Mac · The Aluminum Age · 2010

Mac Pro (2010)

The last of the great tower Mac Pros — up to 12 cores, four hard-drive bays and effortless expansion. Apple then let it stagnate for three years before the radical rethink.

Mac Pro (2010): key facts

When was the Mac Pro (2010) released?

The Mac Pro (2010) was released in August 2010. Apple discontinued it in 2013.

How much did the Mac Pro (2010) cost?

The Mac Pro (2010) launched at $2,499 in 2010 — about $3,674 in today’s money (approximate, US CPI).

What are the Mac Pro (2010)’s specs?

The Mac Pro (2010) used a Intel Xeon (Westmere) running at 2.80 GHz, with 3 GB of memory and 976.6 GB of storage. It ran Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

Why does the Mac Pro (2010) matter?

Offered up to twelve Xeon cores in the classic tower.

Full specifications

CPUIntel Xeon (Westmere) · 2.80 GHz
Cores12
Memory (RAM)3 GB (up to 64 GB)
Storage976.6 GB
DisplayExternal
GPUATI Radeon HD 5770
PortsUSB 2.0, FireWire 800, Ethernet, PCIe
Weight18.1 kg
DimensionsAluminium "cheese-grater" tower
Operating systemMac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
ReleasedAugust 2010
Discontinued2013
Launch price$2,499

How the Mac Pro (2010) compares to today

A 16 GB Apple Silicon MacBook Pro has about 5.3× more memory than this device shipped with.

At 2.80 GHz, the clock is roughly 1.1× slower than a single performance core of a 16 GB Apple Silicon MacBook Pro — and that is before counting cores, width and IPC.

This held about 250,000 modern phone photos — a respectable library even today.

Launched at $2,499 in 2010 — about $3,674 in today’s money (approx., US CPI).

Cross-architecture speed figures are clock-only and approximate; inflation figures use US CPI.

Did you know?

Pros loved it so much they kept buying it long after it went stale.

Related Mac models

Open the Mac Pro (2010) in the interactive archive →

Last updated: 2026-06-25