A Little Positive Apple Analysis
Linked by mjhi11 on Thu 16th Sep 2010 20:13 UTC
Apple I love OSNews, but it does seem like some of its editors enjoy just a little too much taking a good natured jab at Apple upon occasion (well, more like every chance that particular editor can get). I thought it time for a little good news and analysis about Apple that critics often overlook.
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The Apple Tax
by Drumhellar on Fri 17th Sep 2010 06:27 UTC
Drumhellar
Member since:
2005-07-12

I just compared the standard 12-core Xeon Mac Pro with an equally equipped system from Lenovo, and was surprised to find the Lenovo system cost about $600 extra. The systems were configured as close to identical as possible.

A caveat is that with the Lenovo system, only nVidia Quadro or ATI FirePro cards are available, while the MacPro offers only Radeon graphics.

While the hardware differences between gaming and workstation graphics are minimal these days, driver design is much different, and is optimized for workstation tasks, and for specific apps. It is known that graphics performance under MacOS X is less than that of Windows.

Workstation graphics also offer other features not found on desktop graphics, such as GenLock (Standard on most nVidia hardware, optional on AMD). They also tend to offer greater display connectivity.

Of course, the Mac Pro line has been recently updated. Apple tends to have very long product cycles, and rarely drop their prices. A year from now, the same hardware will cost the same price from Apple, while competitors will offer newer hardware, and lower prices on older, comparable goods.

This is where the Apple tax begins to show up.

Reply Score: 4

Are you spec'ng computers for Pixar?
by nt_jerkface on Sat 18th Sep 2010 00:32 in reply to "The Apple Tax"
nt_jerkface Member since:
2009-08-26

Going past 4 cores is just dick waving in 99.9% of cases.

The fact that the $5k 12 core Mac only comes with 1gb of video ram shows that they are not targeting professionals with it. If any desktop user could max out a desktop with 12 cores it would be a 3D designer who at that level would expect to have a 2gb gpu.

That computer exists to milk the guy who thinks that 12 cores = a bazillion times faster even though his programs already load instantly and he rarely maxes 2 cores when using Photoshop.

Mac Pros are just plain overpriced and this is especially true if you build your own. A freaking phenom 6 core is only 200 dollars at newegg and you can put it in a case that comes in more than one color.

But Apple knows how to milk their customers, I really have to hand it to them.

Reply Parent Score: 2

Drumhellar Member since:
2005-07-12

I spec'd such high end machines because I figured that, as in the past, the higher end machines would show a greater price disparity.

As for getting Phenoms, Xeons outperform them by a healthy margine, though their cost is much, much higher than the performance disparity would normally suggest. If I remember right, Phenoms also don't support ECC, which is desirable (though not necesary) in a workstation.

Reply Parent Score: 2