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2012 Macs - any improvements over 2010 model of same CPU rating?
- Thread starter Rob Ruffo
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Jeff Kilgroe
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Only true if something were wrong with that 2010 model. Perhaps it's using different / slower RAM or an improper RAM arrangement so as not to take advantage of the triple-channel abilities (my official guess), slower HDD, etc... What Geekbench scores are being compared? The 2.4GHz CPUs have been offered as the base for the 12-core for over a year now and they were added in the refresh from mid 2011 when Intel discontinued some of their Xeon chips and offered a few new ones in the i55xx series lineup.
The Mac Pro you buy online today is identical to what was offered with the last hardware refresh in 2010, outside of the base memory and HDD configuration and which CPU choices you have. A few months ago when Apple launched the retina MBP and refreshed a few things, their marketing department foolishly placed a "NEW" tag on the Mac Pro as well. They got A LOT of industry backlash over that and the tag was removed within 24 hours. Even prompted Tim Cook to address the issue and state that no new Mac Pro would come until next year, but it was indeed in the works. Other than that, the upgraded the base memory configuration from 6GB to 8GB and they now keep most of their memory configuration choices defined as sets of 6 modules to maximize memory throughput via triple channel support.
The Mac Pro you buy online today is identical to what was offered with the last hardware refresh in 2010, outside of the base memory and HDD configuration and which CPU choices you have. A few months ago when Apple launched the retina MBP and refreshed a few things, their marketing department foolishly placed a "NEW" tag on the Mac Pro as well. They got A LOT of industry backlash over that and the tag was removed within 24 hours. Even prompted Tim Cook to address the issue and state that no new Mac Pro would come until next year, but it was indeed in the works. Other than that, the upgraded the base memory configuration from 6GB to 8GB and they now keep most of their memory configuration choices defined as sets of 6 modules to maximize memory throughput via triple channel support.
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Jeff Kilgroe
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All RAM should be the same capacity of modules, otherwise the system won't engage triple channel mode and may not even be able to use dual-channel fallback mode, depending on the mismatch.
Best performance comes from 6 modules, but you can use 3 modules to start with. It still operates in triple channel mode, however the memory controller on the second CPU is unused in a 3-module configuration, which leads to some performance compromises. IIt's better if you can buy it all up front now, if you can.
Best performance comes from 6 modules, but you can use 3 modules to start with. It still operates in triple channel mode, however the memory controller on the second CPU is unused in a 3-module configuration, which leads to some performance compromises. IIt's better if you can buy it all up front now, if you can.
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