Any new news on Gulftown and/or Mac Pro?

[nanofrog]

I'll be kinda bummed if all they do is add a top of the line BTO option. I'd at least like a speed bump on the $2500 price point...

Possible in a Quad, if Intel lowers the quantity pricing (i.e. speed bump but the same or less than the current W3520 used in the base).

I'd be happy if the $2500 machine got me an 8 core dual. Certainly a better deal than the current 09 machine...

It may be technically possible (current base E5520's are cheaper than the E5462's used in '08's base Octad), but Apple's wants higher margins than that price would provide. The pricing on the next chips won't be cheaper either, as there's at least a die shrink that needs to be paid for (R&D + facility upgrades).

So it's not going to happen.

 

[Umbongo]

Possible in a Quad, if Intel lowers the quantity pricing (i.e. speed bump but the same or less than the current W3520 used in the base).


It may be technically possible (current base E5520's are cheaper than the E5462's used in '08's base Octad), but Apple's wants higher margins than that price would provide. The pricing on the next chips won't be cheaper either, as there's at least a die shrink that needs to be paid for (R&D + facility upgrades).

So it's not going to happen.

It is possible the pricing won't go up and the top price will remain $1,600 for the 3.33GHz 6-core X5680. The single socket ones aren't going up (or so everyone says) despite their 50%+ possible performance increase. Intel haven't been above $1,600 on a DP processor yet I don't think so it'll certainly be interesting to see how it pans out.

It is possible prices could be of this level:

Xeon X5680	3333 MHz	$1,600
Xeon X5670	2933 MHz	$1,386
Xeon X5660	2800 MHz	$1,172
Xeon X5650	2667 MHz	$958
Xeon L5640	2267 MHz	$530
		
Xeon W5677	3467 MHz	$958
Xeon X5667	3067 MHz	$744
Xeon E5640	2667 MHz	$530
Xeon E5630	2533 MHz	$373
Xeon E5620	2400 MHz	$266
		
Xeon W3680	3333 MHz	$999
Xeon W3565	3200 MHz	$562
Xeon W3530	2800 MHz	$284

Apple could start with an 8 core 2400MHz system with 3GB of memory for $2,799 and have a 50% margin. Or if the reason for changing it up wasn't purely "huge margins!!!" as I've theorised before, maybe we'll get an 8 core 2.66GHz for such a price now that the iMac doesn't look like 3 year old technology.

 

[mds]

It is possible the pricing won't go up and the top price will remain $1,600 for the 3.33GHz 6-core X5680. The single socket ones aren't going up (or so everyone says) despite their 50%+ possible performance increase. Intel haven't been above $1,600 on a DP processor yet I don't think so it'll certainly be interesting to see how it pans out.

It is possible prices could be of this level:

Xeon X5680	3333 MHz	$1,600
Xeon X5670	2933 MHz	$1,386
Xeon X5660	2800 MHz	$1,172
Xeon X5650	2667 MHz	$958
Xeon L5640	2267 MHz	$530
		
Xeon W5677	3467 MHz	$958
Xeon X5667	3067 MHz	$744
Xeon E5640	2667 MHz	$530
Xeon E5630	2533 MHz	$373
Xeon E5620	2400 MHz	$266
		
Xeon W3680	3333 MHz	$999
Xeon W3565	3200 MHz	$562
Xeon W3530	2800 MHz	$284

Apple could start with an 8 core 2400MHz system with 3GB of memory for $2,799 and have a 50% margin. Or if the reason for changing it up wasn't purely "huge margins!!!" as I've theorised before, maybe we'll get an 8 core 2.66GHz for such a price now that the iMac doesn't look like 3 year old technology.

Wow, thats a lot of processors! Can anyone break down the differences for me or point me to something?

Thanks!

 

[Umbongo]

Wow, thats a lot of processors! Can anyone break down the differences for me or point me to something?

Thanks!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_future_Intel_microprocessors#Xeon_DP.2C_Quad-Core

 

[nanofrog]

It is possible the pricing won't go up and the top price will remain $1,600 for the 3.33GHz 6-core X5680. The single socket ones aren't going up (or so everyone says) despite their 50%+ possible performance increase. Intel haven't been above $1,600 on a DP processor yet I don't think so it'll certainly be interesting to see how it pans out.

I also think the top end DP part will hold at $1600. As per the 50% performance, IIRC, that was performed on a hex core part (i7-980X), and are the multi-threaded results of course.

I wouldn't expect that for most situations though, as most software is still single threaded, and clock speeds will rule here. And though there may be an increase in clock speeds, they aren't rising enough to generate a 50% increase.

It is possible prices could be of this level:

Xeon X5680	3333 MHz	$1,600
Xeon X5670	2933 MHz	$1,386
Xeon X5660	2800 MHz	$1,172
Xeon X5650	2667 MHz	$958
Xeon L5640	2267 MHz	$530
		
Xeon W5677	3467 MHz	$958
Xeon X5667	3067 MHz	$744
Xeon E5640	2667 MHz	$530
Xeon E5630	2533 MHz	$373
Xeon E5620	2400 MHz	$266
		
Xeon W3680	3333 MHz	$999
Xeon W3565	3200 MHz	$562
Xeon W3530	2800 MHz	$284

I keep hoping they'll release the quantity pricing shortly myself, but what you've listed here seems possible.

Apple could start with an 8 core 2400MHz system with 3GB of memory for $2,799 and have a 50% margin. Or if the reason for changing it up wasn't purely "huge margins!!!" as I've theorised before, maybe we'll get an 8 core 2.66GHz for such a price now that the iMac doesn't look like 3 year old technology.

Hard to say without actual pricing to go with the P/N's, but I don't see 2010 MSRP's dropping below the current levels, particularly for the base models. It would be nice though, and help sales IMO.

But they'd have to do a major price drop on the remaining '09 stocks to move those out though if lower prices did happen with the 2010 models. Nice for users, but I don't see it happening. But maybe I'm just too jaded these days... Nah.