Mac Pro now 8-core capable

Without further ado, Apple has added a new build-to-order option to their Mac Pro that allows 2 Quad Xeon processors instead of the previous 1, promised to run at 3 Ghz, and making the Mac Pro the first 8-core Mac.

The upgrade doesn't seem like a huge one, as all they're doing is putting 2 processors on the motherboard instead of 1. This will definitely be interesting to see how well this is accepted into the professional world of computing.

Previously, many professionals had held back upgrading to the newest Intel-based Mac Pros because much of the core software they had to use had not yet been rewritten for the Intel platform, forcing emulation via Rosetta, and causing significant performance losses.

But now, the big companies have begun porting, and such software as Microsoft Office have shown progress and will soon be available for the Mac platform. The bigger reason for releasing this software however, is that Adobe CS3 suite has now been released as a universal binary, allowing Intel Mac owners to use the new software. Apple even advertises this fact on their front page currently, as well as the Mac Pro page. Looks like Apple had this thing waiting on Adobe.

It's good to see the computer industry move forward, and I hope that we'll see an increase of these multi-core powerful machines from other computer manufacturers. Hey, whatever makes the developers/graphic artists happy, right?

[lasher511]

mmmm fast

[gortonsfi]

The upgrade doesn't seem like a huge one, as all they're doing is putting 2 processors on the motherboard instead of 1.

Huh? The Mac Pro was dual-dual Xeon before now.

[Infarction]

> Huh? The Mac Pro was dual-dual Xeon before now.
But now it's dual quad. I'm not a mac fan, but I don't think that was an option before ;)

That said, any idea how 8 cores performs compared to, say, 2 or 4? All my machines are still single-cores, but it's kind of hard to get more than 4 processes running at once, much less 8. Obviously, there will be some sitations where the extra power will be useful, but this seems like overkill (and extra cost)... :rolleyes:

[John A]

Infarction has a very good point, and one that I failed to mention in the blog, is that most applications haven't been written to take advantage of the multiple cores. Apple is betting however, that most professionals will want to multitask, which is something many benchmarking tests don't take into account when they report computing speeds.

[TheNNS]

that's nothing. The intel 80 core should be coming out in 5 years. I think we'll start seeing and increase in size and requirements for programs and computers.

The adboe creative suite is like 40 GB, so i'm not surprised if in a few years Pedabyte drives become standard.