You can now add the Radeon Pro W5500X GPU to your Mac Pro

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Radeon Pro W5500x Mpx Module
Radeon Pro W5500x Mpx Module (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • Apple is now offering the Radeon Pro W5500X GPU as an upgrade for Mac Pro owners.
  • It's available as an aftermarket MPX module as well as a build-to-order option.
  • It'll cost $600, or $200 as an upgrade when ordering a Mac Pro.

Apple has started offering another option to Mac Pro owners who want to customize the GPU that lives inside their Mac Pro. The Radeon Pro W5500X MPX Module is now available for order direct from Apple for $600. It can also be added to a new Mac Pro order for a $200 premium, too.

Apple's description of the new GPU suggests it is around half the performance of the $1000 Radeon Pro W5700MPX Modile at around half the price.

The AMD Radeon Pro W5500X with 8GB of GDDR6 memory is based on AMD's RDNA architecture, featuring up to 5.6 teraflops of single-precision performance or 11.2 teraflops of half-precision computing. It supports up to four 4K displays, one 5K display, or one Pro Display XDR. The half-height MPX Module design fits in an MPX bay and enables PCIe slot 2 for additional expansion.

It's also worth noting that the cheaper option only has two HDMI 2.0 ports, as spotted by 9to5Mac. The W5700X has four Thunderbolt 3 ports and a single HDMI 2.0 port.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.