#Mac pro desktop 2008 mac os x#
#Mac pro desktop 2008 install#
#Mac pro desktop 2008 software#

While all eight cores are displayed, notice how in this situation the eighth core itself is apparently completely free, even though the Project is rather busy.To test the performance of the new 3.2GHz processors, I installed Logic Pro 8.0.1 (the Mac was running OS 10.5.2) and ran the usual assortment of reverb and instrument performance tests using the built-in audio hardware with a buffer size of 512 samples. Logic Pro's use of multiple cores is somewhat quirky, as you can see here. Testing TimesĪctivity Monitor is a useful way of checking how much of your Mac's resources your applications are making use of, even when such applications report a system overload.

#Mac pro desktop 2008 install#

And if you really want a huge amount of memory, it's now possible to install up to 32GB, which will admittedly add £5760 to the cost of your Mac Pro from the Apple Store, which comes with 2GB as standard. If you use your Mac for other, non-musical tasks, such as running virtual machines or a number of other, memory-hungry applications simultaneously, more RAM is always a bonus.

Even taking into account the fact that Logic Pro 8's EXS24 sampler can now address more than this allocation, for pre-loading samples that are to be streamed from disk using the plug-in's Virtual Memory feature, 8GB would probably be a more sensible amount in terms of price and performance. To begin with, having 16GB of memory installed in the Mac Pro is probably overkill for current music and audio applications, all of which are still 32-bit, meaning that the maximum amount of memory accessible to each is around 3GB. To find out for sure, this month I got my hands on a top-of-the range, dual quad-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro with 16GB memory, Apple's optional SAS RAID card, and an Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT graphics card with 512MB memory. Available with clock speeds of up to 3.2GHz, among the highlights of these new chips is that each processor has a 12MB Level-2 cache and operates on a 1600MHz system bus, which ought to provide fairly good performance for power-hungry music and audio software. Here you can see how the new Mac Pro performs relative to other Mac systems.We briefly covered the introduction of Apple's latest range of Mac Pros, which make use of Intel's latest Xeon processors, in March's Apple Notes ( mar08/articles/applenotes_0308.htm).

#Mac pro desktop 2008 mac os x#

While its chassis remains the same as the PowerMac G5 when introduced in 2003 - disappointingly unsuitable for easily mounting in a rack - Apple continue to provide the latest components on the inside, making the Mac Pro one of the most capable workstations available, no matter whether you run Mac OS X or Windows as your operating system. It's been almost two years since Apple replaced the PowerMac G5 with the Intel-based Mac Pro, and as Apple's high-end desktop system the Mac Pro continues the PowerMac's legacy as the system of choice for musicians and audio engineers requiring the ultimate performance. But how much power? We run some tests to find out.

#Mac pro desktop 2008 software#

The current top-end Mac Pro offers so much power that some audio software is playing catch-up just to be able to make use of it all.