Rumo ur & news
The core Apple news you need to know about
Apple’s March event saw no talk of updated Macs in any shape or form. It’s now been more than two-and-a-half years since the high-end Mac first appeared in its radically redesigned form. It’s well overdue an update, and this summer could finally be the time for Apple to beef up the Pro.
We wouldn’t expect Apple to change the Pro’s casing. It was a major industrial design success, and we’re far more likely to see changes that are restricted to the computer’s internals, unless new colours join the line-up of just black! Space Grey? Gold? Even Rose Gold? Well, nothing’s impossible!
But what about those internals? We haven’t got sales figures, so maybe Apple has been in no rush to update things if buyers are happy enough. But, as with any computer, a gap of around three years soon becomes a gulf in capability. Intel’s Xeon Skylake chips (E3 v5) are now here, so Apple may simply have been waiting for their arrival. However, they are low on cache, so not ideal for multithreaded tasks. The older but highly capable Haswell chips of the E5 v3 range might fit the bill, and they support DDR4 memory. It’ll be fascinating to see where the Mac Pro goes next. Let’s look at those potential specs in more detail…
Alan says…
I’m also eager to see how OS X’s graphics features evolve in its next release
intel xeo n e5 v3
The late 2013 Mac Pro uses Intel’s Xeon E5 v2 (Ivy Bridge)
processor family. When it launched, these were Intel’s most powerful workstation chips. Skipping Haswell (v3) may not be an option if the Pro is to retain a large cache in its processors. 10 USB 3 po rts Code in El Capitan suggests the next Mac Pro will have a whopping 10 USB 3 ports. We think this makes sense if the new model gains Thunderbolt 3, which uses a USB-C connector but with 40Gbps transfer rates.
huge flash storage Currently there’s 256GB PCIe-based flash storage included in both standard Mac Pro models, with an option of 512GB for £240,
or 1TB for £640. We expect a 2TB top-of-the-line option will be
made available for £1,000. dDR 4 suppo rt A move to Haswell processors means moving from DDR3 to DDR4 on the memory side of things. That means up to 40%
reduction in power usage, which could be just the thing for improved thermals if the casing
design remains unchanged.