New Mac Pros With Up to 16 Cores Coming in Late July/Early August?

[MacRumors]

Apple is preparing to release new "Mid 2011" Mac Pro models, according to 9 to 5 Mac who cites internal Apple documents reportedly mentioning options ranging from six to sixteen processor cores. According to the source, Apple has begun putting together product manuals for the new Mac Pros, which are said to begin shipping in late July or early August.

Following a report from earlier this week that claims that Apple is gearing up to launch a new Mac Pro in late July or early August, a reliable source tells 9to5Mac that Apple has referenced a mid-2011 Mac Pro in multiple internal documents.

The late July/early August timeframe for the new Mac Pro release was first reported over the weekend by CNET's Brian Tong, whose sources had previously accurately pinpointed the latest iMac release within a small window six weeks ahead of time.

The primary question surrounding a Mac Pro release within the rumored timeframe is just which processors Apple will be using. A 16-core configuration would almost certainly come as a pair of 8-core processors, and 8-core Sandy Bridge processors of the server class used in the Mac Pro line aren't scheduled to appear until the fourth quarter of this year as Intel's Xeon E5 line. While Apple has been known to receive early access to Intel processors in the past, it seems ambitious to suppose that Apple would have that much advance access to be able to ship new Mac Pros by early August given Intel's production plans.

One intriguing report from M.I.C gadget surfacing last weekend claimed that Apple will be using a "unique CPU" in the new Mac Pros. Intel has in the past provided custom processors for Apple, pushing out a specially-designed mobile chip for the original MacBook Air back in 2008. M.I.C gadget does not, however, have a track record for Apple hardware records, so the reliability of the claim is unknown.

Article Link: New Mac Pros With Up to 16 Cores Coming in Late July/Early August?

[alent1234]

figures, the new lower end Xeons are supposed to ship soon

[andrei.barbuta]

Last update was uninspired. If this one is in the likes of the 2008 one them I'm in!

[kjs862]

how about a case redesign?

[Capt Underpants]

I thought Apple was transitioning towards a 2 year upgrade cycle on the mac pro.

Pleasant surprise.

[chaosbunny]

Looking forward to a new gpu for my 2010 quad.

[Bubba Satori]

Please have a bto for an i7.
And don't charge an absurd $2,500 for a base model
with 3GB, 5,400rpm and a junk GPU. It's insulting.
Thanks.

[igazza]

Will they support 128GB of ram ?

[minik]

I'm sure we will see a new Mac Pro this year, but that screenshot looks like it's from ACSS and very easy to modify.

[Keebler]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

I've noticed plenty of mps o their refurb site. Usually a few models but tons of them up there now. Top end 12 core is over $1000 off. Wonder how new pricing will affect those.

Ugh. I'm going to want a new one. 2009 is slow for processing m2vs for DVDs. Need speed baby!!!!

[Hellhammer]

Maybe the Sandy Bridge-E CPUs are coming in Q3 after all, or Apple gets very early access, or this will be an announcement and release will be in September-October.

[Heilage]

Screen shot from the internal service source. Might be fake, might be real.

(No 2011 model is listed there now)

[Tonewheel]

And no doubt they'll be priced out of this world.

[slimpio]

I wonder when apple is going to put decent video cards in the mac pro's configuration? Gaming cards don't do the job as quadro or ati fire pro.

[chrmjenkins]

Originally Posted by kjs862

how about a case redesign?

What's wrong with this one? Many consider it the epitome of towers.

Originally Posted by Hellhammer

Maybe the Sandy Bridge-E CPUs are coming in Q3 after all, or Apple gets very early access, or this will be an announcement and release will be in September-October.

Yeah, it's very interesting. If Intel is practicing this much favoritism, it really makes you wonder, particularly given Apple's ARM fanaticism.

[toddybody]

What happened to the rumor about Apple supporting select PC-Desktop GPU's(AMD 6series)...I think the 6970 was mentioned.

If Lion would provide CF support and the ability to use standard 6xxx cards...fantastic. The 5870 for 449.00 and 5770 for 249.99 is a horrible nightmare of a joke.

The Pro is graphically "handicapable" as is.

[daylight28]

FCPX is going to kill it for Apple in the proApps. so why get a 12 or 16 core if FCP 7 will not use the power!!! I love Apple Please Fix FCPX

[Elven]

I hope they keep the current case exterior design, but implement many of the more modern storage solutions inside the chassis.

Also I agree with a previous post, if they are to push a high end price tag even on the base model, offer a reasonable specification to bolster it's appeal.

[ratzzo]

Originally Posted by Tonewheel

And no doubt they'll be priced out of this world.

Especially if you take Apple's upgrades

[Bear]

Originally Posted by Hellhammer

Maybe the Sandy Bridge-E CPUs are coming in Q3 after all, or Apple gets very early access, or this will be an announcement and release will be in September-October.

For the Mac Pro, I think I would be surprised if all the models were shipping immediately. So, yeah August announcement, shipment 4-6 weeks after and maybe longer on the highest end models.

Originally Posted by chrmjenkins

Yeah, it's very interesting. If Intel is practicing this much favoritism, it really makes you wonder, particularly given Apple's ARM fanaticism.

Apple is a very large customer. Also, I suspect it would be a while before ARM could displace Intel processors in any quantity that would annoy Intel.

[bearcatrp]

I would hate to see the price of the 16 core/32 thread monster. 12 core/24 thread Mac pro's top out over 5 grand. My guess would be 8 to 10 grand. Who can afford it besides folks currently making a lot of money. Will be interesting for sure.

[edk99]

It better come with Blu-ray. LOL!

[DaveP]

Originally Posted by Bubba Satori

Please have a bto for an i7.
And don't charge an absurd $2,500 for a base model
with 3GB, 5,400rpm and a junk GPU. It's insulting.
Thanks.

I highly doubt i7 will be an option, though it would be great. Apple seems to have moved away from what I might refer to as mid-range options in the Mac Pro line. Before the iMac was as powerful, it was nice to get a PowerMac for $1,500. I think Apple wants to prevent the MacPro being an iMac replacement and instead have clear demarcation in speed.

[autrefois]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

A 16-core configuration would almost certainly come as a pair of 8-core processors [...] One intriguing report from M.I.C gadget surfacing last weekend claimed that Apple will be using a "unique CPU" in the new Mac Pros.

The unique part is that the next Mac Pro is not going to get a pair of 8-core processors, but rather 8 dual-core A5s and will run iOS. That would certainly be "unique" and be another step towards the common wisdom/fear of Apple moving the Mac more and more towards the iDevices. If you think people were mad about Final Cut Pro, wait until this announcement!

[joeyhockey]

The image is a fake. You can query anything in the Apple Service Source and have it show up on the page. Look, Apple is coming out with a SuperMac Pro Widget!


Plus, the Service Source documentation is usually the LAST place that gets updated when a product is released.