Why did the high end Mac Pros get such fantastic updates?

[Ravich]

4800$ 2.66 8 core is now a 5000$ 2.66 12 core. 200$ extra for 4 extra cores.

Presumably the 3.33 hexacore will cost the same as the current 3.33 quad core




That's pretty fantastic. For the low end why are we stuck with things like a 5% processor speed increase or a 6% processor speed increase at a 6% price increase? What gives?

 

[strausd]

4800$ 2.66 8 core is now a 5000$ 2.66 12 core. 200$ extra for 4 extra cores.

Presumably the 3.33 hexacore will cost the same as the current 3.33 quad core




That's pretty fantastic. For the low end why are we stuck with things like a 5% processor speed increase or a 6% processor speed increase at a 6% price increase? What gives?

If you add a 4870, it will bring them to the same price, and the 5770 is a little better than the 4870. Also, built in wifi on new ones and comes with a magic mouse, and not to mention faster RAM.

 

[Icaras]

If you add a 4870, it will bring them to the same price, and the 5770 is a little better than the 4870. Also, built in wifi on new ones and comes with a magic mouse, and not to mention faster RAM.

All good points except for the last bit. The low end MPs still use last year's 1066MHz...

 

[Roman23]

And there is the possibility..

that the two quad models under the 6-core(all three use the same 2009 single-processor tray).. don't support B1 at all.. this is what I am facing right now and I contacted a level three or four tech about my concerns.. he will get back with me from engineering's responses if the 2.8 and 3.2 nehalem w3530 and w3565 make use of the revised B1 firmware.. if they don't.. then no 2010 for me.. until I can get the processor tray with the rom on it sometime down the road.. that is if the damn thing is on the daughterboard which would be the right thing to do.

or until someone comes up with a way to flash it over to the 09 rom chip..

All good points except for the last bit. The low end MPs still use last year's 1066MHz...

 

[Quash]

Intel does not make any new 32nm single slot Xeons except for the W3680.
I wish that apple would have accepted to take the price point down to levels comparable to the 2006 & 2008 mac pro's. But clearly that is not the case. They clearly pushing for prosumers to buy imacs.

I still hope the w3680 will be around 3k$ that would make it very attractive option to me. But it doesn't look promising judging by the price of the 8 core.

 

[Cindori]

that the two quad models under the 6-core(all three use the same 2009 single-processor tray).. don't support B1 at all.. this is what I am facing right now and I contacted a level three or four tech about my concerns.. he will get back with me from engineering's responses if the 2.8 and 3.2 nehalem w3530 and w3565 make use of the revised B1 firmware.. if they don't.. then no 2010 for me.. until I can get the processor tray with the rom on it sometime down the road.. that is if the damn thing is on the daughterboard which would be the right thing to do.

or until someone comes up with a way to flash it over to the 09 rom chip..

I definately dont think that would happen, because in order for that to happen, for the base 2010 to have 09 efi, it would have to be designated MP 4,1 still, and I have never heard of apple selling two models (4,1 and 5,1) of the same computer, at the same time

 

[Umbongo]

4800$ 2.66 8 core is now a 5000$ 2.66 12 core. 200$ extra for 4 extra cores.

Presumably the 3.33 hexacore will cost the same as the current 3.33 quad core




That's pretty fantastic. For the low end why are we stuck with things like a 5% processor speed increase or a 6% processor speed increase at a 6% price increase? What gives?

Because that is how the Xeon line was moved forward. The high end processors (in the $1,000+ region) were bumped to 6 cores at the same clock-speed, for a small price increase. The lower-end Xeons have just received a speed bumps. Apple have just used the 6 processors that have replaced what they were using, bumped the price to cover a slightly better class of graphics card (I doubt more than $50 to them) and the increased cost of processors and will likely be making more profit than they were per system.

 

[AZREOSpecialist]

that the two quad models under the 6-core(all three use the same 2009 single-processor tray).. don't support B1 at all.. this is what I am facing right now and I contacted a level three or four tech about my concerns.. he will get back with me from engineering's responses if the 2.8 and 3.2 nehalem w3530 and w3565 make use of the revised B1 firmware.. if they don't.. then no 2010 for me.. until I can get the processor tray with the rom on it sometime down the road.. that is if the damn thing is on the daughterboard which would be the right thing to do.

or until someone comes up with a way to flash it over to the 09 rom chip..

Didn't you just replace the stock chip in your 2009 Quad with an i7 at 3+ GHz? Why would you even want to buy a 2010 model? The performance gains for you are practically zero unless you spend a lot more money.