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The Mac Pro represents the final stage in a remarkable period of Apple’s history. In the space of less than one year – 210 days, to be precise – Apple has switched its entire product line from using IBM’s ageing PowerPC processors to the latest Intel processors.
Apple's consumer-oriented machines made the switch first, starting with the iMac last January, but its professional-level PowerMac range was left using the power-hungry PowerPC G5 processor – resulting in a noticeable slow-down in sales in recent months.
It was originally thought that Apple was waiting for Intel to release its new Core 2 Duo processors, but in fact Apple surprised many people by leaping even further ahead.
Now renamed as the Mac Pro, the new high-end Mac range uses the even more powerful Xeon processor. As well as a faster front-side bus (1.33GHz, compared to 1GHz for the Core 2 Duo) the 64-bit Xeon is designed for use in multiprocessor systems.
Apple has taken advantage of this to include two Xeons in the Mac Pro, producing a powerful quad-core workstation at a pretty competitive price.
The Mac Pro ships in a single standard configuration, priced at £1,699 without a monitor. This configuration includes twin Xeon 5100 processors running at 2.66GHz, 1GB Ram, 250GB hard disk, Nvidia Geforce 7300GT graphics card with 256MB video memory and 16x dual-layer DVD writer.
You can also select a number of build-to-order options, such as increasing processor speed to 3GHz for an extra £540, or saving yourself £200 by dropping the speed down to 2GHz. That’s quite a good price for such a powerful machine, and Apple does seem to finally realise that using Intel processors means it has to compete more effectively against all the other PC manufacturers using the same processors.
Other features include two Firewire 800 ports for connecting high-speed drives – useful for audio/video work – along with two Firewire 400 and five USB2 ports. The graphics card provides dual-DVI output, so designers can use it for a twin-display set up, or hook up a TV monitor alongside the computer screen for video-editing work.
There’s plenty of scope for expansion, too. The power-hungry G5 processor required a very complex internal cooling system. With that now gone, the Mac Pro has room for four internal drive bays, four PCI-Express graphics card and eight Ram slots (for a maximum of 16GB Ram).
These features will certainly appeal to the professional designers, musicians and video editors that still represent some of Apple’s most devoted users. However, a workstation like the Mac Pro will only sell well if it can provide real speed improvements over the older PowerMac range.
This is where things get a bit complicated. In some areas, such as 3D graphics performance, the Mac Pro is a good 50 per cent faster than any previous PowerMac model.
However, there are still a few key programs – most notably Adobe Photoshop – that haven’t yet been updated to run properly on the new Intel processors. Photoshop will still run on the Mac Pro, but not at anything like the speed you might expect.
A new, so-called Universal version of Photoshop (rewritten for the Intel processor) is expected in early 2007, and people that make heavy use of Photoshop may want to stick with their existing PowerMacs until this arrives.
But, if you’re running programs such as Apple’s own Final Cut video-editor, which has already been updated for the Intel processor, the Mac Pro will be a welcome upgrade after years of watching the PowerMac range fall further and further behind its PC rivals.
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