Apple Announces Penryn Mac Pros and Xserve

Yep, AnandTech has been saying for several months now that the Achilles-heal for Nvidia has been their production ramp. They really blew it over the holiday season, when the AMD[ATI] 3850 / 3870 came out at a great price *and* with all the distribution channels filled. Here at MacRumors people have been saying that support for the 3850 / 3870 on the new Mac Pro is coming, which will give us all more choices. I will probably order the 8800 GT in a month or so when the dust settles, or maybe the various benchmark results will lead me in a new direction.

Another thing that may be interesting is the OS X update. If it has hooks for additional video cards, who knows what else may be in there. Could MWSF see an announcement of a built-in Windows (native) compatibility layer? That would be *big* news, wouldn't it? :apple:

mistercoffee2 said:
Apple confurmed, in an email, that the 5 week delay in shipping the new Mac Pro BTO with the 8800GT video card is due to the card not being availiable.
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Setmose said:
Another thing that may be interesting is the OS X update. If it has hooks for additional video cards, who knows what else may be in there. Could MWSF see an announcement of a built-in Windows (native) compatibility layer? That would be *big* news, wouldn't it? :apple:
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That's not just a big jump, but a galactic sized quantum leap. New drivers are nothing like a full Windows API implementation. I'd say you have more chance of being run over by a dead man driving a model-T Ford whilst buying the winning lottery ticket that that being announced.
 
Digital Skunk said:
That is been the third issue i have had with Apple. Once a machine has gotten pushed back by a new model it's virtually impossible to find upgrades for them on Apple's site and sometimes anywhere else. Then, you are usually stuck with one or two choices for upgrading either way. I can only find two options for GFX card upgrades on my PowerMac G5 and one of them is the Quadra FX at $1500.
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That's why I always have a hard time understanding people who complain that the iMac and Mini graphics aren't upgradeable. The video card in the Mac Pro is removable, but not really upgradeable as far as I've seen.

I upgraded my PowerMac to a 6800 FX shortly after buying it, but there's been nothing in the years since. Of course I don't really have a need for anything more...
 
So Apple Tech Support Does Not Know What They Are Talking About?

TBi said:
They should run fine together, my friends runs his older mac pro with an ATi and an nVidia card. Doesn't play nice with Vista though :)

A PCI 2 card will work in a PCI 1 slot. All the 8800GT's are 2.0 and they all run on 1.0 slots.
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Just off the phone with Apple Tech and they say the new ATI 2600 XT card WILL NOT WORK in the original Mac Pros.

Coexistence with the NVIDEA GeForce 8800 GT is NOT recommended but they couldn't tell me WHY NOT?

So according to you I have been completely misinformed by Apple Tech Support. Is that correct? Thank you very much.

Can I get confirmation from another member that TBi is correct and not Apple Tech Support please?
 
MacRoom said:
Just off the phone with Apple Tech and they say the new ATI 2600 XT card WILL NOT WORK in the original Mac Pros.

...

Can I get confirmation from another member that TBi is correct and not Apple Tech Support please?
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It's still up in the air, but look at this Apple Tech note:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305346

"All of these cards are only compatible with the family of computers with which they shipped."
 
Sweetbike40 said:
do i dare tell my friend who just bought his 2 weeks ago about this? more computer for less than what he paid. i warned him. oh well.

…

it sucks to spend a small fortune on a computer only to have it outdate so quickly. :(
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Yes -- TELL HIM "I ***** TOLD YOU SO!" That's what I would do. You should've pointed him to the macrumor's Buyer's Guide so he would've believed you. But if he didn't trust you enough to wait until a firm date of January 15 for the annual Macworld Keynote (which could be verified soooo easily), then he deserves to have his shiz be outdated so quickly.

It sucks to be a moron. Sorry. But if you warned him and he bought anyway, that's what he is.
 
milo said:
The multi touch keyboard is just a rumor at this point. Maybe we'll see it on a laptop, but I don't think anyone seriously expects to see a keyboard version available any time soon.



Do you really think 6 internal drives is realistic? Aside from space issues, that many drives generates a LOT of heat. Back when I had a G4, I put 3 or 4 drives in it, and it ended up having lots of problems, likely heat releated.

Are there other towers that hold 6 internal drives? Are any of them the size of the mac pro?
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I have an Akasa 62-Eclipse tower which is an E-ATX case (Designed to take extended ATA boards like the Mac Pros for Dual Socket use) it has enough space to store 10 hard disks aswell as 4 optical drives and it is actually Smaller then the Mac Pro case. I'm not asking for 10 though I just want 6 and 2 optical.

In my Akasa case I have currently 7 hard disks 1 optical drive an 8800GTX a 7800GT and a QX6700 @ 3.6GHz. None of my components overheat and all my drives are at 35c or below (Well under dangerous levels). And what sort of magical cooling do I have on these drives? A single 120nm intake fan at 1200RPM situated infront of the disk drives. And ya know what, its whisper quiet ;) it can certainly be done as I've done it.
 
JGowan said:
Yes -- TELL HIM "I ***** TOLD YOU SO!" That's what I would do. You should've pointed him to the macrumor's Buyer's Guide so he would've believed you. But if he didn't trust you enough to wait until a firm date of January 15 for the annual Macworld Keynote (which could be verified soooo easily), then he deserves to have his shiz be outdated so quickly.

It sucks to be a moron. Sorry. But if you warned him and he bought anyway, that's what he is.
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buyers guide?
new to the forum.
 
I for one am very happy with this announcment. The single 4-core option is great for those of us who want power and expandability, but who mostly use apps that aren't amenable to parallelization. The 8800GT seems by all accounts to be a fantastic consumer grade option. Of course I wont count on Apple keeping updated with the latest models available as this new MP goes through its life cycle, oh well.
As soon as I get together the $$ I plan to jump from my G4/400 w. 448RAM to a single QC w plenty of RAM and the GT. Should be a pretty sweet jump, and hopefully it will last 8 years like my trusty, dusty old G4 has :D
 
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