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Why is my Late 2006 MBP so much SLOWER than my Power Mac G5?!

Jessica Lares

Jessica Lares

macrumors G3
Original poster
Oct 31, 2009
9,612
1,062
Near Dallas, Texas, USA
I'm kinda upset. I've had this G5 for over two weeks now, everything works GREAT! I have Photoshop CS3, Coda, Blender, and DAZStudio on it. It has Leopard, the latest version of Safari, and even iTunes 10. It's beautiful, especially when the price tag was $0. Everything loads SO FAST, and it only has 512MB in it. It's a single core 1.8 GHz.

However, ever since I had my MBP, which was back in the days of CS3, it would never load it in the less than a minute record that the G5 does, instead it took about 2 to 3. Safari takes 1-2 minutes to load, and ANY graphics rendering program can take 3-5 minutes to be ready, while this one pulls up every plugin, etc under a minute. It's a 2.16 GHz. It cost me about $2,000 brand new.

It drives me CRAZY that a machine this old preforms so much better than the Intel Mac. It doesn't even go crazy like the MBP does when there's three things open.

It makes me wonder a bit...
 
Somethings wrong with your MBP if a measly browser is taking over a minute to load. I have G3's that load up a browser in 10 seconds, if that.

Sure your MBP isn't a 486?
 
bobbytomorow said:
Somethings wrong with your MBP if a measly browser is taking over a minute to load. I have G3's that load up a browser in 10 seconds, if that.

Sure your MBP isn't a 486?
Click to expand...

Heh! I've had nothing but problems since I got the MBP. The SuperDrive NEVER works when I need it too, and when I got it replaced, the Geniuses chipped the side enclosures and some of it fell into my fans. My fans, from the result of that overtime, don't work properly anymore. I didn't even know that until they started getting worse and worse overtime and so I opened it and shook it, the plastic bit fell out and they stopped. They still go crazy a lot though, probably because the plastic was stuck in them since about 2007 and didn't come out until last year. The coating on the keyboard is apparently allergic to my skin, so it's faded off. Some of the labels on the side aren't there anymore either, and there's warping on every side. The screen got dented a bit in the bag I bought from the Apple Store too, but that's not really noticeable.

And to top it all off, I dropped Coca-Cola all over the side of the keyboard, so that's dead now. :p.

I'm almost to the point of throwing it out now. Actually, I did almost get rid of it the other day because my mother hid it under the mattress (long story) and we couldn't find it and we almost rang her mother to order me a new one because we thought she threw it in a ditch or something.

And actually, just now typing this, the screen appears to be starting to fall out. :eek::eek::eek::eek: The charger already stopped working years ago too, the battery had to be replaced also.

It won't live much longer.
 
I don't know it would be such a big surprise if it weren't a single CPU system. Since getting a dual 2.0GHz G5, I've been using it instead of my MacBook Pro as my primary system. It really feels about the same, and I would bet a newer and faster HD would make an even bigger difference. You might make sure the HD in your MBP isn't failing. I've found the biggest cause of super slow Macs is almost always due to a drive going bad.
 
Yikes. You've got to have some bad hardware in there for that kind of performance--as stated above, a new hard drive (or SSD) will probably fix many ills.

With that said, don't be shocked that the G5 is still really good--they were fantastic when new, and there's still some stuff where they're nearly impossible to beat (try comparing iTunes encoding a CD to AAC on your G5 vs on your laptop...). If you really want to make your G5 scream, though, throw a couple gigs of RAM in it. Heck, my G5 is slower than yours (by processor speed, I don't know what graphics you have, and I have more RAM), and I prefer it to my significantly newer-tech laptop any day of the week (regardless of OS).

The air-cooled G5 towers are extremely reliable, and the single processor ones are especially quiet/cool (relatively speaking)--I expect many people will still be using them for years to come.
 
meh.. flog that macbook off to ebay for spares and grab yourself a unibody 13 or 15 inch alu.. there wonderful little machines, quick as S&#t too. :)

but yeah, the G5 towers are still nice and are able to still do good work.

Sadly, Wow wont run on them anymore :( nor will Starcraft 2..

on the upside, i just got the PPC version of NWN.. and that runs like a champ :)

Ive owned about 5 different G5 towers, all of them duals, and one Quad. ive still got the quad, its the best of the lot, and if you can find one that doesnt leak, your onto something worthwhile hanging on to.

The Dual 2.3-2.7 boxen are loud... but they go great! esp if you chuck a desent vid card in them.

Good luck with your single G5, and for the love of god, get some more ram in there!! :p

peace!
 
I don't have any more room for more Macs, have the 180c PowerBook, Newton eMate 300, iMac 3G, Power Mac 3G Beige Desktop, Power Mac 3G, iBook Clamshell. Power Mac G5, and my MacBook Pro! I just got lucky that they were replacing the G5s at school, I have most of my G3s for that reason too.

And I legally don't own my MBP, it wasn't bought under my name, and my mother would sue me for that if I did put it on eBay as much as I'd want to. We've already talked about it, and she wants every penny I get from putting it on eBay. So, that's out of the question.

I'm going to buy more RAM for the G5 of course, thinking about maxing it out completely.

But going back to my MBP... Where is a good place to buy parts? Genuine ones. The keyboard is BROKEN, like the plastic bits UNDER the keys have come off and the backlight needs to be replaced too. The power button has fallen halfway in too...
 
Jessica Lares said:
I'm going to buy more RAM for the G5 of course, thinking about maxing it out completely.

But going back to my MBP... Where is a good place to buy parts? Genuine ones. The keyboard is BROKEN, like the plastic bits UNDER the keys have come off and the backlight needs to be replaced too. The power button has fallen halfway in too...
Click to expand...

You'll love the G5 with adequate RAM...have fun with it :)

As for the MBP, try here. It's not cheap, though. The keyboard alone is $85.00, and if you need to replace the entire top plate (to fix the power button, don't know if it can be done by itself), you're looking at another $285.00. Doesn't take much more than that before you can buy a whole replacement machine! Good luck...
 
Jessica Lares said:
Heh! I've had nothing but problems since I got the MBP. The SuperDrive NEVER works when I need it too, and when I got it replaced, the Geniuses chipped the side enclosures and some of it fell into my fans. My fans, from the result of that overtime, don't work properly anymore. I didn't even know that until they started getting worse and worse overtime and so I opened it and shook it, the plastic bit fell out and they stopped. They still go crazy a lot though, probably because the plastic was stuck in them since about 2007 and didn't come out until last year. The coating on the keyboard is apparently allergic to my skin, so it's faded off. Some of the labels on the side aren't there anymore either, and there's warping on every side. The screen got dented a bit in the bag I bought from the Apple Store too, but that's not really noticeable.

And to top it all off, I dropped Coca-Cola all over the side of the keyboard, so that's dead now. :p.

I'm almost to the point of throwing it out now. Actually, I did almost get rid of it the other day because my mother hid it under the mattress (long story) and we couldn't find it and we almost rang her mother to order me a new one because we thought she threw it in a ditch or something.

And actually, just now typing this, the screen appears to be starting to fall out. :eek::eek::eek::eek: The charger already stopped working years ago too, the battery had to be replaced also.

It won't live much longer.
Click to expand...

Gosh! That's one sick notebook. :eek:
 
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