The updated eight-core Mac Pro looks similar to previous models on the outside, but makes a number of internal changes that improve its digital-media and multitasking performance. Design professionals will welcome this new tool in their arsenal, although gamers might be slightly disappointed
What is it?
Professional-level desktop PC
What i think:
Great desktop, offering noticeable performance improvements and best-in-class design
I like:
Strong performance with high-definition video and 3D rendering, thanks to new Intel CPU and faster RAM
I don't like:
I wish it had eSATA ports for external hard-drive connections

The Mac Pro features four easy-to-remove hard-drive brackets
Apple has added few external features to the new Mac Pro. The only major difference is a pair of new video ports on the Nvidia GeForce GT 120 graphics card. Instead of a pair of standard DVI ports, as in the past, the new card now includes dual-link DVI and mini DisplayPort outputs. As before, you can add up to three more graphics cards to the Mac Pro for additional display support. Keep in mind that adding those cards will not get you increased 3D graphics performance via Nvidia's SLI or ATI's CrossFireX multi-GPU technologies.
The Mac Pro's interior is segmented into distinct zones for the various hardware components. The optical drives and power supply are concealed behind pull-out metal drawers, and, below, sits the familiar row of four removable hard-drive trays. Apple has preserved the cable-free hard-drive interface we came to love in the older Mac Pro in the new model. We've seen numerous Windows vendors imitate this design in the two years since its debut.
In addition, the expansion-card slots, CPUs and memory have also received improved design elements. Rather than relying on the various annoying retainer tabs common to PCI Express graphics slots on PC motherboards, Apple uses a single metal rod that spans across all four expansion slots to hold its cards in place. It's a simple solution to a problem you will only encounter when you add or remove an expansion card, but, given the price of the Mac Pro, we appreciate that the rod mechanism makes card upgrades that much easier.

You can slide the CPUs and memory out of the Mac Pro completely, thanks to its clever tray design.
As for the CPUs and memory, if you recall the older Mac Pro, you'll remember its memory attached to a unique removable tray that fitted into the motherboard like one large expansion card. Apple has taken that concept a step further in this new system, and now you can remove the entire CPU and memory portion of the motherboard via a simple tray design.
As with the expansion-card rod, this removable tray will really only benefit those who will make frequent upgrades or repairs to the Mac Pro. But I can't fault Apple for flexing its design muscle and providing its customers with the sense that the Mac Pro is as much a unique design object as a productivity tool. With Windows PC makers largely reliant on industry standards for motherboards and other components, few, if any, of Apple's competitors are as well-positioned to make such dramatic innovations to their own desktops.

Features

Apple has updated the Mac Pro's CPU, memory and graphics card. As with the older Mac Pro, the new model comes in either single-chip quad-core or dual-chip eight-core configurations, but Apple has now upgraded to Intel's Xeon 5500 chips, based on the Nehalem core shared by Intel's Core i7 consumer desktop chips.
With Nehalem come a few technology upgrades, specifically support for DDR3 memory and the return of Hyper-Threading Technology from the days of Intel's Pentium 4 chips. Hyper-Threading Technology can simulate more processing threads on the CPU, for up to 16 threads in total on our eight-core Mac Pro.
Aside from the processor and memory, Apple has also added a 512MB Nvidia GeForce GT 120 graphics card to the new Mac Pro's baseline spec, which amounts to a faster GPU and twice the graphics memory as the older ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT default card. You also get a 640GB hard drive this time around -- double the previous model's standard option.
Performance
Before I get into our performance tests, I should point out that my primary comparison for our eight-core default spec Mac Pro is the eight-core model from the previous generation. Because the new model's triple-channel memory needs to work in groups of three to take advantage of its full 1,066MHz bandwidth, I kept my review unit with its default 6GB of DDR3 RAM.
The older model, on the other hand, uses dual-channel DDR2 memory, and so it works fastest in multiples of two. Thus, I tested the older system with 4GB and 8GB to account for both higher and lower memory allotments in relation to the new 6GB system. Interestingly, I saw little difference between my 4GB and 8GB test results, but, since I have the scores, I might as well share what I found.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Velocity Micro Edge Z-55
79 Apple Mac Pro 2008 8GB
99 Apple Mac Pro 2008 4GB
102 Apple Mac Pro 2009
112
Adobe Photoshop CS4 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Apple Mac Pro 2008 8GB
167 Apple Mac Pro 2008 4GB
173 Apple Mac Pro 2009
236
Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Velocity Micro Edge Z-55
116 Apple Mac Pro 2008 4GB
139 Apple Mac Pro 2008 8GB
140 Apple Mac Pro 2009
148

Firstly, it's important to note that the new CPUs' core 2.26GHz clock speed is significantly slower than the pair of 2.8GHz chips in the older model. This does not mean that the new Mac Pro is slow across the board, because it still has faster memory and a whole new CPU architecture with a more efficient cache structure.
But what it does mean is that, with applications that rely heavily on single-core processing speed, such as Photoshop, my review unit actually lagged behind both the 4GB and 8GB configurations of the older model. I should add that the less-expensive four-core version of the new Mac Pro has a single 2.66GHz quad-core chip, which could close the performance gap on these kinds of tests.

Apple Final Cut Studio 2 (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
QuickTime encoding with blur
Log and transfer Apple Mac Pro 2009
83 143 Apple Mac Pro 2008 8GB
95 180 Apple Mac Pro 2008 4GB
93 207
Multimedia multitasking (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Apple Mac Pro 2009
133 Apple Mac Pro 2008 8GB
172 Apple Mac Pro 2008 4GB
184 Velocity Micro Edge Z-55
383
Cinebench
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Rendering multiple CPUs
Rendering single CPU Apple Mac Pro 2009
21,204 3,149 Apple Mac Pro 2008 8GB
17,834 3,224 Apple Mac Pro 2008 4GB
17,717 3,218 Velocity Micro Edge Z-55
17,055 4,265

I found a much better outlook for the new eight-core Mac Pro with programs that rely on the strength of the system as a whole, such as Apple's Final Cut Studio 2, and in our multitasking and Cinebench tests, which split the work between multiple processing cores. Keep in mind that my comparison Mac Pros also have eight CPU cores, and a faster clock speed than the new model, but the new Mac Pro was able to overtake them on all of the above tests.

Call of Duty 4 (in frames per second)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Pipeline
Bog
Ambush Apple Mac Pro 2009
18 20 22 Apple Mac Pro 2008 8GB
6 7 8 Apple Mac Pro 2008 4GB
6 7 8

The gaming prospects of my Mac Pro review unit are less exciting. Yes, the 512MB GeForce GT 120 card provides a marked improvement in 3D performance compared with the older Mac Pros. But our Call of Duty 4 time-demo tests ran at a 1,680x1,050-pixel resolution and 4x anti-aliasing -- both relatively forgiving settings -- and the new Mac Pro was unable to hit an even 30 frames per second.
You can purchase a faster 3D card from Apple, but you'd have to pay a minimum of around £2,060 to upgrade even the less-expensive four-core Mac Pro. If gaming on a Mac is your goal, you still have to pay a disproportionate amount compared to a Windows desktop with the same level of 3D performance. The default graphics card will certainly let you dabble in 3D games, although you're better off with lower resolutions and image-quality settings, as well as less-demanding titles.
As I've said, my performance results apply only to the new eight-core Mac Pro in its default configuration. Apple offers various CPU, memory, hard-drive and other upgrades for both the four- and eight-core model.
As with Apple's new iMac, you can also buy the Mac Pro with a keyboard that has no numeric keypad, although the default configuration gets you the standard full-sized model. The Mac Pro also has no default wireless networking -- not a must-have in a traditional desktop -- but you can add an AirPort Extreme card for an extra £40. Other options include various mini DisplayPort adaptors, as well as different Fibre Channel PCI Express cards and professional software packages.
In addition to the video ports mentioned earlier, the new Mac Pro also gives you a handful of digital and analogue audio jacks, as well as USB 2.0 and FireWire 800 ports on the front and back. We'd still rather see Apple adopt the external eSATA standard for even faster external-hard-drive transfers than FireWire 800.
Conclusion
Design professionals should find the new eight-core Mac Pro a worthwhile purchase, thanks to multitasking and digital-media performance that's a marked improvement on that of previous models, as well as a number of useful design tweaks.