Mac Pro 12 Core

[cjt3007]

I am planing on ordering a 12 Core Mac Pro today!

I was wondering, is it worth the extra $1,000 or so dollars to get the 2.93 GHz cores over the 2.66 GHz?

Is the ATI Radeon HD 5870 a good graphics card? Can I get a better graphics card somewhere else that will work with the Mac Pro?
I noticed on the AMD website they have a 5870 with 6 mini-display ports, why did apple go with 2 mini-display ports and 1 DVI?

Anyways, I am really stoked about this, and I hope it gets here really soon after I order it :)

[Macinposh]

1.Do not read all the dozens of other threads about this same subject on this forum.

2.Dont bother specifying for what you will be using your compurter for.

3.Make an utterly uninformative headline for the said thread after you have decided to skip parts 1 & 2&.

4.Sit down and expect to be spoonfed with all the info.


1.Check.
2.Check.
3.Check.
4.pending...pending...pending...

[Vylen]

Yes, the 5870 is a good card... i dont think there's anything better on the market right now.

There's two versions of the 5870 - the standard one with 3 display outputs and the eyefinity with 6 displays. So apple just went with the standard model.

[johnnymg]

I am planing on ordering a 12 Core Mac Pro today!

I was wondering, is it worth the extra $1,000 or so dollars to get the 2.93 GHz cores over the 2.66 GHz?

Is the ATI Radeon HD 5870 a good graphics card? Can I get a better graphics card somewhere else that will work with the Mac Pro?
I noticed on the AMD website they have a 5870 with 6 mini-display ports, why did apple go with 2 mini-display ports and 1 DVI?

Anyways, I am really stoked about this, and I hope it gets here really soon after I order it :)

Is $1K worth <=15% processing speed upgrade to you? Only you can answer that.

There are a couple of LONG threads regarding video cards for the MP. The short answer is that the 5870 is an excellent card and currently ATI's best option for the MP.

cheers
JohnG

[milo]

As an AAPL shareholder, I encourage you to buy the most expensive machine they sell.

[johnnymg]

As an AAPL shareholder, I encourage you to buy the most expensive machine they sell.

1000+ ....................... :D

[skiffx]

Michael Dudikoff :D

[advres]

Since according to your signature you have 3 17" mbp's something tells me you are going to buy the most expensive 12-core out and I'm also 90% sure you won't come close to taxing it in the next couple of years. But waste the money. Like others have said us stock holders appreciate it!

[VirtualRain]

1.Do not read all the dozens of other threads about this same subject on this forum.

2.Dont bother specifying for what you will be using your compurter for.

3.Make an utterly uninformative headline for the said thread after you have decided to skip parts 1 & 2&.

4.Sit down and expect to be spoonfed with all the info.


:D

[strausd]

My 12-core 2.93 GHz is named Melanie...

[cjt3007]

When I started this thread, there were no other threads regarding all of my questions. For instance, no posts about why Apple chose 3 ports vs. 6 ports on the graphics card. No post on whether the higher processor is worth the $1k more. Thus I made this thread. Deal with it, or don't comment.

[CaoCao]

I am planing on ordering a 12 Core Mac Pro today!

I was wondering, is it worth the extra $1,000 or so dollars to get the 2.93 GHz cores over the 2.66 GHz?

Is the ATI Radeon HD 5870 a good graphics card? Can I get a better graphics card somewhere else that will work with the Mac Pro?
I noticed on the AMD website they have a 5870 with 6 mini-display ports, why did apple go with 2 mini-display ports and 1 DVI?

Anyways, I am really stoked about this, and I hope it gets here really soon after I order it :)

sell your older 17" MBPs and buy two X5680s and install, something tells me you will have a very powerful machine considering it will be dual hexacore @3.33GHz and turbos to 3.6GHz, that is if the Mac Pro can support two processors at 130W TDP, and yes it does have 2QPIs

[jwestpro]

When I started this thread, there were no other threads regarding all of my questions. For instance, no posts about why Apple chose 3 ports vs. 6 ports on the graphics card. No post on whether the higher processor is worth the $1k more. Thus I made this thread. Deal with it, or don't comment.

that's lame and actually B.S. I've been reading about the processor comparisons for over a week, and I'm not even a regular / expert here.

If YOU don't need to have 6 ports on a graphics card, WTF do you care if it's not offered by Apple?

Now, don't bother answering, because I will bet that you 100% do not need 6 ports...how can I presume? Well, if your "work" involved or required 6 ports, you would more than likely already know all the answers to the questions in this post or at least be able to search them out in the threads that already cover them....

Just a hunch.

[iWolf00]

How about calling it Macintosh Maybach! :p

[Wild-Bill]

How about " Moneypitamus Walletemptimus" ??


;)

[alphaod]

Call it a waste of time.

[Ozric]

I was ready to get the 12-core 2.93 in the next week or two, but this morning took delivery of an OWC Extreme Pro SSD and booted from it in my old 2 X 3.0 Dual Core. I'll tell you what, this SSD turned my Hyundai into a Ferrari. I am seriously considering notching down my next Mac Pro in order to get more of these SSD's. I'm blown away by the speed of everything on my system now.

[cjt3007]

I was ready to get the 12-core 2.93 in the next week or two, but this morning took delivery of an OWC Extreme Pro SSD and booted from it in my old 2 X 3.0 Dual Core. I'll tell you what, this SSD turned my Hyundai into a Ferrari. I am seriously considering notching down my next Mac Pro in order to get more of these SSD's. I'm blown away by the speed of everything on my system now.

Interesting, I feel as though SSD are still far too expensive for the consumer. It costs about $3500 for a 1tb SSD. So it would cost $56000 to make an 8tb Mac Pro with SSDs. Talk about overkill! And they also have a 1 in 10 chance of failing. So theoretically, at least one of your drives would fail.

[MT0227]

sixcorestoomuch

[cjt3007]

sixcorestoomuch

do you think I could do video editing and other tasks faster with a 6 core 3.33GHz instead? Or the 8 core 2.4GHz?

[alphaod]

do you think I could do video editing and other tasks faster with a 6 core 3.33GHz instead? Or the 8 core 2.4GHz?

I'd go for the 6-core 3.33GHz model instead of the 8-core 2.4GHz model; the 8-core model is a sham in my book. It uses entry level parts (hence the crappy turbo boost) and it's expensive! Now of course I'd go for the 12-core for maximum performance (even the 2.66GHz) if you have the budget.

[cjt3007]

I'd go for the 6-core 3.33GHz model instead of the 8-core 2.4GHz model; the 8-core model is a sham in my book. It uses entry level parts (hence the crappy turbo boost) and it's expensive! Now of course I'd go for the 12-core for maximum performance (even the 2.66GHz) if you have the budget.

I have the budget for the 12 core @ 2.66GHz, and the 12 core does have 4 more ram slots than the 6 core.

I was talking to an Apple sales rep, and they were saying the Snow Leopard will determine how to spread the load over the cores automatically. So I guess it isn't dependent on the software. The only issue I might have is to boot into 64bit or 32bit.

I also noticed that the 5870 will take two power cords. Can I add more power cords to the logic board myself (are there ports for more on it) or I am stuck with no power for other PCIe cards?

Oh, and I wont have the funds until next Thursday... so it will be a long week of deciding. :P

[Ozric]

SSD's are expensive, but as a single boot drive it's simply an awesome upgrade, hands down. Having put one in this morning as a startup in my older Mac Pro (2 X 3.0 Dual Core), I'm sayin' it's as important a consideration as the number of cores or the processor speeds for most folks. This box just jumped out of retirement!

[cjt3007]

SSD's are expensive, but as a single boot drive it's simply an awesome upgrade, hands down. Having put one in this morning as a startup in my older Mac Pro (2 X 3.0 Dual Core), I'm sayin' it's as important a consideration as the number of cores or the processor speeds for most folks. This box just jumped out of retirement!

What size SSD are you using as your boot drive?

[Ozric]

240GB OWC SSD. Moved iTunes and iPhoto libraries into another internal drive.
Using around 140GB of 240GB capacity as boot drive.

[milo]

I was talking to an Apple sales rep, and they were saying the Snow Leopard will determine how to spread the load over the cores automatically. So I guess it isn't dependent on the software. The only issue I might have is to boot into 64bit or 32bit.

The sales rep was wrong, it very much depends on the software and an app coded for one core generally won't be helped at all by the OS. That's not uncommon, they seem to give out wrong info all the time.

[MT0227]

do you think I could do video editing and other tasks faster with a 6 core 3.33GHz instead? Or the 8 core 2.4GHz?

The majority of programs out there currently don't individually max out 4 cores. So if you do not do a lot of multi-processing amongst several programs at once, the added clock speed of the 6 core will give you a noticeable boost. So, rendering a video in FC would be faster on the 6 core than the 8 core, assuming you don't have several significant CPU intensive jobs running in the background.