Apple Mac Pro Desktop Computer Review

Out of the Box

We took delivery of a 2.0 Ghz system -- the logic being that the $300 saving here (over the standard 2.66 GHz configuration) could be put toward the better ATi X1900 video card. But more on that later.

The fundamental difference with this machine is, of course, the new Xeon 5100 processors. These are dual-core designs, meaning that they have two processor cores per chip. Apple shoehorns two of these into the Mac Pro for a total of four processor cores per machine. Each processor has 4MB of shared cache (you can feel your renders speeding up already, can't you?) and each one sits on a rapid 1333 MHz independent frontside bus -- combining for a maximum system processor bandwidth of 21.3 GB/s. (see image 01)

Interestingly, the processors are socketed, meaning that they can be swapped out for faster models at a later date -- something that Apple has been loath to allow in recent years. Indeed there are reports of 3.0 GHz processors being dropped in and working with no re-configuration. Not a cost-effective option at the moment, but it does mean that practices will be able to wring a good few more years from their machines.