Monday, April 26th 2021
AMD Radeon Pro W6900X With Navi 21 Appears in Apple Mac Pro
Recently, Apple has updated its macOS operating system to support the next generation of GPUs for Mac devices, coming from AMD. The upcoming RDNA 2 GPU lineup in Macs will bring all the enhancements AMD made to the architecture, and pack it inside Apple's signature designs. Today, we have received information that Apple could refresh its Mac Pro lineup with AMD's Radeon Pro GPU based on RDNA 2 architecture. On Geekbench 5, there was a test run that was conducted on Apple Mac Pro "7.1" revision, that features not only Intel Cascade Lake-X processor but AMD's unreleased Radeon Pro W6900X graphics card designed for professional users.
While we don't know much about the exact specifications, we know that it features a Navi 21 GPU SKU. Judging by the naming scheme, the Radeon Pro W6900X is representing an Apple-exclusive GPU variant designed only for Mac Pro devices. A Chiphell leak has given us a sneak peek at the alleged card look, which you can see below. When it comes to performance, the Geekbench result measures Metal API performance and the Radeon Pro W6900X has managed to score 171448 points, which is even higher than the Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU, which tops out at 164294 points. Of course, this is representing a professional SKU, so there could be some tuning present as well.
Sources:
Geekbench, via VideoCardz
While we don't know much about the exact specifications, we know that it features a Navi 21 GPU SKU. Judging by the naming scheme, the Radeon Pro W6900X is representing an Apple-exclusive GPU variant designed only for Mac Pro devices. A Chiphell leak has given us a sneak peek at the alleged card look, which you can see below. When it comes to performance, the Geekbench result measures Metal API performance and the Radeon Pro W6900X has managed to score 171448 points, which is even higher than the Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU, which tops out at 164294 points. Of course, this is representing a professional SKU, so there could be some tuning present as well.
7 Comments on AMD Radeon Pro W6900X With Navi 21 Appears in Apple Mac Pro
I mean a Mac Pro user is actually likely to utilise PCI-e bandwidth, and whilst the 10920x has got 48 of them in plenty; they are half the speed of what the new Threadrippers will offer or even the current Ryzen offers. Not to mention the lack of ECC and slower JEDEC spec both in favor of Threadrippers, and even 4 channel IMC rather than 8 in favor of Threadripper Pro. Both scientific compute and media content processing - the actual target uses of a Mac Pro - will be heavily impacted by the slower storage and memory.
Meh of a configuration that is, really, and I'm not even going to mention the power consumption/performance ratio in comparison with the Threadripper Pro.
I prefer the MacOS system. I like having software available but not living in terminal that a Linix/Unix system would make me; enjoying the MacOS ecosystem and the benefits items like the Airpods, Airtags, and Airplay offer; but also enjoying that with at least the Intel systems I could, if I wanted, boot into Windows for games that don't work in Catalina+. To top it off; yes, there is an Apple tax but when I can't get a 3080 or 3070, dealing with boot issues on new hardware, and having to babysit driver issues when major updates occur.
Yes money comes into play as the Apple-tax is a high one. However too: I've come to a point where for as much as I hold and touch something, like my Macbook; I've yet to find a great feel (and/or trackpad) that is close to the Apple feel.
All this said: Hey, considering I can't get a 3070/80, and having to go a pre-built route more than likely: I may as well throw a little more down and get this in a lesser configured Mac Pro for the efforts, trouble, and longer term use I would have for it.
TL;DR: Hey, new card! Thats can actually game! Yes!!!
www.macrumors.com/2021/03/19/imac-pro-officially-discontinued/
I wouldn’t even call it an upgrade, despite the socket being the same. Same gen, fewer cores, no ECC (iMac Pro only shipped with ECC), fewer “pro” features — :kookoo:Well I mean Apple laptops have always had garbage cooling, especially the air line. Most of the marketing for the air the first few years was competing with Sony and the like for thinnest and lightest.