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(4) Core Xeon Time Table?
I know this is a bit too early to get a solid date, but Intel is releasing chips next month with (4) cores on one chip and they supposedly DO work in the new Macs.
So, any idea when Apple will release the next batch of Mac Pro towers? Anyone care to speculate?
I need to switch to FCP and it’s more of a matter of when then if. I’d like to get the lastest and greatest and not upgrade for 3 years if at all possible.
Thanks in advance!
Jeff
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20 Replies
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(4) core mac’s will be available in two weeks per my discussion this morning with SteveJobs.
He was not suppose to tell anyone but it sort of slipped out.
Please keep this between you and me as I don’t want to get Steve in trouble at work.
Tony
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Jeffrey,
It think its the case of buy what you want when you need it. You will always be sitting on the fence if you are waiting for the latest and greatest to come out.
I have a shiny new 3G Dual Core MacPro, it boots almost instantly and is so quiet you don’t know its switched on, first tests make it look very quick indeed. Thats not the point though, most FX are now being transfered to use the GPU, so the speed of that is now more important than the speed of the CPU.
Also uncomfirmed reports suggets that processors are socketed anyway which ‘might’ mean you can swop them at a later date.
Peter
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There was a post on Engadget last week or so…. some guy had a couple “prototype” quad cores, and socketed them into his mac pro. 10.4.7 booted right up and recognized all 8 cores… Take it with a grain of salt, but it seemed legit.
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Tony: Please tell Steve, that I didn’t mean to cause problems w/ his j-o-b. Also, tell him to fix Disney.
Peter: Thanks for the info, I’m switching from another program that doesn’t use GPU for anything as far as I know. I think I might heed your advice and hop now, I might not be able to wait for the next round of hardware releases anyway. I’m sort of leaning to the 2.66GHz procs since they seem *almost* as fast as the 3.0GHz’s and cost $800 less.
Charlie: I saw that too. I wonder what the new chips will retail for? Maybe the plan should be go with the 2.66 or 3.0 now and perhaps upgrade procs in year.
With that said, doesn’t it seem a bit steep for the 3.0GHz model? I mean, $800 bucks for the additional 300MHz seems like it could be better spent on more RAM, better GPU card, Hard drives, or put towards AJA/Blackmagic I/O card. Don’t get me wrong, the new Macs are very affordable compared to, say, a dual Xeon Dell, but it seems like a high premium for a small jump in performance. OR, am I just being a cheapass?
Question: for Final Cut Studio, assuming I don’t need to drive two 30″ screens, would I see any performance increase using the upgraded
ATI Radeon X1900 XT over the stock NVIDIA GeForce 7300?Thanks in advance for the help.
Jeff
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Two 30″ screens would probably make you go nearsighted in… about 10 minutes.
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Jeff,
A good strategy in these changing times is to buy the best computer you can now and just sell that box on Ebay or on the Cow when you want to upgrade to the next hot thing. The resale on Apple computers is much higher than on PCs and in most cases the difference between what you paid initially and what you can get for the same box slightly used is negligible, especially when you consider you were using it to generate income all along. Because the newest Apples all use PCIe video and capture cards this strategy will enable you to take those cards with you when you upgrade. The only thing you can’t take with you is the RAM, but you can certainly charge for tnhat when you turn the older box around.
DRW
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Dave, excellent point, all of the peripheral stuff ends up costing more than the machine anyway. I just looked at your COW profile and see that you mentioned a Targa board… is it functional? Ah, I miss my old Targa 1000 Pro. Did use Speed Razor by any chance?
Thanks everyone. I’ll have more questions and I hope I can one day answer some too.
Jeff
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[Jeffrey F. Krepner] “800 bucks for the additional 300MHz seems like it could be better spent on more RAM, better GPU card, Hard drives, or put towards AJA/Blackmagic I/O card. Don’t get me wrong, the new Macs are very affordable compared to, say, a dual Xeon Dell, but it seems like a high premium for a small jump in performance. OR, am I just being a cheapass?”
I think you’re right. The difference in speed seems hardly worth the additional $800. Apple, like most car manufacturers, charges a premium for their muscle machines that often defies logic. Current marketing trends indicate that a siginificant number of buyers don’t really care about price point and are willing to shell out the dough simply so they can have the hottest model currently available.
[Jeffrey F. Krepner] “would I see any performance increase using the upgraded
ATI Radeon X1900 XT over the stock NVIDIA GeForce 7300?”You would see the greatest benefit when using either Motion or FinalTouch color correction.
DRW
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[David Roth Weiss] “You would see the greatest benefit when using either Motion or FinalTouch color correction.”
Don’t forget FCP uses FXplug in the new update 🙂
Peter
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