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When to expect the new model?
- Thread starter Kaiwho
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I don't know if January is an important month anymore. Apple doesn't participate in Macworld or do a keynote.
The only important month in the Apple universe is really June now. WWDC.
there was an article this week about the xeons being available mid nov so we could actually see the systems showing up around that time...
the article referred to in that post only mentioned i7's.
even if the Xeons come out in Nov. as well, that's the date when the processor starts shipping to vendors. it takes time to install the chips and ship out the final product, so a November MP release is still unlikely.
Also remember that Apple have been known to get early access to Intel's new technologies so they *could* potentially be out around the same time when Sandy Bridge-E is released.
Knowing Apple, I'd say anything from Nov to Q1-2012 - we really don't know.
Knowing Apple, I'd say anything from Nov to Q1-2012 - we really don't know.
It would be January if Intel released the Xeon E5's on a date like December 15th ( or even the 8th). Once into the holiday season, workers start going on vacations and it is more difficult to keep folks an all skill sets around and on call. ( e.g. critical bugs in software release that need fix, logistical pipeline is maxed out anyway, etc. )
This has absolutely nothing to do with putting on some dog and pony show. The Mac Pro is not going to get a dog and pony show.
At the point Intel announces availability the parts would have been shipping for about a month (or at least several weeks. ) to the folks with larger contracts.
Mac Pros and Xeon parts are air freighted so it doesn't takes weeks or months to ship them to or from China. More like 24-48 hours.
Very few products are released in the crush of the holiday buying season not because can't ship at that time but because there are too many other things going on at that time.
There is a chance Apple could announce a month head's up on Mac Pros in November if shipping doesn't start till December. That would get the announcements for Apple (and perhaps Intel too) out of the post-thanksgiving crush and punt the shipping logistics till later.
In 2010, Apple announced in July but didn't ship till August. However, that wasn't pressed up against a relatively widespread US worker blackout period. Nor is that period where Mac Pro would have to fight with other holiday presents in the limited air cargo holds.
However, if Apple was going to punt shipment out of the Holiday window on purpose they could easily announce at same time Intel did in December and then just publish 'shipping in a month' to set expectations. IHMO is very doubtful Intel is going to say "Xeons are shipping" this time and Apple just remains mute. Unless that mix of components they want aren't in the announcement ( I doubt that will be the case. Nor that they are going to waiting on any graphics card either. ), they have little incentive to delay now that Intel has probably finished "moving" the workstation Xeon window to another part of the year.
There is a slim chance they might. Given that AMD is expected to release new graphics cards in Q4 ( Radeon 7000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_HD_7000_series#Release_date ) that also may slip into Oct/Nov/Dec if TMSC can't get their act together.
However, i don't see them skipping the 6000 series even though it is "old" and PCI-e v2.0 limited. That has just been Apple's pattern to be behind the curve. It is safer and cheaper for them. For them to skip 6000 and jump straight to the 7000 would make sense though if there wasn't a supply problem on the cards, finished the new drivers, and wanted to help show the upsides to PCI-e v3.
Given that ATI has finished the 6000 Mac drivers, I'd be willing to bet they've moved on to 7000 Mac drivers.
However... it all really depends on hardware availability. I've never gotten the feeling that drivers have been what's stopped new cards.
Yes, but we won't get 7000 series video cards in the new Mac Pro.
God only knows we don't want to catch up to PCs.
I'd be very happy with an HD 6970. But I even doubt that will happen.
Again, depends on hardware availability. It's totally possible that the 7000 will debut elsewhere.
Apple sometimes gets early access to GPUs before they ship for PCs, but that has happened less and less these days.
Is the 6970 the dual GPU version? If so, no, that's not going to happen.
Dual GPU cards have some interesting issues anyway. They can spit on frames faster, but the framerate is more... inconsistent. Would be nice for OpenCL though.
Is the 6970 the dual GPU version? If so, no, that's not going to happen.
No, the 6990 is the dual version.
The 6970 does have 2GB of VRAM though. You'd think it was a dual version but it is not.
This is actually quite easy to misunderstand so apologies if I did.
But the 6970 is dual core. If you compare it to the GTX 580 - which is single core - you could say that the 6970 is dual.
6990 is dual GPU's(each has 2 cores) so it's actually quad core - compared to the GTX 590 which is dual core.
The HD 6970 is a single-core video card. It is comparable to the GTX 580.
The HD 6990 is a dual-core video card. It is comparable to the GTX 590.
You will not hear of the HD 6990 as being quad-core, same for the GTX 590.
Theres 2GB of GDDR5 fitted, the most amount of memory weve ever seen on a single-core graphics card
Possessed of great self-confidence, AMD has been the "big brother" in GPU industry, and to release the top of the range single core graphics card - AMD Radeon HD 6970.
Hailed as one of the best single-core graphics cards, AMD's Radeon HD 6970 didn't really generate much hype when it was launched almost three months back.
The ATI AMD Radeon HD 6970 is a Desktop graphics card has a Single Core GPU with a maximum graphics clock speed of 880 MHz
...or grab a high end single core card such as the GTX 580 or the HD 6970.
The card (HD 6970) comes with a Backplate and being a Single Core GPU, Its powered by One 8 pin and one 6 pin connector.
.
Whatta...
What did I think of then
I know there's a difference between the 6970 and the 580 since the 6970 supports .. was it up to 6 monitors? Whereas the 580 only supports 2.
Short Answer: Not Soon.
And there you are.
Unless Apple gets early release shipments of the Xeon chips - it's happened in the past -
But still the best we can reasonably hope for is Spring of 2012. It might be even later, as Intel did not specify a release date. March 31 is still the first quarter of 2012. That will make it the longest span between Mac Pro updates to date, following a pattern of increasingly lengthy gaps between MPs updates.
https://buyersguide.macrumors.com//#Mac_Pro
But considering how small the desktop segment is of Apple's revenue, and the MP being the smallest sliver of that, I don't think that Apple is overly concerned. But I seriously doubt that Apple is willing to release a Mac Pro update without Sandy Bridge and Thunderbolt, as the entire rest of the line has the features now, and the 27" non-thunderbolt display is on borrowed time.
Of course, many Pro users are going to be looking for third party non-glossy displays, but that's a whole 'nother rant.
So again, reign in the frothing and coax a little more life out of your existing systems. This is an exercise in Zen-like patience.
And there you are.
Unless Apple gets early release shipments of the Xeon chips - it's happened in the past -
But still the best we can reasonably hope for is Spring of 2012. It might be even later, as Intel did not specify a release date. March 31 is still the first quarter of 2012. That will make it the longest span between Mac Pro updates to date, following a pattern of increasingly lengthy gaps between MPs updates.
https://buyersguide.macrumors.com//#Mac_Pro
But considering how small the desktop segment is of Apple's revenue, and the MP being the smallest sliver of that, I don't think that Apple is overly concerned. But I seriously doubt that Apple is willing to release a Mac Pro update without Sandy Bridge and Thunderbolt, as the entire rest of the line has the features now, and the 27" non-thunderbolt display is on borrowed time.
Of course, many Pro users are going to be looking for third party non-glossy displays, but that's a whole 'nother rant.
So again, reign in the frothing and coax a little more life out of your existing systems. This is an exercise in Zen-like patience.
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http://www.macworld.com/article/162311/2011/09/servers_with_new_intel_xeon_e5_chips_due_early_2012.html
This seems to say the chips are shipping now but they don't expect servers until next year and they don't plan to make any official statements for awhile. Very vague statements about what is actually shipping except some variant of the E5.
This seems to say the chips are shipping now but they don't expect servers until next year and they don't plan to make any official statements for awhile. Very vague statements about what is actually shipping except some variant of the E5.
very vague indeed. So I'm guessing hex core will be availabe in new MP's this year and 8-16 cores (dp variants) next year?
If I'm understanding this right.