Apple release professional grade Intel Macs, with up to 3GHz of quad core computing power.

Fastest Mac ever for graphics professionals – the Mac Pro

For Mac graphic designers the wait is over, as Apple to release their professional grade computers.

Apple have released the replacement to their high-end G5 driven computers, the Mac Pro. The new range of Mac Pro workstations are powered by 64-bit Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors and complete the transition of Apple computers to the Intel processor.

Running at speeds of 2GHz, 2.66GHz and 3GHz the new Macs contain 2 Dual-core processors, making them essentially quad-core machines.

Apple's own tests claim the Mac Pros are up to 2 times the speed of the Power Mac G5 computers. However, for graphic designers it may still be too soon to jump ship to the Intel chip powerhouses.

The reason for this is that not all graphics software publishers have converted their applications to universal binary, which allows them to be installed on either PowerPC based Macintoshes, or the new Intel Macs. Older PowerPC software will still run on Intel Macs, but not at full speed. Quark are ahead of Adobe in this case and have just released QuarkXpress 7 in universal binary format, to coincide with Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Adobe CS3 for Macintosh is not reported to be ready until the middle of 2007, at the earliest. Although, a downloadable beta of Photoshop CS3 has recently been released.

Another reason that may prompt Mac designers to hold-off from purchasing a Mac Pro immediately, is the recent announcement, by Intel, of the release of its Core 2 Duo suite of processors. There have been no announcements as to when, or whether, the next batch of Mac Pros will come with these chips installed. But, if Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 3 is not out until 2007, then graphics professionals may decide to hang on for the very fastest Macs available at that time.

Graphics cards choices

Apple has been keen to push the customizability of the new Mac Pro computers and claims 4 million build-to-order options. This extends to the choice of graphics card and a new Mac Pro can be custom built with a choice of three graphics cards. The NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT comes with the standard configuration, but the faster ATI Radeon X1900 XT may be desirable for high end graphics, 3D design or video and broadcast work. The top of the range Quadro FX 4500 provides a 3D stereo graphics port for stereo-in-a-window applications and is targeted at high-end scientific visualization.

Hard disks storage, memory and expansion slots

It is possible to add up to 2 terabytes of internal hard disk storage to an Apple Mac Pro, although the standard configuration comes with a single 250GB SATA hard drive. The Mac Pro uses 667MHz fully-buffered ECC memory and, with eight slots, it is possible to add up to 16GB of RAM memory.

External hard disk storage solutions are addressed with 4 Firewire ports, 2 of which are Firewire 800. It is possible to install up to two 16x SuperDrives which support dual-layer DVDs and there are also numerous other expansion options for audio DSP solutions, video capture cards, data acquisition devices or a Fiber Channel card.

Apple's web site

7 August 2006

Other Apple Macintosh and graphics hardware resources

• Mac software backwards compatibility – forum discussion.
• Switching from PC to Mac
• Buying a Mac for design
• Apple wireless Might Mouse
• Apple OS X Boot Camp
• Apple Using Intel Chips
• Mac Designers Forums
• Apple cuts price of broadcast software
• Mac Resources
• Intel iMacs released – iMacs with Core 2 Duo processors.
• Xeon processor for Macs