Apple today has made the Mac Pro Afterburner Card available as a standalone purchase. When the Mac Pro first launched, the Afterburner Card was the only option to purchase when configuring a Mac Pro which was a $2,000 upgrade.
The Apple Afterburner card 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.
“Compatible with Mac Pro (current generation)
PCI Express x16 card
Accelerates ProRes and ProRes RAW codec in Final Cut Pro X, QuickTime Player X, and supported third-party applications
Supports playback of up to 6 streams of 8K ProRes RAW or up to 23 streams of 4K ProRes RAW*”
The Apple Afterburner Card is now available to order on Apple.com, and will start shipping on March 30 as of the time this article is be published.
If you would like to learn more about the Apple Afterburner card, you could read Apple’s support document here.