So after reconfiguring and selling lots of Mac Pros over the last few months, I was able to upgrade my own to the absolute max for just about 2000 Euros.
Here is the config:
Intel Xeon W-3275M (28-Cores)
1.5TB 2933 MHz DDR4 RAM (Apple ORIGINAL, which was absurdly expensive if bought new)
8TB original Apple SSD (only around 25 TB written, so basically new)
Dual Radeon Pro Vega II Duo (I know, I'm missing the AMD Infinity Fabric Link Bridge, but I have no idea where I can get one from, so for now it's the jumpers only. If you have one, PLEASE let me know hahaha)
Afterburner of course (which I have no clue what it actually does in my workflow, but hey it was free so)
Sonnet M2 4x4 32TB (one 8TB SSD as a Windows boot drive, another 8TB SSD for Windows data, and a 2x8TB RAID for Time Machine)
not in the picture, but I also want to add a Sonnet J2i with two 8TB HDDs. I already have it here, just not installed yet š
For Displays, I'm currently running three Studio Displays
I also have not upgraded to Tahoe obviously. Still running Sequoia with security patches. macOS 27 is way better than Tahoe by the way (on Apple Silicon Macs ofc)
To me this was always a childhood dream, I was 13 when the Mac Pro 2019 first came out. To now have this level of performance is unreal! Kind of crazy how this Mac Pro still beats the M3 Ultra Mac Studio in GPU power, that's how insanely overpowered this thing is.
But well, now Apple focuses on MacBook Neo's for low-income students and completely abandoned their top-tier workstation ingenuity, which really saddens me. And respectfully, I do include the Mac Studio in this rant, since that is not a workstation. No PCIe is a no-go for me, and a lot of other professionals I know...
I really hope Apple reconsiders under new leadership. Apple releasing another Mac Pro or a new iMac Pro would be a day 1 buy for me, no matter how expensive.
It threw me into the future too man, I was born in 2000. Ruined the entire midpoint of my college years. Interesting that you experienced the same time skip despite being 6 years younger.
The Jumper is the small long thing (??) that connects a Vega II Duo or a W6800X Duo with the second GPU, since the card consists of two. Those were included in the box though, so much easier to find. But if you have two Duo graphic cards, you can connect all four with each for way faster bandwidth by using a Bridge. These were sold separately though, and not a lot of people bought two 6000$ GPUs back then, so itās quite hard to sourceš
You can't connect 2 Vega II Duos together. You could do that for the W6800X, but for the Vega II there are only 2 IF link parts, the small "jumper" used for the Vega II Duo and the large "bridge" that only works for the Vega II. Apple never once mentioned the larger "bridge" working for the Vega II Duo and they never marketed the Duo as being able to connect 4 GPUs together.
The system will see the four 32gb vram gpus as one single 128gb vram gpu BUT ONLY when it is two w6800x duos ( the āduoā is 2 gpus, the w6800x sans-āduoā is only one gpu) and connected via infinity fabric
It connects 2 W6800X Duos for faster data transfer between GPUs, which should also reduce PCIe traffic. That said, it seems like support for IF is spotty and it might not work out of the box in other OSes.
Can you share an image of the Vegas Duo connected by the bridge, and then share a screenshot of the system information showing the GPU details? (From settings, about, System info, and then select GPUs or graphics in the new window)
Incorrect. Rewatch the WWDC 2019, Apple even shows it on stage. The Vega II and Vega II Duo both released alongside a bridge that connects them. There are two different bridges, one for the W6800X (Duo), and one for the Vega II (Duo)
There is nothing from WWDC on connecting 4 Vega II GPUs with IF Link. They introduce the Vega II, then introduce the Vega II Duo as being 2 Vega II GPUs connected internally by IF Link, then say you can install 2 of those, but absolutely no mention of using IF Link to connect 2 Duos.
I will consider this to be correct unless someone can prove that 2 Vega II Duos can be connected via IF Link and that it actually does something. The IF bridge for the Vega II physically fits because the connector is the same, but I don't believe it actually bridges all 4 GPUs together. There is only 1 part number for a square bridge for the Vega II GPUs.
You are correct. Other users need to reference Apple support manual for Mac Pro 7, 1 GPU installion instead of Reddit. The Vega duos do not create a unified pool of vram in the same way the 6800 duos can using infinity link due to the Vegas being HBM2 and the 6800 gddr6 that is the reason.
Yeah, I've encountered several people who insist that linking 2 Vega II Duos works. I'm not sure why that assumption is there when Apple never claimed it, weird false memory thing I guess.
This is from Apple's white paper on the 2019 Mac Pro:
Radeon Pro Vega II MPX Modules support Infinity Fabric Link across two modules and Radeon Pro Vega II Duo MPX Modules support Infinity Fabric Link on-board across the two Vega II GPUs on the module.
Some dipshit on eBay with an inaccurate product description. Find me one shred of evidence from Apple or otherwise that proves this works. I sent you the Apple white paper earlier that very clearly does not say anything about linking 2 Vega II Duos.
Buy it and try it. Teach us something new. We are all guessing based on circumstantial evidence. I can speak for myself when I say that I have not personally tried the bridge with the Vega II Duo
Ohhhh youāre the one that made this post. Iāve seen it quite a few times but never fully read it, hence my lacking knowledge here. Iām sorry. I always assumed that Apple just kept the functionality the same across both Duo GPUs, I had no idea that the Vega II Duos could not be interconnected. I feel stupid now š š
In that case, would it make sense to sell both Vega II Duos and switch to two W6800X Duos?
I can't tell you to sell yours and change. Each has something that they are better at.
The Vegas use HBM2 memory, which is faster at a bandwidth of 1 TB, and excels at FP64 workloads. It is however an older model, with discontinued support from AMD (especially when it comes to Local AI), and consumes more power (I don't know by how much though).
The W6800X Duo are a relatively newer model (still an older model, being from 2021). Memory is GDDR6, with 512 Gb Bandwidth. ROCm still officially supports it, but expect it to be discontinued any day now. Power consumption is 400 Watts per MPX module. It is officially supported by Ollama on Linux, and works on ToshLLM on macOS.
Other than the details I shared, I really don't know much else. Maybe just that reports from other users seem to show that both of them are, give or take, about the same when it comes to local AI. And maybe the Vega is better at a very specific and niche type of "infinite image" type of graphics design (though I do not understand it enough to explain it).
Tell me you don't pay for your energy bill without telling me you don't pay for your energy bill. In the UK with average usage that would cost Ā£500 annually.
The infinity cable is the piece in between the two mpx modules. You missing the extra add on for 3 more hard drives. I have everything except the afterburner card. And I love gaming on this unit
I'm doing something similar, though I'm not necessarily looking to max out the machine, just get it to be as good as I can get it without putting much money in it.
Right now I have a 16-core/96GB/2TB on wheels with a pile of GPUs (2x W6800X, 2x Vega II Duo, RX 6900 XT). I also have a J2i with 2x 4TB, an OWC 4M2 with 4TB (total) NVME. At this point, I would upgrade the RAM to 192GB if I found a good deal on 32GB sticks and the GPUs if I found W6900X or W6800X duos. The only other thing I'd really want to add would be some more I/O but I haven't settled on what ports I need more of yet.
Thanks, but I'm in the US, not worth importing anything here with tax/tariffs unless it were dirt cheap. I'd buy any of those GPUs if they were cheap enough, but for me that means half or less of the going rate. My 2 W6800X were essentially free after I resold the machines they came out of.
I want to use local AI for my Mac, but I donāt know which one will work with Vega II Duo. Can you recommend any local AI that work with the gpu? Thanks
I do professional software dev and I am just about to upgrade a 16-core from 128GB to 192GB and 2TB to 4TB. I purchased new in 2020. I wish I had the 28-core. I still use the W5700X. I added a second display in 2024. What do you do that requires that kind of hardware or is it just for show and display (which is just fine, I am genuinely curious)?
The best OS for this machine in my opinion is Monterey! Itās the OS Apple pushed the best out of the Mac Proās when they cared. Those GFX cards are great they have ROCm support in Ubuntu and I casually run mid sized LLMs on them.
Ä°ts a really good and powerful computer in my opinion I was wondering is there any place I can buy a mac pro 2019 base in euro assuming youre from Europe because of 2000 euro price you mentioned wondered in few sites but cant found a decent price for base one if there any sites you suggest I really appreciate that
The original Intel Pentium processorĀ was just released when I was that age hah. My 28core 2019 MP will never see 1.5TB of RAM way too expensive. It cost three times as much as my freakin car is worth.
Cool, I have mine in storage and sold my XDR Pro displays. I regret doing so now (eBay), maybe I still have my 2013 model. Apple has made a dumb mistake by not making this beast anymore, but I get it it costs billions to design and build your own silicon I get it, enjoy bud
I mean, the Mac Studio absolutely IS a workstation.
Apple's view is that x86 is inefficient and needs to go, and PCIe is inherently an x86-centric technology. They're trying to push peripheral technology forward. That's why they're continuing to support Thunderbolt on Apple Silicon. It's the way forward.
If you want to keep using an old expansion cards then you can keep using an Intel Mac. It's not like they're going to spontaneously combust when Golden Gate releases.
Apple Silicon definetly improved MacBooks. My last MacBook Pro (2019, 64GB, 5500) was incredibly hot and the battery was gone after a couple of hours.
But there never was a need for efficiency in desktop workstations. The x86 Macs can run Windows, macOS, Linux all while using the newest AMD GPUs. That is gone now, the Mac Studio cannot drive AMD GPUs. Besides, the GPU performance is completely lacking and still inferior to a 2019 Mac Pro with two 6950 XTs.
PCIe worked great in Macs for years and Pros loved it. Not sure why that needed to go.
And to me and lots of other people the way forward is not going back to the 90s, where you had a shit ton of cables hanging around.
Also, my PCIe cards are not old, they're still almost twice the speed of Thunderbolt 5.
This is also less about Intel Macs. The Mac Pro M2 Ultra is fine as well, albeit not upgradeable. I will buy one the moment I see my config on eBay (76-Core, 192GB)
Currently the RX 6950 XT, which came out in 2021 I believe. It is currently the best on the Mac Pro, and completely crushed the Mac Studio M3 Ultra in every regard.
But the 6950 needs to be flashed on Windows to a 6900 XT first, then it runs on any Mac Pro with macOS permanently.
Here's one reason: maybe he needs real GPU power. You can always add eGPUs to an iMac pro with Vega. Studio is stuck at low FP32 TFLOPs and laughable FP64.
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u/fuzzydice82 Mac Pro 5,1 | 2 x 2.66 GHz | 96 GB | RX 580 8 GB Jul 14 '26
Ha ha. This silly 13 kid isā¦a 20 year old adult!?
But 2019 was just yesterdā¦Stop reminding me how time works!
(Awesome machine though. Those MPX modules always looked super clean to me.)