Apple to release Mac Pro with eight cores?

So now we've gotten word that the gang in Cupertino are working on a Mac Pro that will boast eight cores (call it octo-core, if you must) -- packing two Clovertown quad-core chips. Of course, this doesn't really seem all that much of a surprise given that this was already done over a month ago by our buds at Anandtech. But AppleInsider says that this new bump could happen "any time after mid Nov." for the Mac Pro line. Of course, most Apple rumors should normally be taken with a hefty dose of sodium chloride, but given that we've seen that no additional hardware or software tweaks are required to make the Mac Pro run properly with eight cores, it would seem that this is firmly within the realm of possibility. That is, assuming you have the hefty wad of cash that this will no doubt demand, and that Intel can produce enough supply in the near future.

[Karl @ Oct 27th 2006 4:28AM]

Clovertown's performance is FSB-limited. Given that, you probably won't see insane performance gains from it.

The best news is that the dual-Woodcrest machines are likely to go down in price as a result. Similar performance in almost all areas for less.

Karl

[Phil @ Oct 27th 2006 5:54AM]

If apple makes a new mac pro with an 8 core processor they should also make it compatible with Harpertown when it comes out. If you could drop 2 Harpertown processors in there when it comes out you'll have a 16 core processor. I think Apple should also try to improve the quality of their Cinema Display Line. Maybe they should team up with Toshiba and Canon and start making a SED Cinema Display Line. From all this good news I hear about SED it seems to be the ticket in the future of HD

[Iain @ Oct 27th 2006 7:37AM]

8 seems like overkill.

Thats more than the ps3:0

[kevnaca @ Oct 27th 2006 12:10PM]

Dude, the the Cell Broadband processor is 8 core.

[TheOne @ Oct 27th 2006 8:28AM]

Who needs 8 processors?
If you run Linux, you only need one. End of.
Its only people who will be running new Windows EatAlot OS who will need the 8 processors just to load up the start screen.

[xbit @ Oct 27th 2006 9:19AM]

Consumers probably don't need 8 cores, but the Mac Pro is targetted at professionals.

For tasks like 3D rendering, 8 cores will do the world of good.

[Joel miller @ Oct 27th 2006 8:51AM]

This ought to make the Mac vs PC commercials really interesting. Octo-core clone vs the poor bewildered PC with his new Vista-Glitches.

[hmurchison @ Oct 27th 2006 9:52AM]

Have you ever rendered a HD 3D animated sequence? Have you encoded a 2-pass HD AVC video? Have you compiled millions of lines of code?

People do these tasks on a daily basis and they'd never say 8 cores is overkill. Consumers will be fine with 2-4 cores for the time being but there are so many areas were more processing power is always needed.

Oh yeah regarding the FSB. While the FSB is shared for each processor Intel has dual independent busses which gives plenty of bandwidth. Also keep in mind not every application is limited by the FSB. Your FSB is crucial for memory access but if I'm rendering a 3D file or encoding that's CPU bound activity with little FSB usage.

Now if I was running an Enterprise Database I'd surely need to worry about my link to main memory.

[Universe Man @ Oct 27th 2006 11:02AM]

I'll call it Mac Pro 8: The Ocho

[CharlieX @ Oct 27th 2006 12:48PM]

Ah yes, those of us trying to render HD and 2k effects could throw proxies out the window and go full res all the time. That'd be excellent.

[Giltronic @ Oct 27th 2006 1:30PM]

i predict there will be a processor race (how many can you put on a die) till we see the end of this
giltronic

[Queco Jones @ Oct 27th 2006 2:06PM]

Sweet! I'd buy it in a second if I could afford it.

[Jason Brennan @ Oct 27th 2006 8:53PM]

I'm pretty sure Intel has already layed down plans for 80+ core archetecture, what are you going to do about it? So yes, everything is going multi-core, but it won't make a difference until everyone starts paying attention to threading their code. Go read Tanenbaum!

Two more things: A Mac PrOcto would be coooool and 2, it would dwarf my new top-of-the-line toy :(

[mikel @ Oct 27th 2006 10:41PM]

forget about whether or not you can use all 8 cores or not, when you think about the fact that Kentsfield is supposed to ship at $1k that makes this around a $5K to $6K system. I hear the jaws drop and the wallets running and screaming for cover. Thanks but no thanks.

[Min Thu @ Oct 28th 2006 5:31AM]

I just wonder what kind of people are going to use 8 cores for what kind of tasks? How can they fully utilize 8 cores?

[Roberto Egretti @ Oct 28th 2006 6:57AM]

Min Thu, did you even read hmurchison's post?

[rypaintD @ Oct 29th 2006 4:04PM]

An 8 core Mac Pro is nice but come on Apple. We need a mid-range tower! We could rename the Mac Pro the "Mac Pro Tower" and come out with "The Mac Tower" or something like that. That is what would get a lot of PC users to switch.

[sergio flores @ Nov 26th 2006 2:19AM]

8 cores are great very great but they should re-invent the out-side of it too.. maybe to some colors like the ipods or back to the older look of glass but more curvy I'm sure I can sell my wife's stuff to fork out for an 8 core unit...