iMac Pro is now available to purchase

As promised, Apple’s new iMac Pro is now available to purchase, the company announced today.

The all-in-one desktop is completely sealed and, thus, non-upgradeable.

Various configurations of iMac Pro are available with Xeon processors up to 18 cores. With up to 22 teraflops of graphics performance (the most powerful graphics ever in a Mac), courtesy of AMD’s Vega GPU with up to 16 GB of on-package high-bandwidth video memory, and its 27-inch Retina 5K display, iMac Pro delivers compute power for real-time 3D rendering, immersive VR, intensive developer workflows, high megapixel photography, complex simulations, massive audio projects and real-time 4K and 8K video editing.

The computer can be outfitted with up to 4TB of flash storage and up to 128GB of fast ECC memory. Vega graphics delivers 11 teraflops of single-precision compute power for real-time 3D rendering and high frame rate VR, and 22 teraflops of performance for half-precision computation (great for machine learning).

In short, it’s the fastest, most powerful Mac ever made.

John Ternus, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Engineering, said:

iMac Pro combines the incredible design of the iMac with the most powerful workstation architecture we’ve ever built. iMac is the most popular desktop for our pro users due to its amazing display and elegant design, so we completely re-engineered it to deliver performance far beyond what anyone thought possible in an all-in-one.

At just 5mm thin, iMac Pro features a stunning new space gray finish and comes with matching accessories, Apple’s Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad 2 and Magic Mouse 2.

Here’s how speedy the computer is

  • Visualize huge 3D models and render scenes up to 3.4 times faster
  • Developers can run multiple virtual machines and test environments, and compile code up to 2.4 times faster
  • Scientists and researchers can manipulate massive data sets and complex simulations, visualizing data up to 5 times faster
  • Photographers can work with enormous files and perform image processing up to 4.1 times faster
  • Music producers can bounce (export) massive multi-track projects up to 4.6 times faster and use up to 12.4 times as many real-time plug-ins
  • Video editors can edit up to eight streams of 4K video, or edit 4.5K RED RAW video and 8K ProRes 4444 at full resolution in real time without rendering
  • iMac Pro can also export HEVC video 3 times faster

The system uses ultra-fast flash storage and advanced I/O, like four USB 3 ports, four Thunderbolt 3 ports and 10 Gigabit Ethernet. iMac Pro also sports a brand new thermal architecture which delivers up to 80 percent more cooling capacity and runs completely quiet.

With four Thunderbolt 3 ports iMac Pro can connect up to two high-performance RAID arrays and two 5K displays at the same time.

The 5K Retina display is rated with 500 nits of brightness, a P3 wide color gamut and support for one billion colors (10 bits per channel). Other tidbits include four microphones with beam-forming technology for improved Siri reception, a higher-resolution 1080p FaceTime camera with enhanced low-light performance and new speakers that the company claims are up to 50 percent louder.

Lastly, iMac Pro uses Apple’s second-generation custom Mac chip, the T2 silicon, that integrates several in-house designed controllers like the System Management Controller, image signal processor, audio controller and SSD controller. Apple claims the chip enables new capabilities like enhanced imaging processing for the FaceTime camera along with new encrypted storage and secure boot capabilities.

iMac Pro is available on December 14, starting at an Apple retail price of $4,999, with first orders scheduled to arrive on December 27 of this year.