Whereas the new Mac Professional options six accessible PCI Specific enlargement slots for audio, video seize, storage, networking, and extra, the desktop tower is now not suitable with graphics playing cards. As a substitute, graphics processing is dealt with solely by the M2 chip, which incorporates as much as a 76-core GPU that may entry as much as 192GB of unified reminiscence.
Apple’s {hardware} engineering chief John Ternus briefly touched on the matter in an interview with Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber final week, explaining that expandable GPU help for Apple silicon just isn’t one thing that the corporate has pursued.
“Essentially, we have constructed our structure round this shared reminiscence mannequin and that optimization, and so it isn’t solely clear to me the way you’d usher in one other GPU and achieve this in a method that’s optimized for our techniques,” Ternus informed Gruber. “It hasn’t been a path that we wished to pursue.”
One other limitation of the brand new Mac Professional in comparison with the Intel-based mannequin is the dearth of user-upgradeable RAM, given the unified reminiscence is soldered to the M2 Extremely chip. As well as, the Intel-based mannequin might be configured with as much as 1.5TB of RAM, which is 8× as a lot because the 192GB most for the Apple silicon mannequin.
There are definitely benefits to the brand new Mac Professional and its unified structure. For instance, Apple says the brand new Mac Professional is as much as 3× sooner than the Intel-based mannequin for sure real-world workflows like video transcoding and 3D simulations. For video processing, Apple says the brand new Mac Professional’s efficiency is equal to an Intel-based mannequin with seven Afterburner playing cards. For total CPU efficiency, the brand new Mac Professional’s $6,999 base mannequin is as much as 2× sooner than a 28-core Intel-based Mac Professional, which began at $12,999.
The brand new Mac Professional is obtainable to order now, and launches in shops on Tuesday. Prospects who do not want PCI Specific enlargement ought to think about the Mac Studio, which will be configured with the M2 Extremely chip for $3,000 lower than the Mac Professional.
