Apple Mac Pro (Early 2008) vs Apple Mac Pro (Mid 2012)
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| AppleMac Pro (Early 2008) | AppleMac Pro (Mid 2012) | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | January 2008 | June 2012 |
| Performance | ||
| Processor | Intel Xeon E5462, 2 × Intel Xeon E5462, 2 × Intel Xeon E5472 or 2 × Intel Xeon X5482 | Intel Xeon W3565, 2 × Intel Xeon E5645, Intel Xeon W3680, 2 × Intel Xeon X5650 or 2 × Intel Xeon X5675 |
| CPU cores | 4 or 8 | 4, 6 or 12 |
| CPU threads | – | 8, 12 or 24 |
| Graphics | ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT or NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 | ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1 GB GDDR5), ATI Radeon HD 5870 (1 GB GDDR5) or 2 × ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1 GB GDDR5 per card) |
| Memory | 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB or 32 GB | 6 GB, 8 GB, 12 GB, 16 GB, 24 GB, 32 GB, 48 GB or 64 GB (better) |
| Storage | 300 GB to 1 TB | 512 GB to 2 TB (better) |
| CPU | One 2.8 GHz quad-core Xeon or two 2.8, 3.0 or 3.2 GHz quad-core Xeons; four or eight total cores. Each processor has 12 MB L2 cache (6 MB shared by each pair of cores), SSE4 and 1600 MHz independent frontside bus. EveryMac identifies E5462, E5472 and X5482 respectively. | Standard single 3.2 GHz quad-core Xeon W3565 (up to 3.46 GHz Turbo Boost) or two 2.4 GHz six-core Xeon E5645 processors (up to 2.67 GHz; twelve physical cores and 24 threads in total). Apple offers a single 3.33 GHz six-core processor or two six-core processors at 2.66 or 3.06 GHz; EveryMac identifies these original factory options as W3680, X5650 and X5675 respectively. Processor count in configurations means physical sockets, with chip figures per processor. |
| GPU | Radeon HD 2600 XT has 256 MB GDDR3, GeForce 8800 GT has 512 MB GDDR3 and Quadro FX 5600 has 1.5 GB GDDR3; each has two dual-link DVI ports. Quadro adds stereo 3D. Maker also confirms two, three or four Radeon HD 2600 XT cards; no unconfirmed mixed-card configurations expanded. | ATI Radeon HD 5770 or HD 5870 with 1 GB GDDR5; optional two HD 5770 cards with 1 GB each. Both cards have two Mini DisplayPort outputs and one dual-link DVI port. Graphics memory is per card. |
| Memory type | 800 MHz DDR2 ECC fully buffered DIMMs; eight slots on two removable risers, up to 32 GB; factory options 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32 GB | Single-processor systems have four slots and maker-supported memory up to 32 GB; dual-processor systems have eight slots and up to 64 GB. DDR3 ECC SDRAM at 1066 MHz with the 3.2 GHz CPU and 1333 MHz with the other listed CPUs; 1, 2, 4 or 8 GB DIMMs. |
| Storage type | Four independent SATA 3 Gb/s bays and up to 4 TB. Primary SATA drive options 320/500/750 GB or 1 TB at 7200 rpm; 300 GB 15,000 rpm SAS requires optional Mac Pro RAID Card. Configurations show one primary drive; additional independent drives, RAID arrangements and one or two 16x double-layer SuperDrives are separate options. | Four 3.5-inch cable-free drive bays with independent 3 Gb/s SATA channels and included carriers. Each factory bay can hold a 1 or 2 TB 7200 rpm hard drive with 32 MB cache, or a 512 GB SSD. Listed configurations describe one selected drive; optional extra drives can bring total hard-drive capacity to 8 TB. One 18x double-layer SuperDrive is standard, with an optional second optical drive. |
| Expansion slots | Four full-length PCI Express slots including two PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (one double-wide) and two x4 slots; mechanical support for x16 cards, 300 W combined maximum. PCI/PCI-X incompatible. | One double-wide PCI Express 2.0 x16 graphics slot and three further full-length slots (one x16 and two x4); 300 W combined maximum. All slots mechanically accept x16 cards. Optional dual- or quad-channel 4 Gb Fibre Channel card. |
| Display | ||
| Screen | None built in | None built in |
| Connections | ||
| Ports | 5 × USB-A, 2 × Ethernet, headphone jack | 5 × USB-A, 2 × Ethernet, headphone jack |
| Ethernet | 1 Gb/s | 1 Gb/s |
| External displays | Up to 8 | – |
| Wi-Fi | Optional 802.11n | 802.11n |
| Bluetooth | 2.0 + EDR | 2.1 + EDR |
| Front ports | Two USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800 and headphone output | Two USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire 800 ports and a headphone minijack |
| Back ports | Three USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800, two Gigabit Ethernet, optical TOSLINK input/output and analogue line input/output. DVI outputs depend on graphics configuration; included keyboard ports excluded from chassis count. | Three USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire 800 ports, two independent Gigabit Ethernet ports with jumbo-frame support, optical TOSLINK audio input and output, and analogue stereo line input and output. Graphics outputs vary by card; FireWire and DVI are described here because the main port list has no fields for them. Included keyboard has two additional USB 2.0 ports, excluded from chassis counts. |
| External displays | Up to eight 30-inch displays requires four Radeon HD 2600 XT cards. Digital resolutions up to 2560 × 1600, analogue up to 2048 × 1536 using included DVI-to-VGA adapter. | Up to three displays with one graphics card, or six with two HD 5770 cards. Digital resolution up to 2560 × 1600 and analogue up to 2048 × 1536; optional Mini DisplayPort/DVI/VGA adapters. Multichannel audio through Mini DisplayPort. |
| Speakers | Front-panel speaker | Internal speaker and front headphone output; optical and analogue audio input/output |
| Keyboard and mouse | Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse; display sold separately | Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad and Magic Mouse; optional Apple Wireless Keyboard, Apple Mouse or Magic Trackpad |
| Design and power | ||
| Type | Tower | Tower |
| Width × depth × height | 206 × 475 × 511 mm | 206 × 475 × 511 mm |
| Operating system | macOS | macOS |
| Size and weight detail | Standard-configuration weight 19.2 kg; actual weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process, so shared scalar weight omitted | Quad-core standard configuration weighs 18.1 kg; standard twelve-core configuration 18.7 kg. Actual weight varies by configuration and manufacturing process, so a shared weight is omitted. |
| Power supply | 100–120 V or 200–240 V AC, 50–60 Hz single phase; maximum 12 A in low-voltage range or 6 A in high-voltage range | AC input 100–120 V or 200–240 V, 50–60 Hz; maximum current 12 A at low voltage or 5 A at high voltage |
| Noise | – | Apple gives operator-position sound pressure of 26 dB for the 3.2 GHz model and 25 dB for the 2.4 GHz dual-processor model at idle or during hard-drive access; 42 dB during optical-drive access. Corresponding sound power is 3.7/3.5 B at idle and 4.7/5.1 B during optical access. |
| Materials | – | Recyclable aluminium enclosure; BFR-free and internal cables PVC-free |
| In the box | Mac Pro, keyboard and mouse, DVI-to-VGA adapter, USB keyboard extension cable, install/restore DVDs and documentation; Mac OS X Leopard and iLife '08 | Mac Pro, power cord, keyboard, Magic Mouse, USB keyboard extension cable and documentation. Current maker sheet describes OS X Mountain Lion and iLife; the generation was introduced before Mountain Lion. Apple also offered a server configuration with OS X Server, 8 GB memory and two 1 TB drives, supplied without keyboard or mouse; its distinct bundled software and drive arrangement are described here. |
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