Apple updates Mac Pro -- "the fastest Mac we've ever made"

It's the week before Macworld 2008, and Apple's updated the Mac Pro with Intel's new 45nm quad-core Penryn Xeon 5400 (Stoakley) CPUs at up to 3.2GHz. The new 8-core config is $2,800, and Apple's Phil Schiller is calling these machines the "fastest Mac we've ever made" (not that we'd expect the newest machine would be anything but). Standard options:

• 2GB of 800MHz DDR2 RAM
• ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT (256MB)
• 320GB drive, 16x DVDRW
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, (2) PCI Express 2.0, (2) PCI Express slots
• That fancy new Apple keyboard they've been shipping with iMacs

No Blu-ray, as rumored, but it can be configured with plenty of hard drives (as usual), RAID, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 graphics cards, and 802.11n. Why do we feel like Apple threw these up today just to screw with everyone at CES? (Actually, it's because Intel is announcing all those new chips -- we get that.)

[rgsgww @ Mar 27th 2008 2:59PM]

it could barely run crisis...ive seen very very powerful rigs get crippled at that game

[Jakob @ Jan 8th 2008 8:41AM]

Nice :P

[sentient.exe @ Jan 8th 2008 9:04AM]

Can it play Crysis?

[Jonathan Bergeron @ Jan 8th 2008 8:56AM]

isn't Crysis Windows only?

[hotrodsemail @ Jan 8th 2008 8:57AM]

Nope, it can't play Crysis. I love my iMac and apple products, but to me, the Mac Pro is the biggest rip off in computers, next to alienware.

[Mark @ Jan 8th 2008 9:05AM]

Yes, it can play Crysis just load it up in Boot Camp. Macs can run all available software

[Josh L @ Jan 8th 2008 9:05AM]

Yes it can play crysis, 8800's can play it somewhat well.. and bootcamp, duh.

[hotrodsemail @ Jan 8th 2008 9:21AM]

First off, the 8800 is optional, god knows how much apple will charge you for $280 gfx card... Maybe $450-$500?

Second, 8800s dip into the teens quite often on high quality. I'm assuming you're going to be playing this on a nice apple cinema display since your spending alot of money on the Mac Pro, and the lowest resolution of the bunch is the 20" with 1680x1050 all the way up to 2560x1600 for the 30". At 1600x1200 crysis runs at around 28fps with no AA, and like I said plenty of dips into the teens. That's not playing a game, that's watching a slide show.

[purezerg @ Jan 8th 2008 10:16AM]

but can it overclock?

[caleb @ Jan 8th 2008 10:33AM]

Indeed. I'm guessing this means that they have lots of goodies for MWSF, so they don't need to water it down with dull product updates.

[Zak @ Jan 8th 2008 12:42PM]

@ hotrodsemail:

The 8800GT in the Mac Pro is a $200 option, which would make it LESS than retail, you putz.

[Jotenks @ Jan 8th 2008 1:27PM]

@ Zak

The 8800 is not a $200 option. The $200 is the additional money over radeon 2600 that you have to pay. Since apple charges $150 per each 2600 card, that would mean you're paying $350 for an 8800.

[roach @ Jan 8th 2008 1:55PM]

8800 GPU? It's already outdated...9800 is out next month!

[Zak @ Jan 8th 2008 2:01PM]

@ Jotenks:

The Mac Pro ships with the Radeon 2600 by default, and when people quote the $2799 price, that *includes* the Radeon 2600. So there's no such thing as paying the baseline $2799 plus $350 for the 8800. Since you can't configure the Mac Pro without a video card, the most you will ever pay for an 8800 is $200.

[ZeroCorpse @ Jan 8th 2008 4:57PM]

If you base your decision on whether or not you'd buy a computer on whether or not it plays a particular video game, then I question your reasons behind owning a computer at all.

Sounds to me like you want a TOY, not a professional computer, which is what the Mac Pro (thus the "Pro" part) is.

Frankly, i've never, ever known one game worth having an expensive, ultra-powered rig. I'm perfectly happy with my XBox 360 these days, and even in my hardcore PC-building days, I never bothered to waste my paycheck on parts just so I could play the latest game.

That's just stupid and obsessive.

[Josh L @ Jan 8th 2008 8:42AM]

bout, f'n time!!! :) HAPPY DAYS!!!

[Johan Glamér @ Jan 8th 2008 8:44AM]

8 core? 3.2Ghz * 8 = 25,6Ghz

[Josh L @ Jan 8th 2008 8:45AM]

It doesn't work that way...

[Chris @ Jan 8th 2008 8:50AM]

It does if you're an Apple fanboy.

[Flashpoint @ Jan 8th 2008 9:38AM]

Does this mean that the colored pinwheel bullsh!t spins 20 times faster when I try to open up caranddriver.com?

[TheWakeUpCall @ Jan 8th 2008 3:20PM]

How does it work? I never understood multicore, they say you can't compare processors by speed, how are you supposed to compare? By benchmarks?

[pulverz @ Jan 8th 2008 5:16PM]

@TheWakeUpCall

The way multi-core setups work isn't that they're added together, it's that they're truly in parallel. In electronic circuits, for instance, you can wire some lights in either series or parallel. In series (one right after another( --!--!--!-- ) each succesive bulb is dimmer than the one before it, all three don't run at full brightness giving you th power of three bulbs - much like a multi-core CPU isn't the sum of their respective clock speeds. When in parallel...

--!--
/ \
----!------
\ /
--!--

All three bulbs light to their full brightness, but use less power to do so. This is how it is with a multi-core setup, in lay man's terms anyway. What this gives you in the terms of processing power is that the little caveat that a CPU can only process one task at a time, if you have 2, 4, or 8 cores, you can do 2, 4, or 8 tasks at the same time...with each task being operated on at 3.2GHz in this case. So that's why 8 cores at 3.2GHz != 25.6 GHz - The circuitry isn't the true reason behind it all either, it's just an example.

Hope it helps!

:)

[Anthony @ Jan 8th 2008 8:44AM]

No blu-ray :(

[paul @ Jan 8th 2008 8:48AM]

no blu-ray. i was waiting for that. but 1600MHz FSB and 24MB cache with 8 cores is pretty amazing. maybe i will break out the credit card...

[Lee @ Jan 8th 2008 8:51AM]

And suddenly, $2800 doesn't seem like all that much to pay, though I know it is.

Must... Hold out... For new portables... That I actually need.

My girlfriend would flip out if this huge ass box landed on the doorstep.

[Karl @ Jan 8th 2008 8:54AM]

This is the power of the girlfriend: She can freak out of HE buys something.

Try freaking out the next time she buys a pair of very expensive shoes. It won't work. She'll just freak out right back at ya, and you lose twice.

Hmm.

[Jonathan Bergeron @ Jan 8th 2008 8:55AM]

liar; you don't have a girlfriend.... there's really no need to lie to impress us.

[tcc3 @ Jan 8th 2008 9:26AM]

Mike, that optical media sounds really good next time you need something and your internet is down.

Every tool has its place.

[Camperton @ Jan 8th 2008 9:54AM]

try uploading and or downloading a 28gb HD video file and then tell me optical media is dead.

[palehorse @ Jan 9th 2008 1:45PM]

Man Rule #8675309: that's the beauty of having a "girlfriend," and not a "wife"... if she freaks out, just kick her to the curb, and find a new one who appreciates your geekdom!

you're not frickin' married man... come on, grab your damn sack and buy whatever the heck YOU want that YOU can afford!

[ScottW @ Jan 8th 2008 9:03AM]

Considering I'm seriously looking at replacing my PC with a Mac (again, after many years), this is good news.

It likely means, between this news and whatever they'll announce at MacWorld, that the existing Mac Pros will be dropping in price Real Soon Now. :D

[Carl Vitullo @ Jan 8th 2008 6:29PM]

The only problems with macs now are the prices (they still don't have a decent midprice computer), and the lack of hardware openness (almost no upgradability).
Not everyone needs two quad-core processors. I do 3d rendering and that still seems pretty ridiculous. and they need to let other people sell some OS X computers. competition of computers that has their OS would be good.

[Jonathan Bergeron @ Jan 8th 2008 8:54AM]

So if I buy one of these and put more RAM in it, can I claim to have made "the fastest Mac ever made!"?

[Les @ Jan 8th 2008 9:29AM]

I believe they are talking about the fully upgraded version which comes with 4 or 8gigs of RAM, and two Video cards.
So their fully upgraded would be fastest mac ever, but not the base version

[scott @ Jan 8th 2008 10:43AM]

they already support 16gigs of ram. 16 gigs! goto the website and max out everything..last time i did it, it was like $19,000.

[scott @ Jan 8th 2008 10:48AM]

scratch that..32gigs of ram!

[Ian @ Jan 8th 2008 9:26PM]

lol $18000 now its like $27,240 maxed out! jesus thats SO much

[Jeeverz @ Jan 8th 2008 8:56AM]

eh, all of a sudden i agree that 2800 does not seem like that much... But then, i don't feel like that this is worth $3000.

[TRAFFICBLOWS @ Jan 8th 2008 9:26AM]

Suddenly $2800 doesn't seem much...

Suddenly the Pied Piper of Hypeland leads half a million off the edge of the Brooklyn Bridge!!


Man... (back when I walked 10 miles to school in the snow) my first PC (24MHz) was ~$2400!! With the vast assortment of quality PC's under $1000, and unless you're doing some crazy app that needs a quad core machine for WORK, you're crazy if you think $2800 is not much!!

[Jeeverz @ Jan 8th 2008 9:32AM]

this line will best define why i am still a Windows user

"compatibility, everybody fits with me... all the applications want to get with my virility"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkrn6ecxthM

i do 290348239048239048 more on my pc than on my mac.

[Genuis Bartender @ Jan 8th 2008 9:42AM]

How is a PC more versatile than a Mac Pro when a Mac Pro can run Windows AND Mac OS?

[Jeeverz @ Jan 8th 2008 9:46AM]

oh yah now ... sorry i was jus on memory lane

[rockintom @ Jan 15th 2008 11:52AM]

Wait... So you do arbitrary number more on Windows than OSX? Er. K!

[ryanastley @ Jan 15th 2008 6:17PM]

None of those things are worth $2,800, especially $3,000! Why do people continue to fall for this joke of a computer? Do they now that the "wheel of death" comes pre-installed with Apple? The reason they made 'Boot Camp' is so that people can still have Windows. They have more out for Windows than they do Mac. You can do MORE with Windows! The only thing that Apple has good out is the iPod. You can tell they are getting desperate for by trying to make phones, and making "Apple TVs". Apple is a JOKE now!

[George Kirkaldie @ Jan 8th 2008 8:58AM]

No Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, but it does come with the stupid new keyboard.

[Leo M. @ Jan 8th 2008 12:06PM]

Hey now!!! I absolutely love my apple keyboard. I was a massive hater when it first got some bad reviews and I was like "screw it, I'll try one" and lo and behold I type about 10 wpm faster then 2 or 3 months ago with my other keyboard. It's just so effortless to depress these buttons....and surprisingly easy to use on a regular basis. I wasn't expecting a good experience whatsoever but damn I'm impressed...and of course everyone that walks it always has nice comments about how sexy it is.

[Brandon Pierce @ Jan 8th 2008 1:01PM]

I love it too. Plus, it's infinitely cleaner than the previous rendition which always seemed to collect large amounts of debris beneath the keys.

-Ax

[Dusty Potatoes @ Jan 8th 2008 8:59AM]

Nice Apple, now where's the new displays to go with this?

[RichardBronosky @ Jan 8th 2008 9:00AM]

The most important specs, CPU cache and bus speed, are omitted. Why are PC people so fascinated with CPU clock speed?

[shanoboy @ Jan 8th 2008 9:17AM]

Yeah, CPU speed is worthless if you don't have the infrastructure to move the info around quickly.