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

[yoink]

Don't overlook the single-die 6 core.

It's the fastest (clock-speed wise), hopefully it will be the meal ticket for those who've held on to old machines for too long (like me.)

Also, Apple's own previous-generation-8-cores vs. next-generation-12-cores graphs show diminishing returns on speed, or at least a pretty even cost increment per new cpu core.

I think 6 Core machines with maxed out RAM will be of far greater benefit to our post production workflow (for video) than a 12 cores and a decent replacement for the first-gen quads we still have in use.

Lack of eSATA and USB3 is disappointing though. However, expecting 12-core configurations to cost the same or "not-much-more" than current 8-core configurations is a bit, well, shortsighted. Those things are pricey.

 

[ArcaneDevice]

And iPhone still dominates their front page.

It should.

Putting this up front would be just embarrassing.

 

[Butts M Biggilo]

Wow.. Im priced out. I wish theyd go back to the 3299 hi end price tier. I cant afford to get what I want. Oh well.
My Quad G5 is plenty fast but I cant run the new Adobe suite or 10.6.
Maybe Ill get the base config.

 

[Aquanaut]

What a load of crap on the pricing!

Note to Apple: If you are going to expect us to pay such a premium, how about throwing a new case design into the mix. Even automobiles change their exteriors sooner than every 7 years! This is absurd!

Change for the sake of change? The external appearance hasn't changed much but so what?

 

[mBox]

As a 3D artist, I have long since moved on from the Mac Pro but still recommend them to those that don't need the specific high-end features I do. Still, I can't help but be disappointed about the new Mac Pros due to one key component for me and that is a high-end nVidia graphics card like the 480x...

I had a feeling that I wouldn't be moving our Maya license over to the Mac this year (again). Im not sure if the ATI is qualified.
Now hoping the FX4800 will work with the 12-core beast

 

[Master Chief]

512 GB SSD. Holy crap! That's gotta be insanely expensive.

Price as usual: "512GB Solid State Drive [Add $1,300.00]"

 

[beaker7]

Very disappointed.

What would you use those connections for?

 

[Bubba Satori]

3GB RAM. Pathetic.

As is the rest of this announcement. The most effort they could go to was offering some additional off-the-shelf parts.

One update per year and they are still just bumping specs on an old chassis and bringing absolutely nothing new to the professional table.

Yep. Apple doesn't care anymore.
Pathetic upgrade and absurd prices as a slap in the face.

 

[ArcaneDevice]

I work in 3D and was hoping that the new MacPros would be something worth waiting for. If this is Steveo's version of "Amazing" I'm pretty darn disappointed. Win7 is looking better and better.

Seems to me this is Steve's version of assisted suicide.

Eventually if they just keep on creaking out minor improvements for major prices then their Pro market will stop buying the desktop line and either move to the iMac because it's cheaper or just leave entirely, Then Steve can live in his world where regular desktops don't exist and it's all iToys and iMachines.

 

[zim]

Apple has released their own battery charger. lol Am I the only one that cares!?

Nope, I care. I was just disappointed that it only charges two batteries. Sadly, I think this was the one things that really got me excited.. mostly because it was unexpected and new.. everything else seems like standard upgrades.

 

[Umbongo]

configure something similar from Dell or HP and compare the price. Intel charges a lot of money for Xeon's. and then they will sell you the "premium" version of an ATI or an Nvidia card. which is the exact same thing as the consumer version except with a different BIOS and drivers and a huge premium since businesses are buying.

You can get a 3.33Ghz 6 core from with 3 year warranty from Dell for the same price as the 2.8Ghz quad core from Apple. Only the dual socket high end options are at a similar level.

 

[mauree]

no nvidia?

I don't understand why no nvidia option.

Now there can't be CUDA programming on the Pro. Meh.

 

[eppel]

As a 3D artist, I have long since moved on from the Mac Pro but still recommend them to those that don't need the specific high-end features I do. Still, I can't help but be disappointed about the new Mac Pros due to one key component for me and that is a high-end nVidia graphics card like the 480x.

Several of the high-end 3D art programs I use have better bench marks, not to mention features that you just won't get with ATI boards. Some of the software I use cost up to $3,000 so it is not an option for me to use anything but. Since those programs take advantage of things like CUDA, FEMI and shaders specific to nVidia, that is a deciding factor for me.

The ATI 5870 is a nice card and will perform well for most consumers, even those that would like to game. But with no nVidia options that really seals the deal for someone like myself.

I would also have thought there would be USB 3.0 too but at least some of the more main stream consumers will get some use out of these updates.

I raised this point(no nvidia option) in another thread, but was told that nVidia doesn't play nice with other companies, Apple is behind OpenCL and CUDA should die. Mm. I was just hoping for a 12-core with a nice nVidia card, but even that was to much to hope for after 1 and a half years.

 

[Anuba]

Don't overlook the single-die 6 core.

It's the fastest (clock-speed wise), hopefully it will be the meal ticket for those who've held on to old machines for too long (like me.)

Yup, that's the one I have my eyes set on. The 4-core W3530 is an embarrassment and the pricetag on the 12-core is a joke.

What a load of crap on the pricing!

Note to Apple: If you are going to expect us to pay such a premium, how about throwing a new case design into the mix. Even automobiles change their exteriors sooner than every 7 years! This is absurd!

Check out these specs:
PowerMac G5 introduced on June 23, 2003
In that time the:
- iMac has been revised 4 times (The "sunflower" design was out at that time"... remember that one? Feels like an eternity ago doesn't it???)
- Mac mini has been revised 1 time
- iBook became the MacBook which has already seen 1 revision
- PowerBook became the MacBook Pro which has also seen 1 revision
- iPhone has seen 2 physical revisions
- iPod has seen countless revisions
- Apple Remote has been revised since its introduction!

The PowerMac/Mac Pro has not even seen ONE revision yet.

*Please note that when I say "Revised/Revision" I mean that the actual shape of the form factor has changed. I do not consider rearranging ports on the front and back, adding a second optical bay or rearranging the interior guts as a revision or change.

If they are going to offer a Quad-Core option it really needed to start at $1799 or $1999.

Sad but true. They wish everyone'd just move to iMac and be done with it. What they'd really like to do with people who still want the tower form factor is throw them in the gas chamber, but seeing as mass murder is illegal, they figured they'd settle for penalizing them instead. "Oh, still want a tower? Yeah? Fine. Here you go, *******. It's 7 years old and we want a trillion dollars for it in compensation for having to keep making more of these things. Do you get the message now?"

 

[ArcaneDevice]

Change for the sake of change? The external appearance hasn't changed much but so what?

I bet you wouldn't be saying that if the iPhone, iPod or iMac still looked like their first-gen design.

The cheese-grater has got to go. And those handles can go to. They don't need to be the size of serving platters to enable someone to move it.

 

[Master Chief]

3GB RAM. Pathetic.

As is the rest of this announcement. The most effort they could go to was offering some additional off-the-shelf parts.

One update per year and they are still just bumping specs on an old chassis and bringing absolutely nothing new to the professional table.

The 12-Core (two 2.93GHz Intel Xeon “Westmere”) based Pro – which is what this announces is for – comes with 8GB memory (four 2GB DIMMs)

 

[Grimace]

You guys know that Intel sets the prices for these 12-core chips pretty high right? There is an Apple premium but there is also an Intel premium for its top-end server-grade chips.

 

[milo]

Still only four ram slots on the quad? And still 4/8 on a triple channel system instead of six or nine? Fail in a big way.

AGAIN, raised the price for an eight core machine. And for that you get a tiny speed bump, no faster FW or USB, not even more ram. Thumbs down.

And wow, crazy expensive for twelve cores. Especially considering that apps like Logic still don't support 8 with HT yet.

Other than the (expensive) 6 and 12 core BTO options, is there anything to get excited about with this upgrade (and price hike)?

 

[3282868]

I don't understand why no nvidia option.

Now there can't be CUDA programming on the Pro. Meh.

Isn't there some sort of lawsuit between Intel and nVidia? I know Apple has been phasing them out for a while now..

What is CUDA??? I should know this. Will an nVidia card work in these new Mac Pros?

 

[pianojoe]

2009 8-core vs. 2010 8-core?

How does the eight-core model's modest upgrade justify the price increase?

I'm in the market for one of these, but now I wish I'd purchased six months ago.

 

[LPZ]

Still waiting for an Apple robotic dog with built-in iSight camera. The "Seeing iDog".

 

[Mrbill317]

Interesting

Someone said no more Nvidia options? So much for using it for Avid then.

 

[mrhick01]

graphics card question

For those complaining about the lack of a NVidia card in these new Mac Pros, what's stopping eVGA from releasing Mac versions of the 460, 470 & 480?

They did release the GTX 285 (at a premium, but still...)

Another thing...are there people complaining about a lack of a case update? Really? Why change a solid design?

 

[cambox]

After all that wait and you get this??

Oh we wait all this time and all we get is a supped V8 with no turbo connections and old technology! I love Apple and im a pro with lots of years behind Apple, but i do feel we are now being thrown a bone now and then.. This update sucks! Yes there's a few new bits to coo over but in the real world of Pro business this machine isn't the breakthrough we were wanting at all. I guess we wait another year for maybe a better connectivity suite? USB 2 is dead.. Long live USB.3 if you can find it on any Apple machine!

 

[saxon48]

Hells. Yes. But the 12-core is darn expensive.