Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 7:04PM Hardmac is predicting that the new Mac Pro will arrive around March 16th. At first it will be available only with the Intel Xeon Core i7-980X and be clocked at 3.33GHz and reach 3.6GHz with TurboBoost. I for one can’t wait for the new machines, since right now the iMac’s are kicking Mac Pro butt in most tests.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 7:41PM 
Intel’s forthcoming “Gulftown” 32nm, six-core processor will be known as the Core i7-980X and could be a part of new Mac Pro systems from Apple in early 2010.
Contrary to earlier reports, the new processors will not adopt the Core i9 name, and will allegedly keep the Core i7 title, according to leaked information relayed by Hardmac, the English-language version of French Apple site MacBidouille. The new processor, code-named “Gulftown” will fall under the i7 “Extreme Edition” category, the first of which will be the i7-980X.
The alleged roadmap from Intel shows that the processor will clock in at 3.33GHz. That chip is expected to arrive in March 2010, but in the past, Apple has reached exclusive agreements with Intel to be the first to carry its new processors.
Previous reports have suggested Apple is testing the new Xeon chip, based on the Gulftown architecture, in its Mac Pro desktop. The new, upgraded processor features more horsepower and lower power consumption, and will be the first dual-socket, six-core processor for Intel.
The new 32 nanometer chips have 12MB of L3 cache, and six cores with 12 threads for each CPU. Apple usually doubles the processors in its high-end professional workstations, so it’s possible the new Mac Pro system could have a total of 12 cores and 24 threads. The new hardware could be released sometime in the first quarter of 2010.
source:appleinsider
Friday, December 4, 2009 at 11:58AM This just means that that the new Mac Pro is coming out sooner than you think. Updating products with a little extra to keep you satisfied is routine. Like when, let’s say Honda, updates their line with a new special edition, you know the next year the car is completely redone. So now apple has added another optional processor configuration in the quad-core line. If you configure a quad-core Mac Pro from the Apple Online Store, you’ll find that you can now add a 3.33GHz Intel Xeon processor to it for $1,200 extra (over the base configuration that comes with a 2.66GHz Intel Xeon).
If that’s not expensive enough or fast enough for you, you can always look towards the eight-core side of the lineup, the fastest configuration it sports being two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeons. Apple does not, however, offer two 3.33GHz Intel Xeons as an option on this machine. The second new option, and one that is available for both models, is the ability to load each hard drive bay on these machines with a 2TB hard drive spinning at 7200 rpm. Each of these cost $350 over the base configuration and double the maximum storage capacity of the Mac Pros to 8TB.
Apple also showed some love to the server side of their lineup, endowing Xserves with the same optional 2TB hard drive upgrade, taking the total potential capacity of these machines up to 3TB. What’s more, you can now also outfit all six slots with 4GB RAM modules, which will leave you with 24GB of RAM to work with. Of course, it will also leave your wallet significantly lighter, what with having spent $2,850 on memory upgrades alone, but hey, it’s the holiday season, isn’t it?
Recent reports have suggested that Intel’s new 6-core “Gulftown” processor could be headed to the Mac Pro in a future upgrade. The new Xeon processor is said to be nearly 50 percent faster than the current quad-core Xeons, while also using 50 percent less power.
source:macrumors
Sunday, November 29, 2009 at 2:06AM I don’t want to give up the tower (aging G5) with all its versatility for an iMac no matter how fast it is. So I’m waiting for the next Mac Pro and want it faster than the iMac i5-7.
HardMac reports that Polish website PCLab prematurely leaked performance numbers on Intel’s upcoming Xeon Gulftown (Core i9). The results have since been pulled but is summarized by HardMac:
First figures indicate that this CPU is very promising. At equivalent clock speed, it is 50% faster than the corresponding quad core Xeon for parallel tasks. Despite having 50% more transistors, the CPU strongly benefits from 32-nm engraving as it drains 50% less power in idle mode and 10% less in full loading mode.
According to their sources, Apple is planning on using the Gulftown processor in a future Mac Pro revision due in early 2010. When placed in a dual-processor configuration, this would give the Mac Pro 12 physical and 24 logical cores. Such massively multi-core designs have been expected for some time with under-the-hood changes in Snow Leopard specifically preparing for such a possibility.
The use of the high-end Gulftown processor in the Mac Pros make more sense now that we’ve seen Apple using the Core i7 processors in the iMacs. Benchmarks have shown that the performance of these high-end iMac rivals that of the entry level Mac Pros which cost considerably more. The use of Gulftown would presumably reestablish a larger performance gap between Apple’s consumer and professional desktop computers.
source:macrumors
apple, mac pro, processors in Hardware, Rumors Friday, October 16, 2009 at 2:08PM HardMac citing sources is reporting that Apple is planning to bring Xeon Gulftown CPU to a future Mac Pro revision.
The Xeon Gulftown chip offers several enhancements over the processors used in the current Mac Pro’s, namely 32 nanometre engraving, 12MB of L3 cache and 6 cores with 12 threads.
If current Mac Pro configurations are anything to go by, Apple will most likely put two Gulftown processors in, giving the workstations 12 cores. The new processors which have only been demoed by Intel a few times are not expected until second quarter 2010 which could give Apple exclusive access.
HardMac offers additional information about the revision which is expected in the first quarter of 2010 including changes to the Mac Pro motherboards allowing support for 8 and 16GB RAM modules and 10Gbps ethernet ports.
Monday, April 20, 2009 at 10:58AM 
NVIDIA this morning remedied the absence of a pro video card for the new Mac Pro by launching the Quadro FX 4800 for Mac. Very similar to the Windows version, the Apple-friendly model has 192 graphics cores and a large 1.5GB of onboard memory that helps it antialias 3D visuals even with high detail or at high resolution. Unique to the Mac version is native support both for the expected Mac side as well as Windows when in Boot Camp.
It continues to support CUDA for accelerating general-purpose computing tasks and has twin dual-link DVI connectors to handle a pair of 30-inch displays; an extra 3-pin connector generates stereoscopic images for modeling apps that need 3D glasses.
In a rare step for NVIDIA cards for Macs, the Quadro FX 4800 will be available not only through Apple’s online store but also through resellers and in third-party manufactured cards from Elsa, Leadtek and PNY. The card will sell for $1,800 when it ships in May.
source:electronista
graphics card, mac pro, nvidia in Hardware Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 9:20AM 
By Tom Yager | InfoWorld
With more than double the memory throughput of an eight-core, 3GHz Xserve, the massively parallel Nehalem-based Mac Pro is built to rock your world.
Since 2006, Apple has been doing Intel the favor of building desktops, workstations, and notebooks that make Intel x86 processors look like works of genius. It seems only fair that Intel has returned the gift by custom-engineering an x86 architecture with RISC-like attributes just for Apple’s most demanding customers.
Intel completely rearchitected its x86 CPU beyond the core. Most PC users won’t notice, but the Nehalem Xeon processor really lets OS X Leopard off its leash. With all 16 logical processors (two CPUs with four cores each and two thread contexts per core) overcommitted with burn-in compute and memory workloads, the “Nehalem” Mac Pro has the headroom to run a full plate of Mac GUI applications with the accustomed responsiveness. The Mac Pro feels like a new machine.
Frankly, the Nehalem Mac Pro feels like a RISC workstation. The Leopard 10.5.6 OS that ships with the Nehalem Mac Pro is custom-tuned for Nehalem’s parallel-friendly redesign and Mac Pro’s remarkable power management, so don’t let its OS X install disc get mixed in with your others. When Snow Leopard ships, this same machine will be born again with a full 64-bit kernel and new tools, frameworks, and language features that put pervasive parallelism front and center, right where workstation users need it. If you want the full heart-stopping Snow Leopard experience, the Nehalem Mac Pro is where you’ll find it.
Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 1:26PM 
Macworld has just released it’s latest benchmark test results on the Mac Pro 2.93GHz Eight-Core.
With its four hard drive bays, two optical drive bays and four PCI Express 2.0 card slots, the Mac Pro is Apple’s most configurable Mac, and the company offers a host of different upgrades and options. Macworld Lab tested a couple of different Mac Pro configure-to-order (CTO) systems and the results include our first Speedmark 5 score to top 400.
To refresh your memory, the latest Mac Pros come in two standard configurations. The $2,499 Mac Pro features a 2.66GHz Quad-Core Xeon processor based on Intel’s Nehalem architecture. It has a 640GB hard drive, 3GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GT 120 graphics card with 512MB of DDR3 memory. The second standard configuration model is a $3,299 Eight-Core model that uses two Quad-Core Xeon processors running at 2.26GHz. It has twice the amount of SDRAM as the $2,499 Mac Pro, but uses the same Nvidia graphics card and same hard drive.
The CTO Mac Pros that we received for testing had 1TB hard drives (an option that will run you an extra $100) and ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics cards with 512MB of GDDR5 graphics memory (a $200 upgrade). Both CTO models featured faster 2.93GHz Quad-Core Xeon processors-a $500 upgrade for the Quad-Core 2.66GHz model, and a $2,600 upgrade for the standard Eight-Core 2.26GHz model.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009 at 1:44AM Macworld has just published some gaming performance numbers for the new iMac and Mac Pros.
“Though Macworld has already posted our reviews of the iMacs and Mac Pros released by Apple last month, the work in the Macworld Lab is not done. We’ve received and tested a number of build-to-order (BTO) systems (as well as the standard-configuration Macs) and ran them through some more rigorous tests. (Though we may provide benchmarks of BTO systems, we don’t mouse-rate those BTO models.) This report will focus on high-resolution game tests run on the new graphics found in the latest Mac systems.”
For the complete report, hit the source link below.
source:macworld
Sunday, April 5, 2009 at 12:28PM 
April 5, 2009 (Computerworld) Every time it updates its professional-level workstation, Apple brands the new Mac Pro as “the fastest Mac ever.” It’s an interesting dilemma for the company, because the boast — albeit true — is both exciting and humdrum. Wouldn’t it bum you out if the latest top-of-the-line Mac weren’t also the fastest?
Don’t worry. The latest update for the Mac Pro pretty much lives up to expectations. In some ways, the basic quad-core 2.66-GHz Mac Pro that Apple sent over for review screamed. But it falls short of last year’s version when it comes to great expectations of across-the-board performance leaps.
With this iteration, the Mac Pro takes a significant step forward by moving to Intel’s new Nehalem processor, leaving behind the previous model’s Harpertown and Penryn chips. (Yes, they’re all officially Intel Xeon processors, but Intel’s nomenclature is so arcane that it’s better to go by those code names to keep the models straight.) For $2,499, the entry-level Mac Pro offers a quad-core 2.66-GHz processor, 3GB of DDR3 EEC memory, a 640GB hard drive, an 18x double-layer SuperDrive, and an Nvidia GeForce GT120 video card. For $800 more, you get two 2.26-GHz quad-core processors (for a total of eight cores) and 6GB of RAM. It’s a hefty price bump, mostly for the additional CPU; Intel’s newest processors still command a premium cost. There are also a variety of CPU options: Moving to a 2.93-GHz single quad-core Xeon adds $500 to the price of the base model — or you can get two of them for $2,600 extra in the top model.
For the complete review, hit the source link below.
source:computerworld
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