8 Core Mac Pro 3.0GHz: Competition Will Start in August.

On April 4th, the release of a high-end Mac Pro based on two Quad Core Xeon clocked at 3.0GHz came as a surprise as this CPU was officially not available from Intel. Indeed, the fastest one was officially the Quad Core Xeon 5355 clocked at 2.66GHz.
The Mac Pro will keep its leadership till August. On July 29th, the Quad Core Xeon 3.0GHz will be officially available on the market. If you plan to upgrade your 4 Core Mac Pro to an 8 Core model with such CPU, it will cost you a lot: US$ 1172/CPU for 1000 units ordered. It will be much "cheaper" to go for the Xeon 5355 available for only US$ 744/CPU.

Another major price cut should take place by the end of the year when new Xeon CPU featuring a faster bus (1666MHz vs. 1333MHz today) will be released. The Mac Pro will most likely be updated around this time frame to be powered by those new CPU while featuring a new chipset too. However, it remains unclear if those new Xeon will be engraved at 45nm or still at 65nm as today.