is the G5 worth it?

It's still too early in the game to know how well this first gen of G5's are going to do. Now that more boxes seem to be shipping hopefully we'll start seeing more benchmarks popping up as well as feedback from real world usage.

Like the stanard computer advise goes, don't upgrade until you have too. The longer you hold out the better the technology you'll get.


Lethal

if you already have one on order, wait untill you get it and determine for yourself if its worth it

<Humor>Sure it is, see how much just one has helped our MacRumors Folding team....</Humor>

I don't know how we did the boost, but I think the G5 is to credit...

As long as you don't need two internal optical drives, the Dual 2 GHz G5 seems to be the best deal out of the three. I would wait for awhile, because the option of two optical drives is nice. And a Dual 867 isn't exactly slow. I have one, and it's better than any computer I've ever used(except for at an Apple retailer).

I got a DP867 o/c to a DP1G (common trick and 100% safe).

It is fast in most cases. BUT it still takes light years to render a good hour of movie in FCP4 at high quality. I know a DP2G would reduce that but I dont have AUD5900 lying around right now.

I will tell you this. If Apple gets smart (bugger) and does what it should by making the pMac line Dual (like when i got my MDD) then they will see a massive jump in sales (two machines here please).

I know I would get a DP G5 if it could have 8GB RAM and came in at under AUD4000.

The only experience I have with the G5 is from playing with them in the Apple Store and CompUSA so far, but I have to say, these machines are the first desktop system that has actually made me wish I weren't so into laptops. If I weren't in school and didn't need the portability of the PowerBook, I'd get a G5 so fast. The system is truly a work of both design art and technological art. It really is an incredible machine and I am surprised now because last year people would say "Oh...you have a Mac...I hate those" but this year when I pull out my PowerBook people go on and on about how cool the G5 system is. This thing may actually make a difference for Apple, I really believe it.

I am pretty sure the G5 will be an improvement for me. I am stepping up from a 604e that was upgraded with a G3 400 card.

But now I must resubmit my order. Seems my credit card was full when they tried to process it a few days ago and caused my order to be canceled. I also noticed that ship date went from 4 - 6 weeks to 7- 10 days. I take this as a good thing. I am hoping new monitors will be announced at Paris, or at least some price reductions.

SCAM!!!

don't get me wrong(clause)....I think the G5 is probably the best thing out there BUT I'm sick of the tiny jumps in speed and performance. The public is way more educated when it comes to computers than they were 10 or even 5 years ago and still, everyone bites at all these so called advancements. Why in the hell are they jumpin from 800mHz to 1gHz. In the grand scheme of things it's small and doesn't really make a difference. If you can't make significant jumps, DON'T do them until you can. It seems like it's all about SQUEEZing as much money out of the publics pockets as possible. Maybe most people don't need that much power but it seem like that with all the developements like new OS's, gaming, video streaming, DVD, etc., the average person is going to have no choice but to upgrade in order to keep up with the damand of these apps BUT again the jumps the industry is making as far as chips/chipsets go, are stale. I wish people would just not buy into the hype of a new product and really think about whether or not it really is worth the hype. Perhaps, if people questioned more, maybe, just maybe the industry would actually come out with truly breakthrough upgrades/products. I believe this go for both platforms. This is just my little Opin. Would love to hear your views on it.

~e

Re: SCAM!!!

Originally posted by eclipse525
don't get me wrong(clause)....I think the G5 is probably the best thing out there BUT I'm sick of the tiny jumps in speed and performance. The public is way more educated when it comes to computers than they were 10 or even 5 years ago and still, everyone bites at all these so called advancements. Why in the hell are they jumpin from 800mHz to 1gHz. In the grand scheme of things it's small and doesn't really make a difference. If you can't make significant jumps, DON'T do them until you can. It seems like it's all about SQUEEZing as much money out of the publics pockets as possible. Maybe most people don't need that much power but it seem like that with all the developements like new OS's, gaming, video streaming, DVD, etc., the average person is going to have no choice but to upgrade in order to keep up with the damand of these apps BUT again the jumps the industry is making as far as chips/chipsets go, are stale. I wish people would just not buy into the hype of a new product and really think about whether or not it really is worth the hype. Perhaps, if people questioned more, maybe, just maybe the industry would actually come out with truly breakthrough upgrades/products. I believe this go for both platforms. This is just my little Opin. Would love to hear your views on it.

~e

Click to expand...

No offense, but even using your example, a 800mhz to 1 ghz speed bump represents a 25% increase in speed - hardly insignificant. I notice Intel isn't jacking their chips in those increments these days...

I also disagree that the buying public is more computer savy, everyone I know still has no clue a computer can do more than Word Processing and Surfing...my two cents.

Re: SCAM!!!

Originally posted by eclipse525
don't get me wrong(clause)....I think the G5 is probably the best thing out there BUT I'm sick of the tiny jumps in speed and performance. The public is way more educated when it comes to computers than they were 10 or even 5 years ago and still, everyone bites at all these so called advancements. Why in the hell are they jumpin from 800mHz to 1gHz. In the grand scheme of things it's small and doesn't really make a difference. If you can't make significant jumps, DON'T do them until you can. It seems like it's all about SQUEEZing as much money out of the publics pockets as possible. Maybe most people don't need that much power but it seem like that with all the developements like new OS's, gaming, video streaming, DVD, etc., the average person is going to have no choice but to upgrade in order to keep up with the damand of these apps BUT again the jumps the industry is making as far as chips/chipsets go, are stale. I wish people would just not buy into the hype of a new product and really think about whether or not it really is worth the hype. Perhaps, if people questioned more, maybe, just maybe the industry would actually come out with truly breakthrough upgrades/products. I believe this go for both platforms. This is just my little Opin. Would love to hear your views on it.

~e

Click to expand...

Your message kind of implies that folks buy new machines every 6 to 12 months. In this case the speeds are not much to get excited about. But I think the typical case is more like mine. Folks get a new computer every 4 - 5 years. For me that's a jump from a 400 MHz G3 to a 1800 MHz G5. That is quite a bit to be excited about. Also, as has been noted (extensively), the G5 is not just a speed bump. It's a whole new chip and system design that allows Macs to be competitive with x86 machinces.

As for the average user not NEEDING more speed but being forced into it becase of hardare and software advancements. When folks get excited about that 200 MHz speed bump, it's not about need, its about desire. Do I need a G5? No. My 6 year old machine does what I NEED it to do. Do I want a G5? Oh, yeah! And because we are crazed Mac users, we get excited about ANYTHING new. No matter how insignificant. I'm excited about the iMac reaching 1.25 GHz even though I'm not getting one.

If we only waited for big jumps, must of us would still be living in caves and wondering about that big orange ball in the sky.

Re: Scam

In general, I agree... However, the jump in clock speed is not really the significant jump with the G5. It's really the fact that Apple is finally using contemporary technology in all areas. After two years (or more) of falling behind, Apple is now at least competing again. And that can't be a bad thing. I said this in another forum, but I'll say it again -- even when we start seeing real-world benchmarks from these new G5s, it's not going to mean too much... The G5 needs Panther, and more importantly, it needs as many of the apps as possible (and as much of Panther as possible), to be built with IBM's new compiler, XLC. I'm actually wondering whether anyone has any new info on whether Apple will be using XLC to compile Panther....??? I thought the rumor about the "Tachyon" build was interesting, since it might suggest that Panther is being rebuilt using XLC, but there was no specific info about it.... Anyway, I think the tweaked versions of Jaguar are the real scam here, not the hardware itself. The fact that the G5s _can_ run older PPC code, doesn't mean the _should_ run it. Mostly, I'm glad to see that the partership between Apple and IBM seems to be a strong one, and not one that's likely to leave Apple, and it's users, out in the cold. For more info on the compiler, check this out:

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=174240

Apple will probably use a combination of gcc and xlc, but it seems like the more xlc, the better.

Re: SCAM!!!

Originally posted by eclipse525
don't get me wrong(clause)....I think the G5 is probably the best thing out there BUT I'm sick of the tiny jumps in speed and performance.

Click to expand...

What are you talking about?? How can you say 'tiny jumps in speed' and 'G5' in the same sentence?

The fastest thing available before was the 1.42 G4 before the dual 2gHzG5 came out. Plus, the G5 is far more then just a speed bump. Its a whole new beast. What do you expect Apple to do? Release a 10gHz processor with 7 terabytes of ram?

Apple did a brave thing by switching from Motorola to IBM. Their customers were frustrated with a lack of speed coming from the Apple Pro line, and in a pinch Apple was forced to switch chip manufacturers (which probably isnt as easy as one would expect--there tons of R+D involved not to mention economics)

Shut up already. The iMac is (and has always been) a consumer solution for home computing. Doing minor speed-bumps (if you consider 25% more speed minor) is on-track with any computer product.

OH, and BTW:

If Pixar is happy enough with the G5's overall speed, thats enough proof for me. Pixar may share a CEO with Apple, but Pixar doesnt F-around when it comes to render times and performance. Thats why they have been using Intel and SGI chips for years.

Well in my personal universe, going from my 400 MHz G3 with a *67 MHz* bus to a 2 GHz G5 with a *1 GHz* bus is one hell of a nice jump in power, so to me, the G5 is one beast of a machine.

Re: Re: SCAM!!!

Originally posted by agreenster
What are you talking about?? How can you say 'tiny jumps in speed' and 'G5' in the same sentence?

The fastest thing available before was the 1.42 G4 before the dual 2gHzG5 came out. Plus, the G5 is far more then just a speed bump. Its a whole new beast. What do you expect Apple to do? Release a 10gHz processor with 7 terabytes of ram?

Click to expand...

The G5 is a whole new beast. What the Heck are you talking about. No, it's not major it's small. ESPECIALLY if you're coming off of a G4-1.25gHz. Now I do agree that if you buy your computers at 4-5yr. increments then going from a 8600/200 PPC to a G4 or G5 is very significant. And YEAH, I would like them to release a 10gHz with 7 Terabytes!!! That's a stupid question.<big grin>

Originally posted by agreenster
Apple did a brave thing by switching from Motorola to IBM. Their customers were frustrated with a lack of speed coming from the Apple Pro line, and in a pinch Apple was forced to switch chip manufacturers (which probably isnt as easy as one would expect--there tons of R+D involved not to mention economics)

Shut up already. The iMac is (and has always been) a consumer solution for home computing. Doing minor speed-bumps (if you consider 25% more speed minor) is on-track with any computer product.

Click to expand...

Apple didn't do a brave thing by switching. They did the only thing they could in order to stay somewhat competative. Brave is the last thing I would call it. You too have been brainwashed with this 'Minor speed-bumps being in line with a computer product'. According to who? For the most part the industries sets those standards not the technological advancements. They just push this crap and you believe it.

~e

Wow eclipse...i'm impressed. Bold and brash with a little bit of sense mixed in! Anyway, I think I agree with Eclipse. I can't get into the technical specs...but I do believe that Apple has the Apollo Creed syndrome - A lot of flash but the bang for the buck is less than expected.

You know what I dislike about MacRumors (and you types of people in general)?

You talk about stuff you know nothing about, and act like you have all the answers.

I would wager to say you arent a hardware developer, much less in the chip manufacturing business. So please dont act like you know that the G5 is a minor release. Because really, ultimately, you dont know what the G5 can do. And neither do I.

Thats why I rely on the conclusions of others (namely Ed Catmull who calls the G5 the 'fastest desktop in the world' when comparing RenderMan tests) Thats real-world enough for me, especially since I'm employed by the CG industry.

Until I can see it for myself I will believe that the G5 is a fantastic machine because people in my profession have been ranting and raving about it.

Here is what Im talking about where a 2gHz G5 went up against a 2.8gHz Xeon (both DP systems) and smoked it.

3gHz promised by next year....

I'm sure we've only seen the beginning of what the G5 can do. Almost all of the benchmarks that have surfaced are running unoptomized versions of software. It will take a few months before much code gets optomized for the G5, since most companies were kept out of the development loop. Except for the largest developers like Adobe, they are only now getting their hands on the G5. AFAIK photoshop is the only program that's been optomized at all for the G5. Add any speed gains that wil be realized under Panther (again, optomized for the G5) along with the high probablility that 12 months from now dual 3Ghz G5s are shipping, and I think there is still a lot of speed bumps we will be seeing over the next year.

Patience Daniel-san....

Even if it weren't the fastest desktop processor out there, the G5 system is seriously well engineering from what I've seen in my limited scope. I've read many technical articles on the chip, the design, the technology behind it, I've seen pictures of even the simple stuff such as how they organized the motherboard, how they designed the cooling system, etc. In every case, I am really impressed by the kinds of engineering and designing efforts that all the various companies went through to deliver the overall PowerMac G5 system. Just looking at the minute details, no one could say it is a small bump, simply by the lengths everyone seemed to go through just to create/design/build these systems.

Originally posted by agreenster
You know what I dislike about MacRumors (and you types of people in general)?

You talk about stuff you know nothing about, and act like you have all the answers.

I would wager to say you arent a hardware developer, much less in the chip manufacturing business. So please dont act like you know that the G5 is a minor release. Because really, ultimately, you dont know what the G5 can do. And neither do I.

Thats why I rely on the conclusions of others (namely Ed Catmull who calls the G5 the 'fastest desktop in the world' when comparing RenderMan tests) Thats real-world enough for me, especially since I'm employed by the CG industry.

Until I can see it for myself I will believe that the G5 is a fantastic machine because people in my profession have been ranting and raving about it.

Click to expand...

Ed Catmull is also selling something.

G5 is awesome, there is little doubt of that. Is it worthy of the hype?? Who knows yet...

Originally posted by agreenster
You know what I dislike about MacRumors (and you types of people in general)?

You talk about stuff you know nothing about, and act like you have all the answers.

I would wager to say you arent a hardware developer, much less in the chip manufacturing business. So please dont act like you know that the G5 is a minor release. Because really, ultimately, you dont know what the G5 can do. And neither do I.

Thats why I rely on the conclusions of others (namely Ed Catmull who calls the G5 the 'fastest desktop in the world' when comparing RenderMan tests) Thats real-world enough for me, especially since I'm employed by the CG industry.

Until I can see it for myself I will believe that the G5 is a fantastic machine because people in my profession have been ranting and raving about it.

Click to expand...

You know what I dislike about MacRumors (and you types of people in general)? You talk about...oh, sorry let me be original.

You know what I dislike about MacRumors (and you types of people in general)? You have a caniption when someone has anything to say contrary to your OPINION. You won't allow anyone else to have an OPINION unless it jives with your way of thinking. It is okay for you to speculate and hyperbolize, but as soon as someone else does the same...you go on the attack. The poster was asking for peoples opinions. Grow up and learn to have someone disagree with you!

Originally posted by dcb
You know what I dislike about MacRumors (and you types of people in general)? You have a caniption when someone has anything to say contrary to your OPINION. You won't allow anyone else to have an OPINION unless it jives with your way of thinking. It is okay for you to speculate and hyperbolize, but as soon as someone else does the same...you go on the attack. The poster was asking for peoples opinions. Grow up and learn to have someone disagree with you!

Click to expand...

WOW!....DCB, I'm impressed. You animal....<LOL!> Actually you're right but in defense of him, I actually use to be a blinded MacEnthusist and to some extend still am but I've learned and adopted that you do and USE what you have to do to get the job done. I LOVE Mac's and it's my preferred choice platform but you need to question things. I know I'm alittle off track here.

Anyway... the G5 does look pretty good and if business were better and I could, I'd place my order tomorrow but for now I'll just keep reading these great posts and hopefully keep seeing the market share go up for Apple. Oh yeah and hopefully i'll have enough Nuts stored away for the dual G5 300gHz!

~e