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Waiting for Mac Pro Nehalem thread...

netdog

netdog

macrumors 603
Original poster
Feb 6, 2006
5,760
38
London
With Intel executing a significant architecture change next year, rather than plonking $4,000-$5,000 into a new Mac Pro Harpertown, I am going to let Intel shrink their dye size again and put in their new memory controller before I commit.

In the interim, the incedentals (DDR-3 RAM and faster, larger drives) will drop significantly in price, cores per chip could easily be up to 8 if not 16, and hopefully when I buy the big beast (or even better a mid-sized tower), it should last me a heck of a long time.

There it is. For now, I am waiting for Nehalem! It's not that far away.

Are you?

Official Thread Motto: We waited this long! What's another 8 months?
 
Ouch and I thought the wait for Penryn was bad enough.

I can understand if you can wait but not everyone can.

Good luck. :D
 
Whats coming down the pipe 4 years from now? I will upgrade in 4-5 years from my current mac pro. I cannot seem to keep it busy enough as is.
 
Not sure if you are being serious or not, but the die shrink and 8 cores won't likely be available until 2009 and you are probably looking at another october/november release for Nehalem. So with Apple you could be waiting 18+ months for a 16 Core system.
 
darthraige said:
Two chips, 5.3ghz, 16-Cores on each. That would be insane. 84ghz. lol
Click to expand...

I think that you'll see 16 cores per chip a lot sooner than that. Sometime next year...on my machine.

And with the improved memory handling, SHAZAM.

This could be the most significant shift since Apple went to Intel Core Duos.

I really do think that by the end of next year, the Harpertowns are going to look outdated.
 
netdog said:
With Intel executing a significant architecture change next year, rather than plonking $4,000-$5,000 into a new Mac Pro Harpertown, I am going to let Intel shrink their dye size again and put in their new memory controller before I commit.
Click to expand...
Nehalem will be produced on a 45nm process initially, in 2H'08. Intel's 32nm process isn't due until 2009. In addition to an on-chip memory controller, Nehalem brings back HyperThreading so we'll have 8 physical cores and 16 logical threads on a single die. But this will be in the "largest configuration" of the chip. Other configurations may arrive first with fewer cores.

From AnandTech:
Intel announced that in its largest configuration, Nehalem (2H 2008, 45nm) will feature 8 cores on a single die, each core supporting 2 threads per core (welcome back Hyper Threading) for a total of 16 threads per physical chip.
Click to expand...
 
ksz said:
Nehalem will be produced on a 45nm process initially, in 2H'08. Intel's 32nm process isn't due until 2009. In addition to an on-chip memory controller, Nehalem brings back HyperThreading so we'll have 8 physical cores and 16 logical threads on a single die. But this will be in the "largest configuration" of the chip. Other configurations may arrive first with fewer cores.

From AnandTech:
Click to expand...

I expect, however, that the 45nm and 32nm chips will be pin comatible. No?
 
netdog said:
I expect, however, that the 45nm and 32nm chips will be pin comatible. No?
Click to expand...
That's very likely. After all, Clovertown (65nm) and Harpertown (45nm) are pin compatible, as are their dual core siblings, Woodcrest (65nm) and Wolfdale (45nm).
 
I like this new level of anxiousness!!

By some strange occurrence I actually have money for a Mac Pro or MBP, But I need to make this computer last as long as I can (wife and kids call). I can't face the thought of buying a MP now and it being obsolete soon.

I want to use Logic and Final Cut; some people I know reckon a MBP would be great and do the job, but I want to get the most bang for buck. From what I have read here the MP is the only machine that will stand the test of time.
 
ksz said:
Nehalem will be produced on a 45nm process initially, in 2H'08. Intel's 32nm process isn't due until 2009. In addition to an on-chip memory controller, Nehalem brings back HyperThreading so we'll have 8 physical cores and 16 logical threads on a single die. But this will be in the "largest configuration" of the chip. Other configurations may arrive first with fewer cores.
Click to expand...

It was reported a week ago that only dual and quad core procesors will be available in 2008.
 
multimania said:
I like this new level of anxiousness!!

By some strange occurrence I actually have money for a Mac Pro or MBP, But I need to make this computer last as long as I can (wife and kids call). I can't face the thought of buying a MP now and it being obsolete soon.

I want to use Logic and Final Cut; some people I know reckon a MBP would be great and do the job, but I want to get the most bang for buck. From what I have read here the MP is the only machine that will stand the test of time.
Click to expand...
Seriously. If you need the processing power--buy Harpertown. Nehalem is not due for another full year, and may even be delayed.

I don't understand you people. Coming up with a waiting thread for Nehalem *already*.
 
Is this thread for real? It seems like every time I visit this subforum there's someone always waiting for the next model which is going to come out **** knows when. Its one thing if its most likely right around the corner like say, the next MacBook revision but this is ridiculous.

All this waiting for the next revision of the Mac Pro is getting to the point where you just want to knock some of the users here unconscious, take their wallet, head to the nearest Apple store, buy the most maxed out Pro you can get and put the box on their front porch before they wake up so they'll just shut the hell up about it. Of course you'll still have the people who will just scream MOAR COREZ until their fingers fall off but they should be taken down a notch or twelve anyway.


multimania said:
I like this new level of anxiousness!!
Click to expand...

Why do you remind me of a former member here who had a penchant for multimedia and close-up mugshots, hmm.
 
ksz said:
That's very likely. After all, Clovertown (65nm) and Harpertown (45nm) are pin compatible, as are their dual core siblings, Woodcrest (65nm) and Wolfdale (45nm).
Click to expand...

I was under the impression that while you could replace a woodcrest with a wolfdale it would be expensive and still not be able to work up to its potential.. as will be seen in a stoakley-seaburg?
 
I would go for the Penryn based Mac Pros if they appeared next week if I were you.

My 4x 2.66Ghz box with 1900XT,8gb of ram will last me a good 4-5 years right now my box shows 92.5-93.6% idle.

Stats below

Processes: 81 total, 4 running, 2 stuck, 75 sleeping... 411 threads 18:53:07
Load Avg: 0.14, 0.23, 0.24 CPU usage: 1.99% user, 3.23% sys, 94.79% idle
SharedLibs: num = 8, resident = 72M code, 2048K data, 4328K linkedit.
PhysMem: 2052M wired, 2772M active, 942M inactive, 5766M used, 2420M free.
VM: 61G + 368M 657840(0) pageins, 83(0) pageouts
 
Limecat, you're very perceptive! Call it coincidence! No seriously I'm not a techno geek but I'm aware that the latest MP's are lacking in the video dept. Just don't wanna jump too soon, but on the other hand I don't wanna be a Guinea Pig for a new chipset. Of course, my confusion could be from a Mr Sauvignon Blanc...!!!:)
 
Umbongo said:
It was reported a week ago that only dual and quad core procesors will be available in 2008.
Click to expand...
I would not expect to see an 8-core Nehalem produced on anything above 32nm, hence the earliest release date would be sometime in 2009. However, Apple would very likely use two 4-core Nehalem parts on a dual-socket motherboard in late 2008.
 
sdschwendener said:
I was under the impression that while you could replace a woodcrest with a wolfdale it would be expensive and still not be able to work up to its potential.. as will be seen in a stoakley-seaburg?
Click to expand...
Arguably, the most significant speed improvement in Stoakley-Seaburg comes from Seaburg itself, the new memory controller hub (MCH). Because the memory controller today is on the chipset, you won't get the best use out of a Penryn processor until you change the motherboard.

With Nehalem the memory controller moves onto the processor so it's plausible that many of the improvements in the second-generation Nehalem (i.e. not the tick, but the tock) will be more fully realized on the first-generation Nehalem motherboard.
 
Talk about chasing the rainbow, mind you i'm just as bad, but I just don't understand everything to the level you guys do
 
I'll join you.

By the time it comes out, I will be ready to buy a Mac Pro.

That is unless Apple comes out with something MUCH stronger than the Mini without a display already attached.

I'm going to be building up a serious financial modeling system, with several large displays. Right now, I have a dual-dualcore Opteron PC for it. And it works well. But it will be lagging by the time the Nehalem Mac Pros hit.

So count me in for the club picnic. :)
 
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