Apple Likely To Release Xeon Hexacore Mac Pro On Tuesday 16th

Apple may be gearing up to release a new Mac Pro based on the new Core i7 980X processor which comes with six cores and runs 12 threads concurrently but we've got our doubts.

The Mac Pro has historically stuck to Intel's Xeon line whereas the i7 980X is primarily a prosumer model and will be handicapped by the fact that it doesn't (shouldn't?) in theory support multi-processing.

But then, Intel is supposed to release a few Gulftown 6-core Xeon processors on the 16th of March (Tuesday), seven in all, plus another seven quad-core processors including one that goes all the way to 3.47GHz.

Or the other scenario is that Apple will be releasing a Mac Pro based on the i7-980X but, knowing how regimented the Cupertino company is, this is very, very unlikely to happen.

We suspect that Apple will completely refresh its Mac Pro range and make 6GB the minimum memory configuration available. Also expect the Geforce GT220 with 1GB to replace the existing, GT120 with 512MB and have at least 1TB hard disk.

The entry level Mac Pro costs £1940 and includes free shipping. In comparison, Ebuyer is selling a quad core computer with 4GB RAM, 1TB Hard disk drive and the ATI Radeon 5750 card for under £400.