Intel's Six-Core 'Gulftown' processor revealed, possibly headed to Mac Pro - Page 3

Please don't tell us how pc gamers are an important market for Apple to capture. They aren't. They are a dying breed (see above chart and the 50% decrease in pc game sales form 1998 through 2007). Notice how much love Infinity Ward gave them with the latest version of MW2? Go over to Ars and read the comments from the pc gamers about the pc version of that game. If the software game developers don't treat pc gamers as first class citizens, why the hell would Apple?

I saw that yesterday too. Looks like early next year we'll see some Mac Pros with Quad cores starting at 2.93GHz with BTO option of 3.33GHz, and 8-cores starting at 2.4GHz with option to 2.8 and 3.2.

If they could reconfigure the CPU tray for the 4 and 8-core Mac Pros to hold 6 or 12 DIMM slots respectively, all the better.

I would love to get some stats on that. I see Macs used by DJs all the time but don’t see Macs used as gaming machines at all.



There are the the 8-core Core i9 “Beckton” Xeon MP 75xx series at 45nm based on Nehalem and the 6-core Core i9 “Bulftown” Xeon DP 65xx series at 32nm based on Westmere. The 8-core can have up to 4 physical processors on the same logic board while the 6-core can still only have 2.

You must be talking about media sales and not hardware because gamers aren't even close to laying out the type of cash that an owner of a music or video production does. A Pro studio will have a closet of Microphones where their top mics cost well more than a Mac Pro. Video professionals are even worse with expensive gear. None of these people are fazed by Mac Pro pricing.

The Apple Pro apps aren't going anywhere and the people that think they need a midrange tower really don't. There's very little you can't do with a new Quad core iMac that you can with a Mac Pro and if you need to run multiple GPU or 3 or more displays then you're a Mac Pro candidate.

Most big games now come out on console and then get ported to PC so you're really not seeing a game designed for the fastest computers but rather a game who's engine runs on the power of the console and then gets tweaked for PC gaming.

I agree with hmurchison here, a top of the line SLR with a decent compliment of lenses will dwarf the cost of a decked out Mac Pro. The Kona cards in our video machines cost as much as the Mac Pro we just replaced.

Although Apple could release a midtower iMac minus the display now we're finally quad core...I doubt they will. They aren't into adding wires. They tried it with the Cube and they stuffed it up on price. Let's face it. The iMac has 27.5 inch LED screen. I've seen it in person. It's the best screen I've seen on anything. It's gorgeous. It puts this beauty in a simple form factor that is very sexy in person. No clutter. No wires. Not from k/board or mouse. It now has quad cpus. And a 4850 which is more than adequate for most apps. Sure they 4870 would have been better for the higher resolution as would 1 gig of vram (shouts!) But in essence, for far less money than a Mac Pro, you can now do Mac Pro style things. Apple's pro apps will run just fine on the i7 iMac. And the i5/i7 cpus will probably go mainstream in iMacs next year. Game over for my mid-tower argument. Because, even at Apple's glacial pace of Gpu updates in iMacs...there will be a gpu capable of running Crisis reasonably inside 2 years. And once you have a gpu that can run the iMacs 'big' resolution comfortably. Where do you go? That's Nvidia's problem. People are fed up of paying £500 for incremental performance. That's a third of the cost of an top end iMac right there. For light computing the iMac is the bomb. And now, anything you throw at it, 3d, video is handled pretty well by the new high end iMac. And you get a great screen. It's the dream pro set up and Apple are taking it mainstream in 2010...if they haven't already. And if you want a renderfarm? Buy the dual sexto Mac Pro in 2010 and plug it into said 'Great screen' iMac for even more performance. Game over. Now that's a compelling argument. Shrugs.

1. Who needs a mid-tower when you can buy a PS3 for 5 times less money? My friend bought a PC for £2000. That was excluding a new monitor and new hard drives which failed inside a month. I told him if he was into gaming...he could buy a PS3 because there isn't a PC out there yet that eclipses its visuals. And the PS3 slots handily into a big hi-def screen. £500 on the latest hot Nvidia card? OR a PS3 for £250. It's not even a fight. A £1500-£2000 'high end' pc compared to the PS3 for £250? It's not a fair fight. And consumers are voting for 'casual gaming' in droves. On the Wii. On the Xbox. On the PS3. And, tellingly, on the iPod Touch/iPhone. Why is the App store such a success? Cheap, cheerful and fun games. Ones that don't take themselves too seriously. It's a huge market. Why pay for the DS or PSP when you can get the touch for the same money. And have software that is much, much ridiculously cheaper? Scale of economies. The current consoles were so far ahead in terms of graphics or concept when they launched years ago...PC gaming is still blowing bubbles. And I don't see it getting better for the PC gaming market anytime soon. And when the PS4 and xbox 720 hit? Forget it.

2. Who wants to control games with keyboards and mouses anyhow. I didn't in my C64 days. I don't want to now, either. And the sales chart above agrees with me. Mere mortals who don't have 100 plus fingers...seem to think a simple controller should be enough.

3. I agree with Hmurchison. He nailed it.

Lemon Bon Bon.

PS.
Heh. PC gaming market getting teh same treatment handed out to the Mac gaming market for years. Laughs.

Oh yes. Apple are coming round the mountain on games. Casual computing/gaming is going to be huge. Look at the app store and scales of economy. Look at the Wii's success and the ds. Now look at the way iPod Touch is seen as the more 'grown up' model to have. With loads of free apps. No boxes. No big software prices. Add the slate into that mix. And I think you can pretty much consign PC gaming tower market to irrelevance. And Apple have yet to do 'games' on its Apple TV...but when they sync the Apple TV to the iPhone/touch app store... It's going to be very interesting going forwards.

We graphics professionals want a smaller MacPro, NOT a headless iMac. We have that already in the MacBook Pro. A Half-MacPro would be about right. The MacPro is simply TOO BIG. Something about the size of the old Mac IIcx/IIci would be perfect.

Having a faster, beefier graphics cards (more VRAM), one extra PCI slot and an anti-glare monitor of my choice is really all I care about. An extra drive bay for an internal RAID would be nice, but not crucial.

We've been wanting this for years, and Apple seems to have less and less interest in the Pro market as time goes on.

Semantics. If you take the screen off the i7 quad core iMac with a 4850 you just about have what you want. Not that's it's going to happen. So meh.

Sure, I'd like a smaller Mac Pro. It's currently a huge tower thing. If they could make a smaller version of it. Fantastic. Price it £1000-£1495. Job done. Mac Pro is ridiculously priced. You could take off the £895 and it would still be an expensive tower at £1000 considering its crap gpu and no display. Especially in light of the stunning value the i7, 4850 with 27.5 inch screen offers. No contest.

I don't think the mid-tower will arrive. I think next April we'll have quad core iMacs going mainstream (i5 in the low end and i7 in the high end) with better gpus. And hopefully a top end 1 gig of vram gpu in the high end iMac.

I think that's going to be our choice. Take it or leave it. Apple style.

Lemon Bon Bon.

Apple have a limited view of what the desktop is. Let's face it...the quad core iMac can do what most desktops can do. Its gpu isn't bleeding edge...but in April next year I'm guessing a die shrinked and beefier Ati card will replace it..?

They offer something that is 'good enough.' And you pay through the nose for it as well.

The Mac Pro needs a shake by the scruff of the neck. A steep price cut with better gpus as standard. But I guess that will wait until April as well.

I'd like to see them redesign the Mac Pro and make it a little more sexy and compact and better value for money and the savings past on from basing it on the desktop i7 rather than the Xeon. Don't hold your breath.

Lemon Bon Bon.

The Core i9 CPU with 12 threads will be beneficial to 3D Artists (Animators, Modelers, Painters), Video Editors, Compositors, Sound Technicians, etc. With desktop power in a mobile solution it gives professionals more flexibility to complete projects on time in even remote locals if necessary. My hope is that Apple will launch the MacBook Pro with Core i9 in early January 2010 which would be an ideal upgrade from my current 2006 MacBook Pro.

Where are you seeing Core-i9s? The only Core-i9 I know of is the Gulftown for high-end workstations that was renamed Core-i7. Everything for mobiles I see is the Core-i3, i5 and i7. The MBPs will likely be Core-i3 on the lower end, Core-i5 on the higher end and Core-i7 for the MBA.