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Who's anticipating buying a 2010 Mac Pro?

grue said:
Final Cut itself is in desperate need of a top to bottom rewrite.
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Yes, very true. They're in the middle of doing it. The good news is that if they do it properly, it'll not only be more stable, but a good 4-12 times faster, in addition to handling a few more formats.

You do have to use Qmaster with compressor, and that's also kind of broken. Only video compression is using more than 2-4 cores at the moment; that said, their other use is allowing you to run more apps at the same time. It's not too much of a stretch for me to run the whole FCS at once, but that's not really advantageous. But we really need them to raise that RAM cap.

I wouldn't be too concerned about core count on the next generation of Mac Pros - whatever options there are will surely be enough.
 
Last year I went to NAB with the hopes that Apple would announce some new pro stuff (new Final Cut Pro, new MacPro, etc...). Maybe this will be the year? But since they just released the new Final Cut Studio a short time ago, I doubt they will release a new one anytime soon. My guess would be that they would update it to 64-bit via a software update.

Back on topic: I'm crossing my fingers that Tuesday is the day. Or at least next Tuesday.
 
CCK said:
Highly disagree with the use of an imac for video if it is the main function of the comp. Having to deal with a single FW port is not an option for video pro/semipro/ serious amateur IMO.
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He's coming from an MBP. How bad could an iMac be?

But I do understand your point perfectly. I have an iMac now and it's great for surfing the web. I love the display. But any time I start trying to do even simple things like transcode video, the 1 internal disk bites me. I also have an FW800 external and an FW400 external, but these share the same bus; those two disks are not faster than one.

Which is why I'm bird-dogging this forum. I want a Mac Pro.

I'd love to keep my iMac for its display, but I don't think most OS X programs work well in a client/server architecture where programs run on a Mac Pro but the display is an iMac. CAE Software I'm familiar with from work works very well in that environment. The application runs on a headless Linux server; a VNC viewer on a PC works just fine for 2D type graphics.
 
I'm eagerly waiting on what comes out of the update however, I think the 4 core '09 model will suffice for what I want to achieve... i.e. Photoshop/Lightroom/Illustrator though an 8 core would also do as I'd like to dabble in video.
 
Phantom Gremlin said:
He's coming from an MBP. How bad could an iMac be?

But I do understand your point perfectly. I have an iMac now and it's great for surfing the web. I love the display. But any time I start trying to do even simple things like transcode video, the 1 internal disk bites me. I also have an FW800 external and an FW400 external, but these share the same bus; those two disks are not faster than one.

Which is why I'm bird-dogging this forum. I want a Mac Pro.
.
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And a dying MBP at that.

If the imac had an eSATA, there's a chance that I would have gotten one, but in the end I guess I'm glad it didn't, There's nothing like finishing up a project, pulling the drive, boxing it up & throwing in a new drive.
 
grue said:
We don't know what they actually DID. THey might have been marketing weenies, or people who worked on it back when it was going to be cross platform, etc etc. For all we know, they were extraneous and holding back the project.
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True. Probably unwise to make too much of that, I agree.
 
grue said:
We don't know what they actually DID. THey might have been marketing weenies, or people who worked on it back when it was going to be cross platform, etc etc. For all we know, they were extraneous and holding back the project.
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True, apparently Steve Jobs even responded to someone's email on this topic...

Good news everyone… there’s no need to worry. Responding to a Mac Soda request for comment, regarding the state of Final Cut Pro, Steve Jobs said the following…

No worries. FCP is alive and well.

Sent from my iPhone

Hopefully this will put to rest this issue once and for all.
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Who knows if it's true and/or if Steve even has a clue about this, but it's a bit premature to be writing the death certificate for FCP. :p
 
BTW, it's worth noting that the 2009 Mac Pro anticipation thread had over 2000 posts and 140,000 views in the time from mid. Jan to early March. There doesn't seem to be nearly as much conjecture or interest in this year's model as last. I suppose at least part of that was due to the completely new Nehalem architecture. This year, we don't have as much change on tap. :(
 
VirtualRain said:
BTW, it's worth noting that the 2009 Mac Pro anticipation thread had over 2000 posts and 140,000 views in the time from mid. Jan to early March. There doesn't seem to be nearly as much conjecture or interest in this year's model as last. I suppose at least part of that was due to the completely new Nehalem architecture. This year, we don't have as much change on tap. :(
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Could also be that the new imacs have picked up a lot more photo/graphics pros.
 
VirtualRain said:
BTW, it's worth noting that the 2009 Mac Pro anticipation thread had over 2000 posts and 140,000 views in the time from mid. Jan to early March.
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It's probably something to do with the reservoir of experience draining from MR in light of the recent inflow of "newbies" to the iPad and MBP sections of the site. :rolleyes:
 
alent1234 said:
Intel has been producing these CPU's for months. Just like the Core i series. they started producing them almost 6 months ago and only announced them in January.

i can't remember the last time Intel has done a paper launch. ATI and Nvidia are another story
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I wasn't talking about a paper launch (lead time = 13wks minimum). But as the lead time can go over 13wks for component delivery dates (complications of some sort from manufacturing to customs), deadlines can be missed (from plans; that is, they plan to begin manufacturing on a certain date, ship on another, and so on). Things do go wrong, so 4wks late (example; could be shorter or longer) is NOT unheard of.

VirtualRain said:
In this case, it's a microcode update for Apple to support these processors, and it would be unusual for Intel not to provide this in advance so system integrators could announce products at the same time, but stranger things have happened. We shall know soon enough.
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I'm talking about getting the CPU's out the door by the planned date, and so on. Lead times do run over the typical 13wks due to things like testing took longer than planned (design - validation), process issues (manufacturing),... And that's before shipping is involved, where there could be anything from bad weather, blown engines, the ship sank, or even pirates. :eek: And then you deal with customs (they can a big PITA), and continental shipping (i.e. trains and/or trucks).

Life happens, and such issues are fairly common with electronic component deliveries I'm afraid. :(
 
Phantom Gremlin said:
People here who complain about Apple's pricing certainly wouldn't be happy with HP's pricing. E.g. the cheapest "featured model" with 6-core processors includes four of them and lists for $17,839. And that's with 8 GB of memory. I'm sure they have cheaper boxes, but I'm too lazy to look too hard.
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Those are Multi Processor (MP) systems though (4x CPU's; 74xx P/N's as you noted). Definitely NOT what's used in the Mac Pro or XServe lines (SP = 35xx, DP = 55xx P/N's).

So it's a totally different animal, and yes, they're on the expensive side. But they're a different market segment as well. ;)
 
And a dying MBP at that.

If the imac had an eSATA, there's a chance that I would have gotten one, but in the end I guess I'm glad it didn't, There's nothing like finishing up a project, pulling the drive, boxing it up & throwing in a new drive.
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My MBP has 2 Lacie big disks connected via eSata in the PCi express port, hoping the New Mac pros will have eSata ports on them but doubt full as all the talk is about FW800 and possibly USB3

So I either take them out of there cases and install them into the Mac Pro which I hope I can do or get a card to go into the back of the tower, which wouldn't be a bad thing as I was required to edit at a clients site back in Jan and been able to take the Laptop and 1 Lacie disk helped.


So Tuesday came and went, and now more Mac Pros have been put up for sale on Ebay, is this because there owners are getting shot before upgrading?

Will the arrival of a new machine force the price of used ones down???


The waiting and anticipation is killing me Ahhhhhhhhhhh!:):)

This new machine will have to be good other wise I'll go used...
maybe...;)
 
xxdaix said:
My MBP has 2 Lacie big disks connected via eSata in the PCi express port, hoping the New Mac pros will have eSata ports on them but doubt full as all the talk is about FW800 and possibly USB3

So I either take them out of there cases and install them into the Mac Pro which I hope I can do or get a card to go into the back of the tower, which wouldn't be a bad thing as I was required to edit at a clients site back in Jan and been able to take the Laptop and 1 Lacie disk helped.
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Do the Lacie's have FW 800, If so, you could get a new internal to transfer your projects to & keep the external for backup.
 
The anticipation is killing me too! I'm thinking about jumping to a refurb iMac until the 2010s come out and/or I have enough money to buy one...
 
Core i7 980X EE makes an appearance on Euro retailer sites

Intel's Core i7 980X Extreme Edition has been listed by several European retailers, starting at €931.

The six-core behemoth, codenamed Gulftown, based on the 32nm Westmere architecture and it is clocked at 3.33GHz. Thanks to Turbo overclocking 980X can run at 3.6GHz and it supports Hyperthreading.

There are a few downsides. The price isn't all that great, but in this market segment that's not a very big deal. The triple channel memory controller officially supports 1066MHz memory, although we're confident it will be able to cope with somewhat higher clocks. With a 140W TDP is seems there is not much room for overclocking, but with six cores ar 3.33GHz, there really isn't much need for overclocking, either.

According to Intel's plans, the 980X should start shipping by the end of March, probably sooner rather than later, so start looking for your piggy banks.

You can find the listings and the full spec here.
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Link

BTW, I think they are in error on the memory controller... I believe Gulftown will support 1333MHz memory out of the box.
 
VirtualRain said:
Link

BTW, I think they are in error on the memory controller... I believe Gulftown will support 1333MHz memory out of the box.
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Everything I've come across has it at 1066MHz, unfortunately. :(

Some of the DP parts will run at 1333MHz, but I'd expect Apple to continue to use 1066MHz no matter the processor as they do now with the '09 line.
 
nanofrog said:
Everything I've come across has it at 1066MHz, unfortunately. :(

Some of the DP parts will run at 1333MHz, but I'd expect Apple to continue to use 1066MHz no matter the processor as they do now with the '09 line.
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All 6 core parts have a QPI at 6.4GT/s, which is also listed in the link in the article and is an indicator of 1333MHz memory support.
 
I came across this the other day... no source is cited however it sounds like the author was talking directly to Intel...

Posted by Brandon Sandman Bell on Thursday February 04, 2010 - 06:44 AM

» Intel reveals more info on Gulftown

While I was busy preparing the Cedar article yesterday, Intel disclosed more info on Gulftown, their upcoming 6-core CPU for desktops.

For starters, Intel revealed that Gulftown crams 1.17 billion transistors into a die that's 240 square millimeters. In comparison, today's Core i7-965 measures in at 263mm2 with 731 million transistors. Intel's new 32-nm manufacturing process gets credit for the smaller die.

Intel also managed to integrate a few tweaks into Gulftown. For instance, support for DDR3-1333 memory has been added. Bloomfield CPUs are officially limited to a max speed of 1066MHz. Gulftown will also add support for lower voltage 1.35V DDR3 memory modules, in addition to supporting 1.5V modules. To speed up encryption, Intel has also added support for their AES-NI instructions first introduced earlier this year when Clarkdale debuted.

As the rumors have suggested, Intel confirmed that Gulftown will boast 12MB of L3 cache. With two additional processing cores onboard, the added cache is needed to keep all six cores fed with data. Intel also revealed that quad-core Gulftown derivatives will also be released. Rather than manufacture a purpose-built 4-core part, two of Gulftown's cores will be disabled to deliver these quad-core CPUs.

Unfortunately, no info on clock speeds or pricing was mentioned, but its expected that the Core i7-980X will debut sometime next month at speeds of 3.33GHz.
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Link

Edit... here's a another link that confirms it was an Intel press conference...

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/18415

Intel talks six-core processors, future prototypes
by Cyril Kowaliski — 3:45 PM on February 3, 2010

In a press conference earlier today, Intel provided a sneak peek at some of the papers it will present next week during the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. The chipmaker revealed a few juicy details about Gulftown, its upcoming six-core, 32-nm processor, as well as some interesting research prototypes kicking around in its labs.

Gulftown, also known as Westmere 6C, is essentially a six-core version of the dual-core Westmere design that recently debuted in Core i3 and Core i5 processors. Intel has fashioned Westmere 6C not out of three dual-core dies, but out of a single piece of silicon featuring six cores, a generous 12MB of L3 cache, a couple of 6.4GT/s QuickPath Interface links, and a triple-channel DDR3-1333 memory controller. (Westmere 2C, by contrast, comes with a companion die that houses its memory controller and graphics processor.) Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost capabilities are part of the formula, too.

All told, Westmere 6C packs 1.17 billion transistors and measures 240 mm². That's actually smaller physically than the 45-nm Bloomfield die from quad-core Core i7-900 processors, which spreads out 731 million transistors over 263 mm². Intel has no plans for a native quad-core 32-nm chip, as far as we know, but it does intend to release quad-core versions of Westmere 6C. Those products will simply have a couple of cores disabled.
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The other note-worthy piece of information is that there will be 4-core variants that are simply 6-core CPU's with two cores disabled.
 
Umbongo said:
All 6 core parts have a QPI at 6.4GT/s, which is also listed in the link in the article and is an indicator of 1333MHz memory support.
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I'd have expected the fastest unit to support 1333MHz, but went by the information I saw (and recalled 1066 listed).

I did a quick check, and it's quite odd that that mistake occurred. Someone goofed the graphic. Teach me to rely on pictures... :eek: :p

VirtualRain said:
I came across this the other day... no source is cited however it sounds like the author was talking directly to Intel...
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Good to see it is 1333MHz. :D

But whether or not Apple will add 1333MHz to the systems that can utilize it, is another matter. Unfortunately, I'm not sure this will happen (financial reasons = fewer parts bins). :( I do however hope I'm wrong. ;)
 
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