Quad Core or 8 Core

[mmiller884]

First id like to say sorry if this is posted in the wrong place, i am new to this forum. ANy way, i am in the process of buying a new mac pro. I am a video editer who uses processor intensive programs such as after effects and motion. I have been looking at both the quad core and 8 core mac pros and i wasnt sure if i have a huge advantage in getting the 8 core. Which ever one i get, i will be getting a 3.0 and 4 gigs of ram. Or is 4 gigs of ram sufficient? Overall i just wanted to know what will gain by spending a couple extra bucks on the 8 core and is it worth it. Thanks for you time and any help is GREATLY appreciated

 

[jonnyd]

First id like to say sorry if this is posted in the wrong place, i am new to this forum. ANy way, i am in the process of buying a new mac pro. I am a video editer who uses processor intensive programs such as after effects and motion. I have been looking at both the quad core and 8 core mac pros and i wasnt sure if i have a huge advantage in getting the 8 core. Which ever one i get, i will be getting a 3.0 and 4 gigs of ram. Or is 4 gigs of ram sufficient? Overall i just wanted to know what will gain by spending a couple extra bucks on the 8 core and is it worth it. Thanks for you time and any help is GREATLY appreciated

I'd take a shot and say if you can afford it, go for 8.

I recently moved from a G5 1.8 single to a quad 2.66, and the one thing I noticed it absolutely BLASTS through is rendering video. This is just stuff like converting .avi to .mp4 etc, but it does it at roughly 10 x the speed the old one did.

And it seems it's purely the processor that makes the difference. The old machine has 1.25gb of RAM. The new one only has 1gb, as I haven't got round to upgrading it. So it smokes the G5 with less RAM.

My experience is that Macs love RAM. I'll probably up mine to 4gb (I live somewhere where you can't get this stuff, I have to wait till I travel).

The only fly in the ointment is that there doesn't seem to be any improvement in hard disk performance. STuff that is disk intensive really doesn't work any faster at all. Depending on what apps you're using, that would probably be another argument in favour of more RAM - I assume the more you have the less the hard disks need to work.

 

[mmiller884]

Thanks for the quick reply, yea ill probably end up with the 8 core.. The other thing i forgot to mention was i had heard that the 8 core had a couple of problems and in a month when the "santa rosa" chip becomes availabe it will be far better? is this true and is it worth waiting a month for?

 

[mac57]

There is a rumor going about that Leopard will really enhance the way Mac OS X allocates the cores on a multi core machine, allowing you to get a lot more umphhh out of more cores. So, the 8 core will stand you in good stead for the future. I would go for it if you can afford it (it *is* pricey!).

 

[Gav]

Eight core is far better, if you can afford it. & As for ram, stick with the 1GB, and then buy your memory from a third party, way cheaper.

 

[gilesjuk]

One thing is for sure, it's cheaper to get the 8 core than it is to upgrade later.

First I'm not sure Apple offers an upgrade path, second the 4 core CPUs are expensive.

I would image only some of the more recent applications from Apple will take advantage of 8 cores.

 

[sevenhelmet]

I second that. If future-proof is your priority, buy the most expensive machine you can afford. It will pay off in the long run since computers depreciate very quickly.

For video editing, I would say even if the existing software does not take advantage of all 8 cores, future versions will. The key is keeping your programs up-to-date. DO NOT BUY EXTRA RAM FROM APPLE HOWEVER. As much as I like the Apple company, they charge a hefty premium on RAM which you can easily buy from crucial.com (among others) for WAY less money and install yourself (very easy.)

 

[Redlight]

I've always understood that if you buy any other RAM but that manufactured by Apple you lose your warranty. Is that correct?

 

[baggss]

No, that's not true.

 

[Redlight]

I just checked. It doesn't void your warranty but they won't fix the problem. Hmm......