With Intel coming... PowerMac features DOWN

[mjstew33]

What about the 8GB RAM?
Not that many video cards are going to support Mac in general...

I don't know...

I'm totally exited for the Intel switch but "bummed" at the same time....

[mad jew]

Not quite sure what you're saying there buddy. Sorry. :confused:

[anubis]

What about the 8GB RAM?
Not that many video cards are going to support Mac in general...

I don't know...

I'm totally exited for the Intel switch but "bummed" at the same time....


What I think he means first is that current Intel lines, including the Pentium M, are 32 bit and therefore only capable of supporting 4 gigs of RAM. The retort would be that the Pentium M will probably only make it to the mini and portables, and those (generally) don't support more than 4 gigs of ram anyway due to lack of space and slots. And, since the Powermac isn't going ot see Intel for at least 2 years, by that time Apple will most definitely be using a 64-bit chip. No different than the current lineup of 32-bit G4 portables and mini, 64-bit iMac and Powermac.

By "not that many video cards are going to support the Mac in general", I think he means that once Apple goes Intel, presumably Mac users will be able to use any old off-the-shelf PC graphics card. Once this happen, he theorizes that card makers will stop developing Mac-only cards for current Macs, and therefore current Macs will have limited graphics expandibility options in the future.

Is that what you mean?

[yippy]

I think he is worried about the fact that the current Intel chips can only handle 4Gbs of ram and so them in a PowerMac would be a step down (8 ->4 Gb Max ram).

I don't think that that is something you need to worry about happening. Apple will probably get 64 bit chips from Intel to put in the PowerMacs (ie not P4) and so they will still be able to have 8 or more gigabytes of ram.

There are several threads about what processors Apple will use, you should check them out, they will probably kill your fears.

EDIT: Beaten to the post. Don't know about the graphics card thing...

[mad jew]

If anyone has to sell their spare GB chips of RAM, I'll start feeling sorry for them but to be honest, I doubt many people get close to the 8GB limit in most Power Macs anyway, no great loss.

It will be a step back if the Intel chips are 32 bit but it doesn't matter in the short term because not much takes advantage of 64 bit technology at the moment anyway. I'm guessing there'll be 64 bit Intels in Macs relatively soon too.

[maximumbarkly]

By "not that many video cards are going to support the Mac in general", I think he means that once Apple goes Intel, presumably Mac users will be able to use any old off-the-shelf PC graphics card.


FCP editors should be excited now that the option to use some real serious capture cards is open.

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man says...there are now P4's that are 64bit enabled...reading any of the other "Intel" threads would have alleviated the FUD in this one..once again, calm down people, look at *all* the facts and info out there before spreading more FUD - this has been gone over time and time again already...oh yeah!

[eXan]

Aren't there 64-bit P4s on the market already? I am sure I've read about it. On deepapple.com

[carlos700]

The Intel Pentium 4 Sequence 5xx "F" Revision, Intel Pentium 4 Sequence 6xx, Intel Pentium D Sequence 8xx, Intel Xeon "Irwindale" Revision, Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73GHz, and Intel Pentium Extreme Edition Sequence 8xx, all have Intel EM64T Technology which is 64-Bit.

[Platform]

Well one thing will proberly go down.......that is the FSB....Intel only has 1066Mhz MAX today PPC is at 1.35Ghz ;)

[wrldwzrd89]

Well one thing will proberly go down.......that is the FSB....Intel only has 1066Mhz MAX today PPC is at 1.35Ghz ;)
The improvement in FSB has been occurring in roughly 266 MHz jumps. If that's the case, before long we'll see 1333MHz and 1600MHz system buses (1333 is pretty close to 1350, and 1600 trounces anything PowerPC has).

[Mord]

ok people dont get your knickers in a twist, powermacs wont switch untill 2007 when intel has it's dual core 64-bit pentium M xeon, it's low end first (2006) with 32-bit pentium M's and then the high end in 2007 with 64-bit pentium M xeons.

stop compareing what ppc and x86 is at now, apple is not switching for intels current cpu's they are switching for whats going to be around in 2006/7.

[Platform]

The improvement in FSB has been occurring in roughly 266 MHz jumps. If that's the case, before long we'll see 1333MHz and 1600MHz system buses (1333 is pretty close to 1350, and 1600 trounces anything PowerPC has).

Yeah.....proberly will but today Intel is behind the PPC.....if only the PPC could deliver.......well lets hope Intel gets the CPU course going ;)

[mad jew]

Well one thing will proberly go down.......that is the FSB....Intel only has 1066Mhz MAX today PPC is at 1.35Ghz ;)


I didn't think you could compare front side buses across manufacturers, let alone across platforms.

[Chip NoVaMac]

And I would think that as Longhorn draws near, that Intel will have chips that support 8GB. I'll probably take 4GB on Longhorn to have decent performance. :D

[mjstew33]

I didn't think you could compare front side buses across manufacturers, let alone across platforms.

Why not :confused: ? it has nothing to do with the operating system its the proccesor he's talking about - he's basically saying that the fsb will be lower than the ppc processors currently have - but yet Intel in a year or two will have the same if faster than ppc's fsb...

[mjstew33]

Is that what you mean?
yea that's what i mean.. srrie for the misunderstandings....

( i was just waking up (i think) when i wrote that post)

[mad jew]

Why not :confused: ? it has nothing to do with the operating system its the proccesor he's talking about...


I'm not talking about operating systems either. I just remember reading on these boards that you can't compare AMD and Intel FSB speeds let alone something as different as a PPC FSB. They're measured at different points from memory.

[mjstew33]

oh.... okay