Apple Announces New Mac Pros With Up to 12 Cores, SSD Options

[anubis]

You gotta be ****ing me!!!!

We wait for over 500 days since the last mac pro update. And the best they can do is a CPU and GPU "bump"?

Go look at the Performance comparison between the old and new Mac Pro. The 12 core barely outperforms the nearly-2-year-old 8 core. No comparison between anything but the new 12 core and the old 8 core, of course. I bet the new 8 and 4 core have the same performance as the previous Mac Pro and they're just too embarrassed to post a full comparison.

I'm supposed to pay $2500 for a computer that comes with 3 gigs of RAM? Are you ****ing serious?

 

[mark28]

You gotta be ****ing me!!!!

We wait for over 500 days since the last mac pro update. And the best they can do is a CPU and GPU "bump"?

Go look at the Performance comparison between the old and new Mac Pro. The 12 core barely outperforms the nearly-2-year-old 8 core. No comparison between anything but the new 12 core and the old 8 core, of course. I bet the new 8 and 4 core have the same performance as the previous Mac Pro and they're just too embarrassed to post a full comparison.

I'm supposed to pay $2500 for a computer that comes with 3 gigs of RAM? Are you ****ing serious?

I wonder what happened to the 3.33 6-core Intel cpul It only costs $1000 from Intel, so maybe they include that one too.

A 12 core 3.33 ghz i7 is alot faster than a 2.93 ghz 8-core.

 

[THX1139]

2008 Mac Pro 3,1
Argggh now I have a decision to make. No USB 3 or possibility of lightpeak, higher prices for an 8 core (I won't go down to a quad core system), the graphics card is great, but overall undecided.


2.8 8 core Xeon
8 GB RAM (expandable to 32 GB)
1 TB SATA drive, expandable to 8 TB internal SATA drives
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 GB, minidisplay port and DVI
SATA optical super drive
Wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse
BRAND NEW LOGIC BOARD (nothing faulty, a plastic place holder for the graphics card broke off so they replaced it)
Hmmmm, Blu Ray drive

I'll even through in adobe CS5 Mastee Collection, Snow Leopard, iLife '09, iWork '09

Thinking $2500?

I'm pretty sure you aren't supposed to selling things on this thread. But anyway... what's up with including CS5 Master Collection with a $2500 computer? I'm thinking it's not going to come with a legitimate license. Not calling you a pirate, but I know the value of CS Master and it's not something that you would just give away unless you don't actually own it.

 

[milo]

Go look at the Performance comparison between the old and new Mac Pro. The 12 core barely outperforms the nearly-2-year-old 8 core.

They are comparing having 1.5x more cores and generally show an improvement in the range of 1.3x to 1.5x. That seems like what should be expected considering how multiple cores work - what kind of results did you expect to see?

 

[3282868]

I'm pretty sure you aren't supposed to selling things on this thread. But anyway... what's up with including CS5 Master Collection with a $2500 computer? I'm thinking it's not going to come with a legitimate license. Not calling you a pirate, but I know the value of CS Master and it's not something that you would just give away unless you don't actually own it.

lol I was half kidding, but yes, it is licensed (although I have, um, some questionable, um, software ). And I can get it for a reasonable price through friends at Adobe, so nothing lost on my end.

 

[nickarmadillo]

Seriously MacRumors is suffering due to these continuous, cretinous posts - a site needs rules and guidelines and for those to be enforced. Come on Arn sort it out.

I'm sorry, but many of these disaffected people are former Mac lovers who have been put off by Apple's increasingly uncompetitive pricing, lateral spec upgrades, lack of innovation, and arrogant business practices.

I've owned and loved Macs my whole life and would consider myself a Mac enthusiast, which is why I visit this site. I wouldn't buy anything they've released over the last several years, but that doesn't diminish my love for my older Macs.

 

[thermodynamic]

http://www.overclock.net/ati/590782-5770-vs-4870-a.html

http://www.computerriver.com/ati-radeon-hd-5770-and-hd-4870-benchmark.html

That says it all.

Apple made another mistake; they should have gone for the 5870.

Disappointing.

 

[mBox]

Man, my video processing plugins barely even use two full cores of my 2.8 Ghz 8-core from 2 years ago...so what would 12 do...nothing! Until all the video plugin filter providers get off their butts and update their code to support multiple cores more efficiently...buying these high end machines is pi$$ing in the wind. Only compressor and bitvice really use all the power of your machine for very specific uses.

It kills me when I use a plugin like ultimatte advantedge for green screen and 74 minutes of video takes a few days to render, I check Activity Monitor and its barely 200%...that pisses me off!

so true but thats why we use Mac Pro's for Graphics/Motion/NLE/DAW. I trust the system to handle these things.
I havent tried CS5 AE yet so hopefully the systems we've loaded 16GB RAM will actually work this time

 

[Harun]

$2499 and only 3GB of RAM, what a joke.

Entry level should have 4-8 GB of RAM and be $1999. At least I would consider it at that price point.

They are looking for profit margin over volume. Where iPod/IPhone is the opposite.

 

[sash]

Looking at the UK site.. you US folks are getting the prices:
No 12 core price up yet..

Same in Belgium.

 

[fleshman03]

Sweet! I could do some damage with 12 cores!

 

[THX1139]

But I really wish they would have done just a little something to tweak the external design. It isn't timeless, it looks just like what it is - 7 years old. Oh well.

Who cares? It's not like you are going to drive it down the street to pickup chicks with it. The design maybe old by computer standards, but it's efficient and industrial strength sturdy. Why change something just to change it? Hasselblad and Leica were known to be 2 of the top camera companies in the world. They rarely changed the design of their cameras over decades and no one complained because they made great cameras. I like the design because you can see that the computer is a Mac Pro from across the room.

 

[3282868]

Who cares? It's not like you are going to drive it down the street to pickup chicks with it. The design maybe old by computer standards, but it's efficient and industrial strength sturdy. Why change something just to change it? Hasselblad and Leica were known to be 2 of the top camera companies in the world. They rarely changed the design of their cameras over decades and no one complained because they made great cameras. I like the design because you can see that the computer is a Mac Pro from across the room.

Plus the aluminum and perforated chassis allots for better cooling, and the interior is so well designed any novice could swap out their internal SATA HDDs, RAM, heck, even the PCI slots are easily accessed. I've built many systems and nothing comes close to the brilliance in function of the Mac Pro. The only aspect I could think of would be changing the color or form, but for what purpose? I find it amusing that those who complain about Apple's "form over function" are now complaining about Apple's "form".

 

[THX1139]

Entry level should have 4-8 GB of RAM and be $1999. At least I would consider it at that price point.

They are looking for profit margin over volume. Where iPod/IPhone is the opposite.

Ram is cheap. If you're so worried about the configuration vs price, you might not need or be able to afford one. It's like you want to buy a lotus sports car and then complain about the price of gas to run it.

 

[thedarkhorse]

No new CUDA cards for CS5 and not even an option for a usb 3.0 expansion card? when is apple's pro workstation going to start innovating with some new pro options. They keep adding more cores yet their own productions suite is single core for the most part.

 

[markm49uk]

I'm sorry, but many of these disaffected people are former Mac lovers who have been put off by Apple's increasingly uncompetitive pricing, lateral spec upgrades, lack of innovation, and arrogant business practices.

I've owned and loved Macs my whole life and would consider myself a Mac enthusiast, which is why I visit this site. I wouldn't buy anything they've released over the last several years, but that doesn't diminish my love for my older Macs.

Yes but these are not the posts I'm referring too - I understand some of the frustration myself as a long term Apple user (just sold my G5 and hoping to get a Mac Pro if I can raise the cash). Typically most of the trolls have registered in the last 3-4 months and post only negative comments about anything, most of which are barely comprehensible.

I disagree that Apple have not released decent kit in the last few years - I have an iMac 24" and I absolutely love it along with my iPhone 3GS. Over the last 5 years Apple have been the most innovative company in the world of computing.

 

[darkplanets]

Some people have no concept of technology, expecting phantom leaps and bounds over previous generation chips.

The 12-core model is pretty much the best you're going to get, dual 6's at top-of-the-line speed, unless they magically decided to switch back to IBM and use something like the PowerPC A2, whose prices are out of this world.

So yes, your $1000 processor is the best you're going to get, as a consumer.

 

[techpr]

I know Apple is all about having the fastest stuff in their machines, but come on, 2 Firewire 800 ports on the front? Why can't they just put 1x400 and 1x800 on the front. And at least 1x400 on the back? Machine is big enough. Tired of buying converters for all my old externals.

Going backwards? Keep buying converters and later upgrade the externals.

 

[Anuba]

This made me LOL. Cute.

But c'mon, while I agree (as a Mac Pro owner) for those who NEED the power it is essential, however the top of the line iMac with the quad core processor isn't something to shy away from. Yes, it lacks the upgradeability of the Mac Pro (I couldn't put my four internal bays into it and it would be counter productive to have them placed in external FireWire/USB shells), but for a graphics professional who doesn't do 3D rendering, it still can run Final Cut and other professional suites very well... for those Paris Hilton types .

Well, like I said the power isn't a problem, it's the I/O.

For my graphic design work I could totally go with an iMac. I don't do any video or heavy duty print stuff, it's all web design, UI design, Flash animations etc, and the iMac is fine for that. But I'm also a pro audio dude/musician and I unfortunately have to plug in weird chains of outboard gear that the iMac can't handle. I also need multiple drive bays for audio recording and storing ridiculous amounts of samples and soundbanks. Multiple displays are also necessary since audio application workspaces tend to have a zillion floating windows that you kinda-sorta need to see simultaneously.

I tried to get by on my iMac while waiting for a good opportunity to buy a Mac Pro, i.e. I waited for them to upgrade it (which didn't happen until today, and the upgrade was pretty half-@assed, but whatever). So I set up a minimalist rig around the iMac and it was OK-ish but then the power supply broke down. According to the repair guy, due to overheating. Well how the hell am I supposed to avoid the iMac getting hot!? It's in an amply ventilated space and I live close to the arctic circle FFS, what more can I do? Audio recording and virtual instrument plug-ins, that's CPU intensive stuff. You're chugging along on 75-80% CPU load 10 hours a day if you're working on a full blown arrangement. For better or worse you need the ol' tower design for these things.

 

[drewyboy]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but an i7 970 is not a Xeon which are used in the Mac Pro's, correct?

 

[dimensional]

So much for all that "Apple is killing the Mac Pro" crapola.

They're certainly just doing the minimal possible investment into it. No case redesign, huge (even for Apple) margins on everything, no SATA 3.0, no Blu-ray, etc. They're just plugging in standard components that other people are doing.

 

[Inconsequential]

http://www.overclock.net/ati/590782-5770-vs-4870-a.html

http://www.computerriver.com/ati-radeon-hd-5770-and-hd-4870-benchmark.html

That says it all.

Apple made another mistake; they should have gone for the 5870.

Disappointing.

What are you on about?

The standard card (5770) is very close to the 4870 from the benchmark charts at tomshardware.

The GT120 wasn't anywhere CLOSE to the 8800GT that was the BTO option for the 2008 Mac Pro.

MP2006: Standard: 7300GT, BTO: X1900XT
MP2008: Standard: 2600XT, BTO: 8800GT
MP2009: Standard: GT120, BTO: HD4870
MP2010: Standard: HD5770, BTO: HD5870

X1900XT smoked the 2600XT
8800GT smoked the GT120
HD5770 is within 80-110% of the 4870 from the benchmarks i've seen.

On the GPU front the 2010 Mac Pro is quite good compared to past GPUs.

The BTO card, the 5870 is an option to buy and smokes the 4870.

 

[fat phil]

Plus the aluminum and perforated chassis allots for better cooling, and the interior is so well designed any novice could swap out their internal SATA HDDs, RAM, heck, even the PCI slots are easily accessed. I've built many systems and nothing comes close to the brilliance in function of the Mac Pro. The only aspect I could think of would be changing the color or form, but for what purpose? I find it amusing that those who complain about Apple's "form over function" are now complaining about Apple's "form".

Mac Pro construction is second to none. The closest I've come is with a Coolermaster (Cosmos) case, and that's about twice the size and still not as neat inside. I've a nice 4Ghz (3.33) 980X inside one right here...

 

[hugodrax]

Waiting Patiently for the Haswell architecture Mac PRo (2014?)

In the meantime I will stick with my 06 model. Nothing compelling so far. Best to wait for major architecture changes when upgrading.

I see Zero reason to change the Mac Pro case. It is great as is already. Why ruin it.

 

[markosb]

I don't own a Mac and to be honest don't care for their computers... BUT... I love the MacPro, I wish I had the cash to get one, I have no use for 12 cores. Is the video card removable? (if I wanted to goto NVIDIA instead) MacPro is probably the best desktop computer made.