Photoshop’s memory was set to 70 percent and History was set to Minimum. The Photoshop Suite test is a set of 14 scripted tasks using a 50MB file. All systems were running Mac OS X 10.5.1 with 2GB of RAM. Adobe Photoshop, Cinema 4D XL, iMovie, iTunes, and Finder scores are in minutes:seconds. Speedmark 5 scores are relative to those of a 1.5GHz Core Solo Mac mini, which is assigned a score of 100. Note that these upgrades alone approach the price of the base system, and that we have not tested this configuration.īest results in red. However, to reap the benefit of the storage improvements, it’ll cost you extra for an optional RAID card ($800) and speedy SAS (serial-attached SCSI-$1,450 for two) drives-but the extra cost may be worth it, depending on your needs. The new Eight-Core 2.8GHz Mac Pro sports enhancements in all of these areas.

Memory must be able to keep up with processors, storage must rapidly fulfill data requests, and expansion slots must swiftly supply displays and drives with pixels and bits. Successful computer design is all about balance.

Just make sure that you build upon its sturdy base the configuration that best fits the tasks you want to perform. If you’re a multimedia pro-videographer, professional photographer, or audio pro-the Mac Pro is the machine you want to use.

And one of the base model’s most attractive features is that it’s just that: a great base upon which to build a truly fearsome-fast machine.

8 core mac pro original