It didn’t merit even a casual mention during the WWDC 2012 keynote on Monday, but when Apple’s online store opened this afternoon, the virtual shelves were also stocked with three new models of Mac Pro as well.
Apple has quietly introduced a trio of refreshed Mac Pro models on Monday, ranging from a quad-core model starting at $2499 and maxing out with a 12-core model for $3799; a server edition is also available starting at $2999.
The new models match those which hit the rumor mills over the last few days, but they’re a far cry from the complete overhaul many of us have been hoping for. In fact, the “refresh” completely ignores Thunderbolt as well as the new USB 3.0 included with the company’s MacBook Pros introduced on Monday.
So what do you get with the refresh? The quad-core model starting at $2499 includes a single 3.2GHz Intel Xeon processor with 6GB RAM, a 1TB hard drive, 18x SuperDrive and ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB GDDR5, while the $3799 12-core model doubles up on the 2.4GHz six-core Intel Xeon processors with 12GB RAM (the rest of the specs are the same as the base model).
If you simply need raw power, the Mac Pro continues to be a formidable way to get it -- but we’ll need a lot more convincing that Apple seriously plans to overhaul this sucker in the very near future before we write it off.
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Zoidbert
June 11, 2012 at 5:43pm
I've said it elsewhere; I believe Apple has the Mac Pro walking the Green Mile at this point. I think it may quietly disappear from the lineup sometime around when they announce the next iMacs and Mac minis.
I could be wrong -- maybe there'll be a massive overhaul in the spring -- but I kind of seriously doubt it. If they killed off the 17" MacBook Pro because of lagging sales, I've got to imagine the Mac Pro is living on seriously borrowed time.
tomzink
June 11, 2012 at 2:19pm
Are they joking? No thunderbolt, no USB3? Wow, first time in 25 years I've been seriously let down by Apple. I basically have no where else to go but this is very disappointing. I know you can add these things via PCIe buses, but I don't have buses to spare. Unbelievable.
