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My G5 is extremely slow, is this normal?

R

rondocap

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 18, 2011
527
307
So recently I bought an old first gen 1.8ghz single CPU power Mac g5 with 3 gigs of ram just for web browsing.

Ok, I know it's 10 years old, running leopard, and Old tech.

But it is so sluggish at everything! Web browsing is a hassle. Safari takes long to load, and even switching tabs takes a few secOnds. It freezes up too in some pages especially videos.

Is it really just that slow, or is something slowing it down? Would tiger be faster vs leopard on this machine? It's so frustrating.

I have a newer Mac pro too and they're not even remotely comparable.
 
C

craigsharp

macrumors regular
Aug 2, 2008
140
3
Oklahoma
New mac pro with current standards = Fast.
10 year old hardware trying to run current standards = Slow.

If you take the time to read other topics in this forum you will find a TON of information.
 
Jessica Lares

Jessica Lares

macrumors G3
Oct 31, 2009
9,612
1,056
Near Dallas, Texas, USA
Most people will say the 2 Ghz ones are much better, but I have the same as you, with less RAM (512MB even! :eek:) and it runs perfectly fine. I'm running Leopard, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash Professional, and some 3D rendering software with no issue. Safari is a breeze too.

Have you tried zapping the PRAM?
 
eyoungren

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,794
26,884
If the original owner never bothered with system maintenance that could affect things too (if we are talking about more than Safari).

My work Mac is your model, only my work Mac has 4GB ram. I have anywhere from 5-10 apps open at any time, most of them high memory consuming design apps (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, QuarkXPress, Acrobat, etc, etc). I'm not experiencing any slowdown.
 
estrides

estrides

macrumors regular
Apr 8, 2012
158
0
New York
I would try the PRAM test. if possible reinstall the OS, you will most likely notice serious improved performance. At least in my experience I always do!
 
Starfighter

Starfighter

macrumors 6502a
Jun 17, 2011
679
36
Sweden
I don't know how new you are to this, but I'll say it anyway since I know that I for one didn't understand what "zapping the PRAM" meant the first time I had to do it.

Hold command + option + P + R during startup, let go when you hear the chime a second time.
 
S

skinniezinho

Suspended
Jan 1, 2009
1,084
91
Portugal
You must have something wrong with that computer, can be software or hardware.
Have a look on the FAQ on my sig it may help you.
In a first instance run onyx with the automation scripts (or at least repair permissions with disk utility).
 
California

California

macrumors 68040
Aug 21, 2004
3,885
90
There were different 1.8 G5s as I recall.

One only took four gigs of ram, the other eight.

I had the one that took eight and it seemed slow to me a few years ago, too.

One thing that G5s are notorious for is -- when hard drives go bad, it's difficult to see the problem.

Make sure your hard drive is new or in perfect working order. A big new drive will also speed things up a bit.
 
Nameci

Nameci

macrumors 68000
Oct 29, 2010
1,944
12
The Philippines...
A bad and a hard drive that is about to fail could cause considerable slow down not with the OS per se but with opening and running applications.
 
R

rondocap

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 18, 2011
527
307
Thank you guys for the responses, you've been very helpful. I must say, I absolutely love these early Power Macs. Ever since they came out, I fell in love with the case, and what they are. I almost got one in 2003 but decided to stay with PC's - I only came to Macs in 2006, I should have switched sooner!

My Mac Pro is a beast, I can see it being fast for years to come - but like I said, this poor 1.8 ghz Power Mac is slow as it comes. It's only a single CPU, not even the dual 1.8 - so I understand where some of that slowdown is. It's the first generation 1.8 too, that came out when the power mac was released.

I am going to try what you guys suggested, resetting PRAM, reinstalling the OS, and even switching out the hard drive. I have a few more questions for you guys:

1.) I currently have the last version of Leopard on this machine. Would switching out to Tiger be better for system performance? Once again, I just want it for a web browsing machine. Right now it won't even work with youtube very well. Freezes and skips video.

2.) Do all power mac's skip youtube videos? I thought this may be due to older flash or video software no longer available. Or would a dual 2.3ghz run things smooth?

3.) This 1.8 does not run SATAII hard drives, I think it's just SATA. Can you still find these for sale?
 
T

tjsdaname

macrumors 6502
Jun 18, 2009
354
5
cedar rapids IA
rondocap said:
1.) I currently have the last version of Leopard on this machine. Would switching out to Tiger be better for system performance? Once again, I just want it for a web browsing machine. Right now it won't even work with youtube very well. Freezes and skips video.

2.) Do all power mac's skip youtube videos? I thought this may be due to older flash or video software no longer available. Or would a dual 2.3ghz run things smooth?
Click to expand...


my dual 2.5 plays youtube videos at 720p without a problem...

I had tiger on it before leopard and I can't feel a difference in speed. you might though because it's only a single 1.8.
 
S

skinniezinho

Suspended
Jan 1, 2009
1,084
91
Portugal
rondocap said:
Thank you guys for the responses, you've been very helpful. I must say, I absolutely love these early Power Macs. Ever since they came out, I fell in love with the case, and what they are. I almost got one in 2003 but decided to stay with PC's - I only came to Macs in 2006, I should have switched sooner!

My Mac Pro is a beast, I can see it being fast for years to come - but like I said, this poor 1.8 ghz Power Mac is slow as it comes. It's only a single CPU, not even the dual 1.8 - so I understand where some of that slowdown is. It's the first generation 1.8 too, that came out when the power mac was released.

I am going to try what you guys suggested, resetting PRAM, reinstalling the OS, and even switching out the hard drive. I have a few more questions for you guys:

1.) I currently have the last version of Leopard on this machine. Would switching out to Tiger be better for system performance? Once again, I just want it for a web browsing machine. Right now it won't even work with youtube very well. Freezes and skips video.

2.) Do all power mac's skip youtube videos? I thought this may be due to older flash or video software no longer available. Or would a dual 2.3ghz run things smooth?

3.) This 1.8 does not run SATAII hard drives, I think it's just SATA. Can you still find these for sale?
Click to expand...

Is the leopard on your system a fresh install?If don't try it.
But after loosing time with a new install run apple hardware test (original cds that came with the machine).
 
R

rondocap

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 18, 2011
527
307
I don't have any of the original cds/dvds, I bought this machine second hand. IT just came with Leopard on it already, I don't know for how long it was on there.
 
eyoungren

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,794
26,884
Tiger was a real PITA on my work G5. Finder was always unstable and I couldn't initiate more than two copy processes without expecting it to crash. Servers were always disconnecting and causing it to freeze. Just a general mess.

Panther, which is what the G5 came with, was faster and far more stable. When I upgraded to Leopard everything straightened out and it's been smooth, stable, fast and responsive.

I might try repairing permissions, Onyx (as was previously suggested) and if you can get a hold of a copy of DiskWarrior I would run that too. DW can also tell you if your hard drive is indeed going.

BTW, I hate Safari. Unlike most, it's always been a slow tempermental POS that will only load to a certain point and then stop for me. There are much better solutions now. TenFourFox, Camino, SeaMonkey (there is a version 2.x SeaMonkey project out there for Power PC Mac) and a bunch of webkit browsers that show Safari for the beast it is. You might also look at Mactubes, which is a standalone program just for playing Youtube.

Just my thoughts/opinion on all of this.
 
R

rondocap

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 18, 2011
527
307
Will an SSD drive work in the 1.8 single CPU G5? Or is it too old? I believe it should be SATA but not SATAII of course.
 
Intell

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
rondocap said:
Will an SSD drive work in the 1.8 single CPU G5? Or is it too old? I believe it should be SATA but not SATAII of course.
Click to expand...

An SSD will work in one. SATA II drives are backwards compatible with SATA I computers, like the PowerMac G5. You could also put a SATA III drive in it, pending that it has SATA II legacy mode jumpers on it. Most SSDs don't have jumpers, so get a SATA II one.
 
Ariii

Ariii

macrumors 6502a
Jan 26, 2012
681
9
Chicago
rondocap said:
So recently I bought an old first gen 1.8ghz single CPU power Mac g5 with 3 gigs of ram just for web browsing.

Ok, I know it's 10 years old, running leopard, and Old tech.

But it is so sluggish at everything! Web browsing is a hassle. Safari takes long to load, and even switching tabs takes a few secOnds. It freezes up too in some pages especially videos.

Is it really just that slow, or is something slowing it down? Would tiger be faster vs leopard on this machine? It's so frustrating.

I have a newer Mac pro too and they're not even remotely comparable.
Click to expand...

Have you tried using the ps command in Terminal do see which things are taking up the most CPU space? Assuming nothing's wrong on your PowerMac, of course. If a stick of RAM failed, you would be slowed down due to the low amount of built-in RAM.
 
vohdoun

vohdoun

macrumors 65816
Jan 23, 2006
1,035
0
Far away from Earth.
eyoungren said:
I posted these in another thread here awhile back, so I had to go find them. All are webkit.

Roccat
Shiira I remember using this, it had a mini browser widget but development stopped just before Leopard or as Leopard was released...
Demeter Please note that Demeter 1.5 is a discontinued product and is no longer supported. 2008
Sunrise 2010?
NagaraBrowser 10.2! nothing has been updated since 2003
and Stainless

At least one user here tried Demeter and thought it was much faster than Safari.
Click to expand...

P.S. There is also this. Webkit nightly builds.
Click to expand...

Intel only.


P.P.S Also Radon.
Click to expand...

Nearly all these old browsers are ancient and pretty much sums up the projects when some of the developers sites are non existent.

It's a shame after having a good look most of these browsers are quite a downgrade from Safari with lack of extensions.
 
eyoungren

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,794
26,884
Yeah, the link I first placed was to Intel only (the Webkit Nightly builds). I fixed it. It goes to the correct site now. Those builds are actually done by a person who works on TenFourFox.

It's not fixed in the quoted link because I didn't write that post. I sent skinniezinho a PM about the link.

I've not had much success with extensions in Safari. Maybe it's because I'm a Firefox/TenFourFox person, I don't know. But I do know that those browsers while being old generally load pages quickly and perform well.

With Safari (for me) I just have problems. The most irritating and annoying one is that Safari will tell you it has X items to load. When it loads X items, it tells you it has another X items to load. But usually, it hangs on the last few items it's telling you it's loading and then just stops. I hate that!

My experience with Safari anyway.

P.S. I think Rocat is still being developed if slowly.
 
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