Apple unveiled the original Mac Pro on August 7, 2006, powered by dual‑core Xeon CPUs that were twice as fast as its predecessor, the Power Mac G5. The tower became the go‑to machine for video editors, audio engineers, and Final Cut Studio users, thanks to its four drive bays, tool‑free case, and PCIe expansion slots. Apple kept the model fresh, adding an eight‑core configuration in April 2007 and updating the base model in January 2008, a cadence that slowed after 2012.

In 2013, Apple replaced the classic tower with a cylindrical “trash can” design that relied on a single thermal core and went unrefreshed for six years. The mistake was acknowledged in 2017 when Craig Federighi admitted the unit was “thermal‑cornered.” A conventional tower returned in 2019, but the Mac Pro’s relevance eroded as the smaller, cheaper Mac Studio delivered similar performance.

The Mac Pro moved to Apple silicon with the M2 Ultra chip in June 2023, and add‑in cards like Afterburner lost support, leaving PCIe expansion as its only edge. Apple discontinued the Mac Pro on March 26, 2026, citing no plans for a new version. The announcement came three months before a 33% price hike on other Macs, which would have pushed the base $6,999 configuration above $9,300.

With the Mac Pro gone, the Mac Studio is now Apple’s most powerful desktop, though it lacks PCIe slots.