2007 Harpertown Stoakley-Seaburg Motherboard With New Graphics Cards 8-Core Mac Pro

[ob81]

The current Xeon price drop has been pushed back to July 29th.

Let's see if I can make it until October as well.

Ewwww, with the price drop extension and release date moved ahead an entire quarter, I guess an update can come anywhere between October and before Christmas. Thus meaning I may have to wait some more.
/shakes fist in the air..... Damn you technology!!!

 

[HumpYourWayUp]

I am reading this thread since 20 minutes now... and I am curious... very curious. Look, I dont want to sound mean but:
WHAT IS THE REAL MOTIVATION OF "MULTIMEDIA" TO POST SUCH A STRANGE THREAD?!?!
Could it be that this is not so much about the actual technology but his ego and availability of money?!?!

The verbalizations in the poll "Yes I Will Wait 'Til Apple Gets It Right" are also pretty strange...
Not only does "Til Apple Gets It Right" sound like the 8 core is a piece of **** but also: If I would "wait" till apple gets it right I wouldnt have bought Mac OS X 10.4 to this day
Or take this gem "I'll stick with 4 cores, thank you very much". Not only does this sound like more than four cores only seems an option for retarded people but also there is attitude woven into this poll item title. Sorry but if you make a poll keep the items in it neutral and not biased, dont choose text like "No. I bought the FrankenMac". Or did I actually misinterpret and miss an attempt at (poor) humor

*LOL*, *shakehead* and *peace",

Patrick

PS:
The benchmark on Bearfeats http://www.barefeats.com/ indicate that properly coded multicore applications run pretty decent on the 8 core.

(On a side note; Nice, bearfeats wrties that the MBP SR 17" models are about 9% faster in games than the 15" models, but lets all better wait "Til Apple Gets It Right" *shakehead*)

 

[ob81]

I am reading this thread since 20 minutes now... and I am curious... very curious. Look, I dont want to sound mean but:
WHAT IS THE REAL MOTIVATION OF "MULTIMEDIA" TO POST SUCH A STRANGE THREAD?!?!
Could it be that this is not so much about the actual technology but his ego and availability of money?!?!

PS:
The verbalizations in the poll "Yes I Will Wait 'Til Apple Gets It Right" are also pretty strange...
Not only does "Til Apple Gets It Right" sound like the 8 core is a piece of **** but also: If I would "wait" till apple gets it right I wouldnt have bought Mac OS X 10.4 to this day
*LOL*, *shakehead* and *peace"

PPS:
The benchmark on Bearfeats http://www.barefeats.com/ indicate that properly coded multicore applications run pretty decent on the 8 core.

(On a side note; Nice, bearfeats wrties that the MBP SR 17" models are about 9% faster in games than the 15" models, but lets all better wait "Til Apple Gets It Right" *shakehead*)

I don't think it’s his ego or availability of money. Some people like other people's opinion on what/when/ and where to buy. Especially when it costs a pretty penny. To me, it seems as if he wanted a grasp on what other people were thinking/researching in reference to the topic.
I want to get a Mac Pro in the close future. I asked my wife what she thought about spending $5k + on a computer and 2 monitors, and with some weird and foreign logic that made absolutely no sense, she said yes as long as she could go shopping with 25% of what I spent on the computer.
That’s why I stick with asking you guys.

 

[krunk]

she said yes as long as she could go shopping with 25% of what I spent on the computer.

Your wife seems generous. It wouldn't seem unreasonable to want an equal amount to go shopping with.

 

[HumpYourWayUp]

krunk: LOL

ob81: Well I dont know... there is always someting intimidating about Multimedias posts in general.
And I dont trust people who use their photo as an avatar and put specs in their signature - the usually have ego issues. Combine that with this strange topic/poll - bamm! Totally amazing!

 

[Umbongo]

krunk: LOL

ob81: Well I dont know... there is always someting intimidating about Multimedias posts in general.
And I dont trust people who use their photo as an avatar and put specs in their signature - the usually have ego issues. Combine that with this strange topic/poll - bamm! Totally amazing!

He's certainly a character, but in amongst his posts you will often find very credable information, even if it can be a bit direct at times.

 

[irishgrizzly]

He needs to get laid

 

[Apple Corps]

Multimedia - not wanting to start any flame war - I have followed your posts for quite some time now. There is an unmistakable tone of anger: "Apple will damn site not get any of my money for a MBP until they have the easy swap hard drive option" or something like that. You are on a tirade regarding the Mac Pro as a "fake". Apple has been slapping the ball out of the court as of late and my stock gains reflect it.

Is your avatar a picture of you? If so, one would think that you might have a broader perspective of life and temper your comments. How many times have you apologized for the same type of rhetoric over the years? People who are really sorry change their ways - you appear to be filled with anger towards Apple and constant bashing is your norm. Just something to think about.

 

[macenforcer]

I will end all this Stoakley-Searburg talk right now...



My 8 core Mac Pro is fast as all freakin HELL! Buy one.

 

[Multimedia]

I Apologize To All Who Are Upset With My Behavior

I am reading this thread since 20 minutes now... and I am curious... very curious. Look, I dont want to sound mean but:
WHAT IS THE REAL MOTIVATION OF "MULTIMEDIA" TO POST SUCH A STRANGE THREAD?!?!
Could it be that this is not so much about the actual technology but his ego and availability of money?!?!

The verbalizations in the poll "Yes I Will Wait 'Til Apple Gets It Right" are also pretty strange...
Not only does "Til Apple Gets It Right" sound like the 8 core is a piece of **** but also: If I would "wait" till apple gets it right I wouldnt have bought Mac OS X 10.4 to this day
Or take this gem "I'll stick with 4 cores, thank you very much". Not only does this sound like more than four cores only seems an option for retarded people but also there is attitude woven into this poll item title. Sorry but if you make a poll keep the items in it neutral and not biased, dont choose text like "No. I bought the FrankenMac". Or did I actually misinterpret and miss an attempt at (poor) humor

*LOL*, *shakehead* and *peace",

Patrick

PS:
The benchmark on Bearfeats http://www.barefeats.com/ indicate that properly coded multicore applications run pretty decent on the 8 core.

(On a side note; Nice, bearfeats wrties that the MBP SR 17" models are about 9% faster in games than the 15" models, but lets all better wait "Til Apple Gets It Right" *shakehead*)

Multimedia - not wanting to start any flame war - I have followed your posts for quite some time now. There is an unmistakable tone of anger: "Apple will damn site not get any of my money for a MBP until they have the easy swap hard drive option" or something like that. You are on a tirade regarding the Mac Pro as a "fake". Apple has been slapping the ball out of the court as of late and my stock gains reflect it.

Is your avatar a picture of you? If so, one would think that you might have a broader perspective of life and temper your comments. How many times have you apologized for the same type of rhetoric over the years? People who are really sorry change their ways - you appear to be filled with anger towards Apple and constant bashing is your norm. Just something to think about.

I appreciate your kind words and objective analysis. I am in the process of seeking psychological help and hope to never display those fits of anger again. You are right. I need to understand the deep psychological underpinnings of my anger and remove it from my personality. I also apologized for the use of the term "FrankenMac" and other hostile reading lines in the Survey early on. But there is no mechanism for even the author of polls to edit the wording once it's posted.

At the time I created this thread, I was still reeling from Apple's inability to deliver the SS motherboard with 8-cores in the first place. I realized soon afterwards that it was probably Intel's inability to deliver the SS motherboard on time - promised for first quarter of 2007 - that was the culprit. Nevertheless, I had no business bashing anyone for doing the best they can under whatever technological impasse they may have been facing.

At any rate, I really take to heart the comments from those of you who find me angry, hostile, offensive and way too brash. I'm entering psychological counseling to deal with it very soon. (NOT SARCASM) Seriously. Not kidding.

He needs to get laid

That I am getting very regularly thanks.

 

[Apple Corps]

Multimedia - if your comments are sincere and on the level - thumbs up for you !!!

Life is way too short to go around with so much "bad belly". The first step is an easy one - start sharing some of your experience about good things that are happening.

 

[Multimedia]

Word On Current 8 Core Performance In Final Cut Studio 6

Nice to speak with you yesterday.
Basically, ALL the quicktime codecs in Final Cut 6 run in real time. The best codecs which essentially cover the entire plethora of options are:
Apple ProRes HQ
Apple ProRes SQ
Uncompressed 10bit
Uncompressed 8bit
DVCPro 1080
DVCPro 720
DV-NTSC

The real-time options of these codecs include speed effects, motion, scaling, flopping, timecode generators, color correction most filters, multiple streams (sometimes up to 10 or more with effects) and all the cropping/geometry rooms. This all largely be realtime in all the additional quicktime supported codecs, such as IMX and XDCAM HD.

They can take full advantage of the multi-platform editing and the real time effects. We have been running 9 Eight Core Mac Pro 4GB systems on Studio 2 for about 3 weeks and aside from expected operation bugs, the system performance has completely changed our digital intermediate workflow. The ability to playback DV reference movies for 10bit uncompressed hd onlines in realtime while they overlap the HD media is speeding up our onlining workflow by over 20%.

Michael Cioni
Director of Operations
PlasterCITY Digital Post, L.L.C.
6500 Sunset Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90028
p: 323.469.9800
c: 323.428.6767
www.plastercitypost.com

 

[dartzorichalcos]

Multimedia, what graphics cards do you want to see in these new Mac Pros? ATI Radeon HD X2900 XT, nVidia GeForce 8800GTX? Also, how much ram are you going to put into the Stoakley-Seaburg Mac Pro?

 

[Multimedia]

ATI Graphics & Two 2GB RAM Sticks To Begin With

Multimedia, what graphics cards do you want to see in these new Mac Pros? ATI Radeon HD X2900 XT, nVidia GeForce 8800GTX? Also, how much ram are you going to put into the Stoakley-Seaburg Mac Pro?

I don't track graphics cards so I have no idea. But I'd rather have an ATI card because so far I've seen no evidence nVidea supports rotation on any displays. I will have two graphics cards because I like to drive 4 monitors. So if the stock one is nVidea I will take it and add an ATI whatever is offered but not the extreme $600 model.

As for RAM, I'm thinking two 2GB sticks for a total of 5 or 6GB depending on what the new base amount is. Then I'll watch Activity Monitor to determine if I should add two more. As you can see above, Michael Cioni thinks 4GB is plenty for video editing. So since hearing this from him at HD Expo two weeks ago in Chicago I've revised down my RAM amount plan which was to add four 2GB sticks right away which I still might do.

I'm sorely tempted to pick-up one of those Quad 2.66 models for $2199 on the refurb store right now just to get going. But we're down to no more than two months 'til Apple is likely to drop the stall I think. Grrr... I can't decide. I can't tell if it's patience at work? Or putting off getting into an old Intel four core short term?

Then when I read the horrific reports on the Apple site about the $359 ATI Radeon X1900 XT Graphics Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro, it gives me pause to take a breath and keep waiting for what's next. I didn't realize how many heat problems people are having with this card after 6 months of bliss.

Can anyone report if the stock nVidea card in the Mac Pro does support Dell monitor rotation or not please?

 

[Grimace]

Multimedia and I have had strong words in the past, so I know first hand what some of you guys are referring to. However, I will temper this discussion a bit and back him up.

MM knows the ins and outs of high-end desktop technology, especially when it comes to "crushing" video. Frequently, the forums are filled with posts from newbies who wanna walk the walk, but don't have the real knowledge base or actual experience in using these high-end products. MM sometimes puts them in their places, and in the past - it has come across to some as harsh (including me).

Read back far enough and you will see that MM is now tailoring his posts to be a little more easy-going in his responses (come on, we've all wanted to say to someone "you idiot, have you ever used a computer?" Patience is a real difficulty for some of us who have been here a while. We see folks come and go, spouting professional creds but who know nothing. I'm just saying, MM is definitely a great contributor to the high-end hardware forums and he is finding a better filter in responding to posts.

Think of a time in your life when you were given a second chance. I got one (actually many) -- and I didn't even deserve that chance. Give MM that same chance; he's helping us and helping himself to do better every day. [/sermon]

 

[Umbongo]

Can anyone report if the stock nVidea card in the Mac Pro does support Dell monitor rotation or not please?

Does this help? https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/295987/

 

[tribe3]

Then when I read the horrific reports on the Apple site about the $359 ATI Radeon X1900 XT Graphics Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro, it gives me pause to take a breath and keep waiting for what's next. I didn't realize how many heat problems people are having with this card after 6 months of bliss.

Can anyone report if the stock nVidea card in the Mac Pro does support Dell monitor rotation or not please?

Apple is now shipping a ver.2 of the Ati X1900 with different part# and different manufacturer.

All reports so far are that this new card has no problems

 

[TV21]

Apple is now shipping a ver.2 of the Ati X1900 with different part# and different manufacturer.

All reports so far are that this new card has no problems

Do you happen to know if this new version is sold separately in the Apple store as well, or just BTO with a MP?

 

[tribe3]

Do you happen to know if this new version is sold separately in the Apple store as well, or just BTO with a MP?

The one I bought at the Apple store for the 2.66 was the "new" version (about a month ago), and the one that came with my 3GHz is also the new version.

Anyways, Apple has pretty much acknowledged that ver.1 is bad and they exchange them without hassle.

The new version's part# ends with 00006 and the old with 00004.

Best.

 

[zero2dash]

Anyhow, that is fine if FB-DIMMs are dead, however it makes no sense to take on DDR3 right now. Heck, if you have paid any attention the P35 chipsets have DDR2 counterparts right now because people aren't goign to jump on the DDR3 bandwagon and they realize that.

Any high end solution will be DDR3 only like the X38 (Bearlake, 975X replacement). It isn't cost effective for anyone to take on the DDR3 while 1: DDR3 DIMMs are not widely available 2: They are super expensive and decent prices aren't expected for some time.

I've been following P35 for awhile now since I'm in the market to build something with a Q6600.

The mobo I've chosen to buy is a Gigabyte P35 GA-P35C-DS3R that actually has 4 DDR2 ram slots and 2 DDR3 slots with a FSB of 1333. It supports DDR2 up to 1066 and both (current) flavors of DDR3 - 1066 and 800. Most P35 boards are DDR2 only, but some (like the one I will buy) supports both. Just an fyi.

From what I've read around the 'net, (namely Anandtech's coverage of P35), DDR3 dimms will be pricey; reportedly when they're more widely available come this fall, 2 gigs will run around $430 retail, which is putting them in DDR2 FB-DIMM pricing. Meanwhile 2 gigs of good DDR2 800 will run you between $80-$110 depending on retailer and brand name.

I think DDR2 will be around for awhile; no one's seen ram this cheap, widely available, and widely used. Another nice thing about P35 is you can get a free 25% overclock cpu speed increase just by increasing a 1066 FSB cpu to 1333 FSB in the bios. (source)

 

[dartzorichalcos]

I've been following P35 for awhile now since I'm in the market to build something with a Q6600.

The mobo I've chosen to buy is a Gigabyte P35 GA-P35C-DS3R that actually has 4 DDR2 ram slots and 2 DDR3 slots with a FSB of 1333. It supports DDR2 up to 1066 and both (current) flavors of DDR3 - 1066 and 800. Most P35 boards are DDR2 only, but some (like the one I will buy) supports both. Just an fyi.

From what I've read around the 'net, (namely Anandtech's coverage of P35), DDR3 dimms will be pricey; reportedly when they're more widely available come this fall, 2 gigs will run around $430 retail, which is putting them in DDR2 FB-DIMM pricing. Meanwhile 2 gigs of good DDR2 800 will run you between $80-$110 depending on retailer and brand name.

I think DDR2 will be around for awhile; no one's seen ram this cheap, widely available, and widely used. Another nice thing about P35 is you can get a free 25% overclock cpu speed increase just by increasing a 1066 FSB cpu to 1333 FSB in the bios. (source)

What about GDDR4? When do you think we will see macs with GDDR4 graphics cards?

 

[zero2dash]

What about GDDR4? When do you think we will see macs with GDDR4 graphics cards?

I hadn't even heard of GDDR4 'til you mentioned it and I looked (briefly) over that Wikipedia article.

That being said...(linked off your link)
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3781

DailyTech previously reported ATI would launch its GDDR4 equipped Radeon X1950XT and X1950 CrossFire graphics cards on August 23rd. According to ATI's latest launch advisory, dated August 11, the launch date has now been pushed back to September 14th, 2006.

As to when Macs will get them...it's anyone's guess but I say winter if not early 2008, considering how far behind graphics cards are in Mac systems. Sorry

I don't know how much performance will change for those particular cards with GDDR4, but I believe as of right now, nothing can touch nVidia's 8800 series. (of which I plan on buying an 8800GTS myself)

 

[dartzorichalcos]

I don't know how much performance will change for those particular cards with GDDR4, but I believe as of right now, nothing can touch nVidia's 8800 series. (of which I plan on buying an 8800GTS myself)

I sure thought that ATI Radeon HD X2900 XT will be better than the nVidia GeForce 8800GTS, GTX or even Ultra.
The current graphics cards will probably replaced with these:
nVidia GeForce 7300 GT ------------> nVidia GeForce 8300 GT
ATI Radeon X1900 XT ---------------> ATI Radeon HD X2900 XT
nVidia Quadro FX 4500 ---------------> nVidia GeForce 8800GTX or Ultra

 

[zero2dash]

I sure thought that ATI Radeon HD X2900 XT will be better than the nVidia GeForce 8800GTS, GTX or even Ultra.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd-2900-games_20.html#sect1

The new graphics card has been awaited for many months and a lot of observers expected R600 with 700 million of transistors and 512-bit memory bus to leave Nvidia’s GeForce 8800 GTX in the dust. This does not happen and while the new Radeon HD 2900 XT can outperform the 8800 GTX model in certain cases, this board is really a competitor for Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB.

As it can be seen, there are only a few cases when ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT can compete against the GeForce 8800 GTX (Battlefield 2142 , Far Cry , Splinter Cell: Double Agent , Command and Conquer 3 ). In 5 cases out of 19 our today’s hero either demonstrates unacceptably low results, or comes behind GeForce 8800 GTS. The latter never shows inappropriately low results, but in 7 cases out of 19 it comes third.

Unfortunately, ATI decided to load the code-named R600 GPU with only 16 texture filtering units and 16 render back ends, which limits performance in a number of games, which is sad, as the chip features 512-bit memory bus and can definitely offer exceptional performance with FSAA enabled.

8800 GTS < 8800 GTX < 8800 GTX Ultra (which isn't compared in the above article)

So (crudely) the X2900 is similar to the 8800 GTS but is beaten in most areas by the GTX and (definitely) the GTX Ultra.

I'm not saying the X2900 is a bad card by any means, but from what I've read off a few articles now, it has a higher power consumption than the 8800 GeForce cards. The X2900 has 512-bit memory architecture, whereas the 8800s are 320-bit (and GDDR3, obviously). I wonder if nVidia will bother bringing out a GDDR4 card, but without any real incentive - if they already have the performance crown this early in the game - they may stick with GDDR3 for the time being.

Then again, I have no idea, truthfully.

Your idea of replacement models is a fairly good set of ideas, but I wouldn't be surprised to see an 8600 available somewhere, since it's relatively a cheap yet decent performing card. (Maybe instead of the 8300/8400 which are both OEM only?) Initially I was going to get an 8600GTS, but they're 128-bit memory and only (roughly) $100 less than the 320meg 8800GTS (retail).

One more thing to consider is that the GTX (and, I assume the GTX Ultra) are long/large cards. I don't know how/if they'd fit into a Mac Pro case. Then again, the Quadro could be a huge/similar sized card, but I'd never know 'cause I've never seen one.

 

[dartzorichalcos]

Stoakley-Seaburg Mac Pro prediction

If I were to get a Stoakley Seaburg Mac Pro, these would be the specifications I want it to have:
2.66GHz 8-core Stoakley-Seaburg Xeon Processor
2GB of ram
500GB hard drive standard
ATI Radeon HD X2900 XT or nVidia GeForce 8800 Ultra
price range: $2499-$2999