Oliver Haslam on March 19, 2020, 8:15 pm

Mac Pro’s Afterburner GPU Card Now Available As A Standalone $2,000 Purchase

Alongside refreshed iPad Pro, and a MacBook Air and Mac mini refresh, Apple has also made the Mac Pro’s Afterburner Card available as a standalone purchase for the first time.

The card can be added to a Mac Pro at any time, but it’ll cost a cool $2,000 if you want it.

While most people will have no need for the card – and most people have no need for a Mac Pro, either – those who can make use of it will likely happily spend that $2,000. That’s because it has the potential to make a huge difference to some very specific workflows.

Created to transform the workflow for film and video professionals, Afterburner accelerates ProRes and ProRes RAW video codecs in Final Cut Pro X, QuickTime Player X, and supported third-party applications. A PCI Express card exclusively for Mac Pro, Afterburner can be installed in any full-length slot, but it delivers maximum capability in a PCIe x16 slot.

But because the card can technically be re-programmed in the future, it’s possible that developers could re-task it to accelerate other functions. Those functions could be other specialist video or audio workflows. Or something related to advanced mathematics. Whatever it is, it’ll likely make that $2,000 asking price seem trivial.

While Apple Stores are closed around the globe except those in Greater China, online orders are the only way to get hold of the Afterburner Card. Orders placed now will arrive around the beginning of April.