is a dual 2gig g5 twice the computer a 1.8 gig?

[andyjamesnelson]

hi, i,m wondering which g5 to buy, the 1.8 has nearly all the features that the dual 2 gig version has but does one get twice the computing power with the dual 2gig g5? that is is a dual 2gig the same as 4gig and therefore more then twice as fast as a 1.8gig machine? the dual version is only like 450 pounds more and if your getting twice as much power its surely worth saving some more for it? will it be twice as loud?

and should we all wait for the updates? steve jobs has said that it will be under a year before we see a 3gig model, there will probably be some steps before that is reached and could mean that we see both price cuts and processer updates within 6months!

what do guys think? please help me is you have some good advice on which model is the best to buy and why.. thanks andy.

[Veldek]

I think that the dual is only twice as fast with programs that are optimised for dual processing. If not, then you only have the 200MHz jump. But I'm no expert and interested in this, too.

[XnavxeMiyyep]

It'll be a lot better for multitasking. The dual processors don't actually multiply it by 2, maybe between 1.5 to 1.9. And certain apps will take different amounts of advantage of it, such as Photosop. Other apps, such as Bryce, do not take advantage of it. But with the dual processors, and 200 MHz more, the Dual 2 GHz would run circles around the 1.8 in certain areas.

[sparkleytone]

the G5 is probably the best dual-proc setup around. the entire system has been designed from the very start to be a dual system. the dual-2 is going to be a great deal faster than the 1.8, but whether or not you will personally be able to tell is the real question. basically, buy the dual if you need rendering or compiling speed. other than that the 1.8 is going to do fine for you.

[jason166]

If money is tight, configure it without the superdrive and without the modem ~ 2770

Always buy your ram third party.

OS X is heavily optimized for dual processors.
Even if one specific application is not multithreaded (to take advantage of dual processors) it will still benifit seeing as every other process running on your machine will be balanced between the processors so that your machine won't get bogged down ever.

Jason

[G5orbust]

well, regardless of whether the program is dual proc enabled or not, OSX is and that will run snappy as ever. Then, you have to consider that even with one proc running, this is the fastest PPC chip ever, and that 1GHz bus that feeds that proc with the dual channel DDR400 RAM will just run circles around that 1.8GHz- 200MHz or not.

[rice_web]

Early benchmarks have shown the 970 to have remarkable SMP capabilities, so yes, the 2x2GHz PowerMac is twice (nearly) the computer as the 1.8GHz PowerMac.

Just keep in mind that not all programs will benefit from the extra speed. Though, if you're $2999 for a computer, you'll probably be using a few apps. that make use of the second processor.

[Chaszmyr]

in general i would say the dual 2ghz system probably has about a 20% performance increase over the single 1.8ghz... But if the app is dual processor optimized then it would very likely get a 100%+ performance enhancement. Either way in my opinion its worth the money if you can afford it

[crazedbytheheat]

Why would the Dual 2.0 only be 20% faster in general than the 1.8? The clock speed increase alone is 10+%.

As with all metrics, the increase really depends on what you're doing. Even without apps that support multiprocessing (not to be confused with multithreading, which can still be a single process) you will see an improvement if there are multiple applications running simultaneously. I'm not an expert on Mac OS, but it should allocate processes to different processors. Since I typically have a dozen or so apps running at any given time, I'm expecting quite a benefit from the second processor, esp. given the memory, cache, bus, etc. architecture. It's almost like getting two computers in one.