DailyTech - Apple Starts Shipping 8-Core Mac Pro Systems

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Hardware Apple Starts Shipping 8-Core Mac Pro Systems
Tuan Nguyen (Blog) - April 4, 2007 4:00 PM

28 comment(s) - last by Maluno.. on Apr 17 at 8:22 PM

For $3,997.00 you can have yourself a brand new 8-core Mac

Apple last reached several major milestones in its computer career, releasing a barrage of Intel x86 machines that used the latest hardware. Apple revamped its entire range of computer systems while sticking to a rather strict time-to-market schedule. Some of the releases were quiet while others were well heard. Today's update from Apple is one of those quiet but important releases: dual 4-core Clovertown Mac Pros are now officially available.

Using Intel's Clovertown Xeon processor, which Intel announced last November, the Mac Pro receives quite a significant boost in overall system performance. Intel targets Clovertown towards dual-socket systems, and the Mac Pro is one of them. Customers are able to order a Clovertown-based Mac Pro with dual processors for a total of eight effective processor cores.

The Clovertown core is effectively two dual-core dies in one package, each pair having 4MB of L2 cache for a total of 8MB. Each pair of cores also share a single 1066/1333MHz front-side bus. Customers that order the new Mac Pro will receive Clovertown processors clocked at 3.0GHz while those who wish to order the older Woodcrest based Mac Pro can choose between 2.0GHz, 2.66GHz and 3.0GHz configurations. Keep in mind that a Clovertown processor is simply two Woodcrest processors joined into one single package.

Configurations for the Mac Pro start at $2,499.00 with two 2.66GHz dual-core Woodcrest Xeons. Customers who wish to upgrade to the 8-core configuration will have to add an additional $1,498.00.

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Am I Missing something?

By Mitch101 on 4/4/2007 4:12:55 PM , Rating: 3

Am I Missing something? It seems Apple is releasing Intel configs before the Windows markets gets these goodies? Wasnt Apple the first to get Dual Core notebooks as well?

RE: Am I Missing something?

By Narutoyasha76 on 4/4/2007 4:20:47 PM , Rating: 2

Yes indeed. How fortunate for Apple this is the case.

I wonder...If a Quad core 3Ghz MacPRO has double the performance of a quad 2.5ghz PPC Quad PowerMac G5 and the new eight core 3 ghz MacPRO should have around 80%-90% performance improvement over its Quad core cousin, does that mean that the new MacPro has around 80% more procesing power that the maximum performance of an XBOX360. (Assuming that when Microsoft demonstrated back in 2005 a testing unit using dual-core G5, the company said it ran XBOX360 games around 25-30% of it's full capacity)

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RE: Am I Missing something?

By Future145 on 4/4/2007 4:23:05 PM , Rating: 3

its because macs are mostly used in professional industries that will benefit from having more then 1 core, for example video production were more cores actually help.
BTW im no mac fanboy
windows FTW

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RE: Am I Missing something?

By JackPack on 4/4/2007 4:31:00 PM , Rating: 1

- PC makers launched Yonah-based notebooks about a week before Apple did. Sony and Acer had their Yonah products on the shelves well before the MacBook shipped.

- This new 3.0 GHz Xeon used by Apple is a 150W part. Dell and the others probably aren't interested until it gets down to 120W later this year.

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RE: Am I Missing something?

By Mitch101 on 4/4/2007 4:52:49 PM , Rating: 2

I wonder if its watercooled? 150w is a lot of heat.

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RE: Am I Missing something?

By bunnyfubbles on 4/4/2007 5:07:01 PM , Rating: 2

while Apple might be beating PC manufacturers in providing such systems, there isn't much stopping DIY PC users from putting together their own 8 core beast

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RE: Am I Missing something?

By Chronicgaming on 4/5/2007 9:23:08 AM , Rating: 2

For the most part, the Xeons have been targeted for the server and enthusiast market for Windows machines. I know Dell has been offering a similar Clovertown configuration (2 processors, 8 cores) for a few months now.

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Anandtech

By jay2o01 on 4/4/2007 5:27:04 PM , Rating: 1

Anandtech Can we see some benchmarks? maybe what this 8core does compared to the quad. Please...

RE: Anandtech

By Puddleglum1 on 4/4/2007 5:52:28 PM , Rating: 2

Well, there are no benchmarks, but here is an article that at least lets us know that it has been possible to have an 8-core Mac Pro since September of last year. Well, possible if you had Clovertowns back then.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4160

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RE: Anandtech

By sscilli on 4/4/2007 10:19:54 PM , Rating: 2

It's effectively 8-cores, which is really two quad-core cpu's, which are really just 4 dual-core cpu's :P. This is good news for apple fanboys who love praising how much better macs are, and as far as pre-built systems go I have to say apple has been doing a pretty good job recently. However, they are using most of the same hardware that PC's are using now, and if you want too you can build an 8 core PC(probably for less money, and you could overclock it). I realize that most people don't know how to build a computer, but most people will not be buying an 8-core mac either.

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RE: Anandtech

By aguilpa1 on 4/5/2007 12:47:56 PM , Rating: 2

Uh 667Mhz FSB?? ATA Hard drives? 512MB 4500 Quadro?

No thanks, while the quadro isnt so bad if your pushing Max or Maya, I'll stick with my dual 768MB 8800GTX's 1800Mhz FSB System, 1056Mhz Memory and CQ SATA Raptors and Seagate Drives, thank you, I have just two cores but for the most part will run circles around that thing (OC'ed of course).

I can see architects or film editing professionals buying some. Everyone else wouldn't know how to use them or would be to stupid to realize how ripped off they just got.

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RE: Anandtech

By fxnick on 4/5/2007 7:54:07 PM , Rating: 2

I think you need to take a look at the specs...

http://www.apple.com/macpro/specs.html

1.33GHz, 64-bit dual independent frontside buses

Four independent 3Gb/s Serial ATA cable-free, direct-attach hard drive bays

quadro is true though...

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Missing....

By crystal clear on 4/5/2007 3:00:45 AM , Rating: 1

Just where are the specifications ???

So I just add it on for you-

"http://www.apple.com/macpro/specs.html

There is plenty more to it -Not only the CPUs ! ! !

RE: Missing....

By Maluno on 4/5/2007 12:08:29 PM , Rating: 3

Yeah, the maxxed-out config will set you back about 18 grand! It may be the most powerful mass marketed consumer desktop in the world, but you will definitely pay the price for all of that hardware.

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RE: Missing....

By aliasfox on 4/6/2007 3:50:45 AM , Rating: 2

It may be the most powerful in terms of processing (using two technically unofficial 3GHz processors, apparently), but the lack of SLI or a GeForce 8800 series graphics card somewhat hinders it. Granted, the Mac Pro isn't targeted at gamers, but I'd like to think that video and effects rendering in Final Cut or Motion would be helped by having faster/multiple graphics cards.

I remember when the Mac Pro was first released it undercut a similar Dell system by nearly a thousand dollars, and was only about $300 more than a home built - for that $300, you got it prebuilt in a pretty nice case and a warranty, which is a decent trade off. Is the Mac Pro still the deal it was last year, considering pricing hasn't dropped?

I imagine if you had enough RAM (16 gigabytes is a fair amount these days, I'd think), you could have multiple photographic and video programs rendering at the same time and still have a fairly responsive system to use while you wait for everything else to finish.

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RE: Missing....

By Maluno on 4/17/2007 8:22:25 PM , Rating: 2

With multiple rendering apps running, you don't just need a lot of ram, you also need all of those processor cores that this system has. I tend to believe, (from my experience), that, although it is hard to quantify the importance of essentials to performance in that situation, after a certain point, (ie. 4-8 GB ram), the number of processing cores will have a much larger impact on the rendering times.

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Great but most applications still use 1 core

By ButterFlyEffect78 on 4/4/07, Rating: -1

RE: Great but most applications still use 1 core

By Frank M on 4/4/2007 4:18:19 PM , Rating: 3

Same purpose as having two 8800GTX's in SLI. Stats.

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RE: Great but most applications still use 1 core

By suryad on 4/5/2007 10:14:50 AM , Rating: 2

GTX in SLI...wait till Crysis comes out. For those of us who have 30 inch displays and are using the max reolution, I would say SLI is a must. You wont go back form SLI trust me once you have it. I would like to see what Dell comes out with. Dell is not using the Xeon based quad core in their enthusiast system. The 45 nm Pneyrn version apparently will be running at 1600 mhz FSB.

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RE: Great but most applications still use 1 core

By AntDX316 on 4/5/2007 2:51:31 PM , Rating: 1

more like increasing ur e-penis

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RE: Great but most applications still use 1 core

By ksherman on 4/4/2007 4:39:30 PM , Rating: 1

It is my understanding that OSX, along with being 64-bit already, is also multithreaded thus the computer is going to utilize both cores effectivly. Also, as mentioned by others, the applications that a machine like this is designed to run also take advantage of the multiple cores in the system.

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RE: Great but most applications still use 1 core

By Locutus465 on 4/5/2007 8:44:19 AM , Rating: 3

Same can be said for Windows (and for longer than MacOS has even had preemptive multitasking). Just because the OS understands threading doesn't mean applications running on the OS are able to utalize the extra cores. You do however get a big boost in overall system responseiveness.

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RE: Great but most applications still use 1 core

By RMSe17 on 4/4/2007 8:47:07 PM , Rating: 2

Actually, most of the professional applications can utilize multiple cores. I am sure you know that they had desktop boards even 10 years ago that had 2 sockets, so you could get dual Pentium II and have a screamer machine. Multi processor is nothing new, and pretty much everything that renders anything, (Autodesk, Adobe, and everyone else) or processes anything (Science programs, folding, etc) will take all the cores you throw at them, and want more. And that is where money is at :)

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RE: Great but most applications still use 1 core

By GoatMonkey on 4/5/2007 8:54:25 AM , Rating: 2

You are always running more than 1 of those single threaded apps though. Check your systray, and your running processes (drivers, virus scan, e-mail checker, IM, Windows services, etc). I don't think it is physically possible to have a modern OS with only 1 process running.

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RE: Great but most applications still use 1 core

By Hakuryu on 4/5/2007 2:47:37 PM , Rating: 2

I just built a dual core system with an E6600, and so far every game I've thrown at it seems to use both cores. My old pc was a 2.4GHz P4, and the new one (E6600) is 2.4GHz, so if games didn't utilize both cores then I shouldn't see a big difference... I see a huge difference.

Doom 3
Far Cry
Stalker
Half Life 2
Flight Sim X
Dark Messiah
A Beta game I cant list

Although Doom 3 is probably the really only 'old' game, it runs like a dream at max settings where on my old PC I'd be pushing it at medium.

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