Apple opened pre-orders for the new Mac Pro on December 11 (Japan time). The look has been completely overhauled from the "black trash can" of the previous generation, returning to a silver design reminiscent of the older Mac Pro and looking just a bit cooler. The Mac Pro is, as the name suggests, a model aimed at professionals — but the price tag is...
Maxed Out, the Price Hits About 6 Million Yen!
If you fully customize the new Mac Pro, the price climbs to a staggering 5,725,800 yen (excluding tax)! Including consumption tax, that comes out to about 6 million yen — enough to buy roughly five new cars. For reference, here are the maxed-out specs:
- 2.5GHz 28-core Intel Xeon W (up to 4.4GHz with Turbo Boost)
- 1.5TB (12x128GB) DDR4 ECC memory
- Radeon Pro Vega II Duo x 2 (each with 2 x 32GB HBM2 memory) ※Radeon Pro W5700X x 2 (each with 16GB GDDR6 memory) coming soon
- 4TB SSD storage ※8TB also coming soon
- Apple Afterburner card
- Stainless steel frame with wheels
That said, the only people who actually need the maxed-out configuration are major video production companies or top-tier YouTubers, so most of us don't need to worry about it. The base configuration starts at 599,800 yen (excluding tax), which is still a bit pricey but lands in a range an ordinary person can just barely afford.
How Does the CPU Perform?
The Mac Pro has become a model truly aimed at professionals, but how does its CPU performance actually hold up? We took a closer look. Apple doesn't disclose the CPU's model number, but a quick search on Intel's site reveals that the maxed-out CPU is the Intel Xeon W-3275M (Intel). The W-3200 series is a brand-new CPU released this year, codenamed Cascade Lake. It's manufactured on a 14nm process, has 28 cores and 56 threads, runs at 2.50GHz–4.40GHz (with Turbo Boost), packs 38.5MB of cache, and supports up to 2TB of memory — a workstation-class CPU.
In Geekbench 4 scores, the Xeon W-3275 (the model with up to 1TB of memory) scores 5,211 in single-core and 39,869 in multi-core.
According to this unboxing video, the Geekbench 5 benchmark scores come in at 1,162 in single-core and 20,869 in multi-core.
Video editing is, of course, butter-smooth.
Summary
With both performance and price firmly in the "for professionals" tier, the Mac Pro is the kind of machine you'd love to own at least once in your lifetime. If the Mac mini feels underpowered and the iMac's all-in-one design isn't quite what you're after, this is the one for you.
