By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Apple started from scratch with the new Mac Pro, rewriting the rules of what a modern desktop computer should look like and work.
The result is truly remarkable. The exacting design and precise engineering that have gone into the Mac Pro are simply unlike anything the computer industry has ever seen in a mass produced (made in the USA no less) desktop. The Mac Pro may have taken three years to get an update, but the wait was worth it, this is the crown jewel of today’s Apple desktop design and engineering.
The new Mac Pro has a unified thermal core to handle the cooling of the new Intel Xeon processors, a singular fan kicks in when the system needs to be cooled but even when working on 4K video files, it never got perceptibly loud or warm.
Our review unit had the 2.7GHz 12-core processor with 30MB of L3 cache, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD storage and with dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM each. Easily the top of the line model costing $8,400.00 with all the trimmings.
The less-is-more approach to industrial design gives us a unique cylindrical case that is exceptionally polished and shiny. One latch frees the exterior case, or helmet, from the internal core.
Raise this up and you have access to the RAM, the storage and even the socketed CPU, which can theoretically be replaced when future processors are available. The new PCle-based flash storage introduces faster read and write performance — up to 60 percent faster than previous SSDs.
Running regular, non-optimized OS X applications feels snappier but not exceedingly so. Comparing the performance of my daily driver iMac, apps like Mail, Safari and iTunes are perceptibly smoother and faster but it is when running optimized, processor and graphics-intensive applications that the Mac Pro’s jets really kick in.
The Mac Pro was able to easily decode and play back a massive 98GB 4K video file. I applied some titling and realtime edits and alterations and there was almost no latency for rendering. This is remarkable considering that it takes a lot of graphics and processing power to edit 4K video which has almost four times the data of HD video. This is really the first desktop workstation designed to tame the 4K beast and it does so admirably.
I had to double check that my edits were being applied, and they were. Working on files of this size and magnitude is buttery smooth and you feel there’s lots of extra power to spare. I credit this to the optimized software as well as the hardware. Again, another benefit of working with tools that offer the ‘whole widget’ approach of integrated solutions.
The only quibbles I have with the Mac Pro are minor ones. Since it is so quiet, it’s hard to tell if it is awake or asleep (power button/indicator in the back).
The gorgeous dark profile of the Mac Pro itself sort of gives way to a mess of (mostly white) cables poking out the back. I also connected my old MacBook Air’s external SuperDrive but found that the cord was too short and since the USB ports are placed up high on the Mac Pro, it takes some care to make sure this doesn’t scuff or scratch the Mac Pro’s case.
The Mac Pro is ideal for intensive video editing, animation and graphics for niche power users who need the absolute latest in terms of power and performance and are willing to pay for tomorrow’s technology standards today. Anyone ordering a Mac Pro today will likely get a shipping notification by April.
