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Gulftown upgrade in 09 Mac Pro / Microcode

S

smacman

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 7, 2006
452
2
I know this has been discussed already, but the information is somewhat scattered throughout various posts. Is it confirmed that the Gulftown will not be a drop in upgrade unless Apple issues a microcode update (hell would have to freeze over before that happened)? Recently while talking to someone quite knowledgeable in the area of PC (non Apple) hardware, I was told that microcode updates are often not a requirement anymore.
 
Thanks.. Maybe I should have titled this thread differently. I am still unclear from reading that thread whether it is a certainty that we require a microcode update..
 
I guess I am just thinking more from a theoretical standpoint right now. You think the chips will cost $3000? Ouch!. I was thinking they would be about $1300, which would be a reasonable upgrade for quad core Mac Pros.

In my case, I rarely max out my quad 2.93 so it would be totally unnecessary.
 
well I was counting for both


there really is no way to tell if it will work until the chips are released and somebody tries
 
the chips are starting to leak out, saw a few pc guys starting to run them through the paces on Hard OCP.
 
Cindori said:
well I was counting for both


there really is no way to tell if it will work until the chips are released and somebody tries
Click to expand...

Agreed.

Another way to tell if a Microcode update is required or not is whether top tier motherboard manufacturers on the PC side (Asus, Gateway, etc.) start issuing new BIOS revisions to support Gulftown.

Also, review sites and leaked ES sample reports will probably indicate whether there is support in existing boards/bios revisions or not.
 
VirtualRain said:
Agreed.

Another way to tell if a Microcode update is required or not is whether top tier motherboard manufacturers on the PC side (Asus, Gateway, etc.) start issuing new BIOS revisions to support Gulftown.

Also, review sites and leaked ES sample reports will probably indicate whether there is support in existing boards/bios revisions or not.
Click to expand...

i thought some motherboard manufacturers have already stated that some of their boards will require a bios flash for the upcoming gulftowns:confused:
 
jetjaguar said:
i thought some motherboard manufacturers have already stated that some of their boards will require a bios flash for the upcoming gulftowns:confused:
Click to expand...
I've seen this as well.

BTW, Big hint: Die shrink ;)

The quad core CPU's used in the '07 models (MP 2,1) are the same die size as those used in the '06 systems (65nm), and use the same voltages. TDP values were different, but they had the VR's and heatsinks to handle it. So the need for a microcode update was substantially less.
 
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