king - hungry computer pro are always looking for tool to speed up time - consuming job . Many hotshot expect straight to the top of the parentage when shopping for a novel Mac . Apple ’s professional column , the highly configurable Mac Pro , recently added another choice that feature eight processing cores , all running at 3GHz . For package computer programmer eager to help their applications take advantage of multicore systems , or for Mac users who regularly spend hours compressing video or rendering 3 - 500 scenes , purchasing the eight - core Mac Pro makes sense . Our testing , however , shows that most people would be attend just as well by a less - expensive quad - core Mac Pro ( ) .

While it ’s true that processor speeds continue to make modest gains , these days most maker are brag multiple processors on their chips , a change from the past tense , when C.P.U. vendor enjoyed frequent , remarkable leaps in individual processor speeds . In fact , every Mac in Apple ’s current merchandise phone line is using at least double - meat Intel processor — the rest of the Mac Pro C.P.U. options feature two threefold - core processors draw at 2GHz , 2.66GHz , or 3GHz . The unexampled eight - core Mac Pro uses two 3GHz quadriceps femoris - center Intel Xeon processors . The problem with this multicore strategy is that throwing more processors at a Book of Job does n’t always mean that the task will finish quicker .

Aside from the new processor selection , the Mac Pro remains unchanged , with four uncommitted SATA hard drive bay ; two ocular drive bays ; 1 GB of full buffered , 667MHz ECC DDR memory ( expandible to up to 16 GB ) ; four PCI Express card slot ; and a choice of three different graphics card . Apple claim the number of potential Mac Pro form to be over 33 million . I ’m not inclined to check the math , so let ’s just take the company ’s word for it .

for try and isolate the public presentation difference the new C.P.U. makes in the Mac Pro , we used Apple ’s recommended configuration for the most part , but swop the standard two 2.66GHz double - core processors ( the quad - core option ) for two 3GHz quad - core central processing unit ( the eight - heart and soul option)—a $ 1,498 upgrade . Our eight - core Mac Pro has 1 GB of RAM , a 250 GB eSATA hard drive , 16X dual layer SuperDrive , and an Nvidia GeForce 7300GT graphics posting with 256 M of dedicated video recording memory .

By using the same conformation on both motorcar , it is well-heeled to see where and how the unlike processors impact performance . In the bulk of our testing , in which task were performed one at a sentence , doubling the processors did n’t make much of a deviation . In fact , the eight - effect processor was just 4 percent faster than the musculus quadriceps femoris - core 3GHz Mac Pro in our Speedmark overall system bench mark . We use Speedmark to test everything from Mac minis to Mac Pros . Some of Speedmark ’s program trial see no benefit from multiple central processing unit , and some , like our Microsoft Office tests , still rely on Apple ’s Rosetta rendering software program to melt on the Mac Pro ’s Intel processors .

One test that did see enceinte improvement with eight processing cores was our 3 - vitamin D rendition run using Cinema 4D. Running this test , it ’s well-off to see how well this broadcast take vantage of all of the processors in a system . The depict windowpane carve up itself into eight horizontal clod , and you’re able to learn each area being drawn simultaneously . In this test , the eight - Congress of Racial Equality 3GHz system was 44 percent faster than the quad - core 3GHz model , finishing the job in just 14 seconds ; the quad take 25 seconds .

The other trial that showed measurable improvement , however small , was encoding a movie using Compressor 3 . Running Compressor 3 with multiple cores gets complicated . Many of the concretion codecs are not optimized for parallel processing , so to get the dependable performance , you ask to use Apple ’s Qmaster , a public utility included with Final Cut Studio that allows you to set up and share a bunch make up of your system ’s internal CPU cores . In the Qmaster control panel , you may set a cluster to handle a specific number of cores by configure Instances . ( you could also expend Qmaster to put unwarranted computers on your connection to work on tasks , but for our tests we used only our home processors . ) Our DVD encryption mental testing worked best when part the processors up into four instances . When we did this , the eight - effect machine managed to extort out velocity improvement of between 9 to 15 percent over the quad - core group model .

To see how additional RAM might affect performance , we configured each system with 4 GB of RAM and ran the professional app mental test again . With the extra memory , the eight - core model ended up get ahead each of our professional program tests . sum up the RAM serve each electronic computer snip a 2nd or two off of the Photoshop and Compressor tryout , but our Cinema 4D render tryout is almost entirely processor driven and was unaffected by the extra RAM .

To see how multiple gist might help a arrangement work multiple undertaking at the same time , we created something of a torment examination : We ran three professional programme tests while time the Photoshop suite . When run alone , there was very little difference of opinion between the prison term it took the eight - core and the quadriceps - core Mac Pro to finish the Photoshop suite . While run this special agony test , the eight - core model took 86 pct longer to fill in the Photoshop part of the test . Overall , that exemplar was still 24 percent faster than the quad - core Mac Pro when running the entire multiple - program tryout with 4 GB of RAM . The eight - magnetic core Mac Pro was 44 percent faster than our 2.5GHz quad - inwardness G5 Power Macintosh in this test . For comparison ’s sake , the quad - core 3GHz Mac Pro was 26 percent faster than the 2.5GHz quadriceps - heart and soul G5 .

[ While this piece was being edit , Apple released both the OS XTC 10.4.10 rising slope and an update to its pro applications , include Final Cut Pro . A quick retest of the eight - core Mac Pro with 4 GB of RAM encounter no difference in test scores . ]

Eight-Core Mac Pro Benchmarks

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Speedmark 4.5 lashings are proportional to those of a 1.25GHz Mac miniskirt , which is assigned a score of 100 . Adobe Photoshop , Cinema 4D XL , iMovie , iTunes , and Finder scores are in minutes : secondment . All systems were run Mac OS X 10.4.9 with 1 GB of RAM , with processor execution set to Highest in the Energy Saver preference pane when applicable . The Photoshop Suite examination is a set of 14 written project using a 50 MB Indian file . Photoshop ’s memory was set to 70 percentage and story was ready to Minimum . We recorded how long it took to render a scene in Cinema 4D XL . We used Compressor to encode a 6 min and 26 second foresightful DV file using the videodisc : Fastest Encode 120 bit – 4:3 setting , using Apple ’s Qmaster software to create a two - instance bunch to action the caper . In iMovie , we applied the cured video effect to a 1 - mo movie . We converted 45 minutes of AAC audio files to MP3 using iTunes ’ High Quality setting . We used Unreal Tournament 200 ’ Antalus Botmatch modal - physical body - per - minute score ; we tested at a declaration of 1,024 by 768 pixels at the Maximum mise en scene with both sound recording and graphics enabled . We create a zilch archive in the Finder from a 1 GB folder . To compare Speedmark 4.5 scores for various Mac system , visit our Apple Hardware Guide .—MACWORLD LAB examination BY JAMES GALBRAITH , BRIAN CHEN , AND JERRY JUNG

4GB RAM Tests

All test are in minutes : seconds . All systems were running Mac OS X 10.4.9 with 4 GB of RAM , with processor performance set to Highest in the Energy Saver preference pane when applicable . The Photoshop Suite test is a hardening of 14 written project using a 50 M file . Photoshop ’s memory was place to 70 percent and History was rig to Minimum . We recorded how long it call for to interpret a conniption in Cinema 4D XL . We used Compressor to encode a 6 minutes and 26 moment long DV single file using the videodisc : Fastest Encode 120 second – 4:3 setting , using Apple ’s Qmaster software package to create a two - case cluster to process the line of work . For the Pro App torture test , we enter how long it took Photoshop to go our stock psychometric test suite while a farseeing Cinema 4D task and our Compressor encode test ran in the background.—MACWORLD LAB TESTING BY JAMES GALBRAITH , BRIAN CHEN , AND JERRY JUNG

2GB RAM Tests

All tests are in min : seconds . All systems were run Mac OS X 10.4.9 with 2 GB of RAM , with processor carrying into action set to Highest in the Energy Saver preference pane when applicable . The Photoshop Suite test is a set of 14 scripted tasks using a 50 Bachelor of Medicine single file . Photoshop ’s memory was position to 70 percent and chronicle was set to Minimum . We recorded how long it took to give a aspect in Cinema 4D XL . We used Compressor to encode a 6 minute of arc and 26 second long DV file using the videodisc : Fastest Encode 120 minute – 4:3 circumstance , using Apple ’s Qmaster software to create a two - instance cluster to process the job . For the Pro App torture test , we record how long it take Photoshop to run our standard test cortege while a long Cinema 4D task and our Compressor encode test scat in the background.—MACWORLD LAB TESTING BY JAMES GALBRAITH , BRIAN CHEN , AND JERRY JUNG

Macworld’s buying advice

If metre is money , upgrading to a Mac Pro from the last coevals of PowerPC - base Mac towers probably makes good financial sense . But the eight - core 3GHz Mac Pro showed only very modest improvement in the majority of our testing over a stock configuration Mac Pro . Unless you ’re an program developer wait to optimize your programs for multicore processing , or a user of the small handful of practical program that are already multiprocessor aware , a quad - core Mac will believably give you more bang for your buck .

[ Jim Galbraith isMacworld ’s laboratory director . ]

[ EDITOR ’S NOTE : This article was update to correctly signal the type of knockout drive located in the Mac Pro . ]