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Silver Tower Mac Pro (Dual Optical) Q&A - Published June 3, 2013
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What are the differences between the "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models and the "Mid-2010" Mac Pro models that they replaced? Are there any differences? How can these lines be differentiated from one another?
In as few words as possible, the differences between the "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models -- the Mac Pro "Quad Core" 3.2, "Six Core" 3.33, "Twelve Core" 2.4, "Twelve Core" 2.66, and "Twelve Core" 3.06 -- and the "Mid-2010" models replaced -- the Mac Pro "Quad Core" 2.8, "Quad Core" 3.2, "Six Core" 3.33, "Eight Core" 2.4, "Twelve Core" 2.66, and "Twelve Core" 2.93 -- amount to little more than updated processors, double the standard memory, and pricing changes.
More bluntly, Andy Hertzfeld -- who was a member of the original Mac development team -- said:
The specs for the "new" [Mid-2012] Mac Pro had hardly changed, except for a tiny, inconsequential processor clock bump. Still no Thunderbolt, still no USB 3.0, no SATA III or RAM speed improvements - it seems like it's stuck in time in 2010. The only thing that's still high-end about it is the bloated price.
Ouch. Nevertheless, these minor differences still are worth noting and the two lines do have some different identifiers, which definitely is useful for precise identification on the used market.
Photo Credit: Apple, Inc.
External & Connectivity Similarities
Externally, each "Mid-2010" and "Mid-2012" Mac Pro model is the same and has the same connectivity as well.
All "Mid-2010" and "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models alike have 5 USB 2.0 ports (two on the front and three on the back), 4 Firewire "800" ports (two on the front and two on the back), dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, a front-mounted headphone jack, optical digital audio Toslink in/out and analog stereo in/out minijacks, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and AirPort (802.11a/b/g/n). By default, all models also have two Mini DisplayPorts -- capable of passing an audio signal as well as video -- and one dual-link DVI port provided by the standard ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card.
Identification Differences
The "Mid-2010" and "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models share the A1289 Model Number as well as the MacPro5,1 Model Identifier.
The A1289 Model Number is shared with the "Early 2009" line as well, and is not "close enough" for the purpose of identification. However, the "Mid-2010" and "Mid-2012" models share the same processor architectures, memory, storage, and other internal components and the MacPro5,1 model identifier is close enough to perform any upgrades on these models.
To locate the model identifier, select "About This Mac" under the Apple Menu on your computer and click the "More Info..." button. If the Mac Pro is running OS X "Lion" (10.7) or later, click the "System Report" button after clicking "More Info..." as well.
Even better, the "Mid-2010" and "Mid-2012" Mac Pro lines can be uniquely identified externally by the 2314-2 and 2629 EMC Number, respectively. The EMC number is located on the back of the system in small type and this is the easiest identifier to use. As always, EveryMac.com has carefully hand documented these identifiers for future reference.
EveryMac.com's Ultimate Mac Lookup feature additionally can identify the "Mid-2010" and "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models by their serial numbers.
More information about specific identifiers is provided in EveryMac.com's extensive Mac Identification section.
Internal Similarities & Differences
Internally, each of the "Mid-2010" and "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models support "Hyper-Threading" -- which "allows two threads to run simultaneously on each core" -- and "Turbo Boost" -- which "automatically boosts the processor speed based on workload" (so if an application is only using one core it will automatically increase the speed of the core in use and turn off the unused cores).
All models have a "QuickPath Interconnect" (QPI) system described as a "bidirectional, point-to-point connection" that provides "quick access to the disk, I/O, and other Mac Pro subsystems" in lieu of a "traditional" system bus as well, but the speed varies on different models. Models with Quad Core processors from both lines use 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM (PC3-8500) memory whereas models with Six Core processors use 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM (PC3-10600) memory.
Internal expansion for all "Mid-2010" and "Mid-2012" Mac Pro systems includes four hard drive bays that support Serial ATA 3Gb/s drives (one occupied by a 1 TB hard drive by default), have two 5.25" optical drive bays (one occupied by an 18X DL "SuperDrive" by default), and have four PCI Express 2.0 expansion slots (two x16 slots and two x4 slots with one x16 slot occupied by an ATI Radeon HD 5770 video card with 1 GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory).
Comparison Chart
All major differences between the stock "Mid-2010" and "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models -- processors, architecture, configuration, identifiers, and price -- are summarized below:
| "Mid-2010" Mac Pro | "Mid-2012" Mac Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Default Processors: | 2.8 GHz Quad Core (W3530) 2.4 GHz Quad Core (E5620) x2 |
3.2 GHz Quad Core (W3565) 2.4 GHz 6 Core Xeon (E5645) x2 |
| QPI Speed: | 4.8 GT/s 5.86 GT/s |
4.8 GT/s 6.4 GT/s |
| L3 Cache: | 8 MB 12 MB x2 |
8 MB 12 MB x2 |
| Standard Memory: | 3 GB 6 GB |
6 GB 12 GB |
| Maximum Memory: | 48 GB 128 GB |
48 GB 128 GB |
| Memory Slots: | 4, 8 | 4, 8 |
| Video Card: | Radeon HD 5770 | Radeon HD 5770 |
| Video Memory: | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| Hard Drive: | 1 TB | 1 TB |
| Optical Drive: | 18X DL "SuperDrive" | 18X DL "SuperDrive" |
| Order Number: | MC250LL/A MC561LL/A |
MD770LL/A MD771LL/A |
| EMC Number: | 2314-2 | 2629 |
| Intro. Price: | US$2499 US$3499 |
US$2499 US$3799 |
Comparison Summary
Ultimately, it's quite clear that the differences between the "Mid-2010" and "Mid-2012" Mac Pro models truly are tiny. However, the entry-level "Mid-2012" model is roughly 14% faster and offered at the same price and the high-end standard model is roughly 38% faster and costs just 9% more.
In the US (and in many other countries), to purchase a used Mac Pro, high-quality storage or memory for the Mac Pro, visit site sponsor Other World Computing.
Please refer to EveryMac.com's Ultimate Mac Comparison feature to dynamically compare any Mac Pro model to any other Mac.
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