Snow Leopard in September, Xserve in June, Mac Pro Speed Boost, and More?

[Umbongo]

I think the Quadro FX 5800 is very likely since the Mac Pro is missing a high-end GPU option. The 512MB HD4870 is a mid-range card with a MSRP of $150 so it should have replaced the HD2600XT not the 8800GT. Personally, I'm hoping that Apple adds the upcoming 1GB HD4890 alongside the Quadro FX 5800 since the HD4890 is a true high-end GPU.

You may feel the 4870 is a midrange card but it is not. It is at the low end of AMD's highest consumer tier and the basis of their high end pro cards. As for replacing the 2600XT, price isn't as relevent as it being noisey and you couldn't fit 4 in a Mac Pro.

The delay with the Quadro FX 5800 probably isn't engineering resources on Apple's part but more availability of the 55nm GT200b chips since I'm guessing nVidia is concentrating them on the desktop market to beat back ATI's HD48xx series.

The FX 5800 uses the older chip found in the GTX 280 and I can't see them forgoing selling a $3000 card to Apple for the AMD battle.

The following is based on what I have read and been told:
Apple develop the drivers themselves for Nvidia cards and driver development for the previous Quadros probably wasn't too hard or much of an issue as they also were selling GeForce cards that were based on the same hardware. This time they don't have a GeForce card to share that development with, so they would be developing drivers soley for the Quadro. I can easily see it just not being worth them doing it due to sales volume. I don't know how much effort is needed for such things, but I assume it isn't trivial given Apple's very limited set of cards.

In regards the 3.2GHz model, if it's introduced it'll have to be as an option on top rather than directly replacing a previous model since Intel has no near-term Xeon price drops planned. People shouldn't have much reason to complain since there would be no changes to existing configurations.

Agreed, I'm certainly not going to be suprised if they turn up from Apple.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

That too, although I'm not so sure about the specs that came along with the mockup.

Yeah, as I commented in the mockup/rumor thread, I would rather see it with an "Ultra Low Voltage" (up to 1.86 GHz, at 17 Watts,) Core 2 Duo. I would also like to see "Certified Wireless USB" (the official spec,) on it, too; to make up for the single USB port.

 

[Xibalba]

One thing that I would like see updated is the Apple TV. It's hardware is more than 2 years old now. I'm sure nVidia is itching to get Apple to publicize their Ion platform, since dual core Atom + 9400M for h.264 decode would be perfect for the Apple TV.

I completely agree - I just bought an aTV a few months ago and love the device. Boxee and XBMC work awesome and give me instant access (wirelessly) to my entire media collection. Also, my wife loves watching trailers to wind down at night - and several of the $0.99 movie rentals have been great as well.

 

[jgbhardy]

I'm probably not looking into buying another mac until September 2010, so hopefully by then SL will have sorted the release bugs, but I'm greatly excited by the prospect of a new OS that will have improvements under the hood.

I forget is the Nehalem a Quad core mobile processor? With SL taking more advantage of multi core CPUs are we too expect the system to possible take advantage of this by organising programs into using core's that are not active to increase the power?

 

[Mr. Giver '94]

Just watch. Snow Leopard will become the new Push Notification service.

Snow Leopard=Slow Leopard

 

[Bye Bye Baby]

It looks like november for my new macbook pro.

Bring it on.

 

[Scottsdale]

I believe NOTHING written today.

Since it is April Fools Day, I seriously doubt anything written at all today.

Most of this seems more like speculation than anything.

 

[iMacmatician]

I forget is the Nehalem a Quad core mobile processor?

Nehalem is the microarchitecture.

Nehalem has two mobile variants: Clarksfield and Arrandale. Clarksfield is the higher-end, quad-core variant and Arrandale is the lower-end, dual-core variant.

Technically Arrandale is a Westmere variant, as Westmere is the 32 nm shrink of Nehalem.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Agreed. This release, more than ever, must have the mantra "better late than broken" (assuming it's not insanely late, of course.)

When you're releasing a version that has no major externally-visible features, then it had better be rock-solid. Otherwise, the press and the bloggers (and a lot of other people) will start writing "all this did was make perfectly good systems start breaking." The presence of an all-new internal architecture won't matter one whit to non-developers.

That'll never be more true then this fall when Microsoft releases Windows 7, which looks like a re-write of Vista, and it SCREAMS. With comparison like that, if OS X 10.6 isn't a screamer as well, the bloggers will be up in arms.

 

[JD92]

---

 

[ThomasJL]

By November the unibodies would've been out a full year, I think that's sufficient time for an update... Anybody that does complain is just doing so for the sake of it.

And just like many recent Macs which were out for over a year with no revision, Apple will not lower the price what they charged when the machines were first released.

 

[nxfxcom]

Video

I seriously hope that they will get a HighEnd Video Card soon, i am still running the last Generation Mac Pro with a 8800, and if they come out with some better cards i would seriously thinking about getting the new one with the new card! CANT WAIT

 

[miggitymac]

You're tough to impress.

Well...I didn't find your attempt at dry-wit humorous, so that may be true... (that's a joke...plz don't get all snarly...too much of that on this forum lately)

But if SL delivers what ppl are expecting it to deliver...and it has Nehalem to work with...then I'll have enough incentive to retire my early 2008 MBP this November. The unibodies weren't enough for me to do that.

And I don't know many ppl that are pleased with the fact that the NVidia cards in their laptops are EXPECTED to fail eventually...

 

[Pika]

Was there ever a release date published by Apple? If not, then there's nothing to say that September would be "late". Leopard is running great, so I don't see why they need to rush to supersede it.

Apple is preparing Snow Leopard to compete against Windows 7.

 

[BTW]

That makes sense that Snow Leopard is coming out in September. I would expect them to give a board beta copy to developers at WWDC. It would be nice if they'd beta to the general public. I'm sure there's some willing consumers.

 

[acearchie]

So inline with the pro video app updates does anyone reckon we will see a Final cut express 5?

Im eager for some new features!

 

[nuckinfutz]

September sounds pretty late.

I'm more thinking along the lines of August..not too much of a difference but we'll see.

 

[commander.data]

You may feel the 4870 is a midrange card but it is not. It is at the low end of AMD's highest consumer tier and the basis of their high end pro cards. As for replacing the 2600XT, price isn't as relevent as it being noisey and you couldn't fit 4 in a Mac Pro.

http://www.dailytech.com/Radeon+487...Radeon+4850+Will+Drop+to+129/article14433.htm

I'm pretty sure the $150 price point is decidedly mainstream and the 512MB HD4870 dropped to that segment before Apple introduced it in the Mac Pro. When it was originally introduced around $300, it was definitely a performance segment card, with the HD4850 at $200 as the high-end mid-range option. Market segment classification isn't a matter for speed but price. The HD4870 may form the basis of high-end cards, but I don't think a $150 graphics card can be considered an entry high-end graphics card even if it's performance punches above it's price point and it's named like a high-end card.

To justify their small die strategy in the HD4xxx generation, AMD has stated that they view the market in 5 segments: Enthusiast, Performance, Balance, Mainstream, and Value. They didn't break down all the specific price points, but they did say that the Performance segment is $200-$300, which is why the HD4870 was originally launched at $299, and they were giving up making single die GPUs for the $300+ Enthusiast market. The HD4850 was originally priced at $199 which is the Balance segment. The $100-$149 is then likely the Mainstream segment, and sub-$100 is the value segment. By pricing the 512MB HD4870 at $149 it's now a Mainstream part, the second lowest tier.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3469&p=6

Let NVIDIA take the crown, let them have the halo part, we’ll compete in the $200 - $300 market. Yeah, right.

What followed were heated debates, if ATI were to stake the future of its graphics business on not building the absolute faster GPU, but rather a GPU targeted at a lower market segment the proposition was risky.

ATI viewed the graphics market as five segments: Enthusiast, Performance, Balance, Mainstream and Value. In the Spring of 2005, ATI decided to shoot for the Performance segment, and not Enthusiast.

And so the best GPU currently available for the Mac Pro is a mainstream GPU which is disappointing. The GT120 is a value GPU, and the I believe the 8800GT in the last Mac Pro was a Performance segment GPU when the Harpertown Mac Pro was released which was decent. A 1GB HD4890 or GTX285 option would definitely be useful.

 

[Shiner]

I imagine that the 3.2Ghz will be even more expensive, and won't push the 2.26 out of the lineup to reshuffle the price mix.

2.26: $3299
2.66: + $1400
2.93: + $2600
3.20: + $3200?

That 4GB Nvidia card is a beast! But my understanding is that is more useful for crunching numbers, and not as much for gaming.

Funny you should mention that, It sucks for gaming!! LOL. I bought one for work -3D imaging X-ray structures and molecular dynamics. Loaded WOW on there the other night man did it suck!!

 

[mdriftmeyer]

FYI: Internel Dev builds of OS X are always dozens of revisions ahead. It's been that way when we did it at NeXT and Apple while I tested them.

 

[tumblemonster]

I doubt we'll see Shake updates. Apple dropped Shake 2 years ago to work on a replacement called Phenomenon, based partly on shake and partly on new development from Motion, but it hasn't been heard of since. I'd love to see a new pro level compositing product from Apple, but it probably won't be called Shake.

 

[iMacmatician]

It will be interesting to see how they fit a Nehalem into the Macbooks. I'm guessing they'll be waiting until the 32nm shrink comes out, but will Intel be able to get the TDP down to the 25W in the current Macbook's P8600? If they can't then I'm wondering where they'll make the power saving, perhaps they'll have to go back to Intel graphics? Or maybe they'll have to up the capacity of the battery, which would result in a heavier Macbook.

Subtract 10 W from the listed Nehalem TDP and you get the Penryn TDP equivalent. So Arrandale (35/45 W) can fit into the MacBook.

 

[Riemann Zeta]

I think we all knew that we wouldn't see 10.6 until Sept/Oct--I have been thinking Oct 2009 since last summer. One look at the current builds and it is clearly apparent that 10.6 is in no way close to being ready for release. Besides, what company wants to release an important major OS update right at the inflection-point of a recession? Instead, why not spend more time debugging the OS while waiting a few months until money starts to move again. We will get to see the beta release in Jun, however--I know Apple is extremely paranoid about showing anything related to a new OS (which is a very dumb strategy if debugging is the theoretical goal), but this one will leak to the intertubes quickly after annoncement at the show.

 

[Umbongo]

http://www.dailytech.com/Radeon+487...Radeon+4850+Will+Drop+to+129/article14433.htm

I'm pretty sure the $150 price point is decidedly mainstream and the 512MB HD4870 dropped to that segment before Apple introduced it in the Mac Pro. When it was originally introduced around $300, it was definitely a performance segment card, with the HD4850 at $200 as the high-end mid-range option. Market segment classification isn't a matter for speed but price. The HD4870 may form the basis of high-end cards, but I don't think a $150 graphics card can be considered an entry high-end graphics card even if it's performance punches above it's price point and it's named like a high-end card.

To justify their small die strategy in the HD4xxx generation, AMD has stated that they view the market in 5 segments: Enthusiast, Performance, Balance, Mainstream, and Value. They didn't break down all the specific price points, but they did say that the Performance segment is $200-$300, which is why the HD4870 was originally launched at $299, and they were giving up making single die GPUs for the $300+ Enthusiast market. The HD4850 was originally priced at $199 which is the Balance segment. The $100-$149 is then likely the Mainstream segment, and sub-$100 is the value segment. By pricing the 512MB HD4870 at $149 it's now a Mainstream part, the second lowest tier.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3469&p=6


And so the best GPU currently available for the Mac Pro is a mainstream GPU which is disappointing. The GT120 is a value GPU, and the I believe the 8800GT in the last Mac Pro was a Performance segment GPU when the Harpertown Mac Pro was released which was decent. A 1GB HD4890 or GTX285 option would definitely be useful.

We will have to agree to disagree on the 4870. I consider it a $150 part now, but they aren't selling for that and whatever the price it wasn't going to replace the 2600XT for reasons I mentioned.

I completely agree the GPU options are poor. I was dissapointed they didn't go for the 4670 as the base option and the GTX 260 Core 216 as the improved option and even those aren't amazing. For whatever reasons Apple only offer a low power card that can be used in fours to power 8 displays and a more powerful card for those using heavier 3D applications and probably due to the small audience that seems to mean the best value card in the high consumer tier. Which the 4870 is surely a contender for. In the end it was probably a case of AMD giving Apple the best deal and Apple being happy that the 4870 was enough of a card.

Maybe AMD will come out with some 3rd party cards, but it's such a niche market they would be catering too. Or maybe things will change in the future as Nvidia rebrand and AMD drop prices rather than new evolutions replacing everything.

 

[nuckinfutz]

I think we all knew that we wouldn't see 10.6 until Sept/Oct--I have been thinking Oct 2009 since last summer. One look at the current builds and it is clearly apparent that 10.6 is in no way close to being ready for release. Besides, what company wants to release an important major OS update right at the inflection-point of a recession? Instead, why not spend more time debugging the OS while waiting a few months until money starts to move again. We will get to see the beta release in Jun, however--I know Apple is extremely paranoid about showing anything related to a new OS (which is a very dumb strategy if debugging is the theoretical goal), but this one will leak to the intertubes quickly after annoncement at the show.

People said the same thing about Leopard and then it quickly went final candidate and then gold master.

and as mdriftmeyer says above Apple's internal builds are ahead of what's available to ADC members. Now Snow Leopard could indeed ship in October but there's little information as to why it would be delayed so late.

My assumption is that there are key features in OS X that are still hidden and won't be visible to Snow Leopard builds until the iPhone is delivered. Totally baseless assumption but I think that Snow Leopard development jumps into high gear once the team launches iPhone 3rd Rev and finishes the 3.0 SDK