....
The main reason for me not getting an iMac is I can't get on with their glossy screens, so hopefully going to get a matt XDR display.
The matte display for the XDR is $1,000 more than the regular one. The regular XDR is fully laminated and likely very bright so reasonable room lighting and non mostly black content on screen should work well.
You'll need a stand also if don't have one.
So . $6,000+ range even before toss in exchange rate hiccups .
The 2019 Mac Pro CPU will probably be upgradable to say the 28-core option later down the line, but there is no way of knowing that other future intel xeon w chips will work with this Mac, as intel could change the socket.
For the Xeon SP products, Intel
is changing the socket.
www.anandtech.com
But the socket is only half the issue. Intel is also changing the I/O chipset (i.e., new Platform ). Intel is also changing the . PCH chip with the socket change. Even if Intel keeps around another variant of the 3467 socket the associated chipset will extremely likely change also. There is a chance Intel could keep around a new variant of the 3467 socket for the Xeon W 3300 series just because the new SP socket is just all the more bloated in size. ( if trying to balance CPU socket space , DIMM space , and PCI-e standard slots space ). Or they could move the Xeon W 2300 series to a new variant of 3467 (for the system's making tradeoff ) and move the 3300 series up to more austere slot allocation systems. But if those new 3467 variants are dependent upon a new chipset then it is a non starter for the new Mac Pro ( the chipsets ... just like the rest of the workstation market is soldered to the logic board. )
Cascade Lake is a dead end for that socket and chipset combination. It is all over Intel's roadmaps. Eventually there will be more affordable CPUs but they'll mainly just be used ones. ( about 5+ years out a large fraction will be jumping off to what is new at that point. ).
That doesn't mean these new systems don't have workstation utility over the next 4-5 years. But 4-5 years from now it is extremely likely there will be substantively better options available in the high end workstation space.
I think it was very lucky that the Mac Pro 4,1 / 5,1 was able to be upgraded for so long, but there is no way of knowing that this will be the same for 2019 Mac Pro.
The 'luck' there was in part because Apple was in Rip van Winkle mode on the Mac Pro most of that time. If Apple is serious now, there is a decent change there will be an upgrade from this new system within 2 years (as opposed to the 3 year gap between 2010 (5,1) and 2013 (6,1). So the macOS update coverage time will probably run shorter (at least a year).
However, in terms of being able to throw new parts into a container, there isn't much materially different with the new system. If want to sit and squat on components released over the next year or two , the new system will work just fine. Cheaper used CPUs eventually. Add in card 2-3 years from now will take similar 'hit' the 4,1/5,1 took when couldn't track PCI-e v3.
