Now for the storage. The new Mac Pro supports flash only storage but the connector doesn't seem standard like with the memory. The base model comes with 256GB but it can be configured up to 4TB. These are controlled by Apple's T2 security chip, which handles the encryption. Now, there are two visible SATA ports on the motherboard but Apple didn't quite specify their purpose and there doesn't seem to be any provision to mount standard SSD inside the case.
Taking things further up a notch are the GPU. Base model comes with a fairly tame AMD Radeon Pro 580X inside a half-height MPX Module. You can also get Radeon Pro Vega II inside a full-height MPX Module. You can go crazy and get one that has dual Vega II graphics inside a single MPX Module. And just to go absolute nuts, you can have two of these modules inside, meaning you can have four Radeon Pro Vega II graphics cards inside your Mac Pro.
As if that's not enough processing power, you can also get something called Afterburner for your Mac Pro. This is a programmable ASIC that is designed to do one thing and one thing only: accelerate video encoding and decoding. Since it's purpose built for this task, it is extremely good at it, which means it can handle 3 streams of 8K ProRes RAW 30fps video, 12 streams of 4K ProRes RAW 30fps video or 16 streams of 4K ProRes 422 30fps video. This level of performance is currently impossible even for the fastest graphics card on the market.
For connectivity, the Mac Pro has the aforementioned 4x Thunderbolt 3 ports, 2x 10Gb Ethernet ports, Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 5.0.
Powering all of this, the 28-core processors, four graphics cards, 12 sticks of memory, 4TB storage and a video processor, is a 1400W power supply.
That's just the Mac Pro. But the Apple Pro Display XDR is somehow even more impressive. This is Apple pouring all of its color and display calibration knowledge all into one product to create possibly the best professional grade monitor on the market for Macs.
To start with, this is a 32-inch IPS LCD with a resolution of 6016 x 3384 (16:9), which Apple calls Retina 6K. It's a native 10-bit color panel with DCI-P3 wide-color support.
The brightness is one of the main attributes of this display. With SDR content, the display can reach 500 nits of brightness, which is already pretty bright. However, since this is also an HDR display, it can achieve even higher brightness levels. Apple claims a 1000 nits of brightness sustained over the entire surface, which is very impressive and also extremely bright for something you sit two feet away from. To make it even more impressive, it can also go up to 1600 nits under 25 degrees Celsius ambient temperatures for short bursts of time.
Since this is an LCD panel, to achieve proper HDR quality it would need full array local backlight dimming. The Pro Display XDR has a fairly impressive 576 zones, which can be selectively turned on or off to provide high contrast and less blooming.
The monitor includes multiple reference modes for working in your selected format of choice, You can choose between HDR Video P3-ST 2084 (HDR10/Dolby Vision), BT.709, BT.601, P3-DCI, P3-D65, P3-D50, and sRGB. These cover most of the current color standards from cinema to television and photo.
The monitor also supports 47.95Hz, 48.00Hz, 50.00Hz, 59.94Hz and 60.00Hz refresh rates, allowing you to work with content recorded in a variety of frame rates at the correct cadence without motion judder.
In terms of connectivity, the Pro Display XDR has four Thunderbolt 3 ports at the back, which also double up as USB-C ports. This monitor is specifically designed to work with Thunderbolt devices.
Lastly, there's the stand. You can get the display with the optional Pro Stand. The Pro Stand supports height adjustments and also allow tilting the display into portrait orientation. You can also detach the monitor from the stand with a single button.
Now, for the price. The new 2019 Mac Pro starts at $5999 for the base model with the 8-core CPU, 32GB 2666MHz memory, 256GB SSD storage and AMD Radeon Pro 580X graphics. The Pro Display XDR is priced at $4999 with the optional Pro Stand costs $999 and the VESA Mount Adapter is $199. Both these products will be available this fall.