Starting Tuesday, Apple began replacing its top-of-the-line Vega 2 Pro MPX Module GPUs with the next-generation RDNA2-based Radeon Pro RX W6000X series for Mac Pro, which now lets you configure a system with up to four GPUs. Existing customers will still be able to purchase Radeon Pro Vega 2 and Radeon Pro Vega 2 Duo modules, while new configuration options continue to include the Radeon Pro 580X and the latest-generation W5000X Pro series.
See also: Twitter finally gets "Sign in with Apple"
See also: Google & Apple: We had profits but the Delta mutation worries us
The RX 6800 and 6900 architectures are optimized for working with high-resolution assets and promise a solid speed boost for the Mac Pro in real-time rendering, interactive 3D rendering, video editing, and more. Apple says there's a sharp performance boost of up to 84% in Octane X, up to 26% higher frame rates in 3D interactivity in Cinema 4D, and up to 23% faster performance in DaVinci Resolve. These are likely increases over the older Pro Vega 2 modules, and make sense given the generational speed boosts we typically see in GPUs.
The modules are based on a similar (but not identical) GPU to the W6000 Pro series designed for PCs and have the same basic silicon – the same 80 or 60 compute units (with 64 stream cores each), 128 GB of Infinity cache per GPU, the same 256-bit memory interface, and so on. They also use the same Infinity Fabric that bypasses the PCI bus for GPU-to-GPU communication, and significant on-chip cache, which is essential for handling the “bulkier data” associated with “pro creative workflows.”
See also: Apple: Why business users should choose Mac
The modules still include four Thunderbolt 3 ports and an HDMI 2 connection from the GPU. The latter is odd, as you would expect Apple to move to HDMI 2.1, especially since other cards that use the GPU already support it.
Information source: cnet.com
