New Magic Accessories and Mac Pro Graphics Cards
Today Apple has released some upgrades. This includes a new set of "Magic" accessories and some additional upgrades for the Intel Mac Pro. Let us start with the Graphics Cards for the Intel Mac Pro
Graphics Card
Apple indicated that the transition from Intel to their own Silicon would take two years. We are just over halfway through those two years. One of the devices that has not been upgraded yet is the Mac Pro.
In order to allow the Intel Mac Pro to remain relevant, Apple has added three new video card options. These are:
- Radeon Pro W6800X MPX Module
- Radeon Pro W6800X Duo MPX Module
- Radeon Pro W6900X MPX Module
Each of these can be configured when you order a new Intel Mac Pro. If you do add these they will cost, $2400, $4600, and $5600, respectively. If you already have a 2019 Intel Mac Pro, you can also get these as standalone for $2800, $5000, and $6000 respectively, or $400 more.
Each of these graphics cards have 32GB of GDDR6 memory in them, so they should be plenty fast when it comes to utilization. Apple has also released an accompanying white paper that will provide performance characteristics for the graphics cards.
New Magic Accessories
The Mac has its own set of accessories, like keyboards, trackpads, and mice. Apple has prepended these with the word "Magic". Therefore, they would become Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpads, and Magic Mice.
When Apple introduced the 24-inch iMac with M1 earlier this year, they came in a range of colors and the keyboards, trackpads, and mice that you would get with the Mac would match the color of the color of the Mac.
The 24-inch iMac did not just have a color-matched keyboard, but there were three keyboard options. These are:
- Magic Keyboard
- Magic Keyboard with Touch ID
- Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad
When these were announced many wondered how long it would be before Apple would allow these to be purchased on their own. Well, today is that day. All three of these, along with the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad are available to order. These are only available in silver. The standalone keyboards will cost you $99, $149, and $179 respectively. The Magic Mouse is $79 and the Magic Trackpad is $129.
You can still purchase the older Magic Keyboard with Numeric Pad for $129.
The Touch ID sensor that is on the Magic Keyboards with Touch ID will not work with Intel machines. They will only work with Macs with M1.
While it is not 100% known, it would make sense that the keyboards with Touch ID will work with any Mac, but the Touch ID will not work on Intel Machines.
Closing Thoughts
All of these items are available to order today. The Magic accessories should arrive by Friday, if ordered today. The graphics cards will arrive August 16th to 18th, if ordered today.
It is not known if Apple will release the Magic accessories in colors at a later date or not.