Apple Quad-Core and Eight-Core Mac Pros (2009 editions)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 1:45AM 
The new Mac Pros, with their cutting-edge Nehalem processor technology, are able to execute more tasks at a faster clip, despite lower processor speeds. And their new internal design makes adding hard drives, memory cards, and PCI Express 2.0 cards easier than ever. Apple’s most expandable Mac is the pro platform for power users.
With its improved graphics, memory bandwidth, and reduced memory latency, the 2.66GHz quad-core Mac Pro was faster than the 2.8GHz eight-core Mac Pro, and at $2,499 costs $300 less. It would be a fine purchase for anyone replacing an older Mac or buying a new one for the first time. That is especially true for people who work with processor intensive apps such as video or graphics.
It’s harder to recommend that people spend $800 more for the new $3,299 2.26GHz eight-core Mac Pro if they don’t run software written for the top-of-the-line Mac Pro’s eight processor cores. Though the 2.26GHz model was faster at most individual tasks than the previous eightcore 2.8GHz Mac Pro, and very fast in a few of our professional applications tests, it was slower than the new quad-core model at the majority of our application tests.
For the complete review, hit the link below.
source [macworld]
Reader Comments (1)
What is your opinion on the sheer overpowering of the average computer? 70% of computer users only use their system for web surfing, Email, IM chatting, and Office Apps (Word Processor, Spreadsheet, etc..) All of these are not very processor/RAM intensive even in combination with one another. However every year there are more and more computers with faster CPUs and as much RAM as they can cram into the machine. Do you think all of this is going to waste? A wide veriety of PC users could get away with a simple 1.6 - 1.8 processor with 1mb of RAM and not see any difference. So why do we pay all of this money for power the average user is not going to need?
I am excluding all of the photographers, video editors, 3d animators, hardcore gamers, and so on.. These are not the average user. As time goes on the ability to make lighter and lighter apps is coupled with the innovation of more intensive and faster hardware.
So is it all going to waste?