Today at its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple has announced what it says are the most powerful Macs ever made. One is the revamped Mac Pro, while the other is the latest and greatest take on the Mac Studio.
Running Apple's new M2 Ultra chip – and featuring Apple’s most powerful 24-core CPU along with an up to 76-core GPU – the new Mac Pro is claimed to be up to three times faster than the previous-generation Intel-based model. It also starts with twice as much memory, which can be boosted up to 192GB with 800GB/s of unified memory bandwidth.
The new Mac Pro additionally sports seven PCle expansion slots, with six open expansion slots that support gen 4 (which is two times faster than before), so users can customize the computer with essential cards.
Connectivity consists of eight built-in Thunderbolt 4 ports (six on the back and two on the top) which is twice as many as before, three USB-A ports, two higher-bandwidth HDMI ports that support up to 8K resolution and up to 240Hz frame rates, two 10Gb Ethernet ports, and a headphone jack that enables the use of high-impedance headphones. There is also support for up to six Pro Display XDRs, along with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.
The new Mac Pro can be ordered now in both tower and rack-mounted enclosures, with prices starting at US$6,999 and $7,499, respectively.
Switching to the Studio
Apple's new Mac Studio is being offered in M2 Max and M2 Ultra versions, referring to the chips powering them. The M2 Max model features a 12-core CPU, up to a 38-core GPU, and up to 96GB of unified memory with 400GB/s of memory bandwidth. It is claimed to be 50% faster than the previous-generation Mac Studio4 and 4x faster than the most powerful Intel-based 27-inch iMac.
The M2 Ultra model features a 24-core CPU, up to a 76-core GPU, and up to 192GB of memory with 800GB/s of unified memory bandwidth. This combo reportedly makes it up to three times faster than the previous-generation Mac Studio with M1 Ultra,2 and up to six times faster than the most powerful Intel-based 27-inch iMac.
On both versions of the new Mac Studio, connectivity consists of four Thunderbolt 4 ports, a 10Gb Ethernet port, an enhanced HDMI port, two USB-A ports, two USB-C ports and an SD card slot. Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 are both built-in.
Pricing for the Mac Studio starts at $1,999. Both it and the new Mac Pro will be in stores as of June 13th.
Source: Apple
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