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Mac Pro gets 12 Cores in September?

kiang

kiang

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 8, 2007
129
0
I just read this article on ZDNet Belgium.

It's in Dutch though, so here's a google translation:
Six-Core Intel chip comes in mid-september
With an eight-core successor already behind the scenes

So far had up to four processors cores. But Intel has set itself not satisfied. The chipgigant expected to announce on 14 or 15 September the first commercial x86-multi core with six cores.

The Intel Xeon 7400 'Dunnington' chip for servers will also be the last branch of the Penryn family of 45 nanometerprocessors.

The most glaring Dunnington version is the 2.67 GHz Xeon X7460. He has, in addition to two additional cores, a large 16 MB L3 cache. Other models are the 2.4 GHz Xeon E7450 and the 2.13 GHz Xeon L7455, both with 12 MB L3 cache. The X7460 and the L7455 are both expected to be 2,729 dollars (1,877 euros) costs, while the E7450 is priced softer: 2,301 dollars (1,582 euros).

Construction in one piece
Dunnington is the first multicore Intel processor with monolithic chip, either: all cores sit on a piece of silicon. This will also be the case in the Nehalem family that the current series Penryn few months followed. This will be the Core i7-desktopprocessors in the fourth quarter as the first.

In the second quarter of 2009, Intel another step further with the production of the Nehalem EX for larger multiprocessorservers. They will have eight cores.
Click to expand...

So, if Intel releases this mid-September, and the Mac Pro is listed 'do not buy', does this mean it will get two 6-cores, making it a twelve-core desktop? I cant wait to see that :D

------

Update: I found a decent English article on cnet: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10032313-64.html

Update 2: more references, so I guess it's true: http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/09/04/intel.xeon.7400.leak/
 
I'm not sure if the extra cores offset the reduced clock speed and slower FSB. There are still apps out there which won't use all of the Mac Pro's 8 cores let alone 12 cores.
 
They are a different type of Xeon processor. So nope. They are also slower and cost over $3,000 for the 2.66GHz version.
 
Dunnington will not fit in the Mac Pro socket and I believe it is incompatible with the Mac Pro's systemboard chipset. It is designed for servers only.

So it will not be an option for the Mac Pro. You have to wait until Core i7.
 
Tallest Skil said:
This is NOT happening. Then next Mac Pro update will be the Tuesday before MacWorld 2009 in January with Nehalem processors.
Click to expand...

Than I have news for your quote: Nehalem in notebooks won't happen till summer next year at best, so change 'soon' to 'in a while' ;)

edit:
ps:not meant to be harsh or anything :)
 
kiang said:
Than I have news for your quote: Nehalem in notebooks won't happen till summer next year at best, so change 'soon' to 'in a while' ;)

edit:
ps:not meant to be harsh or anything :)
Click to expand...

not that it's relevant either. This is about Mac Pros, not a MacBook Pro.
 
bump....is it for sure that will be no 6 core cpu's for the mac pro? It this speculation or has anything been said by intel or any leaks/rumors...I plan on buying in early 2009 but would rather wait for this a couple months longer so to be more future proofed. :p
 
fatcat23 said:
bump....is it for sure that will be no 6 core cpu's for the mac pro? It this speculation or has anything been said by intel or any leaks/rumors...I plan on buying in early 2009 but would rather wait for this a couple months longer so to be more future proofed. :p
Click to expand...
The next CPU for the Mac Pro will be the Gainestown-EP/ Xeon 5500 series chips. 4 cores per chip.

Here's an article from Tom's Hardware. Intel Roadmap ,09 Part 1
 
fatcat23 said:
cool...thanks for the info. I sure hope the 8 cores will be enough :p and I'm sure that the 12 cores would just be overkill.;)
Click to expand...
OK. Let's not get greedy now...:D :p

Besides, ATM, most apps can't take advantage of multiple cores anyway. :eek:
Snow Leopard is supposed to change this though. :cool:
 
As mentioned in other threads, the Mac pro cannot get the 6 core Dunnington Xeon (without getting a new motherboard) as it is S604 only and the Mac Pro uses S771. SO , cant wont ever happen. The next Mac Pro will have Gainestown CPUs and will be out late this year
 
pawn3d said:
who cares, it comes out when it comes out
Click to expand...

Ya but it's nice to be able to future proof your system. And x264 encoding is heavily threaded in os x and can use all 8 cores. :) I'm sure new updates will allow it to also use more.

I've never heard of the s604, thanks for the info. Going to do some research know. :cool:
 
fatcat23 said:
Ya but it's nice to be able to future proof your system.
Click to expand...

There is no such thing. Every computer is obsolete before the box is opened.

Remember 8 years ago when the PowerMac 733mhz G4 (Digital Audio) with the nVidia GeForce2 MX was THE fastest gaming computer anyone could buy, at least for a few days? People thought that computer was "future proof" at the time, but try running Leopard or even Halo on it.
 
Lord Zedd said:
There is no such thing. Every computer is obsolete before the box is opened.

Remember 8 years ago when the PowerMac 733mhz G4 (Digital Audio) with the nVidia GeForce2 MX was THE fastest gaming computer anyone could buy, at least for a few days? People thought that computer was "future proof" at the time, but try running Leopard or even Halo on it.
Click to expand...

Nehalem does support a notion of being future proof over the current systems for the very fact that it is a new architecture and the current ones are a dead end. Whether or not that will matter due to how Apple deal with hardware is debatable.

I know the obsolete comment is a bit of an exageration for effect (I assume anyway), but workstation hardware is designed to not be obsolete in the short term, it's one of the selling points. Infact on a non-apple system the Nehalem workstation boards are likely to be supporting new processors for 3 years at least.
 
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