After the renewal of the range of professional computers, the Mac Pro continues to maintain its modular essence, but with the M2 Ultra processor. Apple Silicon chips are characterized by not being able to expand them in terms of RAM capacities or, directly, change the processor. And the Mac Pro has up to seven expansion slots, so What can actually be connected to it? In this post we explain it to you.
It is not expandable as it happened in the Mac Pro with Intel
The Apple Silicon processor has many advantages. However, as we said at the beginning, loses the ability to expand its capabilities. Therefore, we say goodbye (in a modular computer) to the ability to expand the RAM, since it is unified, to modify the graphics (since the GPU is integrated) or directly, to change the CPU itself (that is, the own M2 Ultra processor).
What happens with the cards of the Mac Pro of 2019
One of the main features of the last model, which Apple championed, was the ability to buy hardware expansions for the computer. Either they were designed and manufactured by those of Cupertino, or by third-party manufacturers that were authorized. So that, we had a range of accessories available (and not cheap at all) like these here:
- Apple Afetrburner Card: Designed to speed up video codecs during rendering. Its price is 2,300 euros.
- MPX Module with Radeon Pro W6900X: A GPU expansion with 32GB of GDDR6 RAM. It serves to increase the performance of the equipment itself, and to house more additional ports. Its price is 6,900 euros.
- MPX Module with Radeon Pro W6800X: Follows the same principle as the previous peripheral. Its price is 3,200 euros.
Now, within this variety of extensions, they all have one thing in common: they will only work for the 2019 Mac Pro. So, what about the 2023 Mac Pro? Apple itself explains it: “The Mac Pro is powered by the M2 Ultra chip, which has a configurable GPU with up to 76 cores. The GPU is integrated into the M2 Ultra chip and it does not support additional graphics processors, such as PCIe graphics cards or MPX modules. You can configure the number of GPU cores on your Mac Pro when you buy it.” As in the rest of the models, what we buy is what we are going to keep, if we only look at the processor section.
And what is it that we can connect?
In the same way that the company discloses the connection and compatibility limitations, it also explains those accessories that are supported by the new Mac Pro of 2023:
“You can install many different PCIe cards in your Mac Pro, such as fiber channel cards, fiber network cards, video and audio I/O cards, storage cards, and Ethernet cards. After installing a PCIe card, check with the card manufacturer to see if you need to install a driver in macOS to enable full functionality of your card. PCI cards that use 32-bit option ROMs are not compatible with your Mac Pro.”
