Apple redesigned the internals to provide cooling for workstation Intel Xeon processors and AMD Vega graphics.

The 2013 Mac Pro was sold for years without any updates, and Apple later said that its small design and focus on dual graphics processing units (GPU) had been a mistake.

The iMac Pro was the first Mac to ship with a 10 Gigabit Ethernet port, which can switch between speeds based on the connected network.

[9] Other changes from the regular iMac include a webcam that records at higher resolutions (1080p), additional microphones for better sound quality, and larger speakers.

[8] The solid-state drive (SSD) is user-replaceable, but requires disassembly of the iMac Pro and an Apple Configurator restore after the new storage modules are installed.

[12][13] The computer shipped in a base configuration of an 8-core Xeon processor, AMD Vega 56 GPU, 32 GB of ECC memory, and a 1 TB SSD.

It could be configured to an 18-core Xeon processor (sacrificing per-core clock speed for more multiprocessing power,) AMD Vega 64 graphics, 128 GB of memory, and a 2 TB SSD.

Jason Snell, writing for Macworld, said that it was clearly not for average customers, but filled a niche for users like himself who had drifted from using pro desktops to iMacs yet still wanted more power than Apple's consumer line could offer.

[8][20][21] Ars Technica's Samuel Axon and Macworld's Dan Moren found that while the machine was priced and equipped beyond what a consumer would need, it felt short addressing every professional niche that the Mac Pro traditionally filled;[21][22] The Verge's Dieter Bohn and PCMag's Tom Brant suggested that some professional users would want to hold off on buying an iMac Pro, since it was unclear at launch how it would compare to the upcoming Mac Pros.

[8] Though critics generally felt the high price was fair for the technology included,[8][23] reviews often noted that most users could get a significant portion of the performance for much cheaper by getting a regular iMac.

[26] After the iMac Pro's discontinuation, Jason Snell picked the machine as one of the greatest Macs of the 2010s, and one that helped tell the story of Apple during that period.