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The 2009 (Gainestown) Mac Pro: Everything We Know

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So just out of curiousity.. If I get an 8800 GT GPU , do you think it would run pretty well with a 30" CD , and a 21" Cintiq Tablet plugged into it?? Or would that be overkill for the 1 card.. Think I need 1 just for my tablet?
 
vogelhausdesign said:
So just out of curiousity.. If I get an 8800 GT GPU , do you think it would run pretty well with a 30" CD , and a 21" Cintiq Tablet plugged into it?? Or would that be overkill for the 1 card.. Think I need 1 just for my tablet?
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you'd be fine, but if speed is your major concern then it can't hurt to have another card.
 
m1stake said:
for the record I wouldn't bank on 96GB of memory. I'd bet on 36 or possibly 48 at most.
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I wouldn't count out 48 GB either. The Xserve I can easily see getting 96 GB, but the Mac Pro has sometimes been one step behind, at least in the max RAM that Apple supports.

t0mat0 said:
Hope you don't mind, thought i'd throw this in.
The new macosrumors.com on Mac Pro here -take it with however much salt you want 🙂
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A very large amount of salt.
Rock_Salt_Salt_Pellets.jpg


t0mat0 said:
Much more “Nehalem” Core i7 dirt is on the way — starting with the forthcoming Nehalem iMacs which we may see significantly sooner than March….so stay tuned!"
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Nehalem CPUs are too hot for the iMac. At least until later this year.

Setmose said:
Come to think of it, Intel will probably call these Core i7 "family", so maybe it's not Mac OS Rumor's fault.
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I'm pretty sure Core i7 is just the high-end desktop CPU and other CPUs will be called different names (yet to be known). Gainestown is already called Xeon 5500.
 
THE W5580 IS IN STOCK, or so says another thread. I have updated the relevant information (existence and probably release) in the first post accordingly.

This is cool, guys.
 
robinp said:
check this out: http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11717&Itemid=1

Nehalem Xeon's available end of March. Seems promising
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It makes sense. Intel made an announcement some time back that they moved the deadline to Q1 '09. I and other interpreted that as end of March. At least they're going to make it. 🙂

So end of May or early June before we see systems (any vendor). Can we say WWDC for the Mac Pro? 😉

Looks like Tallest Skil will get his wish. 😛

Given the information in the Fudzilla article, they lowered the wholsale prices slightly. The W5580 is down to $1557 from $1600, and the X5570 is down to $1349 from $1386. Not a lot, but anything might help. Retail prices may not reflect it though. 🙄

Thanks for the link, BTW. 😀
 
So the question now is when Snow Leopard is shipping and will Apple sell new Mac Pros without it if there is a small transition time.
 
nanofrog said:
Can we say WWDC for the Mac Pro? 😉

Looks like Tallest Skil will get his wish. 😛
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*jittery, creepy, The Jokeresque voice* They all said I was CRAZY!!!

Five hundred and eighteen days... Five hundred and eighteen days...

They were WRONG! It was ALWAYS going to be a five hundred and eighteen day gap... yes... always... and again, and AGAIN... and AGAIN!

Mwa ha ha ha ha! Mwa ha ha ha ha!

*black 1973 Cadillac with a license plate that reads ":apple: R AND D" pulls up*

Aaaand... I'm going into hiding.

Umbongo said:
So the question now is when Snow Leopard is shipping and will Apple sell new Mac Pros without it if there is a small transition time.
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There will probably be a month of Leopard Nehalem Mac Pros and then Snow Leopard will be released. They know we'll buy it.
 
Tallest Skil said:
There will probably be a month of Leopard Nehalem Mac Pros and then Snow Leopard will be released. They know we'll buy it.
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It's not just about knowing people will buy it, infact I would think most people would demand it for free, or hold off buying for a week or two.

Not having to make Leopard work and support it work on new hardware is very advantageous for Apple (less so for users who are then forced to use Snow Leopard). Assuming Snow Leopard offers better support for multiple cores at an OS level where it can be marketed then it really makes less sense to start offering a Mac Pro with Leopard and then come out with Snow Leopard a month later.

Honestly I don't see Mac Pros shipping with Leopard assuming Snow Leopard is comming out in June or July.
 
W5580 In Stock

Tallest Skil said:
THE W5580 IS IN STOCK, or so says another thread. I have updated the relevant information (existence and probably release) in the first post accordingly.

This is cool, guys.
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Remember also that in previous Intel processor releases, Apple quietly bought up the first bins as they came out of Taiwan a couple of months ahead of Intel's general availability date. So the time-to-announcement may be sooner than starting the clock on March 29. Having $25-billion in cash has its advantages. :apple:
 
Here's a mockup based on the Macosrumors claims like someone asked. Quick and messy photoshop job.
 

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16-Core Mac Pro ?!

After scouring the net a little bit, I can say that "it could happen" but it's complicated.

Beckton has 4 QuickPath channels which allows maximum processor interconnectivity on a quad-CPU board (32 cores, 64 threads). A special Intel socket LGA-1567 is used for that.

Gainestown has 2 QuickPath channels. It uses the Intel LGA-1366 socket.

In both cases, one QuickPath channel per processor is dedicated to talk to its Tylersburg system chip. Two Tylersburg chips connect to each other via another dedicated Quickpath channel. Tylersburg 36D has two QuickPath ports.

I'm guessing that Apple could build a motherboard with two LGA-1567 sockets, and that these sockets will take either Gainestown (retro), or Beckton. The sockets would have some configuration of QuickPath channels between each other such that Becktons would have a wide multi-channel path, and Gainestowns would simply use pin connections to only one inter-CPU QP channel. The Tylersburgs are fixed at one channel to their dedicated CPU socket and one channel shared between them (that uses up each of their two QP ports).

At any rate, using Beckton in a 2-socket configuration, while not the absolutely optimal screaming server 32-core massively interconnected monster it is intended to be, would still be quite advantageous performance wise. Especially as Snow Leopard / Grand Central can configure and manage everything efficiently at the system driver level. All the Nehalem line is designed to be software configured / monitored / controlled.

It seems VERY unlikely that Apple would support separate 8-core and 16-core motherboard versions.

So make of that what you will. It seems that the chaps at Mac OS Rumors may have gotten a bit excitable. But then, that's the fun of guessing. :apple:
 
Setmose said:
After scouring the net a little bit, I can say that "it could happen" but it's complicated.

Beckton has 4 QuickPath channels which allows maximum processor interconnectivity on a quad-CPU board (32 cores, 64 threads). A special Intel socket LGA-1567 is used for that.
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Intel design the boards for Apple and they wouldn't create something so custom when they could just sell them an already designed 4 processor system. Apple won't use a 4 processor system because it isn't suitable for a number of reasons. Price and the market for it being the big ones (probably looking at $13,000 just fo four 2.66GHz processors and a system board). Basically it comes down to support for more than 8 cores not being for mainstream workstations right now.

Intel have talked about dual-board workstations before though, for the current Xeons and Nehalem. So perhaps you are thinking along the right lines for the future, but it won't happen with the next generation of Mac Pros and we will likely see 6 and 8 core Dual Socket processors before a 4 processor Mac Pro ever becomes viable.
 
Umbongo said:
Intel have talked about dual-board workstations before though, for the current Xeons and Nehalem. So perhaps you are thinking along the right lines for the future, but it won't happen with the next generation of Mac Pros and we will likely see 6 and 8 core Dual Socket processors before a 4 processor Mac Pro ever becomes viable.
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Agree completely. That's why further down in my post I "theorize" about a 2-socket configuration using Beckton. It wouldn't at all be past Apple to allow a little bit of the Beckton advantage to go wasted, just to make a splash with 16-cores. But also, as I said, I still think that 16-cores in two sockets, even if some of Beckton's QuickPath bandwidth goes wasted, would be a winner performance-wise. It all depends on whether the Gainestown and Beckton are interchangeable in the Beckton's QP four-channel socket anyway, which is just a guess on my part. :apple:
 
I have no knowledge of MacOSRumors, but anyone who thinks SLI is coming to OSX any time soon should be institutionalized. Also, why do they get to play with one of these unreleased Apple computers? Is there any history of Apple doing that? No.

Not that they looked legit before this post as many other posters have pointed out, but instead of taking their "predictions" and "hands on experience" with a grain of salt, I'd put it in the toilet where it belongs.

@Setmose, in addition to making a splash with 16 cores they would also make a splash with a price tag more fitting for a mid range Honda.
 
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