources in June this year claimed that the new Mac Pro would be manufactured in China.

In September, the company announced that it would instead be made in Texas. It's expected now that President Trump will tour the facility this month.

While it's possible that the China information was wrong, and it's certain that Apple planned the Texas move long before its announcement, it's most likely that the change was made after WWDC.

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Away from physical production issues, there is also the fact that with the new 16-inch MacBook Pro , Apple is releasing two devices for professionals before the end of the year. It will not want to risk either product diluting the sales of the other.

Keep up with AppleInsider by downloading the AppleInsider app for iOS, and follow us on YouTube, Twitter @appleinsider and Facebook for live, late-breaking coverage. You can also check out our official Instagram account for exclusive photos.

MacPro · November 13, 2019 1:57PM

I hope Apple posts the configuration options and prices for BTOs well in advance.

mjtomlin · November 13, 2019 2:27PM

I figured,one of the reasons this thing took so long to produce was that after they designed it, they had to build the facilities to make it... well, retool the current facility in Texas where the Mac "can" Pro was made.

davgreg · November 13, 2019 4:52PM

How long before there will be units in Apple stores for us to see up close?

davgreg · November 13, 2019 4:56PM

mjtomlin said:

I figured,one of the reasons this thing took so long to produce was that after they designed it, they had to build the facilities to make it... well, retool the current facility in Texas where the Mac "can" Pro was made.

Flextronics is the maker, but I think some of the delay might have been Apple asking for exemptions from trade rules that were in flux. Apple had requested waivers for the new rules and waiting for the answer would likely have delayed sourcing decisions.

melgross · November 13, 2019 5:27PM

davgreg said:

How long before there will be units in Apple stores for us to see up close?

I assume on the date of its introduction, officially.

melgross · November 13, 2019 5:29PM

I was so stoked about buying this year. You can’t imagine. Well, I suppose a few can. But the need to use PCIe-3 tempered my enthusiasm. Now, I’ll wait until next year when it should have PCIe-4, and the benefits that offers, as well as a more extended lifetime.

onepotato · November 13, 2019 5:40PM

Apple announces that new Mac Pro will be available for purchase on December 31st.

fastasleep · November 13, 2019 8:52PM

melgross said:

I was so stoked about buying this year. You can’t imagine. Well, I suppose a few can. But the need to use PCIe-3 tempered my enthusiasm. Now, I’ll wait until next year when it should have PCIe-4, and the benefits that offers, as well as a more extended lifetime.

Waiting for slots that don’t exist to accommodate cards that don’t exist yet? Bizarre.

melgross · November 13, 2019 10:13PM

fastasleep said:

melgross said:

I was so stoked about buying this year. You can’t imagine. Well, I suppose a few can. But the need to use PCIe-3 tempered my enthusiasm. Now, I’ll wait until next year when it should have PCIe-4, and the benefits that offers, as well as a more extended lifetime.

Waiting for slots that don’t exist to accommodate cards that don’t exist yet? Bizarre.

PCI-4 was ratified a while ago. It’s final, and the specs for slots, and everything else have been published. Boards are beginning to come out from Asus, and others. And actually, a number of new video cards support 4, and a number of SSDs also support 4. AMD has chips coming out now that support it, and Intel’s that do should be out by the end of the year, and yes, the CPU must support it. So support is already here in some areas, and we can expect much more during 2020.

I've read in a couple of technical journals that a much faster Thunderbolt needs the speed of the 4 bus, and some new transport protocols that will be coming with it, as well as the new security levels.

overall, everything will have the ability of running twice as fast, as is normal with every bus upgrade. 5 will likely be out in early/mid 2022, which is a more normal schedule, as 3 has been around for a very long 7 years, due to a number of major tech innovations, and problems, the PCI Group was trying to keep up with.

so yes, it’s a big deal. If I still had my company, I probably would buy 10 of these, including monitors, going with our “thirds” replacement schedule. But I’m retired, and so I don’t get paid for what I do, so spending a good $15,000, including monitor, isn’t a snap decision. Is it for you?are you even going to buy one? If not, you shouldn’t comment on my plans.

PickUrPoison · November 14, 2019 12:01AM

melgross said:

I was so stoked about buying this year. You can’t imagine. Well, I suppose a few can. But the need to use PCIe-3 tempered my enthusiasm. Now, I’ll wait until next year when it should have PCIe-4, and the benefits that offers, as well as a more extended lifetime.

I learned several decades ago that there’s always something faster just around the corner. As always, if you need it now buy now. If you don’t need it now, you should wait—whether for six weeks, six months or six years. You’ll get faster performance (often at a lower price) the longer you’re able to wait.

P.S. PCIe 5.0 was ratified about six months ago, and draft specs of 6.0 are expected in 2021, with support expected in 2024-5.

P.P.S. I can’t imagine Apple will refresh this motherboard before 2021 or 2022, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Apple were to skip PCIe 4.0 and go directly to 5.0.

melgross · November 14, 2019 2:32AM

PickUrPoison said:

melgross said:

I was so stoked about buying this year. You can’t imagine. Well, I suppose a few can. But the need to use PCIe-3 tempered my enthusiasm. Now, I’ll wait until next year when it should have PCIe-4, and the benefits that offers, as well as a more extended lifetime.

I learned several decades ago that there’s always something faster just around the corner. As always, if you need it now buy now. If you don’t need it now, you should wait—whether for six weeks, six months or six years. You’ll get faster performance (often at a lower price) the longer you’re able to wait.

P.S. PCIe 5.0 was ratified about six months ago, and draft specs of 6.0 are expected in 2021, with support expected in 2024-5.

P.P.S. I can’t imagine Apple will refresh this motherboard before 2021 or 2022, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Apple were to skip PCIe 4.0 and go directly to 5.0.

There is no way Apple will have a PCIe 3 mobo in late 2020. Just not going to happen, unless this machine fails to sell, as was the date with the trash can model.

by then virtually everything will be out for 4. 3 will be on the way to a memory.

PCIe upgrades used to come every two to three years. I expect that schedule to continue again, at least through 6. After that no one is certain.

fastasleep · November 14, 2019 2:37AM

melgross said:

fastasleep said:

melgross said:

I was so stoked about buying this year. You can’t imagine. Well, I suppose a few can. But the need to use PCIe-3 tempered my enthusiasm. Now, I’ll wait until next year when it should have PCIe-4, and the benefits that offers, as well as a more extended lifetime.

Waiting for slots that don’t exist to accommodate cards that don’t exist yet? Bizarre.

PCI-4 was ratified a while ago. It’s final, and the specs for slots, and everything else have been published. Boards are beginning to come out from Asus, and others. And actually, a number of new video cards support 4, and a number of SSDs also support 4. AMD has chips coming out now that support it, and Intel’s that do should be out by the end of the year, and yes, the CPU must support it. So support is already here in some areas, and we can expect much more during 2020.

I've read in a couple of technical journals that a much faster Thunderbolt needs the speed of the 4 bus, and some new transport protocols that will be coming with it, as well as the new security levels.

overall, everything will have the ability of running twice as fast, as is normal with every bus upgrade. 5 will likely be out in early/mid 2022, which is a more normal schedule, as 3 has been around for a very long 7 years, due to a number of major tech innovations, and problems, the PCI Group was trying to keep up with.

so yes, it’s a big deal. If I still had my company, I probably would buy 10 of these, including monitors, going with our “thirds” replacement schedule. But I’m retired, and so I don’t get paid for what I do, so spending a good $15,000, including monitor, isn’t a snap decision. Is it for you?are you even going to buy one? If not, you shouldn’t comment on my plans.

I guess my point was, you don't know that Apple will revise these next year with PCIe 4, so you potentially may be waiting for 2 years or more, or forever. That's totally up to you, I just found it a little odd.

Out of curiosity, what does a retired person do that PCIe 3 isn't sufficient for?

And no, I'm not going to buy one at this point, but I'm definitely watching closely as I do actually work in motion graphics and increasingly in 3D, etc.

melgross · November 14, 2019 5:33PM

fastasleep said:

melgross said:

fastasleep said:

melgross said:

I was so stoked about buying this year. You can’t imagine. Well, I suppose a few can. But the need to use PCIe-3 tempered my enthusiasm. Now, I’ll wait until next year when it should have PCIe-4, and the benefits that offers, as well as a more extended lifetime.

Waiting for slots that don’t exist to accommodate cards that don’t exist yet? Bizarre.

PCI-4 was ratified a while ago. It’s final, and the specs for slots, and everything else have been published. Boards are beginning to come out from Asus, and others. And actually, a number of new video cards support 4, and a number of SSDs also support 4. AMD has chips coming out now that support it, and Intel’s that do should be out by the end of the year, and yes, the CPU must support it. So support is already here in some areas, and we can expect much more during 2020.

I've read in a couple of technical journals that a much faster Thunderbolt needs the speed of the 4 bus, and some new transport protocols that will be coming with it, as well as the new security levels.

overall, everything will have the ability of running twice as fast, as is normal with every bus upgrade. 5 will likely be out in early/mid 2022, which is a more normal schedule, as 3 has been around for a very long 7 years, due to a number of major tech innovations, and problems, the PCI Group was trying to keep up with.

so yes, it’s a big deal. If I still had my company, I probably would buy 10 of these, including monitors, going with our “thirds” replacement schedule. But I’m retired, and so I don’t get paid for what I do, so spending a good $15,000, including monitor, isn’t a snap decision. Is it for you?are you even going to buy one? If not, you shouldn’t comment on my plans.

I guess my point was, you don't know that Apple will revise these next year with PCIe 4, so you potentially may be waiting for 2 years or more, or forever. That's totally up to you, I just found it a little odd.

Out of curiosity, what does a retired person do that PCIe 3 isn't sufficient for?

And no, I'm not going to buy one at this point, but I'm definitely watching closely as I do actually work in motion graphics and increasingly in 3D, etc.

This is a machine for high end Pro use. Apple needs to keep up. Everyone else will be going PCIe 4 next year. At this prices, Apple simply can’t stand fast. I expect they’re working on it already.

i work with film students. I help teach them editing in real-time from my machines at home. I get large multi gig files and work on editing them with the student. Sometimes I have to render two of these at once. Every speed increase is welcome.

this isn’t a matter of thinking that a new machine will be 15% faster, with everything else equal. As we know, each new bus is twice as fast. 4 has taken much too long. Originally, it was expected for 2017, at the latest. But it’s pretty much all new, not a faster iteration of 3. It sets up for future bus versions such as 5 and 6. It’s the first to depreciate the HDDs in favor of the SSD, which in itself will cut down dramatically on bus traffic. There are so many changes I can’t really enumerate them properly here.

make no mistake, this is a major changeover. A PCIe 4 machine will be compatible for much longer than one based on the quickly outgoing 3.

fastasleep · November 14, 2019 10:50PM

melgross said:

fastasleep said:

melgross said:

fastasleep said:

melgross said:

I was so stoked about buying this year. You can’t imagine. Well, I suppose a few can. But the need to use PCIe-3 tempered my enthusiasm. Now, I’ll wait until next year when it should have PCIe-4, and the benefits that offers, as well as a more extended lifetime.

Waiting for slots that don’t exist to accommodate cards that don’t exist yet? Bizarre.

PCI-4 was ratified a while ago. It’s final, and the specs for slots, and everything else have been published. Boards are beginning to come out from Asus, and others. And actually, a number of new video cards support 4, and a number of SSDs also support 4. AMD has chips coming out now that support it, and Intel’s that do should be out by the end of the year, and yes, the CPU must support it. So support is already here in some areas, and we can expect much more during 2020.

I've read in a couple of technical journals that a much faster Thunderbolt needs the speed of the 4 bus, and some new transport protocols that will be coming with it, as well as the new security levels.

overall, everything will have the ability of running twice as fast, as is normal with every bus upgrade. 5 will likely be out in early/mid 2022, which is a more normal schedule, as 3 has been around for a very long 7 years, due to a number of major tech innovations, and problems, the PCI Group was trying to keep up with.

so yes, it’s a big deal. If I still had my company, I probably would buy 10 of these, including monitors, going with our “thirds” replacement schedule. But I’m retired, and so I don’t get paid for what I do, so spending a good $15,000, including monitor, isn’t a snap decision. Is it for you?are you even going to buy one? If not, you shouldn’t comment on my plans.

I guess my point was, you don't know that Apple will revise these next year with PCIe 4, so you potentially may be waiting for 2 years or more, or forever. That's totally up to you, I just found it a little odd.

Out of curiosity, what does a retired person do that PCIe 3 isn't sufficient for?

And no, I'm not going to buy one at this point, but I'm definitely watching closely as I do actually work in motion graphics and increasingly in 3D, etc.

This is a machine for high end Pro use. Apple needs to keep up. Everyone else will be going PCIe 4 next year. At this prices, Apple simply can’t stand fast. I expect they’re working on it already.

i work with film students. I help teach them editing in real-time from my machines at home. I get large multi gig files and work on editing them with the student. Sometimes I have to render two of these at once. Every speed increase is welcome.

this isn’t a matter of thinking that a new machine will be 15% faster, with everything else equal. As we know, each new bus is twice as fast. 4 has taken much too long. Originally, it was expected for 2017, at the latest. But it’s pretty much all new, not a faster iteration of 3. It sets up for future bus versions such as 5 and 6. It’s the first to depreciate the HDDs in favor of the SSD, which in itself will cut down dramatically on bus traffic. There are so many changes I can’t really enumerate them properly here.

make no mistake, this is a major changeover. A PCIe 4 machine will be compatible for much longer than one based on the quickly outgoing 3.

Got it. Thanks for the color on that! I know I've read that graphics card can't saturate PCIe 3 (yet anyway) but PCIe 4 will essentially double flash storage speeds. I'm sure there's a lot I don't know, I generally haven't paid close attention to the world of towers and their respective cards since becoming a laptop person in the early oughts. My last tower was a beige G3.

melgross · November 15, 2019 5:01PM

fastasleep said:

melgross said:

fastasleep said:

melgross said:

fastasleep said:

melgross said:

I was so stoked about buying this year. You can’t imagine. Well, I suppose a few can. But the need to use PCIe-3 tempered my enthusiasm. Now, I’ll wait until next year when it should have PCIe-4, and the benefits that offers, as well as a more extended lifetime.

Waiting for slots that don’t exist to accommodate cards that don’t exist yet? Bizarre.

PCI-4 was ratified a while ago. It’s final, and the specs for slots, and everything else have been published. Boards are beginning to come out from Asus, and others. And actually, a number of new video cards support 4, and a number of SSDs also support 4. AMD has chips coming out now that support it, and Intel’s that do should be out by the end of the year, and yes, the CPU must support it. So support is already here in some areas, and we can expect much more during 2020.

I've read in a couple of technical journals that a much faster Thunderbolt needs the speed of the 4 bus, and some new transport protocols that will be coming with it, as well as the new security levels.

overall, everything will have the ability of running twice as fast, as is normal with every bus upgrade. 5 will likely be out in early/mid 2022, which is a more normal schedule, as 3 has been around for a very long 7 years, due to a number of major tech innovations, and problems, the PCI Group was trying to keep up with.

so yes, it’s a big deal. If I still had my company, I probably would buy 10 of these, including monitors, going with our “thirds” replacement schedule. But I’m retired, and so I don’t get paid for what I do, so spending a good $15,000, including monitor, isn’t a snap decision. Is it for you?are you even going to buy one? If not, you shouldn’t comment on my plans.

I guess my point was, you don't know that Apple will revise these next year with PCIe 4, so you potentially may be waiting for 2 years or more, or forever. That's totally up to you, I just found it a little odd.

Out of curiosity, what does a retired person do that PCIe 3 isn't sufficient for?

And no, I'm not going to buy one at this point, but I'm definitely watching closely as I do actually work in motion graphics and increasingly in 3D, etc.

This is a machine for high end Pro use. Apple needs to keep up. Everyone else will be going PCIe 4 next year. At this prices, Apple simply can’t stand fast. I expect they’re working on it already.

i work with film students. I help teach them editing in real-time from my machines at home. I get large multi gig files and work on editing them with the student. Sometimes I have to render two of these at once. Every speed increase is welcome.

this isn’t a matter of thinking that a new machine will be 15% faster, with everything else equal. As we know, each new bus is twice as fast. 4 has taken much too long. Originally, it was expected for 2017, at the latest. But it’s pretty much all new, not a faster iteration of 3. It sets up for future bus versions such as 5 and 6. It’s the first to depreciate the HDDs in favor of the SSD, which in itself will cut down dramatically on bus traffic. There are so many changes I can’t really enumerate them properly here.

make no mistake, this is a major changeover. A PCIe 4 machine will be compatible for much longer than one based on the quickly outgoing 3.

Got it. Thanks for the color on that! I know I've read that graphics card can't saturate PCIe 3 (yet anyway) but PCIe 4 will essentially double flash storage speeds. I'm sure there's a lot I don't know, I generally haven't paid close attention to the world of towers and their respective cards since becoming a laptop person in the early oughts. My last tower was a beige G3.

High ends certainly can saturate a. PCIe 3 bus. It depends on how many lanes are allocated. A big argument between Intel and AMD supporters is how many lanes the chips provide,Smith Intel, for most of its lines (not so much the xeons) Having less lanes. So a card that has 16 lanes available may not saturate the bus, even if a high grade card. But many systems only allow 8 lanes for graphics. and they don’t have a lot left over for much else. those are smaller, cheaper machines.but even the new Mac Pro is butted right up against the total number of lanes available. PCIe 4 will allow half the lanes for the same performance.

Apple's new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR to begin shipping in December

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