Apple announces update Mac Pro, 12 cores, coming in August

By on Jul 27, 2010 at 9:01 AM
Breaking July 27, 2010

If you are a user who measures their computers performance in flops, then listen up. Apple has announced that they will be refreshing their lineup of Mac Pro computers this August. The new machines will have up to twelve, count em’ twelve, processing cores and offer a 50% speed increase over the current line. Pricing starts at $2,499. We’ve got the full press release below…

Apple Unveils New Mac Pro With Up to 12 Processing Cores

CUPERTINO, California-July 27, 2010-Apple® today unveiled a new Mac® Pro line with up to 12 processing cores and up to 50 percent greater performance than the previous generation.* Featuring the latest quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors, all-new ATI graphics and the option for up to four 512GB solid state drives (SSD), the new Mac Pro continues to deliver amazing performance and expandability for the most demanding consumers and professionals.

“The new Mac Pro is the most powerful and configurable Mac we’ve ever made,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With up to 12 cores, the new Mac Pro outperforms our previous top-of-the-line system by up to 50 percent, and with over a billion possible configurations, our customers can create exactly the system they want.”

At the heart of the new Mac Pro’s performance are next generation quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors running at speeds up to 3.33 GHz. These multi-core processors use a single die design so each core can share up to 12MB L3 cache to improve efficiency while increasing processing speed. These systems feature an integrated memory controller for faster memory bandwidth and reduced memory latency; Turbo Boost to dynamically boost processor speeds up to 3.6 GHz; and Hyper-Threading to create up to 24 virtual cores. The Mac Pro now comes with the ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics processor with 1GB of memory and customers can configure-to-order the even faster ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of memory.

For the first time, Mac Pro customers have the option to order a 512GB SSD for the ultimate in reliability and lightning fast performance. With the ability to install up to four SSD drives in the system’s internal drive bays, the new Mac Pro can provide ultra high-speed disk bandwidth and random disk performance, two times faster than the average performance of a standard disk drive.** Mac Pro also now features two Mini DisplayPorts and one dual-link DVI port. The additional Mini DisplayPort output allows customers to connect two LED Cinema Displays without an additional graphics card or adapter and the dual-link DVI port supports legacy DVI-based displays up to a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels.

Every Mac Pro comes with Apple’s innovative Magic Mouse and customers can also order Apple’s new Magic Trackpad as an option. The Magic Trackpad brings the intuitive Multi-Touchâ„¢ gestures of Mac notebook trackpads to the desktop. With its glass surface, the wireless Magic Trackpad allows users to scroll smoothly up and down a page with inertial scrolling, pinch to zoom in and out, rotate an image with their fingertips and swipe three fingers to flip through a collection of web pages or photos. The Magic Trackpad can be configured to support single button or two button commands and supports tap-to-click as well as a physical click. Magic Trackpad is available separately for $69.

Continuing Apple’s commitment to the environment, Apple’s desktop lineup is a leader in green design. The Mac Pro meets stringent Energy Star 5.0 requirements and achieves EPEAT Gold status.*** The Mac Pro enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminum and the interior is designed to be more material-efficient. The Mac Pro uses PVC-free internal cables and components and contains no brominated flame retardants. The new Apple Battery Charger provides a convenient and environmentally friendly way to always have a fresh set of batteries for your Magic Trackpad, Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard. The Apple Battery Charger is available as an option for $29 and comes with six long shelf life rechargeable batteries.

Every Mac also comes with Mac OS® X Snow Leopard®, the world’s most advanced operating system, and iLife®, Apple’s innovative suite of applications for managing photos, making movies and creating and learning to play music. Snow Leopard builds on a decade of OS X innovation and success with hundreds of refinements, core technologies and out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange. iLife features iPhoto®, with breakthrough ways to organize and manage your photos by who appears in them and where they were taken; iMovie® with powerful easy-to-use features such as Precision Editor, video stabilization and advanced drag and drop; and GarageBand® which offers a whole new way to help you learn to play piano and guitar.

Optional Apple professional applications include Aperture®, Final Cut® Express, Final Cut Studio®, Logic® Express and Logic Studio®.

Pricing & Availability
The new Mac Pro will be available in August through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

The new quad-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:

one 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3530 processor with 8MB of fully-shared L3 cache;
3GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 16GB;
ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port (adapters sold separately);
1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
18x SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire® 800 ports;
AirPort Extreme® 802.11n;
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse.

The new 8-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $3,499 (US), includes:

two 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5620 processors with 12MB of fully-shared L3 cache per processor;
6GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 32GB;
ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port (adapters sold separately);
1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
18x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire 800 ports;
AirPort Extreme 802.11n;
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse.

Configure-to-order options include:

one 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3565 processor for the quad-core Mac Pro;
one 3.33 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon W3680 processor for the quad-core Mac Pro;
two 2.66 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon X5650 processors (12-cores) for the 8-core Mac Pro;
two 2.93 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon X5670 processors (12-cores) for the 8-core Mac Pro;
two ATI Radeon HD 5770 cards with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
one ATI Radeon HD 5870 card with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
up to 16GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory for the quad-core Mac Pro;
up to 32GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory for the 8-core Mac Pro;
up to four 512GB solid state drives (SSD); or
up to four 1TB or 2TB Serial ATA hard drives running at 7200 rpm;
Mac Pro RAID card;
dual-channel or quad-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel card; and
up to two 18x SuperDrives with double-layer support.

Accessories include: Magic Trackpad, Apple Battery Charger, wired Apple Mouse, wireless Apple Keyboard, Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter, Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch DVI display), Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, the AppleCare® Protection Plan; and pre-installed copies of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server; iWork®, Logic Express 9, Final Cut Express 4 and Aperture 3. Complete options and accessories are available at http://www.apple.com/macpro.

*Testing conducted by Apple in July 2010 using preproduction Mac Pro 12-core 2.93 GHz units and shipping Mac Pro 8-core 2.93 GHz units, all configured with 6GB of RAM. Based on render performance of Maxwell Render 2.0.3 using Benchwell’s sculpture.mxs. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

**Testing conducted by Apple in July 2010 using preproduction Mac Pro 12-core 2.93 GHz units configured with 6GB of RAM, 1TB 7200-rpm hard disk drive and 512GB solid-state drive. Testing conducted using Iometer 2006.07.27 with a 30-second ramp-up, 5-minute run duration, 128KB request size, 8 outstanding IOs, and 150GB test file. Average rotational media performance calculated by creating the test file on the outer, middle and inner sectors of the drive and averaging the results from all three measurements. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

***EPEAT is an independent organization that helps customers compare the environmental performance of notebooks and desktops. Products meeting all of the 23 required criteria and at least 75 percent of the optional criteria are recognized as EPEAT Gold products. The EPEAT program was conceived by the US EPA and is based on IEEE 1680 standard for Environmental Assessment of Personal Computer Products. For more information visit http://www.epeat.net.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

Tags:
, , ,
39 Comments

Related Articles

  • yes

    These pretzels are making me firsty.

    • yaya

      a first reply rated positive?! BRILLIANT!

  • Dara

    If you’re a person who measures your computers performance in flops, what are you doing with a Mac?

    Graphics designers measure their computer’s performance in coffee breaks.

    I love how the announcement of all the “new” features is spun so positively.

    SSDs? In 2010? Wow, aren’t you all such lucky lemmings.

    Year old (and counting until the next magical refresh) ATI 5870 or crossfired 5770′s? For what? Portal? No mention of Eyefinity, I guess you’re paying extra not to have that.

    Why not just buy a real computer?

    • Kent

      Dara, Apple had SSD’s in the Mac Air in 2008.

      Mac Pro not a real computer?, you must be stupid.

      Go back to your plastic homemade computer and take out your parent’s trash. Clean up your basement room loser.

      • Dara

        Wow, talk about butthurt.

        You sound like a perfect Apple customer. So confused about computers that you assume that anyone who does know anything about them must have infinite spare time.

        Now hurry up and go buy last year’s technology at next year’s prices and remember, it’s not an arbitrary limitation, it’s a feature.

      • jarrett

        @ Dara,

        Usually you are not that hostile when posting about Apple. People are going to use what they are going to use. Windows has 90% market share when considering the prices are below $1,000.00. Mac OS X has 80% market share when considering the prices are above $1,000.00. As intelligent as you are even you would find it hard to argue which side of the business you yourself would want to partake in, wouldn’t you?

        To each their own I suppose. On a side note, my wife and I just had our MacBook Pro’s logic board replaced under warranty. We bought our machine in late June 2009. The service was completed July 23 2010, just outside our one year warranty. We were preparing to spend $400 for the repair (I am too cheap to buy extended warranties). The shop called us back to let us know that Apple had extended our warranty for six weeks (couldn’t get an answer as to why). Then yesterday we got an email from Apple letting us that not only was our warranty extended by six weeks but they were also giving us another six weeks to think seriously about spending the $249 on two years of Apple care. I don’t think I have ever bought an extended warranty before and I might keep that streak going but Apple has now fixed machines for use three times that were all out of warranty. This is why when we NEED a new product, Apple is generally the only option for us.
        Service after the sale people. If your product’s manufacturer (whatever the product and whoever the manufacturer) gives you post sales service like this wouldn’t you be inclined to remain a future customer?

        Again though, to each their own.

      • Dara

        Oh Jarrett,

        OS X is on 80% of computers costing more than $1000?

        That’s laughable.

        OS X has a 0% share of CAD workstations.

        OS X has a 0% share of computing clusters.

        OS X has a 0% share of hardened notebooks.

        OS X has a 0% share of gaming rigs.

        I think I know the statistic you’re looking for:

        OS X is on 80% of computers that cost more than $1000 and are used for nothing that a netbook couldn’t do.

      • marK

        Lets assume that a computer of this price and position (in Apple’s hardware lineup) should last 2-3 years at least….and that Apple touts itself as a hardware company..and is ahead of the curve in terms of technology and options it offers it’s customers:

        Wow – i7 came out in ’08, congrats on finally having that option. About as much novelty as the original iPhone currently provides (unless you’ve never heard or care about i7)

        No USB 3.0? Why not? I assume this computer is supposed to last longer than a year, yeah? Good luck plugging in all your soon-to-be-released next-gen peripherals in to usb 2.0…ah, now I see why they included firewire–too bad that standard’s on the way out though (and never really caught on outside of Mac only products)…and USB 3.0 is about 6x the speed of the current gen firewire FYI.

        No SATA 6.0? Why not? So I don’t even have the option to use 6.0 over the next couple years? Why?

        The main issue here is that—save for the processors–everything in the Mac ‘pro’ is already out of date. That is not an exaggeration, at all. Anyone building a computer and trying to mitigate the need for future upgrades is building a computer with : 1366 socket, USB 3.0, SATA 6.0. With this configuration you’re set for any topshelf processor, peripheral, and harddrive (SSD or Regular) that may come out over the next 3 years.

        And the main point is that a 3-4k computer would have the above options at a minimum. Apple sells an already out of date at that price….and fools fall over themselves repeating marketing crap instead of listening.

        Imagine if BMW still didn’t offer power steering, windows, lamps, and cruise control. And they come out touting all these new and magical features for 2011. You wouldn’t feel insulted?

      • Anon

        Dara, you sound like a typical PC gamer troll trying to justify the price of their overpriced Xbox.
        I
        ‘d be willing to bet you’ve never actually even used CAD Workstations, cluster based computing, etc – all you do with your machine is play Crysis.

        While I am here editing some Full HD and 4K film footage on my 8 Core Xeon Mac Pro while simultaneously exporting other footage for distribution on DVD and rendering out some motion graphics titling. And get this – I’m paid to do that.

        What do you get paid to do, other than troll blogs and 4chan?

  • Kam

    Were the macbook pros refreshed/updated already , Or going to be ?

  • http://www.helixzone.net helix2301

    This is very cool glad to see Apple refreshing and getting new and better hardware to go with there great OS.

  • Your Face

    *yawn*

    Another article on Apple? Did someone have a sleep over with jobs?

    Does he shower before he goes to work?

    • jarrett

      @ Your Face,

      Do you shower before you go to work? My guess would be that the reason that successful people and successful companies are successful is because they do not spend time worrying about what other people are or are not doing.

      • Your Face

        You make no sense. Of course a successful company will spend time worrying about what other people are/ are not doing. How else do you get ahead? Unless you’re talking about apple.

        P.S. I showered before i went to your moms house… does that count?

      • jarrett

        @ Your Face,

        A successful company is worried only about what they themselves are doing next. They could care less about what another company is currently doing.

        P.S. Congrats!, I guess? Whatever floats your boat I suppose, although my wife or even my sister would certainly be more enjoyable. There is something to be said for experience though. To each their own.

  • TONY

    *Yawn*

    This is what PC makers put into their refurbished computers, for half the price.

    • jarrett

      @ TONY,

      This is also why the PC makers only earn $200 million on $15 billion in sales because there is always another company selling a Windows machine for around the same price if not cheaper. These companies do not have a choice is selling the gear at a higher price. It’s business and if any other manufacturer could make it their business to sell their products at Apple’s prices they would. They have two strikes against them:

      1. They are one of many box-put-togetherers.
      2. They shill Windows.

      Apple benefits from two things:

      1. They build the hardware.
      2. They build the software.

      Apple only has Apple to compete with therefore they can basically charge whatever people are willing to pay for the product.

      Every company in technology wishes they were Apple Inc. If you think that this isn’t the case you are fooling yourself.

      • rmcgoff

        The proposition that manufacturers don’t have a choice in pricing is a pretty absurd argument. Within the industry, the consumer has many choices, including the choice to buy a computer with better build quality, increased customization, and better service after the sale. This is why Dell/HP/Toshiba exist in the same marketplace as Alienware/Falcon Northwest/Voodoo PC.

        And no, Apple does not make the hardware. Any other components that go into a Mac Pro, I can go online and purchase. They use Kingston RAM, Intel processors, Seagate hard drives, etc. It’s nothing mystical and special. Apple doesn’t make any of that.

        All they build is the operating system to run on that architecture. And for that operating system, they charge a hefty fee, because for any of those configurations listed above, I could build for half the price using the same exact hardware. I’d rather save my money.

  • rmcgoff

    Those are so disgustingly overpriced.

    • Anon

      build out a comparable 12 core Intel Xeon workstation yourself on newegg, or if you’re too stupid to do that go configure one on hp’s site.

      you’ll find it’s actually a steal. the chips are expensive.

  • Truth

    Man, some people get way too fired up over tech debates.

    • jarrett

      @ Truth,

      CHOOSE A SIDE DAMN IT!!!! Ha ha, use what you like. If you like a $299 NetBook, then use it. If you like a $2,400 MacBook Pro, then use it. People want so badly to be listened to.

  • Mnemosyne

    What exactly is using 12 cores right now?

    • Anon

      Final Cut Studio Compressor can be easily tweaked to use any amount of cores effectively. Final Cut Pro’s AVCHD and ProRes log & transfer effectively uses at least 8 (from my experience)

      Sorenson Squeeze does too as well, among a few other professional video production solutions you’ve never heard of.

  • Mnemosyne

    Oh and LOL at the “every company in tech wishes there were Apple.”

    • Yeah

      Apple’s stock share is over $260…. every company in tech and their shareholder wishes they were apple.

      Learn business then come back and make a comment.

  • Evan

    Why do i get the feeling that there is going to be a race for more cores similar to the competition in the men’s disposable razor market?

    • Mnemosyne

      I don’t think its a major selling point except for maybe power users. They are pretty competitively priced as I was at my local Micro Center and they had the AMD Phenom II X6 for $199. Probably not all that much better than the Core i7s though.

      • Dara

        The quad i7′s are still faster that the hex Phenoms, but the AMD platform has a significant price advantage.

  • Way to keep…

    Aren’t PC’s up to 24-cores now?

    • Dara

      24?

      No, it’s higher depending on how much you want to pay.

      The newest 75 series Xeon’s have 8 cores and there are server boards on the market (they cost about $2500) that can accommodate 4 of them.

      That’s 32 cores, 64 with hyperthreading.

      But those cores are very unintuitive, so if you want “real performance”, you’ll need to get a Mac.

      • Way to keep…

        “If you’re a person who measures your computers performance in flops, what are you doing with a Mac?”

        Didn’t you write that?

      • Dara

        Yep, just a bit of sarcasm here.

      • Anon

        moot point.
        4 of the new xeons + that motherboard would be far more expensive than a mac pro, even if you built it yourself. On top of that, there’s no reason you would have to install windows on a machine like that even if you did build it.

        You’re an idiot and really bad troll.

  • Confused buyer

    Does anyone know how much faster the new 8 core 2.4 mac would be over the old 8 core 2.26? i just sold my old 2007 dual core yesterday and i’m ready to buy a new 8 core now… i will wait for new one to come out on Aug 9 if it’s a lot better than the old 2009 8 core… thanks

  • http://n/a Roman

    In case you all didn’t know… this is a 2009 mac pro with an flashed EFI ROM to support westmere processors.. Thats it. Of course, the other thing is the new GPUS which most of us are asking questions of whether or not these will work in 2006-2008 mac pros.. For the record also, the logic board and processor tray are 2009 items.. so really, this is nothing more than a minor speed bump.. Notice that the w3565 and w3530 make use of Nehalem while the w3680 uses westmere. Since this is a 2009 mac pro.. it really should be called a 2009 mac pro deluxe and not a 2010 as there isn’t enough differences to make them different at all, esp since the same logic board(backpane) is being used, same part numbers.. and the same processor tray..

    All 2009 owners would need is the efi from this 2009 deluxe model and the regular 2009′s can support 2010 right off the bat!!!

    I wanted to clarify this so everyone knows its really a 2009 just beefed up to support westmere processors.. and of course the GPUS of 5870 and 5770.

    I hope this clears things up..

    • marK

      that’s interesting in the face of Apple marketing; quote from the advertisement:

      ‘The NEW Mac Pro. With up to 12 cores of processing power, it’s the Fastest Mac ever.’

  • mara

    12 cores for 5k USD? Nah! Any sane person wouldn’t buy it. Mac Pro Latest Impressions

  • Nick

    You are all nerds.

blog comments powered by Disqus