Kentsfield (Quad-core Intel) by end of 2006?

[epitaphic]

Kentsfield properly benchmarked

http://tomshardware.co.uk/2006/09/11/four_cores_on_the_rampage_uk/index.html

For me, working with one of the first quad core systems was amazing. No matter how many applications you run at the same time, the system reacts to user commands quickly. Some applications require half the time to finish tasks. To me, it's like being catapulted a year into the future and is unlike the past few years when computing power increased only marginally. Intel pumped out 30% more performance with Core 2 Duo and will double that again with Core 2 Quadro soon.

Seems like things bode well for Clovertown. Fingers crossed the hideously inefficient FB-DIMMS dont screw it up.

 

[Erasmus]

Not naming names, but I find it funny how everyone suddenly becomes an engineer.

Who said anything about suddenly?

I, with all of my first year Aeronautical Engineering Uni experience say a Mini Mac Pro is possible.

I think it would be really cool if it had support for a kentsfield or conroe if it's possible, as well as future support as well. It should also have four RAM slots. Two Hard Drive bays, and two PCI Extreme slots. All for under 2 grand Australian currency, so I can buy a 23" screen and a Macbook for about AU$5G, and I'll be one very happy, and very poor individual.

Four cores would be fantastic for working with Matlab for Uni.

 

[Erasmus]

It's the same patent as the original cube.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/231892/

specifically, read:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/2812045/

nothing new.

arn

Ah, but note Fig 3, especially item labelled 38.
I can tell you right now that today's cube does not have any type of fan.
Multitasking right now, and my Cube is COMPLETELY inaudiable. No fan.
If the patent includes a fan, as this one clearly does, it could well be new.

 

[dernhelm]

It is coming, I bet. But you forgot the need for SLI. Apple is a hardware company and does not mind selling to Windows users that want the best hardware for their games. It is coming.

You're right about SLI. I'm not as convinced about whether or not it's coming.

 

[aegisdesign]

But the top gamers want more than one card with SLI and that means a different form factor.

That's a very, very small market.

Half-Life on the PC sold 8 million out of a market of 250 million PCs bought that year. ie. 3% of PC owners bought it. I'd guess the number of those running SLI is in the order of that kind of percentage again, maybe 10% of that 3%.

And that's a top game. Most decent games sell in the order of 1 million.

The Sims sold 16 million and doesn't need SLI at all which IMHO goes to show that developers should concentrate on original games instead of yet another FPS.

 

[aegisdesign]

Do you realize that Mail uses 100% of a core ALL THE TIME? If I leave it open I only have 3 cores to work with. I mean it's rediculous. I have to QUIT Mail to do my work. Absurd.

What? There's something screwed with your Mail.app.

Think about it. If Mail.app used 100% of a core ALL THE TIME, people with single CPU machines wouldn't be able to do anything.

Mail on my G5 iMac is sat there at 0.0% CPU utilisation when it's not doing anything.

 

[fblack]

OK, Who knows where to buy a MXM GPU?
If it's not PCI Extreme, then it's not upgradeable.

Yes, but I can dream cant I ?

 

[Manic Mouse]

Having read the initial impressions of C2Q it sounds mightily impressive...

 

[adamfilip]

BTW it's NOT Cloverton. It's ClovertownExactly my thinking as well.

Thanks for the typo correction. but large type sizes are not necessary

 

[adamfilip]

With people putting off for the "next big thing" I wonder how many people will end up buying nothing

im sure lots of people will keep on waiting and waiting
but i like to get a good jump when i upgrade.. it helps justify the price

 

[AidenShaw]

PCI Express (PCIe)

...and two PCI Extreme slots...

PCI Express, not Extreme.

Note that there's a multiplier as well - a PCIe x16 slot is twice as fast as a PCIe x8 slot, and 16 times faster than a PCIe x1 slot.

http://www.pcisig.com/home

 

[Multimedia]

Original Cubes Do Have A Fan Mounting Bracket Inside The Bottom

Ah, but note Fig 3, especially item labelled 38.
I can tell you right now that today's cube does not have any type of fan.
Multitasking right now, and my Cube is COMPLETELY inaudiable. No fan.
If the patent includes a fan, as this one clearly does, it could well be new.

While our Cubes have no fans, they do have a fan mounting location on the inside of the bottom of the system. Apple originally planned on installing a fan there but figured out how they didn't have to. Cube upgraders to dual G4 processors put a fan there. I know this because I was planning on doing a dual G4 processor upgrade to one - own two. In fact, I bought the second one specifically for that purpose. But which model to upgrade with I never made up my mind. Here's the Barefeats page on the subject.

But then I made the leap to the D 2 G5 and never looked back.

 

[Multimedia]

Lots Of Smart Mailboxes Take Long Time To Refresh Every Get New Mail Cycle

What? There's something screwed with your Mail.app.

Think about it. If Mail.app used 100% of a core ALL THE TIME, people with single CPU machines wouldn't be able to do anything.

Mail on my G5 iMac is sat there at 0.0% CPU utilisation when it's not doing anything.

I have a large library of mail and smart mailboxes that refresh every time it checks for new mail. If I have it set to every 5 minutes, it takes 3 or 4 minutes to refresh all my smart mailboxes.

 

[seashellz]

Macbook (with Leopard) in late Spring for me!
(thats when APPLE usually refresh their models)

 

[law guy]

The benchmarks on Tom's Hardware are up. http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/09/10/four_cores_on_the_rampage/ An up to 100% performance increase over the Core 2 Duo. Goodness me.

I was surprised to see that it's the same form factor chunkywise (same pin setup as Core 2 Duo and compatible with those MBs) - I thought it would be thicker.

 

[milo]

I get goosebumps thinking about the capabilties of Logic 8 Pro working seamlessly
with 8 processors!

Good luck with that, Apple can't even get it working right with 4 cores.

 

[milo]

Close, Manic Mouse. I dont understand people's belief that every Intel chip made has to go into an Apple machine. I doubt the Conroe will be used in any Mac nor the Kentsfield. The range is covered, and I'm sick of these silly rumors of Mac mid towers.

There wont be a mid tower, not now, not "Next Tuesday".

Conroe is intels best bang for the buck. It would be stupid for apple not to use it, and go with chips that are slower and more expensive instead. But apple still does some things that are stupid.

I still think we'll see a mid tower, or at least some mac with conroe. Tommorow? Probably not, but who knows?

 

[Multimedia]

Oh Yeah! Core 2 Quadro - C2Q - Looking Great! October In Stores. Wow!!

The benchmarks on Tom's Hardware are up.

Intel's Core 2 Quadro Kentsfield: Four Cores on a Rampage

An up to 100% performance increase over the Core 2 Duo. Goodness me.

I was surprised to see that it's the same form factor chunkywise (same pin setup as Core 2 Duo and compatible with those MBs) - I thought it would be thicker.

Great catch Law Guy. Congratulations and thanks!

This is huge news. Where is everybody?!?

It appears that Conroe motherboards or logic boards, as some like to call them, are Core 2 Quadro ready. Oops! No wonder Apple hasn't released an early Conroe Mac. They's obviously waiting for these Core 2 Quadros to ship - dropping a bomb on everyone who bought a Mac Pro.

Am I the only one here who thinks this is gigantic news? I can hear a pin drop. The stunned silence is deafening.

Maybe an early Christmas Present Is In The Works For November Shipping from Apple.

So Kentsfield is dubbed Core 2 Quadro or C2Q for short. And it looks like this - last pic is pin view with Core 2 Duo on left Core 2 Quadro on right:

 

[vitaboy]

It's news like this that makes you realize, thank God Apple switched to Intel when it did!

I mean, imagine where we'd be if Steve Jobs didn't have the forsight to develop an Intel version of OS X from the very beginning, 6 years ago?

We'd be stuck with IBM still trying to put out a 3 GHz G5, and notebooks would still be mired in G4 land.

It makes you shudder when you think about what might have been....

But the reality is, Macs are going to be incredibly kick butt scream machines by the time Macworld 2007 rolls around. 2007 looks like it's definitely going to be the year of the Mac!

 

[law guy]

This is huge news. Where is everybody?!?


Am I the only one here who thinks this is gigantic news? I can hear a pin drop. The stunned silence is deafening.

I agree - this is really something. As has been noted, it's just huge the increase in a short amount of time - the original Core release was only a short while back, then Core 2 Duo - which just made it into the iMacs - and now the Core 2 Quad release date of Mid-October! The pace is just astounding.

Not only that, but as Arn and others note, the Quad Xeons are on the way as well. So, there is the path for 8 core Mac Pros in the very near future.

Quad core iMacs, 8 core PMs (opps, I mean Mac Pros) - oh my.

This amazing chip release rate - and significant increases each - will really put Apple to the test in terms of updating products quickly to stay competitive in terms of hardware release. In the past, Apple had to deal with chip upgrades so infrequently. It's a great problem to have, I suppose.

I also echo the comments above re: isn't this the kind of thing that makes you glad Apple switched to Intel? Absolutely.

 

[Multimedia]

C2Q Core 2 Quadro Systems Will Begin Selling At Retail In Early November

I agree - this is really something. As has been noted, it's just huge the increase in a short amount of time - the original Core release was only a short while back, then Core 2 Duo - which just made it into the iMacs - and now the Core 2 Quad release date of Mid-October! The pace is just astounding.

Not only that, but as Arn and others note, the Quad Xeons are on the way as well. So, there is the path for 8 core Mac Pros in the very near future.

Quad core iMacs, 8 core PMs (opps, I mean Mac Pros) - oh my.

This amazing chip release rate - and significant increases each - will really put Apple to the test in terms of updating products quickly to stay competitive in terms of hardware release. In the past, Apple had to deal with chip upgrades so infrequently. It's a great problem to have, I suppose.

I also echo the comments above re: isn't this the kind of thing that makes you glad Apple switched to Intel? Absolutely.

Thank you. Over on page 13 of the September 12th Event Predictions string they are insulting me as insane and that this is no biggie.

I think they've all gone Movie Store iPod Nano crazy. If I had just pulled the trigger on an iMac or a Mac Pro I think I would be a little sick to hear this news. I guess we can speculate Apple could be late to the C2Q systems party. But I agree with you they really need to be on time given we all know the C2Q processor is out there.

I think what we're seeing is a flood of new generation processors hitting the streets in rapid fire succession that won't always be quite as often in future.

 

[AidenShaw]

Different spin

I mean, imagine where we'd be if Steve Jobs didn't have the forsight to develop an Intel version of OS X from the very beginning, 6 years ago?

Or, that Jobs had the foresight not to kill the x86 build of NextStep when he renamed it OSX.

They didn't create an x86 port, they simply maintained the x86 support when they added PPC support and the rest of OSX

Just like Microsoft for years maintained the PowerPC support in NT - which made it very easy to put a PPC chip in the Xbox 360.

2007 looks like it's definitely going to be the year of the Mac!

Yes, the year when it can be proven that Macs are the same as the Dells and eMachines and Gateways and all the other systems from people who also glue Intel chips to a motherboard.

 

[twoodcc]

Yes, the year when it can be proven that Macs are the same as the Dells and eMachines and Gateways and all the other systems from people who also glue Intel chips to a motherboard.

come on, you know that's going a little too far with that one. just b/c it's got an intel processor in it doesn't mean it's the same as everybody else

 

[whatever]

The margins on a mid-mac should be better than the iMac since it's using standard (and therefore cheap) desktop components. So any mid-mac sales in preference to the iMac would probably make Apple more money anyway.

I want Apple to release a stupid "mid-mac" just to shut you and everyone else up.

Professionals buy Mac Pros or laptops. Consumers buy iMacs or laptops. That's a sound and successful strategy for Apple. And if you need a cheap Mac, you can buy a mini.

Just because Intel releases a chip, does not mean Apple is going to use it. If that was the case then Intel should re-release the 486, so that Apple can put them in the "mid-mac"!

 

[Voltes V]

i didn't know they glueintel chips to the motherboard. super glue?