14 DAY TRIAL // Trying to lay off some of the intense tablet talk, tech-sites are now speculating on Macintosh upgrades that are said to be in the pipeline for the nearby future. Apple’s powerful Mac Pro workstations are allegedly getting i7 upgrades, if we’re to believe HardMac’s analysis. Others have revealed that current configurations are suffering from CPU overload.
The HardMac report claims Apple is on the verge of introducing new, high-end configurations of its powerful Mac Pro systems, even throwing in a possible launch date – March 16. “Apparently only the high-end Intel Xeon Core i7-980X will initially be available. Clocked at 3.33 GHz, its TurboBoost mode will allow it to reach 3.6 GH. The Core i7-970X will be clocked at 3.2 GHz, with a 3.46 GHz TurboBoost,” the report says. HardMac admits that this would be the case only “if Intel [...] releases a single hexacore Xeon initially, then Apple will not have much choice and most likely only the high-end model of Mac Pro will evolve...”
Another Mac Pro story, this time by Ars Technica, reveals that Mac Pros exhibit a strange behavior when using iTunes, QuickTime or keeping USB audio interfaces plugged in. The site claims, “The problem manifests as what has been described as excessive increases in power use and processor core heat.” Ars cites a young hacker “involved in the hackintosh scene” who may have isolated the cause of these issues. The person believes the driver that controls newer features of the Nehalem Xeons is at fault. This includes SpeedStep and Turbo Boost.
By generating a hacked power-management kernel extension that disabled these features, the hacker was able to eliminate the high heat and power-draw issues, while playing audio using the aforementioned applications. The CPU immediately began to draw more power at idle, as soon as SpeedStep was disabled, the report says.