The 2013 Mac Pro was a product that, in its day, drew attention for many things. Beyond the power it offered, was its striking design. But what was Apple’s most powerful computer at the time, as of 2023, will be ten years old. And in this post we are going to review what can be done (and what can’t) with what was the ‘flagship’ of Macs.
What the 2013 Mac Pro offered us
The 2013 Mac Pro is a computer that, at the time, surprised by its technical capacity and its design. Long before Apple transitioned to Apple Silicon processors, processing power was in the hands of Intel. And it is that this team it mounted Intel Xeon E5 processors and could mount up to 32GB of ECC DDR3 RAM. As for graphics processing, it had the AMD Fire Pro D300, D500 and D700 (configurable in their respective ranges) and was compatible with up to three 5K monitors, or up to 6 monitors connected by Thunderbolt.
In addition, in terms of ports, this computer had four USB 3 (type A) ports, six Thunderbolt 2 connections, two RJ45 ports for Ethernet and an HDMI 1.4 connection. Regarding software, the operating system that came out was OS X Mavericks. Some very interesting characteristics, but which were also the focus of controversy, because behind was the expansion capacity as high as previous models had. Something that, in the model presented in 2019, Apple put back on the table. But, beyond all this, where has all this power been? What can continue to be done today?
The uses of the 2013 Mac Pro ten years later
Currently, and in the absence of a new version of macOS, we are in macOS Ventura. And unfortunately, this latest version is no longer compatible with the 2013 Mac Pro. On this computer We can only update to macOS Monterey. Although, it is not an old system version, since we can continue using the compatible versions of editing and creation programs such as Photoshop, Final Cut or Logic Pro. Although, yes, we must take into account the updates of each app, and you have to make sure that these will continue to work with macOS Monterey in a few years.
One of the biggest limitations of this computer is that it does noto It has the USB type C connection standard. Today, many accessories and peripherals cannot be understood without this port, so alternatives will have to be found through Thunderbolt 2 ports.
This computer, even though it can no longer be upgraded, it is not an obsolete equipment and many of its functions continue to be fulfilled. Editing and creation will continue to perform well. But, beyond the third-party apps, we are already left out of functionalities that the most recent versions of macOS have been incorporating.
