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Now that G5 are here what about the G3

T

thegeek187

macrumors member
Original poster
So What does everyone think about the fate of the G3?

I think they will contiune on with it untill Mac World/Create whatever it is and give it a final sendoff something like the thing with OS 9 was it? With the Casket and such 😛
 
my prediction is that ibooks will be g3 until they can get a 970 into the powerbooks. that way they wont jepordize sales, and the ibook can be updraded with a nice g4 processor. this is just my guess. time will tell. but i think the g3 is here for a little while longer.

iJon
 
I'm not sure what's going to happen to the G3, I keep hearing that it can go up to over 1 mhz. It's also a very solid chip and makes for a great entry level computer. Apple needs an entry level machine very badly and i think they would lose out if they were to abandon the G3 at this point, but....
 
Well people have been talking about how IBM is planning on adding the Altivec unit on the G3... but who really knows anyway.

My big question is what are the requirements for Panther? My girlfriend just bought my ibook 500 off of me and I'd like her to have the new features.
 
If you can run 10.2, you should be able to run 10.3.

The G3 will be around for awhile. As long as they need a lower-end, lower-cost, lower-power chip. Especially with Gobi and the Altivec added. IBM will come up with something.

They can call them G4s. 😀
 
I'd say that the G3s are going to be here for a little while longer. But, I'm not sure if iBooks would get G4s or not, because of the heat issue.

Most likely there will be some sort of improvement to the G3 (ie. Gobi, Altivec), instead of the G4, I think.
 
My dream scanio is this:

G5 PowerBooks and iMacs by Christmas. One more eMac G4 speed bump before then.

Then at MWSF, Apple drops the eMac, speed bumps all 3 G5 machines, and puts the new Altivec G3 in the iBook. Additionally, Apple replaces the eMac with the rumored "headless Mac" with the same souped up G3.

By MWSF, I want this:

2.0, 2.2, Dual 2.5 Ghz G5 Powermacs
1.6, 1.8 G5 PowerBooks
1.4, 1.6 iMacs
1.2, 1.4 New G3 (Don't know what they'll call it) Low-End Tower
1.0, 1.2 New G3 iBook.

Wishful thinking I know, but it's ok to dream. 🙂
 
The G3's can replace the G4's in the PB's, and Apple can simply rename the G3 + Altivec with a new name......oh....say, the S4 or something. I'd rather have a PB with a 1.2GHz S4 (just play along with the name for a sec 😉) than have a 1.4GHz G5 in there. A PB won't be able to use a G5 for a while, I think, so any replacement for the G4 is more than welcome.
 
outfit all the macs with the G5, in time, and keep the G3, but call it something else, clock it up and up, and keep it in the ibook

of course, for now, the G4 should stay in the powerbooks until a mobile G5 is ready for them...prolly next year, though

i think a super G3 has more life in it than a G4 so it's good for the ibook and the market it aims to please

by the time the mobile G5 is ready for the ibook, there will be a G6 on the horizon for the high end macs
 
Originally posted by Freg3000
By MWSF, I want this:

2.0, 2.2, Dual 2.5 Ghz G5 Powermacs
1.6, 1.8 G5 PowerBooks
1.4, 1.6 iMacs
1.2, 1.4 New G3 (Don't know what they'll call it) Low-End Tower
1.0, 1.2 New G3 iBook.
Click to expand...

Freg3000, you the man! that's x-actly what I want... high end monsters for pro users and a nice affordible low-end Gobi/Mojave G3s for joe average (& potential switchers) that replace the behemoth eMac.

vSpacken
 
I reckon now Apple has given up waiting for Motorola that they'll get out of making chips so Apple will go all IBM. How about the new G3+Altivec being called the G4m (m for mobile)?
 
Originally posted by Freg3000
My dream scanio is this:

G5 PowerBooks and iMacs by Christmas. One more eMac G4 speed bump before then.

Then at MWSF, Apple drops the eMac, speed bumps all 3 G5 machines, and puts the new Altivec G3 in the iBook. Additionally, Apple replaces the eMac with the rumored "headless Mac" with the same souped up G3.

By MWSF, I want this:

2.0, 2.2, Dual 2.5 Ghz G5 Powermacs
1.6, 1.8 G5 PowerBooks
1.4, 1.6 iMacs
1.2, 1.4 New G3 (Don't know what they'll call it) Low-End Tower
1.0, 1.2 New G3 iBook.

Wishful thinking I know, but it's ok to dream. 🙂
Click to expand...

i think it's conceivable since jobs announced the g5 scaling up to 3 ghz in one year

the only thing i don't see it the death of the emac...it's sturdy and non-lcd which is good for kids and schools

drop the price of the emac down to five or six hundred, and then it should have more life in it...but put the altivec, souped up g3 into it...that is, assuming that it can scale up higher than the current g4 and match its benchmarks

the souped up g3 should prolly be called by its codename, the gobi processor or whatever is the name at the time

g3 as a name sounds too outdated now that there has been a g4 and now the g5
 
I think that is a gobi proccessor comes to iBooks it will be called something with mobility. G4M? PPPC M? G5M?

If it is for more than just the iBook I think it's more likely they'll call it a G4 something than a G3. Since the gobi G3 would be an improvement over the G4.
 
There are only G3s in the iBooks.

They run fast enough as simple G3 900MHz processors.

If you aren't going to do heavy/complex activity, then this is a fast machine. If you are going to do Photoshop/video work, it's a sufficient machine. If you want to do very intense image and video data editing, then do not get a G3, period.

The G3 will leave you out of the high end features, because it lacks the engineered Velocity Engine and advanced architecture of the G4. This is what makes the G3 a great, affordable, low-end machine.
 
The problem with continued upward scaling of the G3's clock speed is that they are still limited to a 100 MHz system bus. An extended G3 (G3e?) HAS to have a faster bus (I suggest 533 MHz or more) and it has to have AltiVec. The G3 could easily be tweaked to scale well above 1 GHz in clock speed and it runs cooler and with less power dissipation than most modern chips. Frankly, the G3 was a landmark in microprocessor design (along with the 601, P2, etc.).

I regularly run Photoshop on an iBook 700 (looking back, I should have bought Elements) and it runs just fine. iMovie 3 runs acceptably. Not to hijack the thread, but does anybody know how Final Cut Express will run on my system? I have a 700 MHz G3 and 640 MB RAM.
 
Final Cut Pro/Express has some features that require a G4. If you do not use these features, then FCE should run acceptably well.

If you have a lot of movie/pics/tunes on your computer, and you have to do a lot of conversions with either or each media type, then a G3's performance is boarderline acceptable.

A low end portable gaming machine would be a G5 12 inch Powerbook, but I doubt you will see those until late 2004 or early 2005. A low end note taking/Photoshop machine would be an iBook G3.
 
Originally posted by iJon
my prediction is that ibooks will be g3 until they can get a 970 into the powerbooks. that way they wont jepordize sales, and the ibook can be updraded with a nice g4 processor. this is just my guess. time will tell. but i think the g3 is here for a little while longer.

iJon
Click to expand...

my meaning as well..
 
Intel hiring

Originally posted by maraczc
I think that is a gobi proccessor comes to iBooks it will be called something with mobility. G4M? PPPC M? G5M?

If it is for more than just the iBook I think it's more likely they'll call it a G4 something than a G3. Since the gobi G3 would be an improvement over the G4.
Click to expand...

Calling a G4 mobile chip "G4M", or a G3 mobile chip "G3M" is very orginal man😀

I heard Intel is hiring marketing consultants
 
It makes more sense to keep G3 in iBook and keep increasing the clockspeed than replace it with G4 because G4 is not really efficient as portable computer processor. I can totally see 1Ghz+ G3 iBooks in the near future rather than G4 overheating in an iBook.

If I'm not mistaken I read some rumor about "Gobi" G3 that will be able to hit 2Ghz.
 
I think by apple calling the 970 the "G5" the naming of the chip doesn't mean anything as to what chip it is. I think the Gobi G3 with altivec can be called a G4 by apple. People won't know the difference, it can be marketed as a low power high perfoming version or something.
 
phased out

First off on topic I think that the G3 will be finally phased out within the next 12months --give or take a few -- depending upon how sucessful the G5 is with the PowerMac along with its intergration in the iMac and PowerBook lines within that time.

Furthermore, the iBook should have been phased out already with the intro of the PowerBook 12", before going up to 900Mhz G3.
 
Originally posted by jefhatfield

of course, for now, the G4 should stay in the powerbooks until a mobile G5 is ready for them...prolly next year, though
...
by the time the mobile G5 is ready for the ibook, there will be a G6 on the horizon for the high end macs
Click to expand...

Does Apple deal in mobil versions of their processors? I thought that the procs in the pBooks were the same as the pMacs.
 
Re: phased out

Originally posted by Prom1
Furthermore, the iBook should have been phased out already with the intro of the PowerBook 12", before going up to 900Mhz G3.
Click to expand...

The iBook won't be phased out at all. It is Apple's entry level laptop and they've made it clear with the expanded emac line that entry level products are important to them.
 
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