Mac Pro April 2007 Intel Xeon Page

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64-bit Quad Xeon. Up to 3GHz.

Inside every Mac Pro resides two new Dual-Core Intel Xeon “Woodcrest” processors. Running at up to 3GHz, they bring industry-leading, 64-bit, quad-core performance to every Mac Pro.

A+ to Xeon

Based on Intel’s next-generation Core micro-architecture, the 64-bit Dual-Core Intel Xeon processor combines both high performance and power efficiency. Designed for systems with multiple processors — like Mac Pro — it runs at clock speeds of 2GHz, 2.66GHz, or 3GHz. And it delivers the fastest Mac ever, one that runs up to 2x faster than the Power Mac G5 Quad.¹

Yet, because Intel designed this dual-core Xeon to be more efficient, it consumes less power than similar workstation-level processors, so your system fans don’t have to work as hard to keep them cool. Working hand in glove with Mac OS X Tiger, it also continues the tradition of enabling 64-bit computation. Ideal for scientific applications, the 64-bit Intel Xeon processors can express the extreme precision needed for floating-point mathematics and to express integers up to 18 billion billion. It also allows Mac Pro to surpass the 4GB memory limit of 32-bit processors.

Speedy System Architecture

Augmenting the speed delivered by the processors, the system architecture features 1.33GHz dual independent front-side buses that maximize the performance of the dual-core, dual-processor system and deliver maximum processor bandwidth of up to 21.3 GB/s. The Dual-Core Intel Xeon processor also offers an enhanced SSE3 vector engine. Capable of delivering 128-bit vector computations in a single cycle, the SSE3 vector engine accelerates data manipulation by simultaneously applying a single instruction to multiple data — ideal for transforming large sets of data, such as applying a filter to an image or rendering a video effect.

Count on the Cache

Performance also benefits from 4MB of shared L2 cache per processor. The availability of that much L2 cache enhances processor performance by keeping data and instructions closer to the processor cores. What’s more, the Dual-Core Intel Xeon takes advantage of Intel Advanced Smart Cache technology. Smart Cache allows either of the two cores to utilize all 4MB of cache if the other core happens to be idle.

A new Fully-Buffered Memory Standard

All Mac Pro workstations support a new, fully-buffered memory standard that allows for more memory capacity, higher speed memory, and better memory reliability. You can install up to 16GB of 667MHz DDR2 fully-buffered Error-Correcting Code (ECC) memory in every Mac Pro system.

And with its 256-bit-wide memory architecture, Mac Pro offers 2x the width of the memory architecture in the Power Mac G5. If you’re looking to see a boost in application performance, the new Mac Pro will make your wildest performance dreams come true.

Mac Pro Application Performance²

Luxology modo 202 (3D Rendering)

1.8x

Logic Pro 7.2.2 (Reverb plug-ins)

1.8x

Soundtrack Pro 1.1 (Common application tasks)

1.6x

Final Cut Pro (HDV render and encode)

1.4x

Cinebench 9.5 (Multiple-processor rendering test)

1.4x

Power Mac G5 (Quad 2.5GHz G5)

Baseline

Mac Pro Science and Technology Performance ³

Xcode 2.3 (Build project)

1.8x

PyMOL .99 (CPU performance)

1.5x

OsiriX 2.4 (Volume and surface render)

1.4x

Mathematica 5.2.2 (MathematicaMark5.2)

1.4

Power Mac G5 (Quad 2.5GHz G5)

Baseline

Up to 2x Faster Than Power Mac G5 Quad¹

^{SPEC CPU2000 performance}

Quad G5	Quad Xeon	Δ
53.8	115.3	2.1X
SPECint_rate_base2000 Integer calculation (estimate)

Quad G5	Quad Xeon	Δ
47.9	76.4	1.6X
SPECfp_rate_base2000 Floating-point calculation (estimate)

1. Testing conducted by Apple in July 2006 using preproduction 3GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 Quad units. SPEC® is a registered trademark of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC); see www.spec.org for more information.
2. Testing conducted by Apple in July 2006 using preproduction 3GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 Quad units. Mac Pro testing was conducted with beta versions of modo, Logic Pro, and Final Cut Pro. All systems were configured with 4 gigabytes of RAM. modo test files = BathFaucet.lxo and Couch.lxo.
3. Testing conducted by Apple in July 2006 using preproduction 3GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 Quad units. All systems were configured with 4 gigabytes of RAM. Xcode results based on build time of AdiumX 0.89. PyMOL results based on CPU-based tests from the built-in PyMOL Wizard Benchmark. OsiriX test file = DICOM sample image set MANIX.