We’re living in the future. Our world is inconceivable to the mind of only five years ago. We now live in an age of flying cars, global harmony, the eradication of poverty, and the climate crisis is well and truly under control.
And yet what’s even more remarkable: Apple have released a new Mac Pro.
Although UK shipments aren’t likely to be free flowing until later this month, we’ve been hard at work learning about the new machine, and what it means to us all.
Given that the new Mac Pro runs macOS 10.15 Catalina as a minimum OS, we’ve also been reviewing where we now stand with this OS, given the warnings that were issued when it was released last year. Keep your eyes peeled for the next blog post here, where we’ll update you on that.
Background
Apple’s last Mac Pro, released at the end of 2013, was quite a departure in approach from the beloved cheesegrater form that preceded it. Eschewing internal expandability in favour of an Everything-Over-Thunderbolt™ philosophy, the 2013 Mac Pro was an interesting experiment: it became the basis for a very varied set of studios, with its extremely quiet noise floor, multiple monitor support and - eventually - wide range of peripherals available.
However - in Apple’s own words, they “designed themselves into a bit of a thermal corner”: the 2013 Mac Pro was never truly upgraded to newer, faster processing units (well - Apple slightly updated the processor and graphics cards in the entry-level model in 2017) as the radical thermal design could not dissipate the increased heat load. Professional users began to question the company’s commitment to the creative industries, seeing their stalwart platform languishing whilst the company’s consumer iOS devices pushed the technological envelope ever forward.
In 2017, Apple started to realign. They held a remarkably frank discussion with some choice technology journalists, admitting that they had taken their eyes off the professional ball. During this discussion, they announced that they were beginning work on a new, modular Mac Pro - but it would take time. During the intervening period, they released the iMac Pro and pro-focussed Mac Mini to address professionals’ needs.
But now, at last, the Mac Pro is here.
The entire concept harks back to the cheesegraters of old: a large powerful beast, capable of substantial internal expansion. But now Available With Wheels!
So what are the significant features for audio professionals?
Fast CPU options;
Near-silent operation;
Up to 1.5TB RAM capacity;
Eight internal PCIe card slots;
Two internal drive connectors;
Thunderbolt expansion ports;
Rackmount option.
All seems a bit familiar? I think we can legitimately claim to have called this on 5th June 2013, when we published the following:
“Whilst most of Apple’s products are becoming ever-more sealed against user upgrades, the ability to pop off the side of the Mac Pro and slot in a new expansion card is something which may seem at odds with the company’s direction in the rest of its portfolio. But would Apple really remove this feature in a new professional Mac?
We think not.
The unique expandability of the Mac Pro is important because the machine serves an audience with specific requirements. Whilst many Apple observers cite the company’s apparent desire to whittle away user upgradability and customisability, this would strike at the very point of the Mac Pro.”
Not so much completely wrong, as six years ahead of our time… ;-)
Anyway, let’s look at some of the more interesting points of the new machine:
Processing Capability
Until we see the new Mac Pro in the field, it’s a little difficult to know exactly what to expect from its processing capability - which in DAW terms, most directly translates to the quantity and complexity of plug-ins which can be simultaneously run.
Some tech bloggers have driven the new machine and found its performance to be remarkable - such as in this brief review by MKBHD. But many of these articles tend to be focussing on video workflows, where the Mac Pro’s quadruple graphics and custom ‘Afterburner’ acceleration options will pay off.
For audio workflows, Apple have published only a single performance comparison: 6.5x more Amp Designer plug-ins in Logic Pro X on the top-of-the-line 2019 Mac Pro, compared with the top-of-the-line 2013 Mac Pro, and 3.7x more than the top-of-the-line 2018 iMac Pro.
In previous evaluations, we have found a close correlation between published benchmark figures and achievable DAW performance. Audio applications typically require a curious balance between good single-core performance (required for handling a demanding single channel of signal flow, including Aux and Master effects), and good multi-core performance (required for handling multiple parallel channels of signal flow).
This is in contrast to other demanding workflows (such as software development or video), which are highly parallelisable, and thus predominantly determined by the multi-core performance of the processor.
With the 2013 Mac Pro, this led us to not recommend the top-of-the-line model, as its single-core performance was substantially lower than the other models.
Looking at user-published single-core benchmarks for the 2019 Mac Pro and comparing it with some other current models, and its predecessors:
It’s clear that the performance is broadly the same on any of Apple’s current pro-focussed desktop Macs;
Performance is substantially increased over the 2010 and 2013 Mac Pro;
Even the diminutive but deceptively-powerful 2018 Mac Mini can hold its own against its big sisters.
Looking at multi-core benchmarks, differentiation between the available options becomes a bit clearer:
On most models of 2019 Mac Pro, performance is a lot stronger than on the 2010 and 2013 Mac Pro;
The 2018 Mac Mini now achieves similar performance to these older models;
The top-of-the-line iMac Pro is a lot faster than the 2013 Mac Pro;
The 2019 Mac Pro is even faster yet - but only on the top two models;
There is a close correlation between the iMac Pro 8-Core / 18-Core and 2019 Mac Pro 8-Core / 16-Core models in terms of both performance and cost - but of course, the iMac Pro includes a 27” retina display too.
Whilst these benchmarks are a useful guide, until we’re able to perform some real-world testing, we should bear in mind that there’s a considerable discrepancy between Apple’s stated performance gains and the user-published benchmarks:
Why might this be? The most likely cause is because the benchmarking software measures a number of characteristics of the computer’s processor, and produces a single result based on the average - whereas DAWs are highly dependent on a single type of engine in the processor. If that engine is substantially stronger on the 2019 Mac Pro (and, looking at the processor specifications, we can see that there are two such engines in the newer model (and indeed, the iMac Pro) compared with only one in the older one), then we would see such a difference between performance assessments.
Whatever the cause, we think we can expect the performance gain to be somewhere between these two figures. When we get our hands on a real machine, we’ll be running our own tests to try and gauge where the performance really lies.
It’s worth noting that, if raw processing capability is the sole concern, then running a number of Mac Minis should be considered. Although this is a practice which doesn’t suit everyone (requiring a certain amount of discipline in handling files and keeping multiple machines running smoothly), using Vienna Ensemble Pro 7 to corral a herd of Mac Minis into a unified hive mind is relatively straightforward: for half the price of a single 28-core Mac Pro, you can get 3 Mac Minis with equivalent processing power (based on the user-published benchmarks) — but of course, raw processing capability definitely isn’t the only factor you should consider!
Internal PCIe Card Slots
The new Mac Pro can now make use of PCIe cards without requiring an external Thunderbolt chassis. With eight internal slots (although one of these is occupied by the standard I/O card, and at least one is occupied by a graphics card), the new Mac Pro can natively accommodate Pro Tools|HDX cards, RME audio cards, additional USB cards, fast storage controllers, etc.
Data Storage
The new Mac Pro uses a pair of custom SSDs, together with Apple’s T2 custom storage controller and security chip, to deliver up to 8TB of extremely fast internal storage. At present, replacement SSDs are not available for this - so ensure you order enough storage to meet your anticipated needs. (Of course, there’s every chance third-party replacements will become available in due course.)
The machine also features two internal SATA ports which, with the addition of an internal storage adaptor, allows the connection of two standard hard drives or SSDs.
The PCIe card slots are also of interest here: with appropriate adaptor cards, really fast SSDs can be installed in the PCIe slots - reducing cable clutter and potential problems with external connections.
Memory Capacity
Thankfully, Apple have maintained user-expandable RAM slots in the new Mac Pro, so it’s possible (and cheaper) to add third-party RAM instead of having to order the correct amount at the outset.
The machine will accommodate up to 1.5TB of RAM - but this will be overkill (and prohibitively expensive - GBP 22,500 at Apple’s prices) for the vast majority of users, and we’d recommend considering 96GB as a sensible maximum for audio professionals.
External Expansion Ports
The Mac Pro features a significant array of external data expansion ports:
2 10Gb Ethernet ports;
2 Thunderbolt 3 / USB-C ports on the top;
2 Thunderbolt 3 / USB-C ports on the rear (on the standard I/O card);
2 USB-A ports on the rear (on the standard I/O card);
2 HDMI 2.0 ports on the basic graphics card, with support for up to 6 4K displays;
1 HDMI 2.0 and 4 more Thunderbolt 3 / USB-C ports with higher-end graphics cards, with support for up to 6 4K displays per card.
At the moment, we haven’t seen any technical breakdowns of the Mac Pro’s architecture, so we don’t yet know exactly how many discrete busses underpin all these Thunderbolt ports - though signs point to there being two ports to every bus.
For audio applications, the entry-level graphics card is usually all that’s required for effective operation, given that audio applications do not make use of the power of graphics cards other than for video decoding and drawing the displays. This machine is no different - save for the additional Thunderbolt 3 ports that are part of the higher-end cards, which may make them the better choice (though at a GBP 2k-4k premium).
Rackmount
The new Mac Pro - for the first time in forever - is available in a 19” rackmount form factor, somewhat reminiscent of a splendid-looking rackmount adaptation of the previous cheesegrater Mac Pro, designed and built here at Yellow Towers.
Apple’s version ships with a set of mounting rails (requiring front and back rackstrip) to make insertion and removal easier.
Summary
The new Mac Pro is definitely going to suit a specific set of users who need a high-capability single machine. But to realise the machine best will require opting for one of the higher-end models.
Public reports on the machine are varied: amongst the users who have been lucky enough to get their hands on a Mac Pro already, some are reporting success even with unsupported hardware and software - and some are reporting major issues with even basic functionality - such as incompatibility with third-party displays, or an inability to reinstall the OS.
All-in-all, it looks like the machine is suffering some teething problems, and has yet to settle down - but there’s good potential in there, for the right users, when it’s ready. We look forward to running some real comparison tests on it, to see exactly how much of a performance boost we can expect.