For those unfamiliar with the ebb and wane of Apple’s actually pretty dependable product upgrade cycle, MacRumors‘ Apple Buyer’s Guide is a must–check resource for those looking to buy a new Mac, iPod or iPhone. With a glance, you can see how close any Apple product is to being refreshed, and if you check it now, you’ll see see that the MacBook Pro is only about a month away from getting an update.
So what will change in the next MacBook Pro? The new unibodies are only a year old, so it’s probably nothing much more drastic than a processor update, and not so coincidentally, Intel is planning to launch three new Arrandale-based, 32nm Core i5 and Core i7 mobile processors on January 3rd… just around the time MacBook Pros are historically refreshed.
Last month, we reported the rumor that in the titanium ensconced bunkers of their development labs, Apple was busy testing a new, sextuple core Mac Pro, to be introduced in the first quarter of 2010.
Proven true or not, the rumor certainly wasn’t a bad guess. The release of Apple’s new iMacs, which come in Intel Core i7 configurations, has made the beefiest of Apple’s desktops look like a poor deal for the price, capably beating the benchmarks of Apple’s existing, Xeon-toting Mac Pro for a comparable price. Apple needs to refresh their Mac Pros soon if they want to avoid their iMac line cannibalizing Mac Pro sales.
It’s not so surprising, then, to see this rumor dusted off. According to Polish website PCLab, the next Mac Pro will sport dual Intel Xeon Core i9 CPUs, offering 12 physical and 24 logical cores. Their test results of the CPU show it to run about 50% faster than the Mac Pro’s existing quad-core Xeon processor. The Core i9 features 32nm engraving, so it sips power more daintily than the previous chip, which is also in line with Apple’s increased interest in rubbing the animal blood out of their furs and providing more environmentally-conscious machines.
Of course, it takes a lot more than a Polish website to make a rumor a fact, but it’s hard to imagine what other course Apple would take with the Mac Pro line besides the Intel Core i9. And while it means absolutely nothing, Intel quickly asked PCMag to remove the information from their website. Verification by cover-up or warrantless supposition? You decide!
