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Intel's Penryn Xeon Processors Due in November
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You can ALREADY get an octo core Mac Pro!
I say enough with the mostly USELESS (to regular users) multi-cores (4-8 processors when 95% of all programs can use ONE processor ONLY? That leaves 7 processors doing almost NOTHING). I don't care what anyone says. Multi-threaded apps aren't going to appear quickly any time soon. It's VERY hard to write and especially debug multi-threaded programs, so the idea of multi-threaded gaming engines, for example just isn't going to appear overnight.
Instead of 8-cores, how about a dual-core MacPro with a HIGH END gaming graphics card? It irritates me to no end that Apple proclaims the MacPro is the ultimate gaming machine when it has such a crappy offering of graphics cards for the gamer. I'm no gaming addict either, but I do like to play games occasionally and I want a machine that's good for at least 2-3 years of being able to play games reasonably SMOOTH. I gather the current cards are barely in the 50fps range with newer games and the brand spanking NEW iMac not only does WORSE than its predecessor from a year ago, but is useless ALREADY for some of those games in native resolutions.
Someone please tell me how companies like EA are supposed to come back with new games if the current brand new machines can't even keep up with games that are already out???
Why is Steve Jobs BLIND to the gaming potential of Macs? Even if he doesn't like games, it's stupid to ignore such a large market, IMO. And even if the games aren't there on Macs today, BootCamp means you should STILL have the hardware there because I can always boot into XP to play them (screw Vista!)
Thanks guys.
Ok, thank you folks for your opinions and advice. I will go ahead and order my new iMac on the strength of your comments. I appreciate them.
Many Thanks from a PC switcher and new Apple convert!!
Think different, think APPLE!!
baz, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Europe.
Ok, thank you folks for your opinions and advice. I will go ahead and order my new iMac on the strength of your comments. I appreciate them.
Many Thanks from a PC switcher and new Apple convert!!
Think different, think APPLE!!
baz, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Europe.
No Mobile Penryns This Year. But 2.6GHz Merom Is Definitely Possible
No Mobiel Penryns this year. But a 2.6 GHz C2D for the 17" is definitely possible and what I am holding out for so I can say it's more than 5GHz rather than the current less than 5GHz.
I think laptop versions are scheduled for 2nd or 3rd quater next year (think 2nd). May get pushed ahead, but likely Apple will use in 2nd quater.
Woot, quad core laptops, 4 cores running at 25% all the time.
LOL
No Mobiel Penryns this year. But a 2.6 GHz C2D for the 17" is definitely possible and what I am holding out for so I can say it's more than 5GHz rather than the current less than 5GHz.
Thanks for the tip. I am waiting for a 17" MBP as well and will now not wait for this chip change before buying. This forum is great btw!
Realize this is off topic, but any idea when that 2.6GHz change might take effect? October/November with Leopard?
Ok, thank you folks for your opinions and advice. I will go ahead and order my new iMac on the strength of your comments. I appreciate them.
Many Thanks from a PC switcher and new Apple convert!!
Think different, think APPLE!!
baz, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Europe.
No problem, I'm sure you will be happy with your purchase, the new iMac is a great machine on the whole.
If you ever have any further questions, you can find the answers here on MacRumors. Just browse the Forums and if you can't find what you're looking for, just ask, we're all here to help.
I know that you can already get an octo core Mac Pro, but only as the highest level Mac Pro. I was merely stating that it would be cool if all of the Mac Pros were octo core except for the base tier level.
And I agree with you on graphics card options for us. They stink. I wish we could have some choices between NVIDIA and ATI besides "oh here is ONE 256 card and here is ONE 512 card, that's all you can choose from".
Besides, anyone know if a 1 gig graphics card is anywhere around the corner or near future?
EDIT: found this: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/03/20/ati_firegl_v7350/
I feel your pain brother
especially after the release of the new imacs which are slower for gaming than the previous version. I have to look at the MacPro's. Its just so foking expensive to occasionaly play a game this way...
especially after the release of the new imacs which are slower for gaming than the previous version. I have to look at the MacPro's. Its just so foking expensive to occasionaly play a game this way...
Um... Quad-core, Penryn MBP. Now that will be the time to leap-frog from my trusty-ol PB G4. Any reliable guess when that would be possible? I am fine if they get it by Spring end next year when I graduate. Hurray!
this article is talking about xeon chips... they will never go in the MBP
I'm exciting, I can't wait to ditch my G5 for an octo-core MP.
I'm exciting, I can't wait to ditch my G5 for an octo-core MP.
Could you Eidoran clear this out : Will the Xeon Penryns be socket compatible with the current MP´s?
If they are, what other risks is there that they wouldn´t work. That VRM stuff you mention and??
Cheers.
To the best of my knowledge Intel said they would support the the current 5000X chipset until 2009.
I just can't find that article right now.
ECC is good, FB-DIMMs are pricey
Perhaps you really mean FB-DIMM memory like the current 5000 chipset for the Xeons?
There are also ECC DDR2/DDR3 DIMMs that aren't much more expensive than non-ECC memory.
When you get a few GiB of RAM in a system, ECC is a good investment. It's much better to get a kernel panic or blue screen with the message "memory error detected" than it is for the system to act strange and maybe corrupt your files.
Perhaps you really mean FB-DIMM memory like the current 5000 chipset for the Xeons?
There are also ECC DDR2/DDR3 DIMMs that aren't much more expensive than non-ECC memory.
When you get a few GiB of RAM in a system, ECC is a good investment. It's much better to get a kernel panic or blue screen with the message "memory error detected" than it is for the system to act strange and maybe corrupt your files.
8 Core Xserve any time soon?
I'm very close to assembling a 4 or 5 node computing cluster and would love if each node had dual quad core processors. Rack mountable would be the best, but if, for the same money, I can get an octo Mac Pro, I don't see why XServes are a good choice as they're limited to 2 duals.
Anyone have a guess when they're making this change? Maybe it won't be natural for Apple until the new processors are out.
I don't need OS X Server, redundant power supplies or any of the other usual extras that Xserves offer.
I'm very close to assembling a 4 or 5 node computing cluster and would love if each node had dual quad core processors. Rack mountable would be the best, but if, for the same money, I can get an octo Mac Pro, I don't see why XServes are a good choice as they're limited to 2 duals.
Anyone have a guess when they're making this change? Maybe it won't be natural for Apple until the new processors are out.
I don't need OS X Server, redundant power supplies or any of the other usual extras that Xserves offer.
Here is some news on the Mobile Chips
This article points out news on upcoming seperate mobile chip revisions for mobile machines, so i'm sure anything newer than this will be for next year.
CaPo
This article points out news on upcoming seperate mobile chip revisions for mobile machines, so i'm sure anything newer than this will be for next year.
CaPo
I believe that was meant with extreme sarcasm.
All signs point to Tuesday November 13. God knows I've been plenty wrong before. But there's always hope.
I posted a follow-up to a post I made earlier this year with predictions and it turns out they were about 83% accurate. I am quite capable of making mistakes and actually LIKE to be called on them, but I also toot my horn when I am somewhat consistently right
Rocketman
linky
I work in motion graphics and digital audio which involves many multiprocessor apps. Renders still take hours or days. We're not going to see anything "fast enough" for a LOOOONG time. I think a lot of us are ready to see the 8-core drop into the top slot of the regular line, rather than this super machine that floats above it, both in terms of price and performance.
I'm just about ready to pull the trigger but am reluctant because I'll need 16GB of RAM to run my software and if something significantly faster is right around the corner, I might be able to spend the same money on something that goes much further. Weird time to buy right now.
-steven
I'm just about ready to pull the trigger but am reluctant because I'll need 16GB of RAM to run my software and if something significantly faster is right around the corner, I might be able to spend the same money on something that goes much further. Weird time to buy right now.
-steven
*sigh*
HOW TO BUILD A GAMING MACHINE:
Step 1: Buy the very best graphics card you can afford.
Step 2: Buy the cheapest reliable motherboard you can find that works with the card from Step 1.
Step 3: Max out the memory, overclock the CPU, put in a good cooling system.
Step 4: Frag your buddy.
Apple will *never* make a machine which rivals something like that. There is almost ZERO market for a pre-built "gamer" machine, because hard-core gamers like to build their own systems which target the dollars where it makes the biggest difference to game performance above all other considerations, and furthermore will only tolerate margins which are vastly lower than a company like Apple would find worth the trouble.
The Mac Pro *can* play games yes, but it's called a Mac "Pro" because it's a professional workstation, not a toy.
If you want a toy, head to your favorite mom-n-pop commodity PC screwdriver shop, assemble one, and use your two-seat Windows license from work or school to put an OS on it. You may have to deal with the a few more security and stability hassles, but you will be happier with your purchase.
Me, I haven't gamed in about a year, and when I did I found the performance of the old G4 Mac mini running World of Warcraft to be good enough for me. I can't believe all this wailing and gnashing of teeth because dedicated cards an order of magnitude more powerful than anything you could get a couple years ago won't be '1337 enough for you to play Madden Football on with more polygons than your friend's homebrew gaming rig.
The EA games in the pipeline will play fine on minis and MacBooks, fly on iMacs, and scream on the few Mac Pros that actually get used for gaming. Certainly good enough for 99% of Mac users. Settle down and get some perspective.
A good reason to slow down
Apple has a history of holding back, available speed or hardware, so as to make an easy "awesome" upgrade which costs them nothing. When the powerbooks Aluminum came out the superdrives were capable of rewrite on DVDs but this was crippled, till an update of the line made it something to brag about. A lot of us downloaded a hack. So typical of Apple.
Dell would love to be in the same boat as Apple but one thing Dell will do is give the current cpu, gpu or drives. Only Apple has this weird habit of crippling hardware.
However Apple now lives in the Intel world, a mere browser click away from Dell or HPQ and so I doubt they will cripple the new CPUs as this game will be too obvious.
I will be buying the next upgrade to the line; 8core MacPro though sexy have not proved to be that much better than 4core.
The MacPro towers are amazing value compared to Gateway, Dell or HPQ. It would be nice to see Apple offer the latest like Alienware but you can't argue with how wonderful these towers are. I'll be buying the RAID card as well.
I'm glad Apple is getting back to its core business. I own an iPod but the latest Samsung flash player looks so superior. I buy Apple for work. Quite happy to buy a pod from Samsung or Sony or Dell!
Exciting end to 2007
Apple has a history of holding back, available speed or hardware, so as to make an easy "awesome" upgrade which costs them nothing. When the powerbooks Aluminum came out the superdrives were capable of rewrite on DVDs but this was crippled, till an update of the line made it something to brag about. A lot of us downloaded a hack. So typical of Apple.
Dell would love to be in the same boat as Apple but one thing Dell will do is give the current cpu, gpu or drives. Only Apple has this weird habit of crippling hardware.
However Apple now lives in the Intel world, a mere browser click away from Dell or HPQ and so I doubt they will cripple the new CPUs as this game will be too obvious.
I will be buying the next upgrade to the line; 8core MacPro though sexy have not proved to be that much better than 4core.
The MacPro towers are amazing value compared to Gateway, Dell or HPQ. It would be nice to see Apple offer the latest like Alienware but you can't argue with how wonderful these towers are. I'll be buying the RAID card as well.
I'm glad Apple is getting back to its core business. I own an iPod but the latest Samsung flash player looks so superior. I buy Apple for work. Quite happy to buy a pod from Samsung or Sony or Dell!
Exciting end to 2007