Absolutely! To see the full color depth of 36-bit of my Canon RAW files. That would be awesome for all kinds of print work.
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2007 Harpertown Stoakley-Seaburg Motherboard With New Graphics Cards 8-Core Mac Pro
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My guess is the HD3870 for the bto high-end consumer card.
The HD3850 is cheap enough (somewhere between $150 to $200). Maybe it will be the low-end card.
The 8800GT is getting some extremely good benchmarks.
I would like to get the 8800GT but I am guessing that Apple will go with ATI.
if they dont have the 8800GT as a BTO option (which would be a first to have such a new and great card!) I think i'll go with the stock card and add an 8800GT for XP to play games with...I was never really a pc gamer, but since I will have the horsepower to play, that might change 
PLEEEAAASEEE
give us a decent card !
PLEEEAAASEEE
give us a decent card !
I certainly hope they learned their lesson with the iMac and are not going with ATI for the bto high-end consumer card. When it all comes out in the wash, I bet you dollars to donuts it turns out to be a hardware issue with the iMac, not drivers.
As for the HD3870, I hope not for two reasons. 1) no information on it (benchies, etc..) 2) it's an unproven/untested card.
Consider their decision to go with the x1900xt. That card was on the market for 7 months when they decided to put it in the Mac Pro. I'm thinking they will go with a known quantity. The 8800GTX would be splendid. The 8800GT would be even better. But we've both come to the conclusion that because it is such a great card, Apple won't include it. The HD2900xt would be a poor choice, primarily because it puts out a lot of heat and uses a lot of power. A lot of power. And its bested by the GTX and in many cases, the GT.
They couldn't put the Radeon HD 2900 XT in it, even if they wanted to. It isn't produced anymore.
And quite frankly, they had to think about the thermal envelope of the iMac and in that sense the Radeon HD 2400 and HD 2600 were a much better fit (including price) than anything else on the market.
I doubt Apple would focus on power and speed over price and heat output, especially with the all in one iMac.
I just hope that once Apple decides to update their Mac Pro they allow people with older Mac Pro's to upgrade their graphic card. The X1900 XT is a good card, but it doesn't really cut it anymore for new games.
Honestly, I wouldnt be suprised,at all, if Apple would refuse to sell the new cards as upgrades.
Like,they would say that the "old Macpors are not compatible and apple refuses to sell the new cards because of risk of breakdowns".
That way they would get the old MP users to update their complete computers and thus creating more revenue for shareholders.
I am betting one million imaginary dollars on that one.
Bastards.
Man, I hope to all things holy that you're wrong. I could care less about any other upgrades to the machine really. I'm just happy with everything about my system (bought it a couple months ago) except for the video card. I tried to change it to the x1900xt, but they had just barely packed it when I called and so I couldn't make the change in time. I'm really not thrilled about spending that kind of cash on a x1900xt when something new may be coming out soon.
Please let the new card (if there is one) work with the existing MP!
I'm sure the new card will work with the old machines. No reason it wouldn't. And I'm assuming it will be available as an aftermarket, like the Radeon is now. It'll just be incredibly expensive for something that's probably been around already for awhile that will be practically ancient at the end of the new model's life.
I'd say they'll have cards for upgrade as well, but they may put them out out a 3-4 months down the line, not on day 1.
I know the 8800GT is going beyond expectations when it comes to performance BUT...
The 8800GTX is still better than the 8800GT at running games at high resolutions.
The 8800GT gives you more bang for your buck but given a choice I would most definitely prefer the 8800GTX.
At high resolutions and high-quality, the 8800GT may not even play Crysis.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/29/geforce_8800_gt/index.html
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140
One reason why it might not work in older machines
It's very possible that the new card would fail in older machines.
One would assume that since the new card can push more pixels per second, it would need more PCIe bandwidth to do that.
It is quite possible that the extra load on the bus would expose some latent timing or thermal problem with the motherboard. This could cause problems - it could freeze like an Imac, for example.
As part of the QA for the new card, Apple could revise the motherboard to fix the problem - or they could (and probably would) say "Not supported on Woodcrest/Clovertown Mac Pros".
Why would they revise the old motherboard when the new systems would be based on the Seaburg chipset instead of the current Greencreek? It wouldn't make financial sense.
It's very possible that the new card would fail in older machines.
One would assume that since the new card can push more pixels per second, it would need more PCIe bandwidth to do that.
It is quite possible that the extra load on the bus would expose some latent timing or thermal problem with the motherboard. This could cause problems - it could freeze like an Imac, for example.
As part of the QA for the new card, Apple could revise the motherboard to fix the problem - or they could (and probably would) say "Not supported on Woodcrest/Clovertown Mac Pros".
Why would they revise the old motherboard when the new systems would be based on the Seaburg chipset instead of the current Greencreek? It wouldn't make financial sense.
Tomorrow is another tuesday and still no Mac Pro refresh in sight...
Do we have to wait until tuesday 13 (or january... AAAAHRGH!) or is there a little chance of an announcement?
The rumors factory is very dry...
I'm impatient
Very impatient
and a little annoyed.
Fortunately there is other people waiting like me...
Do we have to wait until tuesday 13 (or january... AAAAHRGH!) or is there a little chance of an announcement?
The rumors factory is very dry...
I'm impatient
Very impatient
and a little annoyed.
Fortunately there is other people waiting like me...
Assuming that some or all of the new mac pros have a 1600 bus speed, are any third party RAM suppliers already selling viable FB-dimms for getting the best from that bus (800 presumably), or would it take a while for suitable ones (appropriate heat sinks etc) to come to market? One thing I do know is that I can't afford to buy extra RAM direct from Apple, so I could find myself restricted to the base RAM for a while.
Yes we do. I doubt they will update tomorrow as they are clearly waiting for Intel to release it. I suspect that they can't start selling machines with the new Penryn's until the official launch. So I wouldn't be so hopeful for tomorrow's update although I would love to be wrong as I'm waiting since December
(I started with Macbook Pro update but when the time was passing I quickly changed my mind to Mac Pro )This is a very good question. I'd also like to know if the new RAM is likely to be significantly more expensive than the current Mac Pro RAM. This could have a significant influence on whether I buy now or wait, since I need about 8 GB of extra RAM.
I think Apple will not adopt a "significantly" more expensive RAMs. That's just me.
As far as the timing of your purchase goes, you'd be better off getting it after the update, which most likely will happen either before next weekend or Macworld '08.
It is Tuesday!
Good morning everyone,
it is Tuesday now in Cupertino. Can't wait to see what surprises Apple may have for us today!
- Martin, with his fingers crossed
Good morning everyone,
it is Tuesday now in Cupertino. Can't wait to see what surprises Apple may have for us today!
- Martin, with his fingers crossed
Nor would not providing a way for those who already have Mac Pros to upgrade to anything else. People are already able to use PC cards in Windows. I'm sure the lowend card would at least work. Don't know how well, or if they'd be supported, but I'm sure they would. The MB and PS are more than adequate for all but dual 16x SLI Crossfire.
Next week.
Apple is under no obligation to upgrade your old Greencreek motherboard to support graphics cards that were never sold with that model.
Although it wouldn't be required, it would be nice if Apple were to QA the new cards against the old system. If they pass, then offer them as a supported upgrade.
Apple's QA would be much more rigorous than a gamer sticking the card in for a while, booting XP and saying "it works".
It would have to be, because if there were any problems Apple might have to give the user a new Penryn system for the card.
Note that if Apple releases the new card, it will have drivers for a Penryn/Seaburg motherboard. Testing and debugging the OSX drivers for the Woodcrest/Greencreek board would cost money, which may be difficult to recoup on the small sales of upgrade cards.
Windows and OSX have different architectures for drivers - just because the Windows drivers work doesn't imply that the OSX drivers will.
______
I don't know if the new cards and drivers would work in the older systems. I'm just suggesting a couple of scenarios where Apple could refuse to support the cards in the older systems - scenarios that are technical rather than "Apple wants to force us to buy new Mac Pros".
ps: It's PCIe x16, not "16x". The "x" is before the number of lanes.
This comment is 7 days early.
If Apple doesn't announce a system right after Intel formally announces Penryn/Seaburg - then January looks more probable.
As it is, I never considered it likely that Apple would announce before Intel. That's just not the way that Intel has been operating.
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