Now that Apple has filed for the trademark of “Mac Pro”, it’s pretty obvious that this will be the Intel replacement of the PowerMac G5. The PowerBook, iMac, and iBook replacements all were lavished with statistics of higher performance than of the older models but the question is, will this be true of the Mac Pro?

The PowerMac is sporting a quad-core G5 which makes it the choice for multimedia professionals. It’s been a known fact that non-Universal programs such as Photoshop CS2 are having speed issues on the Intel-based Macs and coupled with the fact that Adobe is pretty much set on a 2007 update, this could put the Mac Pro at risk if it can’t overcome the slow factor.

Macworld tested PowerMacs against the MacBook Pro in February and found in all but three tests (boot-up, frame rate, and packing a zip archive) that the G5 processor was still mightier than the Intel dual-core chips. Universal binaries will be sure to change those numbers; however, by how much? If rumors are close to being accurate, we could see Mac Pros by summer giving about six months (at least) before Adobe, Microsoft, and other Universal hold outs release updates for the new faster Intel chips.

But what if Steve’s got a trick up his sleeve? (Surprised?) What if the Mac Pro will get two dual-core chips? That’ll make it a quad-core-like chip much like the G5 it will replace. With the extra umph, this may be enough to ignore the slower rendering and other issues of Photoshop and such like applications. Think of the power of the Mac Pro when Universal binaries come out! Could it be this is the game plan? Could it be?

Speculation is a great thing, but some validity can made to such incredible stories with some foundation. Truth is, Intel is coming to the PowerMac replacement. Intel’s chips have come down in price and stuffing more in to the top-of-the-line Mac is a no-brainer. Universal applications will be the norm of Mac software life by summer of 2007. All things will come together eventually and yes, then, the Mac Pro will be better than the PowerMac. Way better.

4 Responses to “Will Mac Pro Have Enough Gusto to Beat the PowerMac It Replaces?”

1. James Katt Says:
   May 26th, 2006 at 11:49

   I want my Octo-core Intel-Mac Pro!!!! Four Core 2 Duo processors = 8 cores! = blinding speed!

2. David Says:
   May 26th, 2006 at 13:14

   The Mac Pro will have plenty of horsepower and the marketing department will add enough shit to make you think there’s a whole team of horses at your command. However I think the reality will be that unless you buy a super expensive Intel quad core that most CS2 users would be better served by a reasonably priced G5. I expect Apple will leave a G5 on the market until the end of the year just as they did with the G4 when they declared OS 9 dead. Today the G5 tower looks ridiculously overpriced, particularly when you realize that even the Quad doesn’t support Aperture until you upgrade the video card. BTW Intel does have chips with 4 cores on a single die and certain very important customers already have their hands on prototypes. Don’t be surprised when the replacement for the Quad G5 only has one CPU.

3. Scott Says:
   May 26th, 2006 at 16:24

   
   
   “Think of the power of the Mac Pro when Universal binaries come out!”

   The only word of caution old-timers like me can offer is the historical precedent of the transition TO PowerPC chips. We were all promised dramatic gains in performance when PowerPC native apps finally arrived. When they did, it was, at best, only a slight increase in speed – more in line with the year to year increases one would expect as processors got faster.

   Also, we should remember the head to head speed comparisons between quad G5s and their intel contemporaries, which was an overall even match.

   Personally, I expect to only see modest speed gains, in line with the speed advantage one years worth of extra chip development intel has. Hopefully, intel will have something with 64 bit capabilities by the time the Mac Pro is released; so our lab coat wearing friends (aka those with massive data sets) don’t get hosed in the transition too.

   Keeping my fingers crossed.

4. etype Says:
   June 20th, 2006 at 17:59

   As a Quad owner and 3D artist using macs….i regularly check performance against x86 systems. Almost all x86 systems trounce macs in opengl display…this is because of directx and a highlevel of optimization and collaboration between card vendors,driver developers and Microsoft.
   However with rendering, which is where systems can be compared directely. Even the dualcore 2 ghz is faster than any wintel system except the Opteron and 3.6 ghz Xenon. The Quad is faster than any existing quad Xenon, and only exceeded by a Quad Opteron, which is the fastest chip bar none.
   If IBM would have been good on thier promise of a 3 ghz (Quad)…one can easily extrapolate the G5 Quad 3 ghz would definetly smoke all comers.
   Apple is switching chips because only Intel can give them a low power/heat mobile chip. That and the intel strategy defintely puts Apple inside the enemies touchdown zone…expect disparities in graphic card and peripheral options to slowly fade away.