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A little confusion on Processor Speeds between models

G

GXPvince

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 12, 2008
114
0
I have been searching for newer Mac Pro for quite a while now to replace my 1,1.

First, keep in mind I will use the Mac Pro for heavy Lightroom and Photoshop use.

I found a 2-2.26 4,1 to buy, for around 1,100. However, I have a Mac Pro that is 2-2.66 already.

Should I be going backwards on clock speed? Will I notice improvement in Lightroom?
 
GXPvince said:
I have been searching for newer Mac Pro for quite a while now to replace my 1,1.

First, keep in mind I will use the Mac Pro for heavy Lightroom and Photoshop use.

I found a 2-2.26 4,1 to buy, for around 1,100. However, I have a Mac Pro that is 2-2.66 already.

Should I be going backwards on clock speed? Will I notice improvement in Lightroom?
Click to expand...

Your 1,1 is an old Core2Duo based Mac Pro with only 4 cores total. The 4,1 is a Core i Series and a total of 8 cores. Not only is your core count double, but the clock for clock the Core i series Xeons found in 2009 and newer Mac Pros crushes the old Core2Duo based Xeons found in the 2006 to 2008.

Geekbench shows your original 1,1 as having benchmark of less than 6000 points, where as a 4,1 with 2 - 2.26ghz processors has more than double at roughly 13500....

http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks
 
I can give you a screenshot of your MP 1.1 specs and the other one is a MP 2009 4.1.

Now, I am no expert but if that is the model it should be quite a bit faster.

Included in the screenshot are geekbench results
 

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GXPvince said:
I have been searching for newer Mac Pro for quite a while now to replace my 1,1.

First, keep in mind I will use the Mac Pro for heavy Lightroom and Photoshop use.

I found a 2-2.26 4,1 to buy, for around 1,100. However, I have a Mac Pro that is 2-2.66 already.

Should I be going backwards on clock speed? Will I notice improvement in Lightroom?
Click to expand...

Is your current MP 2x2.66 Quads meaning 8 core or 2x2.66 duals for 4 cores. If it's 8 the new one will be 30% or so faster with massively cheaper RAM and a better selection of video cards so it wins all the way around..

OTOH since you are fine right now it may pay to wait to see what happens this year
 
GXPvince said:
I have been searching for newer Mac Pro for quite a while now to replace my 1,1.

First, keep in mind I will use the Mac Pro for heavy Lightroom and Photoshop use.

I found a 2-2.26 4,1 to buy, for around 1,100. However, I have a Mac Pro that is 2-2.66 already.

Should I be going backwards on clock speed? Will I notice improvement in Lightroom?
Click to expand...

Just for the sake of clarity, choose About This Mac in the :apple: menu. Post what you have adjacent to Processor.
 
GermanyChris said:
Is your current MP 2x2.66 Quads meaning 8 core or 2x2.66 duals for 4 cores. If it's 8 the new one will be 30% or so faster with massively cheaper RAM and a better selection of video cards so it wins all the way around..

OTOH since you are fine right now it may pay to wait to see what happens this year
Click to expand...

Thanks for the responses.

I did do the swap. 2-2.66 quads (8 cores) is my current set-up.

So 30% faster over my 8 core 1,1?

Edit: Signature is fixed. :)
 
GXPvince said:
Thanks for the responses.

I did do the swap. 2-2.66 quads (8 cores) is my current set-up.

So 30% faster over my 8 core 1,1?

Edit: Signature is fixed. :)
Click to expand...

Your MP and Mine are rather similar, I score 10,470..You'll be at 13K or so with the new one. You'll get cheaper RAM with a higher RAM limit, it'll use less power have PCI 2 and be up-to-date.
 
justperry said:
For what, he clearly says what he has and what he's about to get.
Click to expand...

Wasn't clear to me. Was confused by the specs in his signature.

----------
GermanyChris said:
Your MP and Mine are rather similar, I score 10,470..You'll be at 13K or so with the new one. You'll get cheaper RAM with a higher RAM limit, it'll use less power have PCI 2 and be up-to-date.
Click to expand...

Seems silly to me for the OP to spend 1100 for such improvements. Especially now, with a new Mac Pro soon to arrive (maybe :rolleyes:).
 
LPZ said:
Wasn't clear to me. Was confused by the specs in his signature.

----------



Seems silly to me for the OP to spend 1100 for such improvements. Especially now, with a new Mac Pro soon to arrive (maybe :rolleyes:).
Click to expand...

I think so to that's why in my first post I said to wait.
 
GermanyChris said:
Your MP and Mine are rather similar, I score 10,470..You'll be at 13K or so with the new one. You'll get cheaper RAM with a higher RAM limit, it'll use less power have PCI 2 and be up-to-date.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. LPZ, Ill take that into consideration- it will most likely push everything down in price. However, if I should buy the 2-2.26 and resell it eventually I would only lose a couple hundred, and time saved would make up most of that. I'm also paging out sometimes 3-4gb opening 25 files 26-28mbs each in PS, which I do not like.

Thinking about it more I have another issue with the 1,1 (probably because I have cheap ram) or my PC ATI "5000" is doing weird stuff, is that my computer is not starting up the first time I hit the power button. It takes 4-5 times powering it up and powering it down to get it to the login window. Just recently started doing it and its fine when booted.

Ahhhh, another issue is waking from sleep the fans rev extremely high for about a minute then go back to normal.

So a few issues are present beside clock speed confusion.
 
GXPvince said:
Thanks for the advice. LPZ, Ill take that into consideration- it will most likely push everything down in price. However, if I should buy the 2-2.26 and resell it eventually I would only lose a couple hundred, and time saved would make up most of that. I'm also paging out sometimes 3-4gb opening 25 files 26-28mbs each in PS, which I do not like.

Thinking about it more I have another issue with the 1,1 (probably because I have cheap ram) or my PC ATI "5000" is doing weird stuff, is that my computer is not starting up the first time I hit the power button. It takes 4-5 times powering it up and powering it down to get it to the login window. Just recently started doing it and its fine when booted.

Ahhhh, another issue is waking from sleep the fans rev extremely high for about a minute then go back to normal.

So a few issues are present beside clock speed confusion.
Click to expand...

I think the first issue tends to be a Power Supply but I'm sure someone else will chime in.

The second IMHO is either graphics or RAM, most likely RAM..The ram in mine is out of a Dell server and has been just great. I got 8GB for 40 Euro.
 
GXPvince said:
my computer is not starting up the first time I hit the power button. It takes 4-5 times powering it up and powering it down to get it to the login window. Just recently started doing it and its fine when booted.
Click to expand...

This would indicate that PSU is on its last legs, I'm afraid.

Ahhhh, another issue is waking from sleep the fans rev extremely high for about a minute then go back to normal.
Click to expand...

I have that too in my 1,1. It started after upgrade to 5160s from 5150s. I think that's stepping issue, i.e. idle power consumption of CPUs. 5150s were G0 ones (SLAGA, ~9W idle), 5160 are B2 (SL9RT, ~18W idle). It doesn't bother me much, though. What stepping your 5355s do have?
 
Stay away from the 2.26. It sucks at Adobe suite. Clock way too low and not enough turbo biasing to make up for it. Side grade at best. Maybe trade for it but don't put any money into it. I'd use any dual 2008 over a 2.26 2009 or 2.4 2010. Unless you have gigantic memory needs in Lightroom.
 
666sheep said:
This would indicate that PSU is on its last legs, I'm afraid.



I have that too in my 1,1. It started after upgrade to 5160s from 5150s. I think that's stepping issue, i.e. idle power consumption of CPUs. 5150s were G0 ones (SLAGA, ~9W idle), 5160 are B2 (SL9RT, ~18W idle). It doesn't bother me much, though. What stepping your 5355s do have?
Click to expand...

I wanna say SLEAG. Do not remember but do remember following the forum posts here to make sure I had the correct one.

As far as the PSU. The other day I tried using my x1900 and 5770 together, which worked and brought up the PCI dialog box saying one is gunna run slower than expected. Could that have done something?

How much are PSUs for 1,1 anyways? Say 500-$600. :) Give me another reason to buy a Mac Pro 4,1 +
 
If you're hitting VM, you may want to consider adding an SSD. Inexpensive enough, and could provide a real performance boost. But it sounds like your MP may have issues on multiple fronts.
 
derbothaus said:
Stay away from the 2.26. It sucks at Adobe suite. Clock way too low and not enough turbo biasing to make up for it. Side grade at best. Maybe trade for it but don't put any money into it. I'd use any dual 2008 over a 2.26 2009 or 2.4 2010. Unless you have gigantic memory needs in Lightroom.
Click to expand...

I also considered the 2.8 5.1 (essentially a couple hundred more used), eventually putting in the 3.33. The GB is a couple thousand more on the 2.26 that's why I was leaning that way.

----------
kohlson said:
If you're hitting VM, you may want to consider adding an SSD. Inexpensive enough, and could provide a real performance boost. But it sounds like your MP may have issues on multiple fronts.
Click to expand...
I have a Cache SSD (128) (All Adobe Caches)
and an Apps SSD (128)
 
GXPvince said:
As far as the PSU. The other day I tried using my x1900 and 5770 together, which worked and brought up the PCI dialog box saying one is gunna run slower than expected. Could that have done something?
Click to expand...

Nope.

How much are PSUs for 1,1 anyways? Say 500-$600
Click to expand...

About $150 (eBay).

Maybe consider single 4,1, flash to 5,1 and put W3680 in it. This should give you a good, balanced system - high clock for single threaded tasks, good performance in multithreaded. GB score ~ 15k, if it's important to you. http://www.barefeats.com/wst10.html
 
Last edited:
GXPvince said:
I also considered the 2.8 5.1 (essentially a couple hundred more used), eventually putting in the 3.33. The GB is a couple thousand more on the 2.26 that's why I was leaning that way.
Click to expand...

Geekbench is not very indicative of Adobe PS/ Lightroom performance. The 2.8 - 3.33 is the better upgrade.
 
GXPvince said:
I also considered the 2.8 5.1 (essentially a couple hundred more used), eventually putting in the 3.33. The GB is a couple thousand more on the 2.26 that's why I was leaning that way.
Click to expand...

Although a little harder to do, the 2.26GHz model can be upgraded to dual 3.2GHz 4-cores for the same price as a 3.33GHz 6-core upgrade, and you'd have double the memory capacity and you get the option of going 12-core.
 
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