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Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 HDV rendering
Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 ProRes rendering
Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 HDV encoding
Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 ProRes encoding
After Effects CS3 Nightflight benchmark

Final Cut Pro. HDV rendering.

Select your system:
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz
Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (previous generation)

Power Mac G5 Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.8x

Up to 1.8x faster than Power Mac G5 Quad

Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 1.4x

Up to 1.4x faster with standard 8-core system

Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.2x

8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro performance

Final Cut Pro. ProRes rendering.

Select your system:
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz
Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (previous generation)

Power Mac G5 Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.8x

Up to 1.8x faster than Power Mac G5 Quad

Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 1.4x

Up to 1.4x faster with standard 8-core system

Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.2x

8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro performance

Final Cut Studio. HDV encoding.

Select your system:
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz
Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (previous generation)

Power Mac G5 Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 2.5x

Up to 2.5x faster than Power Mac G5 Quad

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 Quad units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Content was encoded using the Compressor H.264 for iPod Video 640x480 preset and Qmaster with 8 instances for the 8-core system and 4 instances for the quad-core system. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 1.9x

Up to 2.3x greater with standard 8-core system

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro units and shipping quad-core 2.66GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Content was encoded using the Compressor H.264 for iPod Video 640x480 preset and Qmaster with 8 instances for the 8-core system and 4 instances for the quad-core system. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.1x

8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro performance

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 8-core 3.0GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Content was encoded using the Compressor H.264 for iPod Video 640x480 preset and Qmaster with 8 instances. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Final Cut Studio. ProRes encoding.

Select your system:
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz
Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (previous generation)

Power Mac G5 Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 2.0x

Up to 2.0x faster than Power Mac G5 Quad

Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 1.3x

Up to 1.3x faster with standard 8-core system

Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.1x

8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro performance

After Effects CS3. Nightflight benchmark.

Mac Pro 2008: Performance and Productivity for Creative Pros.

Report by Pfeiffer Consulting. Download PDF

Select your system:
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz
Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (previous generation)

Power Mac G5 Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 2.8x

Up to 2.8x faster than Power Mac G5 Quad

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 Quad units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. After Effects test file = nightflight.aep from http://images.digitalmedianet.com/2005/Week_25/dy0j31w2/story/nightflight.aep. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 1.9x

Up to 2.3x greater with standard 8-core system

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro units and shipping quad-core 2.66GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. After Effects test file = nightflight.aep from http://images.digitalmedianet.com/2005/Week_25/dy0j31w2/story/nightflight.aep. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.1x

8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro performance

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 8-core 3.0GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. After Effects test file = nightflight.aep from http://images.digitalmedianet.com/2005/Week_25/dy0j31w2/story/nightflight.aep. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Photoshop CS3. 45-filter function.

Mac Pro 2008: Performance and Productivity for Creative Pros.

Report by Pfeiffer Consulting. Download PDF

Select your system:
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz
Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (previous generation)

Power Mac G5 Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.6x

Up to 1.6x faster than Power Mac G5 Quad

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 Quad units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Photoshop test file size = 400MB. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 1.3x

Up to 1.3x faster with standard 8-core system

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro units and shipping quad-core 2.66GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Photoshop test file size = 400MB. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.2x

8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro performance

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 8-core 3.0GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Photoshop test file size = 400MB. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Maya 2008 Mental Ray 3D rendering
modo 301 3D rendering
Cinebench 10.1 Multiprocessor rendering

Maya 2008. Mental Ray 3D rendering.

Select your system:
Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz
Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (previous generation)

Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 2.1x

Up to 2.1x faster with standard 8-core system

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro units and shipping quad-core 2.66GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Test file = Benchmark_Maya.mb from www.zoorender.com/benchmark. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.2x

8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro performance

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 8-core 3.0GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Test file = Benchmark_Maya.mb from www.zoorender.com/benchmark. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

modo 301. 3D rendering.

Select your system:
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz
Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (previous generation)

Power Mac G5

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 4.0x

Up to 4.0x faster than Power Mac G5 Quad

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 Quad units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Test files = BathFaucet.lxo and Couch.lxo. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 2.0x

Up to 2x faster with standard 8-core system

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro units and shipping quad-core 2.66GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Test files = BathFaucet.lxo and Couch.lxo. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.1x

8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro performance

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 8-core 3.0GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Test files = BathFaucet.lxo and Couch.lxo. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Cinebench 10.1. Multiple-processor rendering.

Select your system:
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz
Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (previous generation)

Power Mac G5 Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 3.0x

Up to 3.0x faster than Power Mac G5 Quad

Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 1.9x

Up to 1.9x faster with standard 8-core system

Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.1x

8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro performance

Logic Pro 8.0.1 Platinum Verb reverb
Logic Pro 8.0.1 Sculpture modeling synth

Logic Pro 8.0.1. Number of concurrently playing Platinum Verb reverb plug-ins.

Select your system:
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz
Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (previous generation)

Power Mac G5 Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 2.6x

Up to 2.6x greater than Power Mac G5 Quad

Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 2.3x

Up to 2.3x greater with standard 8-core system

Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.2x

8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro performance

Logic Pro 8.0.1. Number of concurrently playing sculpture modeling synths.

Select your system:
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz
Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (previous generation)

Power Mac G5 Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.9x

Up to 1.9x greater than Power Mac G5 Quad

Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 1.8x

Up to 1.8x greater with standard 8-core system

Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.2x

OsiriX 2.7.5. Volume and surface render.

Select your system:
Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz
Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (previous generation)

Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 1.2x

Up to 1.2x faster with standard 8-core system

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro units and shipping quad-core 2.66GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Test file = DICOM sample image set MANIX. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.1x

8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro performance

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 8-Core 3.0GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Test file = DICOM sample image set MANIX. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

PyMOL 1.0. Wizard benchmark CPU-based tests.

Select your system:
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz
Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (previous generation)

Power Mac G5 Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 2.1x

Up to 2.1x faster than Power Mac G5 Quad

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 Quad units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. PyMOL results are based on ray trace–based tests from the built-in PyMOL Wizard Benchmark, modified for 4 threads for the quad-core system and 8 threads for the 8-core system. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 1.4x

Up to 1.4x faster with standard 8-core system

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro units and shipping quad-core 2.66GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. PyMOL results are based on ray trace–based tests from the built-in PyMOL Wizard Benchmark, modified for 4 threads for the quad-core system and 8 threads for the 8-core system. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.2x

8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro performance

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 8-core 3.0GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. PyMOL results are based on ray trace–based tests from the built-in PyMOL Wizard Benchmark, modified for 4 threads for the quad-core system and 8 threads for the 8-core system. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Mathematica 6.0.1 MathematicaMark6
Xcode 3.0 Build project

Mathematica 6.0.1 Personal Grid Edition. MathematicaMark6.

Select your system:
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz
Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (previous generation)

Power Mac G5 Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 2.9x

Up to 2.9x faster than Power Mac G5 Quad

Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 1.8x

Up to 1.8x faster with standard 8-core system

Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.3x

8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro performance

Xcode 3.0. Build project.

Select your system:
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz
Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (previous generation)

Power Mac G5 Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 2.8x

Up to 2.8x faster than Power Mac G5 Quad

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 Quad units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Results based on build time of Adium 1.2. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 1.6x

Up to 1.6x faster with standard 8-core system

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro units and shipping quad-core 2.66GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Results based on build time of Adium 1.2. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 3.2GHz 1.2x

8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro performance

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 8-core 3.0GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Results based on build time of Adium 1.2. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

SPEC CPU2006 CFP2006 and CINT2006
STREAM Memory throughput

CINT2006 Rate and CFP2006 Rate. Integer and floating-point calculation results.

Select your system:
Mac Pro Quad 2.66GHz
Mac Pro 8-core 3.0GHz (previous generation)

Up to 1.9x faster with standard 8-core system

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro units and shipping quad-core 2.66GHz Mac Pro units. SPEC® is a registered trademark of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC); see www.spec.org for more information. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

Compared to previous generation

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units and shipping 8-core 3.0GHz Mac Pro units. SPEC® is a registered trademark of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC); see www.spec.org for more information. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

STREAM. Memory throughput.

Mac Pro Quad-core 2.66GHz Baseline

Mac Pro 8-core 2.8GHz 1.6x

Up to 1.6x greater than previous Mac Pro

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro units and shipping quad-core 2.66GHz Mac Pro units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Results are based on the STREAM v. 5.6 benchmark (www.cs.virginia.edu/stream/ref.html) using OMP support for multiprocessor-compiled builds. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT (previous standard) vs. ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT and NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 64 fps

ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 88 fps

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 141 fps

Doom 3 frames per second

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, and ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT units; and shipping quad-core 2.66GHz Mac Pro NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT units. All systems were configured with 4GB of RAM. Tested using Doom 3 v1.3.1 TimeDemo 1, high video quality, at 1024 by 768. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

SAS vs. SATA RAID 5 Disk I/O performance
Final Cut Pro Streams RAID 5 performance

SAS RAID 5 vs SATA RAID 5. Read and write performance.

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units. Testing was conducted using Iometer 2006.07.27 with a 30-second ramp-up, 5-minute run duration, 512KB request size, and 4 outstanding IOs. The test system was configured in a two-volume configuration with a single JBOD drive for the OS and the remaining three drives as the test volume on which Iometer tests were performed. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro RAID Card.

Simultaneous Final Cut Pro streams. Three-drive SAS RAID 5 vs. SATA RAID 5 performance.

Testing conducted by Apple in December 2007 using preproduction 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro units. Testing was conducted using simultaneous unique 10-minute clips for each content type. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro RAID Card.