Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
2007 Harpertown Stoakley-Seaburg Motherboard With New Graphics Cards 8-Core Mac Pro
- Thread starter Multimedia
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
- Status
4 DL DVI Is Attractive To Me
That I would want. Is it fairly powerful anyway for FCP 6 and Motion 3 work - not 3-D?
It's a dual GPU board. The only major limitation would be 3D heavy work across 30" x 4. The memory interface would be the bottle neck there.That I would want. Is it fairly powerful anyway for FCP 6 and Motion 3 work - not 3-D?
Pass me a beer from the cooler, bro.
If it doesn't come out until January, I think I'll have to use the $300 worth or gift cards from last Christmas. I think there is an expiration on them. I know where I could spend $200 though - the Logic Studio upgrade from Logic 7.2.
Here you go:
Gift cards don't expire unless your state has laws saying they do after so many years.
http://www.apple.com/go/giftcards/faqs.html
Gift cards don't expire unless your state has laws saying they do after so many years.
http://www.apple.com/go/giftcards/faqs.html
Apple FAQ said:
you're probably sick questions like this but...
i do graphics and animation and i'm getting given a low-middle of the range Mac Pro (i know i'm VERY lucky) which is due to happen in about 2 weeks and although i'm obviously extremely pleased with this it would be really annoying to get this and then have a big update happen a matter of weeks later...
i know the saying goes 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' but i could maybe able to ask for the purchase to be delay two months max?
i realise you can only speculate, and these are questions everyone wants to know answers to, but i just wondered...
what do you recon the rough odds are on which month a mac pro would be released are? (ie October 30%, November 20% and January 50%)
and are there any key dates i should try to wait for?
also in real terms how much better would the next low/mid range mac pro actually be? (cos for me the mac pro is already amazing and if it's just gonna be like 10% faster i'll probably just go for it now? having said that if waiting two months means it lasts a year longer then that's great too)
thanks, any help would be greatly appreciated.
i do graphics and animation and i'm getting given a low-middle of the range Mac Pro (i know i'm VERY lucky) which is due to happen in about 2 weeks and although i'm obviously extremely pleased with this it would be really annoying to get this and then have a big update happen a matter of weeks later...
i know the saying goes 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' but i could maybe able to ask for the purchase to be delay two months max?
i realise you can only speculate, and these are questions everyone wants to know answers to, but i just wondered...
what do you recon the rough odds are on which month a mac pro would be released are? (ie October 30%, November 20% and January 50%)
and are there any key dates i should try to wait for?
also in real terms how much better would the next low/mid range mac pro actually be? (cos for me the mac pro is already amazing and if it's just gonna be like 10% faster i'll probably just go for it now? having said that if waiting two months means it lasts a year longer then that's great too)
thanks, any help would be greatly appreciated.
Great questions, all of which I share in your curiosity, especially regarding performance increases expected. A Mac Pro is probably way more power than I need, but I suppose being a former PC user I just long for a real tower. Like you've said, if I can only expect a 5-10% increase in performance, I'm not sure that it's even worth waiting since I have the money set aside now.
The Mac Pro, as it is, is more then powerful enough to do what you right now. So the issue is lifespan how often does your company replace their machines? Do they sell them every 3-4 years? or do they use them until they've upgraded as much as they will go and then wait until the thing has crapped out (my exp. in every place I've worked, without exception).
I'd buy buy now if you need it, but know that you'll see a resale difference of a few 100 when you come to sell it money you can probably recoup now by buying early and increasing your productivity.
I forgot to post it when I read it, but Intel announced on the 11th of September that Penryn would go in to volume production in 45 days. So 26th October, aiming for their November 12th street date.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20070911231514.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20070911231514.html
Probably looking at about 0-10% (5% average from the comparisons I've seen) depending on task for the Penryn improvements and another 5% for faster processors. I don't know what we are looking at for the Seaburg chipset over Blackford though. As for 8 Cores over 4, well I think looking at current 8 vs 4 will give some guidance there.
September - 5% - Nothing happening with Intel that will affect Apple.
October - 20% - Apple could get the jump on everyone else by getting Intel processors before their launch date. It happened with Clovertown.
November - 60% - Intel launches Harpertown (Penryn) on November 11th.
December - 5% - Possible early launch with 1600MHz FSB Harpertowns.
January - 10% - Apple waits to bring out the Mac Pro with 1600MHz FSB Harpertowns.
But isn't it true that Tiger isn't really jiggered to utilize 8 cores whereas Leopard and the associated Pro and Prosumer apps should unleash the true power of all these cores?
Yes, but that is all we have to go on at the moment. Unless there are Leopard beta benchmarks out there (I've ignored everything Leopard). I suppose you could look at 8 vs 4 core non OSX benchmarks to get a good idea too.
I did not look at that as being good news.
Intel says that they are starting volume production of Penryn in 45 days.
They say they are manufacturing Penryn right now in Oregon but that Oregon cannot manufacture products in high-volume, which is required for mass products.
I would think those processors would have to be in Apple's hands very shortly in order to get the Mac Pros out by November.
Maybe Apple will announce the Mac Pro in late October or early November with shipment sometime in December?
With modern just in time manufacturing I wouldn't worry. We've seen Apple are an important showcase for Intel.
the rest of the story
This statement isn't wrong, but it can easily mislead someone....
Apple was 5 or 6 months *late* in releasing Clovertown (quad-core 5300 series Xeon) processors. The other manufacturers announced them in November and were shipping by mid-December.
Apple didn't announce/ship the BTO option of the 5300-series chips in the existing Mac Pro motherboards until early April.
What Apple did do, however, was ship the early 150-watt X5365 speed bin chips a few weeks before they were available from other vendors.
Most of the big vendors, however, passed on using the 150-watt chips that Apple was using, and waited for the newer design "G0" stepping - which ran at the same 120-watt TDP rating as the 2.66 GHz chips. (Apple's maxi-tower was built to cool the raging furnace called a G5 - it could handle the heat, whereas many of the mainstream 1U/2U servers weren't able to deal with an additional 60 watts of heat and power consumption.)
This statement isn't wrong, but it can easily mislead someone....
Apple was 5 or 6 months *late* in releasing Clovertown (quad-core 5300 series Xeon) processors. The other manufacturers announced them in November and were shipping by mid-December.
Apple didn't announce/ship the BTO option of the 5300-series chips in the existing Mac Pro motherboards until early April.
What Apple did do, however, was ship the early 150-watt X5365 speed bin chips a few weeks before they were available from other vendors.
Most of the big vendors, however, passed on using the 150-watt chips that Apple was using, and waited for the newer design "G0" stepping - which ran at the same 120-watt TDP rating as the 2.66 GHz chips. (Apple's maxi-tower was built to cool the raging furnace called a G5 - it could handle the heat, whereas many of the mainstream 1U/2U servers weren't able to deal with an additional 60 watts of heat and power consumption.)
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=42373&rfp=dta
Yes, I know it's effectively a computer tabloid.
Yes, I know it's effectively a computer tabloid.
What Umbongo said.
I frequently use them for information.
I think they are funny also...here is an example of a recent statement by the Inquirer, "Only 1.7 million people pay the $99 annual fee for its .Mac service and most of them are fan boys who use it to flame the INQUIRER anonymously."
Looking forward to the news on Tuesday.
If by few weeks you mean 3 months...
The Xeon 5365 were officially released in August and Apple had it in April (although a different stepping with a TDP of 150 Watt, as you mention).
No, I mean a few weeks. The 150 watt chips were available from SuperMicro and a couple of the 2nd tier vendors a couple of weeks after Apple started using them. You could also buy the CPUs on the open market.
Dell/HP/... decided to pass on the power-hunger early 3.0GHz bins, and waited for the G0 stepping that came out in August. Don't be confused that both are called X5365 - the 150 watt chips are older technology. The August chips are a newer design that uses less power and offers a bit more performance.
http://www.dailytech.com/New+Intel+Xeon+Steppings+on+the+Way/article7630.htm
In other words, Apple used chips that the others didn't want. If you need to twist that into "special treatment" for Apple, so be it.
It's the same chip and same technology. The process at which they are made mature over time, hence the same part with a lower TDP.
Again, the Xeon 5365 were still first officially released in August.
If chips were available before that they were OEM and not retail. In fact, I still have trouble finding retail Xeon 5365 in Denmark.
- Status