I already wrote about upgrading components in your Mac Pro (2019) and you can find my CPU upgrade tutorial here. Also I discussed at great length here how to save some money when buying Mac Pro, and what to upgrade yourself instead buying outright from Apple. In some scenarios you can save even on CPU.
It is no secret that I love Mac Pro, it is great machine, and the only thing that I don’t like about new Mac Pro is – price.
As I already mentioned in my previous article , CPU prices on Apple Store are generally ok and you will not save much by upgrading CPU in Mac Pro yourself.
Xeon W 3xxx is still new CPU platform so you won’t save by buying used CPUs since there are still next to none in the used/discounted market.
However, there are scenarios in which you can save money. Apple is offering M and non-M versions of the higher end Xeon W CPUs.
Intel Xeon W-3275 M is 28Core CPU that Apple is using in its Mac Pro (2019).
Only difference between Xeon W-3275 M and W-3275 is in maximum RAM support – M version can support up to 2TB of RAM, and non M version supports “only” 1TB of RAM.
Intel specs for W-3275M and W-3275 CPU.
In my line of work, I can make use of lots of CPU cores, but at the same time I don’t need more than 1TB of RAM. So, for my use case W-3275 is ideal CPU.
There is also significant price difference between M and non M versions of Xeon W CPUs, and you can see it already at the links I put to the Intel specs site.
Intel Xeon 28 Core W 3275 M on Apple Store in Europe (Germany) is 7.847,00€ ($9.287)
Intel Xeon 28 Core W 3275 (non M version) I ordered is 4.667,00€ ($5.523)
So I saved 3.180,00€ on the same CPU, except I will have to be satisfied with max of 1TB RAM.
I waited for that CPU for almost 3 months.
I’m not sure if the CPU shortage is really that great or my local Intel distributor is just plain and simple – bad.
I already wrote about CPU upgrade procedure for Mac Pro 2019, so I will not repeat myself. I can tell you that everything went smooth.
I’m now working on the machine for almost two months, everything is fine, business as usual. I have more cores to test with, and in the process I saved 3.180,00€ – to say that I’m pleased would be a huge understatement. 🙂
