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quiz time folks...

what has
8-core Nehalem Xeon Mac Pro 2.66 GHz
12GB RAM/14GB RAM test configs
AMD Radeon 4870/Nvidia Quadro FX 5600 test configs
8-core Penryn Xeon Mac Pro 2.8 GHz (early 2008)
14 GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 5600/Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT test configs

?

oh.. and runs OSX?

Answer...





And Ars Technica's thoughts?

Quote:The Good

Ridiculous speed for multi-threaded 3D rendering in certain applications
Even better internal layout than previous models
Still a very quiet workstation overall
Good power consumption-to-speed ratio


The Bad

Eight-core machines are very expensive
RAM slot count not well matched to triple-channel memory
No adapters included for mini DisplayPort to DVI
No workstation-class 3D card option and GT 120 graphics card is painfully underpowered
Currently, very few applications make full use of eight cores and sixteen threads



The Ugly

Anyone want to buy a used Quadro FX 5600?

Cripes, unless yer doing high end CAD work or rendering "Star Wars X - The Search For More Money" that's like killing a fly with a tac nuke :ph34r: :lol:

NefCanuck

My sons appreciate your good taste. Hopefully, you won't need to talk to them.

how much?

Now I'm normally anti-mac, but if that'll run Autocad, I'd be all over that.

ANTHONYD,Apr 7 2009, 10:21 AM Wrote:how much?
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the 8 core starts at $3299 US... it's on their website if you want to play with the configurations a bit...

apple mac pro page

darkpuppet,Apr 7 2009, 10:40 AM Wrote:

ANTHONYD,Apr 7 2009, 10:21 AM Wrote:how much?
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the 8 core starts at $3299 US... it's on their website if you want to play with the configurations a bit...

apple mac pro page
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We have a bunch of them here at the agency in the studio.
Awesome machines!

You bought one? Why buy something that hardware-wise is ready for massively-parallel apps with the narrowest app field?

Oh, and it's 4-core / 8-threads per processor package. :P :ph34r:

It's the P4 all over again, literally, as their performance scaling from 4 threads to 8 per package is decent, suggesting that once again... Intel can't even keep their own instruction pipelines saturated at that clockspeed. Expect the heat dissipation and clock speeds to rise under further processor steppings and models. It's like buying a car with twin throttle bodies but having to do extra work to ensure that you unblock the airflow to the second throttle body in order for it to be of use to you. Only THEN are you making full use of the "engine"'s capabiltiies.

Still, if I had a whack of cash lying around... I'd build something Core i7-based.

And unless you're doing massive graphics work with it (3D or batched photo-processing)... you're hemorraghing money all over the floor right there. A complete waste of cash.

Now, if you were running BOINC and doing Rosetta@Home and SETI@Home, as well as CPDN... I'd give you a full acquittal. ;)

Core i7 info: http://techreport.com/articles.x/15818

:)

:wtf:

Oh... thought he bought one for home.

Figured IBM was being good to him this year. :(

Sorry Steve-o, but my tech commentary stands. :)

It's a nice mac.. and they offer both 4 core and 8 core configurations. So with 8 cores, that's 16 threads.

Waaay overkill, but nice to see such a well equipped mac pro nonetheless. Mac apps are a lot closer to using those threads than most windows apps.

and unless aliens have the cure for cancer SETI@Home is a waste of time (and space!)

The joy of SETI@Home is knowing that: 1) you have about as much chance of finding the cure for cancer as you do looking for intelligently-sent radio signals and 2) we'll need to get off this rock one day (perhaps due to cancer-related issues that we keep creating), so why not start looking for somewhere friendly to land?

I think the cure for cancer is a lot more reasonable than advanced extra terrestrial life.

The search for aliens is kinda statistically unlikely.... first you have an ever-expanding universe that's practically ageless, and then you're looking for radio signals from a race that can do more than break rocks with other rocks.

So not only does a planet have to be able to support life (which is feasible considering the number of planets and solar systems out there), but then you'd have to find one that build a walkie-talkie however many years ago (if life is on Alfpha Centauri had life on it, they should have started talking at least 5 years ago) to travel the distance to our planet.

And then by the time we text them back, we can only hope that apes haven't taken over the planet.

SETI is like looking for a needle in a haystack -- where you have to stand a mile away from the haystack and you have to sort at it via messenger pigeons.

Do you guys ever listen to yourselves?

2001 ZTS,Apr 7 2009, 03:25 PM Wrote:Do you guys ever listen to yourselves?
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I try hard not to.

I remember when there used to be girls here.

I blame all these nerd threads. :angry:

2001 ZTS,Apr 7 2009, 04:03 PM Wrote:I remember when there used to be girls here.

I blame all these nerd threads.  :angry:
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Agree.

2001 ZTS,Apr 7 2009, 04:03 PM Wrote:I remember when there used to be girls here.

I blame all these nerd threads.  :angry:
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and then you went and dated them all.

So much for the girls...