Apple is still selling an Intel-based Mac Pro that we’re sure no one is buying because the Apple silicon upgrade is imminent (we think). But there might be a reason why you want to buy the graphics MPX module in Mac Pro today, especially if you are a Windows PC gamer.
YouTuber Roman “der8auer” Hartung bought one of the graphics MPX modules, specifically the Radeon Pro W6800X Duo, which was sold for $5,000 at the Apple Store. (Apple labeled it “New,” but it actually arrived in August 2021.) He wanted to test it on a PC and compare its performance to newer AMD graphics cards, and then much effort, he made it work. .
The video is over 22 minutes long, but it’s a fascinating look at the inner workings of this MPX module. The footage includes a complete teardown of the module, an examination of the components, how it is powered and connected to the PC, and how to troubleshoot the driver. You can skip the benchmark comparison if that’s all you want, but we recommend watching the full video.
Mac users may not realize that the PC graphics card market is volatile today, with ongoing out-of-stock problems leading to rising prices. If a PC user is down on his luck and willing to go to extreme measures for a high-performing graphics card, der8auer shows how to do it.
The module was tested on a PC using 3DMark’s Time Spy Extreme benchmark, and the results show that the Radeon Pro W6800X Duo module is very fast. It’s faster than the RX 7900 XTX and RTX 4080 graphics cards, two cards so popular that our sister site, PCWorld, did a head-to-head comparison of the two cards. (There’s a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison going on in der8auer’s testing because the W6800X Duo is actually two graphics cards acting as one, while the RX 7900 XTX and RTX 4080 each have only one GPU. )
Apple is rumored to launch a new Mac Pro with Apple silicon this year, but it won’t support third-party graphics cards like the current model. This video is a reminder of what Apple may have left behind in the transition—a flexible expansion system that’s as elegant as it is powerful.