Does "Westmere" qualification apply to "Bloomfield" and "Gulftown" also?

[bashville]

I'm looking at a used MacPro. Checking the qualifying Macs list, and it says "Westmere", but not "Bloomfield" or "Gulftown", even though they're from the same generation. Does the "Westmere" qualification apply to all three of those?

thanks

[YYR123]

Hang on for one of these avid employees floating around and u should
Get an answer

Maybe Saturday maybe Monday -

[panamajack]

From Tom's Hardware: Intel makes those. Westmere and Bloomfield are die/architecture revisions.

As far as the differences goes, Westmere is on 32nm where as Bloomfield/Nehalem is on 45nm. They are both on the same architecture. Only the manufacturing process differs. Generally, the 32nm CPUs should run cooler.

From Wikipedia: The architecture of the Nehalem was the basis of the i7, which was revised in 2011 as sandy bridge. The Westmere is a more recent CPU. Westmere-EP is the first six-core dual-socket processor from Intel, following the quad-core Bloomfield and Gainestown (a.k.a. Nehalem-EP) processors using the same LGA 1366 package, while the earlier Dunnington six-core processor is a Socket 604 based multi-socket processor. The CPUID extended model number is 44 (2Ch) and two product codes are used, 80613 for the UP desktop/server models and 80614 for the Xeon 5600-series DP server models. In some models, only four of the six cores are enabled.

If you were building your own Hackintosh, die revisions might have more significance. However, if you are shopping for an Apple Mac Pro, check out

www.everymac.com

You will find a comprehensive list of most of the retail products, including the incarnations of the Mac Pro. The speed of the processor is an easier way to figure what kind of performance you can expect.

The Hackintosh, user-built servers, or Frankenmacs, open up the possibility of overclocking, which is where you would want the coolest running CPU you could find.

[bashville]

I've also been referencing the "Mactracker" app

http://mactracker.ca/

and it seems to go into more detail than other sources, naming these other chip designations "Bloomfield" and "Gulftown" for the MacPro5,1. I'm wondering if those are all covered by the "Westmere" umbrella.

The other issue is that Mactracker doesn't mention "Nehalem" for the 5,1, whereas EveryMac does. The machine I'm looking at is a Quad-Core 3.2, which EveryMac says is a Nehalem.

[panamajack]

My Nehalem Mac Pro is early 2009, and is designated 4,1.

Everymac does show which Mac Pros had the 45nm vs 32 nm.

ProTools with Mountain Lion is supported back to the early 2009 Nehalems.

The issue is that not all the software out there can truly take advantage of a dozen cores. The other issue is the expense of a dual six-core vs a single quad core. Initially, some users were reporting better results with a faster quad core vs a slower octo core.

[bashville]

OK I think I'm starting to get it. Thanks PJ