Mac Pro 2019

The 2019 Mac Pro marked Apple's successful comeback to a fully expandable, professional-grade Mac after the unsuccessful cylindrical design from the previous generation. In numerous ways, the 2019 Mac Pro line is one of the most expandable Macs ever released by Apple. With twelve RAM slots and eight PCIe slots, it offered remarkable capabilities for professional users.

This particular model -- the Mac Pro "28-Core" 2.5 (2019) -- features a single 2.5 GHz Twenty Eight Core Xeon W (3275M) processor with Turbo Boost reaching 4.4 GHz and 66.5MB of cache. Multiple configuration options were offered, but the standard configuration included 32GB of RAM, a 256 GB SSD, and AMD Radeon Pro 580X graphics with 8GB of GDDR5 memory (as of March 8, 2022, Apple updated the standard configuration to a 512 GB SSD and an AMD Radeon Pro W5500X with 8GB of GDDR6 memory; this model may represent an alternative standard configuration or a BTO/CTO option, too).

In its default configuration, connectivity options include two USB 3 ports (via a pre-installed Apple I/O card), four Thunderbolt 3 ports (two on the Apple I/O card and two at the top of the chassis), two HDMI 2.0 ports (on the video card), two 10Gb Ethernet ports and a 3.5 mm headphone jack with headset support along with 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0. Additionally, additional connectivity can be expanded using PCIe expansion cards.

As the flagship configuration of the 2019 Mac Pro, this 28-core model was a statement piece, showcasing the maximum power available in the Mac ecosystem at the time. [37, 41] Its 28-core Intel Xeon W processor was squarely aimed at fields demanding immense parallel processing power, such as Hollywood studios and high-end scientific visualization. [44] While its peak performance was incredible, some reviews noted that the price-to-performance ratio was extreme and that only specific, highly parallel workflows could fully leverage all 28 cores. [2, 37, 40] However, its exceptionally quiet cooling system was highly praised for maintaining a comfortable work environment by keeping fan noise to a minimum even under full load. [2, 19]