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286
 
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Last Login: 29/12/2008 23:19:49
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Well, they've just announced the new PowerMac replacements. The MacPro's all have 2 Woodcrest dual core processors with top clock speed of 3GHz.
News a bit scarce still but the specs look good.
Wonder how they will cope with a game like Doom 3 either on OS X or XP? Bet they skimp on a decent graphocs card...
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286
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Last Login: 01/11/2008 15:53:27
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The choice of a 512Mb ATI Radeon X1900XT, up to 4 256Mb Nvidia Geforce 7300GTs, or a ridiculously expensive 512Mb Nvidia Quadro FX 4500. Not too bad for a computer that isn't really aimed at gamers.
The Mac Pro is a nice high-end workstation for geeks to drool over, but personally I'd like to see Apple release a mid-range "pro" Mac. Something that would fit between the Mac Mini/iMac and the Mac Pro in Apple's product range. A system with a couple of PCI slots, so that I could add an internal TV tuner and dual head graphics card. That lack of expansion is what puts me off the Mac Mini, and I'd never buy a computer with a built in monitor like the iMac.
When you consider the hardware you're getting the Mac Pro is pretty good value for money, compare it with high-end Dell systems for example. But personally I'm reluctant to pay more than £1,000 for a desktop computer and the bottom of the range Mac Pro starts at nearly £1,500. If Apple could put together a stylish and quiet desktop computer for £800-£1000 that offered the expansion options I enjoy with my Wintel PC I'd definitely buy it.
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286
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Last Login: 16/07/2007 19:00:25
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| So basicly your saying it's a quad core computer? You'll never see the Mac go under £1,500, as the real aim isn't for gamers or really for home conputers, more on buisness side. However, I would really like to have one, and they are quite stylish IMO.
_________________________________________________________ ......."And the hills of Los Angeles are burning"....... __________________________________________________________ J.D 
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286
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 29/12/2008 23:19:49
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Strictly speaking it is a computer with 2 Dual Cores. But yes, for all intents and purposes is a quad core computer if you like. It is a bit confusing really. A Quad core computer really denotes a processor with 4 separate cores on one wafer, in todays parlance at least.
Its not using the new 'Core 2 Duo' processors as per most desktop PC's but the new Xeon Dual core processor (codenamed Woodcrest) which was developed for servers & workstations. The reason is that Core 2 Duo cannot be run in multiprocessor machines (only can run with 1 processor in a machine). Xeons can be run in pairs giving a total of 4 cores to work with.
The prices are steep but you are correct in that they are really professional machines. The consumer machines are the iMac or Mac Mini. When you work out the cost over the lifetime of the nachine then its not much different to a Windows PC. Mac owners tend to keep them longer as Apple have written OS X so that even older machines can run it. The forthcoming OS X 10.5 Leopard will run on a 7 year old G3 iMac. Its a sure bet any PC 4 years or older will struggle with Vista.
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286
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 16/07/2007 19:00:25
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Just found this news site regarding this issue.Apple Wheels Out Mac ProAUG 08, 2006 01:52:59 PM Ushered in during Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at the Worldwide Developers Conference, the Mac Pro exploits the Xeon (Woodcrest) processor from Intel—which makes it twice as fast as any preceding Power Mac, according to the company. It offers a shared 4MB L2 cache. The Mac Pro is a quad Xeon processor-driven 64-bit desktop workstation with two new Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors running up to 3 GHz and a new system architecture that delivers up to twice the performance of the Power Mac G5 Quad..... ....The new Mac Pro features the new Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5100 series processor based on Intel’s Core microarchitecture. This means the Mac Pro can be up to twice as fast as the Power Mac G5 Quad running industry standard benchmarks. It features two dual-core Intel Xeon processors running up to 3GHz, each with 4MB of shared L2 cache and independent 1.33GHz front-side buses. With 66 MHz DDR2 fully buffered memory, the Mac Pro also boasts a 256-bit wide memory architecture for amazing bandwidth.... Full Article: CIO Tech Informer
_________________________________________________________ ......."And the hills of Los Angeles are burning"....... __________________________________________________________ J.D
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