I know it may sound a bit too much, but when looking back at the previous Mac Pro, there is only one word to describe the performance of the brand new Mac Pro, introduced earlier today:"insane". Why would I use such a radical word? Here you have the reasons...
The picture above doesn't look that impressive, isn't it? Well, don't expect an Alienware-like design for the Mac Pro, because it looks pretty good the way it is too, but let's leave the aesthetics aside and get down to business: 8 CPU cores, up to 4TB of internal storage, and a price for the standard configuration starting at "only" $2,799.
To get things lined up properly, I have to tell you that the new Mac Pro uses Penryn-based Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400 series processors running at speeds up to 3.2GHz, with 12MB of L2 cache per CPU, so you will get two quad-core processors and a total of 24MB of L2 cache, while the dual-independent 1600MHz front side buses will carry data to and from up to 32GB of 800MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMM memory. According to Apple, the above should lead to an impressive 61 percent increase in memory throughput, compared to the "old" Mac Pro.
The standard graphics card included is an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256MB of video memory, but you can install up to four graphics cards and use no less than 8 30 inch displays, in this case...
Did you have enough? Well, my head hurts. I feel like my 3-months old dual core system is completely outdated already, but that's life... so if you want to get your hands on "the most powerful Mac ever", as Apple says, go to this page. Oh! One more thing - don't forget to prepare those 2,799 bucks...
The New 45nm Core 2 Duos Can Be Found In Japan, on January 21, 2008
[...] revealed 16 new 45nm processors at CES, and some of them are already being used inside the new Mac Pros but, as it usually happens with new hardware, they are not that easy to find as CPU-in-a-box. Well, [...]