The report also speculates the new hardware will be based on Mac-edition Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards.
This would be cool, but there is no evidence that 10.6.3 has support for 5800 series ATI cards. It would be highly unusual, though not entirely unheard of, for the Mac Pro to ship with a custom kernel to add this kind of support.
When is Apple going to change the housing? It's been 7 years!
I wouldn't mind either if Apple choose to redesign it's case ... like take the second dvd player away and shave that space off. Make the case smaller and lighter over all.
You've got a GREAT machine there, why do you need to change it? Just get Snow Leopard, and an ATI 4870 512MB card.
You're probably playing the game at very high resolutions on the 2600XT 256MB GPU and that is "killing the game".
Trust me. Your Mac Pro, 6GB of RAM, Snow Leopard, and ATI 4870, that will take you into the end of 2011 easily. Even if you are running Windows (Win 7 64bit recommended) and playing PC games.
Actually, I've got the GeForce 8800 GT in my Mac Pro. I opted for the upgraded video knowing that I would be playing games on it. The video card runs everything pretty great in Windoze like Fallout 3, and Dragon Age. It really doesn't seem like a video lag issue, because at times the video is just smooth. Sometimes though it's real laggy, almost like what you see in MMOs, and god forbid I pause the game and have it running in the background. Pretty much brings everything else like Safari, Mail, iTunes, etc. (normally all running all the time) to a crawl. I've already disabled Time Machine when I play to eliminate disk contention. Anyone still think the video card is the source of the performance problems here, or are there other suggestions/ideas? Any help would really be greatly appreciated.
Actually, I've got the GeForce 8800 GT in my Mac Pro. I opted for the upgraded video knowing that I would be playing games on it. The video card runs everything pretty great in Windoze like Fallout 3, and Dragon Age. It really doesn't seem like a video lag issue, because at times the video is just smooth. Sometimes though it's real laggy, almost like what you see in MMOs, and god forbid I pause the game and have it running in the background. Pretty much brings everything else like Safari, Mail, iTunes, etc. (normally all running all the time) to a crawl. I've already disabled Time Machine when I play to eliminate disk contention. Anyone still think the video card is the source of the performance problems here, or are there other suggestions/ideas? Any help would really be greatly appreciated.
Do you performance issues with other apps?
My daughter plays Sims 3 on our C2D iMac without performance issues. Sims 3 is buggy though. I still haven't been able to download and install the updates. It always barfs before finishing. I've given up.
Actually, I've got the GeForce 8800 GT in my Mac Pro. I opted for the upgraded video knowing that I would be playing games on it. The video card runs everything pretty great in Windoze like Fallout 3, and Dragon Age. It really doesn't seem like a video lag issue, because at times the video is just smooth. Sometimes though it's real laggy, almost like what you see in MMOs, and god forbid I pause the game and have it running in the background. Pretty much brings everything else like Safari, Mail, iTunes, etc. (normally all running all the time) to a crawl. I've already disabled Time Machine when I play to eliminate disk contention. Anyone still think the video card is the source of the performance problems here, or are there other suggestions/ideas? Any help would really be greatly appreciated.
the game might be optimized for DirectX and the OS X OpenGL port may have performance issues. Don't keep up with these things as much, but in the last 5 years MS has added a lot of nice features into DirectX where a graphics card has to be specially engineered to take advantage of them
My only issues with the case of the Mac Pro is that it is too big and too heavy. I'd love to see it sized down but it's a minor thing.
Apart from redesigning the feet to make the Mac Pro rack mountable, I don't know if Apple has many options to change the size of this case.
The 5.25" drive bays basically define the width of the case and even if they flipped the orientation vertically, the full length PCI Express cards also claim a certain amount of room.
Perhaps most importantly, the case needs to have adequate room and proper airflow for cooling. You really don't want to reduce the size of the case at the expense of increased heat-related problems (or a louder fan).
Anyhow, I think forty pounds is reasonable for a professional caliber workstation.
My only issues with the case of the Mac Pro is that it is too big and too heavy. I'd love to see it sized down but it's a minor thing.
Its actually pretty small for its class. That being said, Would be nice that if Ive ever gets over his aversion to redesigning the Mac Pro, to have separate cases for the single and dual socket machines.
When is Apple going to change the housing? It's been 7 years!
Why change perfect design? Housing is great and functional. The internal design has gotten better with the last iteration where you can pull out the CPU boards and clean the dust from giant heat sinks easily, reducing overall system noise.
Changing a good thing for the sake of change usually leads to poorer design and functionality.
The Mac Pro case design is classic, timeless. It does not need change.
When is Apple going to change the housing? It's been 7 years!
I don't want them to change the case! Every time I walk into my machine room and see 7 of those beautiful aluminum monoliths stacked horizontally into the rack I get a little thrill. And the 5 Xserve RAIDS next to them are pretty sweet as well.
I don't want to mess up that visual continuity with some random new design. I likes my Mac Pro visual continuity.
Probably my biggest compaint with the Mac Pro is that they put a single processor MB in the case if you order the single processor system. No option to add the second processor and seriously bump the power down the road. This was seriously annoying to me, but it didn't prevent me from buying the system. Oh well.
Yeah inside but the style is still very similar to the new 27" isn't it.
I assume that a 30" LED backlight would be possible now (though maybe not with the 27" backlight issues) and it wouldn't be hosting a computer it should be considerably thinner than today's model. However, they might stick with CCFL for better image quality.
For instance Dell makes a 27" monitor that goes for a over a grand. It uses a similar LCD panel as the 27" iMac but with a CCFL backlight.
Comments
The report also speculates the new hardware will be based on Mac-edition Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards.
This would be cool, but there is no evidence that 10.6.3 has support for 5800 series ATI cards. It would be highly unusual, though not entirely unheard of, for the Mac Pro to ship with a custom kernel to add this kind of support.
When is Apple going to change the housing? It's been 7 years!
I wouldn't mind either if Apple choose to redesign it's case ... like take the second dvd player away and shave that space off. Make the case smaller and lighter over all.
You've got a GREAT machine there, why do you need to change it? Just get Snow Leopard, and an ATI 4870 512MB card.
You're probably playing the game at very high resolutions on the 2600XT 256MB GPU and that is "killing the game".
Trust me. Your Mac Pro, 6GB of RAM, Snow Leopard, and ATI 4870, that will take you into the end of 2011 easily. Even if you are running Windows (Win 7 64bit recommended) and playing PC games.
Actually, I've got the GeForce 8800 GT in my Mac Pro. I opted for the upgraded video knowing that I would be playing games on it. The video card runs everything pretty great in Windoze like Fallout 3, and Dragon Age. It really doesn't seem like a video lag issue, because at times the video is just smooth. Sometimes though it's real laggy, almost like what you see in MMOs, and god forbid I pause the game and have it running in the background. Pretty much brings everything else like Safari, Mail, iTunes, etc. (normally all running all the time) to a crawl. I've already disabled Time Machine when I play to eliminate disk contention. Anyone still think the video card is the source of the performance problems here, or are there other suggestions/ideas? Any help would really be greatly appreciated.
Expect a Sub $1600 MacPro! Same thing they did with the PowerMac back in the day to take care of the complaints above.
Actually, I've got the GeForce 8800 GT in my Mac Pro. I opted for the upgraded video knowing that I would be playing games on it. The video card runs everything pretty great in Windoze like Fallout 3, and Dragon Age. It really doesn't seem like a video lag issue, because at times the video is just smooth. Sometimes though it's real laggy, almost like what you see in MMOs, and god forbid I pause the game and have it running in the background. Pretty much brings everything else like Safari, Mail, iTunes, etc. (normally all running all the time) to a crawl. I've already disabled Time Machine when I play to eliminate disk contention. Anyone still think the video card is the source of the performance problems here, or are there other suggestions/ideas? Any help would really be greatly appreciated.
Do you performance issues with other apps?
My daughter plays Sims 3 on our C2D iMac without performance issues. Sims 3 is buggy though. I still haven't been able to download and install the updates. It always barfs before finishing. I've given up.
Bring on the 6-core!
Just wondering. Are you blown away yet?
Actually, I've got the GeForce 8800 GT in my Mac Pro. I opted for the upgraded video knowing that I would be playing games on it. The video card runs everything pretty great in Windoze like Fallout 3, and Dragon Age. It really doesn't seem like a video lag issue, because at times the video is just smooth. Sometimes though it's real laggy, almost like what you see in MMOs, and god forbid I pause the game and have it running in the background. Pretty much brings everything else like Safari, Mail, iTunes, etc. (normally all running all the time) to a crawl. I've already disabled Time Machine when I play to eliminate disk contention. Anyone still think the video card is the source of the performance problems here, or are there other suggestions/ideas? Any help would really be greatly appreciated.
the game might be optimized for DirectX and the OS X OpenGL port may have performance issues. Don't keep up with these things as much, but in the last 5 years MS has added a lot of nice features into DirectX where a graphics card has to be specially engineered to take advantage of them
My only issues with the case of the Mac Pro is that it is too big and too heavy. I'd love to see it sized down but it's a minor thing.
Apart from redesigning the feet to make the Mac Pro rack mountable, I don't know if Apple has many options to change the size of this case.
The 5.25" drive bays basically define the width of the case and even if they flipped the orientation vertically, the full length PCI Express cards also claim a certain amount of room.
Perhaps most importantly, the case needs to have adequate room and proper airflow for cooling. You really don't want to reduce the size of the case at the expense of increased heat-related problems (or a louder fan).
Anyhow, I think forty pounds is reasonable for a professional caliber workstation.
My only issues with the case of the Mac Pro is that it is too big and too heavy. I'd love to see it sized down but it's a minor thing.
Its actually pretty small for its class. That being said, Would be nice that if Ive ever gets over his aversion to redesigning the Mac Pro, to have separate cases for the single and dual socket machines.
When is Apple going to change the housing? It's been 7 years!
Why change perfect design? Housing is great and functional. The internal design has gotten better with the last iteration where you can pull out the CPU boards and clean the dust from giant heat sinks easily, reducing overall system noise.
Changing a good thing for the sake of change usually leads to poorer design and functionality.
The Mac Pro case design is classic, timeless. It does not need change.
When is Apple going to change the housing? It's been 7 years!
I don't want them to change the case! Every time I walk into my machine room and see 7 of those beautiful aluminum monoliths stacked horizontally into the rack I get a little thrill. And the 5 Xserve RAIDS next to them are pretty sweet as well.
I don't want to mess up that visual continuity with some random new design. I likes my Mac Pro visual continuity.
I just don't like carrying it too far!
Mine has not move 1mm since it arrived as the IT dept bolted it and the 30" cinema to the desk for safe keeping.
Mine has not move 1mm since it arrived as the IT dept bolted it and the 30" cinema to the desk for safe keeping.
Speaking of, the 30" ACDs are much more in need of a technological overhaul before a cosmetic change to the Mac Pro takes place.
Speaking of, the 30" ACDs are much more in need of a technological overhaul before a cosmetic change to the Mac Pro takes place.
Yeah inside but the style is still very similar to the new 27" isn't it?
I realize it's not their core market but they are really lagging in the monitor department...
Yeah inside but the style is still very similar to the new 27" isn't it.
I assume that a 30" LED backlight would be possible now (though maybe not with the 27" backlight issues) and it wouldn't be hosting a computer it should be considerably thinner than today's model. However, they might stick with CCFL for better image quality.
For instance Dell makes a 27" monitor that goes for a over a grand. It uses a similar LCD panel as the 27" iMac but with a CCFL backlight.