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8-Core Mac Pro Tomorrow? Doubtful.

Aniej said:
Can someone from the UK who is familiar with the Inquirer please provide a little color as to the reputation of the periodical? I went to the website and it seems like it is a mish mash of tech articles that does not have journalistic integrity as a foremost priority. However this very site could be described as just a bunch of silly mac rumors, but it often has very useful insights. As such, any thoughts from those familiar with the Inquirer would be great.
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I'm from the UK and stumble across the Inquirer from time to time. What can i say? It is terrible to say the least. Wouldn't trust it at all. (Having said that it will probably be correct this time)

k2k koos said:
They would never go down in cpu speed for their top model, at the very least they would want to match it.
Click to expand...

Well they did recently

2.7ghz Dual G5
to
2.5 ghz Quad G5
 
xUKHCx said:
Well they did recently

2.7ghz Dual G5
to
2.5 ghz Quad G5
Click to expand...

Good point. I wish they would hurry up already.

Multimedia said:
Dream on. No way will they offer two speeds. And you can't run 8 cores with 1GB of ram. It is much more likely to be your first guess +

3GHz Quad $2499
2.33GHz Quad $1999
Click to expand...

I just don't think that they will get rid of the 2.66 model.
 
Yeah, I guess not today. Well, we have one more tuesday before NAB.
At this point though, might as well just wait 'til then. ;)
 
freiheit said:
SO-DIMM tends to be used in notebooks and other confined spaces (like iMacs). It would not typically be used in a workstation like the Mac Pro. If Apple went away from the FB-DIMMs (and I"m not sure they will -- there are some genuine advantages to it) it would more likely be to normal DDR2 DIMMs found in typical desktop PCs.
Click to expand...

Ohhh yeah, that's the type that I meant to say. Would they ever do that type of switch?
 
8 cores mac and 10.5 connected

Either earlier in this thread or another someone mentioned about OS 10.4 not scaling well with more than 4 cores... i think its quite possible that that is why were not seeing 8 cores released. The 8+ core macs will probably be highly dependant on 10.5+ to make use of 8, 16, whatever the amount of cores we will possibly see in 10.5 dev cycle. I'd love to see an 8 core mac sooner, ive had the cash to drop for months, but wanna wait for 10.5 to be installed ... and am wondering if we see FCP 6 at NAB if it may only be on a Quad 3ghz, with one of its key feature bullets being that it will recognize up to 32? cores.
 
mustang_dvs said:
Hardware will almost always be introduced on Tuesdays to maximize availability, minimize unprofitable storage, minimize potential storeroom theft and capitalize on the news cycle.
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actually, in recent years, it's been introduced on wednesdays almost as often as on tuesdays. The MR community just has a fascination with tuesdays. :)

As far as the 8 core mac pros, what processor speeds are available now? I thought the quad-core processors topped out at around 2.33 Ghz as of now. If that's the best available, the 3 Ghz mac pro will be faster for 98% of users.
 
QCassidy352 said:
actually, in recent years, it's been introduced on wednesdays almost as often as on tuesdays. The MR community just has a fascination with tuesdays. :)

As far as the 8 core mac pros, what processor speeds are available now? I thought the quad-core processors topped out at around 2.33 Ghz as of now. If that's the best available, the 3 Ghz mac pro will be faster for 98% of users.
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2.66 ghz i think
 
My prediction:

2.66x4 Woodcrest is bottom model -$100
3.0x4 Woodcrest is standard option $2499
2.66x8 Clovertown is top model +$500

Due to the price of the Clovertown, I don't think they're gonna make it the standard configuration.

Apple's probably been waiting for a price drop to make their bulk chip purchase for the new mac pros. Due to Intel's falling profits from cutting deals so cheap, they've probably been more resistant.

just my $.02
 
Model Clock Speed Bus Speed L2 Cache TDP Pricing*
X5355 2.66 GHz 1333 MHz 8 MB 120W $1172
E5345 2.33 GHz 1333 MHz 8 MB 80W $851
E5320 1.86 GHz 1066 MHz 8 MB 80W $690
E5310 1.60 GHz 1066 MHz 8 MB 80W $455
*Price per processor for quantities over 1000


From this link: http://guides.macrumors.com/Clovertown
 
compare with current prices:

Xeon (Woodcrest) - 64-bit, Dual Core, 4MiB L2 cache
* Xeon 5130 - 2GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 65W - $316
* Xeon 5150 - 2.66GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 65W - $690
* Xeon 5160 - 3GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 80W - $851

EDIT: These aren't even bulk prices. I should note that at the same Ghz, Clovertown is only 30% faster even with twice the cores.
 
jacquiep said:
Does anyone know if the new mac pro would have fb-dimm or so-dimm? Is it the processor or the motherboard that dictates the type used? Now that I'm on the subject, what exactly is the difference? I hear fb-dimm is better suited for servers or situations where there is lots of parallel information, while so-dimm is better for a single user environment, where there are fewer tasks but they should be run faster.
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The processor does not dictate the type of RAM and the motherboard could have been designed to use either of several types. I think the reason Apple/Intel chose what they did was for performance and reliability. Both performance and reliability are very important on a machine used for professional work. (for work on which a business depends) Had Apple used the more common, lower cost RAM then almost certainly the pathway between RAM and the rest of the computer would have been the performance bottle neck. It would have been possible but a bit pointless to build a four core machine with limited RAM bandwidth. Reliability is the other issue. The MP uses ECC RAM. It can detect and correct errors, the more common RAM fails silently leaving the user to see random hard to diagnose glitches.

In years past, before the advent of cheap desktop PCs almost all computers were equipped with RAM that looked like the type in the MP. So what's happed is that those old ideas are cheap enough now that we can roll them down to top of the line pro desktop machine like the MP. I remember working on a top of the line CDC mainframe. It was a near antique when I first saw it. It had four "cores" and 10-way interleaved ECC RAM. The design was very much like the MP. It had a base price (before options) of $12M. and that was in the mid to late 60's when $12 million was a lot of money. Some day this kind of technology will be common in even low-end desktop PCs.
 
Also coming today...

MacBook UltraMegaSuperPro with dual 20" multi-touch screens built in

MacMac midtower with Conroe chips, FBDIMMS, and a flux capacitor

Release of OS X and generic drivers for use on Dell and HP machines

Steve Jobs' start of speech therapy (It's AH-toe-ma-ti-klee)

And the new MacSun. A new, Apple logo shaped sun to replace the one we normally wake up to.

You heard it here first! Now stop laughing and pay attention to some one else.
 
SinfonianShrek said:
MacBook UltraMegaSuperPro with dual 20" multi-touch screens built in

MacMac midtower with Conroe chips, FBDIMMS, and a flux capacitor

Release of OS X and generic drivers for use on Dell and HP machines

Steve Jobs' start of speech therapy (It's AH-toe-ma-ti-klee)

And the new MacSun. A new, Apple logo shaped sun to replace the one we normally wake up to.

You heard it here first! Now stop laughing and pay attention to some one else.
Click to expand...

I don't think we are laughing. :rolleyes:
 
QCassidy352 said:
actually, in recent years, it's been introduced on wednesdays almost as often as on tuesdays. The MR community just has a fascination with tuesdays. :)
Click to expand...

A random sampling of 10 introductions from Apple-History (I purposely picked before looking at release dates):
  • iBook Dual USB - Tuesday May 1, 2001
  • Powerbook G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) - Tuesday September 16, 2003
  • PowerMac G4 (Quicksilver) - Wednesday July 18, 2001 (keynote)
  • XServe - Tuesday May 14, 2002
  • iMac (Early 2003) - Tuesday February 4, 2003
  • PowerMac G5 - Wednesday June 9, 2004 (keynote)
  • Macbook Pro - Tuesday January 10, 2006 (keynote)
  • iMac G5 (iSight) - Wednesday October 12, 2005
  • Mac Pro - Monday August 7, 2006 (WWDC)
  • MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo) - Tuesday October 24, 2006
  • XServe G5 - Tuesday January 4, 2005
 
I'm thinking we're all just a bit desperate to finally see a new machine. I won't be in the market for a new machine for at least the next 4-5 years and even I want to see something.
 
xUKHCx said:
I'm from the UK and stumble across the Inquirer from time to time. What can i say? It is terrible to say the least. Wouldn't trust it at all. (Having said that it will probably be correct this time)



Well they did recently

2.7ghz Dual G5
to
2.5 ghz Quad G5
Click to expand...

You are right, they did indeed, forgot about that one.... Thanks. :)
In anycase, we'll wait and see if they are willing to do it again, probably not today though....
 
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