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Nehalem Mac Pro users will be the truly lucky ones!

Topper

Topper

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 17, 2007
1,186
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Like most people on this forum, I am looking forward to buying a new Penryn (Harpertown) Mac Pro.
I think its going to come out this week.

BUT...
I think there will be new Nehalem Mac Pros coming out in the second half of 2008.
The people who are waiting to buy the Nehalem Mac Pro will have a much more powerful computer than the Harpertown Mac Pro.

Nehalem is part of Intel’s tick-tock strategy of bringing out processors.
Penryn (Harpertown) is a shrink derivative of the Core 2 Duo.
Nehalem has a whole new microarchitecture.
Nehalem will not rely on FD-Dimms which are prone to latency problems.
Instead Nehalem will use DDR3 chips.
Nehalem will have three times the peak memory bandwidth of Penryn (Harpertown) processors.

I think there is a good chance that the next Mac Pro will have either an 8800GT or a HD3870 video card as bto.

BUT...
The truly big boys are not coming out until 2008.
ATI may be bringing out a new gpu in 2008 called the R680.
Rumor has it that the R680 is two RV670 chips on a single die and will act as crossfire on a single board.
It may be faster than nVidia’s 8800 Ultra!

nVidia will not be left behind.
In December nVidia will launch a new revision of the 8800GTS 640MB video card. It has more shaders than the current 8800GTS 640MB card and may be faster than the 8800GTX.
In January nVidia is expected to launch a new card codenamed D8E which will have two 8800GT GPUS (or more appropiately G92s) on two PCBs.
In mid-2008, nVidia is expected to introduce a whole new video card codenamed D9E (G100).
Not much is known about it except that it is a single chip gpu.

Nehalem Mac Pro: Much more powerful cpu and much more powerful gpu than the Harpertown Mac Pro.
 
With 8 core processors not comming until 2009, and second half of 2008 probably meaning mid november with decent supply in 2009 at least they will still have to go through the "when are apple going to update!!!:mad:" misery.
 
Way to tell people who have been waiting months for an update that the update that is coming at least 1 year from now is going to be better. Really, give yourself a treat or something. :eek:

Honestly.

Anyway, I may be upgrading at this point. My machine will be just about 2 years old at this point. Either I would upgrade then or wait until a year from then when my Applecare is up and then get something different, maybe even a loaded 15" MBP
 
Over the years I've come to find out that there is a vocal minority of computer users who are physically incapable of enjoying any computer hardware that has actually made it to market....they spend their days reading roadmaps and rumors, and tell everyone how obsolete the current hardware is compared to what is being promised. They continually hold off on updating; the next update will be great, they say, but the one after that will be even better. Finally circumstances force them to upgrade, and they buy a new machine only to moan loudly about how outdated it is already. Then the cycle begins anew...

I'm not targeting anyone in particular BTW...I've done it myself before. I used to be depressed after buying a computer, as I looked at the next update. Now I just enjoy what I have. Heck, I'm still using PPC. :D
 
Waiting for the "killer technology" that won't be surpassed?

Good luck with that.

Whatever you buy, whenever you buy it, will be obsolete in six months to a year. That's just how it works.
 
badlydrawnboy said:
Waiting for the "killer technology" that won't be surpassed?

Good luck with that.

Whatever you buy, whenever you buy it, will be obsolete in six months to a year. That's just how it works.
Click to expand...

That's right, just try to stay at the beginning of that six month cycle...
 
aLfR3dd said:
:pWhen are we gonna have a Mac Pro 16 Cores Nehalem??? I'm waiting for that
Click to expand...

The only thing I want (and I'm not going to get it) is a video card at least as powerful as the 8800 GTX.
I don't think that's asking too much.
The video cards in 2008 will be so improved that even Apple will be forced to give us a video card as good as the 8800 GTX.
 
Topper said:
The only thing I want (and I'm not going to get it) is a video card at least as powerful as the 8800 GTX.
I don't think that's asking too much.
The video cards in 2008 will be so improved that even Apple will be forced to give us a video card as good as the 8800 GTX.
Click to expand...

I want more :D but and i'll wait for that
 
Yep, still using a G5 here as well. I agree, there's your standard run of the mill hardware junkies and then there's the newtech addicts. Hey more power to them. If I didn't have little mouths to feed and debt I'd be all over it. Back in my misspent bachelor days all I did was work and game, with the occasional bar night. It was always the latest and greatest gear.

But seriously folks... let's get the current ones out the door before we start drooling over the next ones. One of the joys of updating on a 3-4 year cycle is the enormous performance boost. It's always like removing heavy ankle weights.
 
I can't believe that I am still disappointed that Multi can't weigh in on this one.

Multi, if you are reading this, what on earth did you do?

+1 for Nehalem.
 
Topper said:
The only thing I want (and I'm not going to get it) is a video card at least as powerful as the 8800 GTX.
I don't think that's asking too much.
The video cards in 2008 will be so improved that even Apple will be forced to give us a video card as good as the 8800 GTX.
Click to expand...

But the chances are that us Windows-centric lot will have something even better by that time :p
 
I'm going to wait until 2050 to buy a new Mac Pro cause it'll be way better than the one that you losers bought in 2008...
 
i think the truly lucky ones where the one's who bought:

the 2.0 GHz G5 powermac when it was released

the Macbook Pro CD when it was released

the Macbook CD when it was released

the Mac Pro 2.66 GHz when it was released

the iMac CD when it was released

the octo core monster

the G5 quad

because these macs represented a true leap in performance. the speed increases after that always where in the 10% range per release. these machines will last them a long time.

it will take a while till we get a jump like this again. maybe the rumored small ultralight macbook pro will be another leap.

everybody else can also enjoy their machines. mac's are great machines these days.
 
I find it interesting to see how often people feel the need to upgrade.

I do a lot of video-editing and encoding. On a 5-year old PC. It´s a Pentium 4 with 2,4 Gigaherz and up until about a year ago that was enough to handle my needs more or less. Now that I have upgraded to an HDV-camcorder and software continues to become more sophisticated, I really feel that my PC can no longer cut it. I don´t only feel like upgrading, at this point I pretty much have to upgrade to have a smooth workflow.

In comes the Penryn Mac Pro. A machine with 4, probably even 8 cores. I guess I can expect it to handle HDV like butter and it will most definitely blow my PC off the face of the earth when it comes to rendering time. I can hardly wait.

When the Nehalem comes out, I will have been using my Mac Pro for (almost or over) a year. And I bet that I will not feel the need to upgrade. As a matter of fact, at this point I can not imagine when I will ever feel the need to upgrade again. A top of the line computer will last you at least five years these days, a mac pro most likely even longer. What else will I be doing in 5 years that´s more demanding than editing 1080p video? I´m sure something will come along but until then the Mac Pro will always get the job done with time to spare.

And even if Nehalem will be considerably faster, it won´t be the second coming of Christ! Nehalem will probably get you a few minutes faster encoding times. That´s it. Shure that´s nice, but I don´t need to wait anther year so I can save a few minutes every time I am done with a project.

Upgrade when you feel that you have to! Would you buy a new car, every time the maker releases a new model? Just because it uses an ounce less gasoline and has two horsepowers more?

This thread doesn´t make much sense at all. ;)
 
While there is [a measure of] good in anticipation, I have found that many hours spent surfing the anticipators has made me
resolve to:
• upgrade at 16-18 month intervals AND NO MORE
• stop wondering what is ABOUT to arrive.
• attend to MacRumors buying guide

SO, Apple-- bring-on the Harpertown (already! day-um!), it is significantly faster and more facile than what I have been using successfully for 2 yrs., I will buy the baddest one you offer---
THEN I can rest for 14 months, focusing only on WORK OUTPUT!!

What I need to anticipate next are
• the functions my s/w is shuttling to the GPU and
• how to change my input device layout for optimizing WORK.
THIS IS HOW WE PAY FOR THESE TOYS [PRO tools only].
Other modding, worrying, and guesstimating are a waste of this pro's time.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Over the years I've come to find out that there is a vocal minority of computer users who are physically incapable of enjoying any computer hardware that has actually made it to market....they spend their days reading roadmaps and rumors, and tell everyone how obsolete the current hardware is compared to what is being promised. They continually hold off on updating; the next update will be great, they say, but the one after that will be even better. Finally circumstances force them to upgrade, and they buy a new machine only to moan loudly about how outdated it is already. Then the cycle begins anew...

I'm not targeting anyone in particular BTW...I've done it myself before. I used to be depressed after buying a computer, as I looked at the next update. Now I just enjoy what I have. Heck, I'm still using PPC. :D
Click to expand...

Normally I upgrade every 2 years.
However, when there is a revolution, upgrading becomes especially tempting.
Core 2 was definitely a revolution, even over the fastest Pentium D.
Now we are lead to believe that Nehalems are a new revolution, thus people who feel lke me are looking forward to upgrading, nothing wrong with that I believe.
 
Alessandro17 said:
Normally I upgrade every 2 years.
However, when there is a revolution, upgrading becomes especially tempting.
Core 2 was definitely a revolution, even over the fastest Pentium D.
Now we are lead to believe that Nehalems are a new revolution, thus people who feel lke me are looking forward to upgrading, nothing wrong with that I believe.
Click to expand...

1. This thread is over a year old... I BARELY remember it.
2. Yes, yes, we WILL be the lucky ones.
 
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