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Anarchy99

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 13, 2003
1,041
1,034
CA
i have a 500mhz g3 imac dv se how does it compare to the dual 1.8g5 and
haw is the g3 vs the g5 in general
 

Jo-Kun

macrumors 6502a
Dec 20, 2003
677
0
Antwerp-Belgium
how does it compare? ok first of all the G5 has one or two faster 64bit processors...
can adress 8x more ram...
can adress larger/faster harddrives (for instance the WD raptor 74GB 10K rpm SATA... or toshiba 400GB 7200 rpm SATA...)
superdrive...
expansion slots...
FireWire800...
USB2.0...
better graphics card...
Mirroring + screenspanning over 2 or more monitors...

but comparing an iMac to any Powermac is not the way to go...

I feel the speeddifference when I use a friends 800Mhz iBook G3... I have to wait a lot then (I'm using photoshop & process big files...)

for general use: e-mail, websurfing, office... you don't need this speed, but for real heavvy professional use, a powermac G4 (speedhole edition) or G5 with fast drives & a lot of ram is recommended...
 

jsw

Moderator emeritus
Mar 16, 2004
22,910
44
Andover, MA
The G5 is a faster, more powerful, 64-bit chip. A dual-1.8 is substantially faster than the 500MHz G3. Keep in mind that, as mentioned above, you're not simply comparing the G3 to the G5, but the G3 Mac to the G5 Mac. As a result, any newer systems will have many advantages over an older one.

In practical terms, though, it comes down to what you're going to use the system to do. My 400MHz G3 Lombard PowerBook works just fine for email, browsing, etc. However, it can't play a newer game to save its life, and it sucks at CPU-intensive stuff. But, honestly, surfing and email are essentially the same on my 400HMz G3 and my dual-2.0 G5.

Why do you ask?
 

tamara6

macrumors regular
Apr 28, 2004
225
137
jsw said:
But, honestly, surfing and email are essentially the same on my 400HMz G3 and my dual-2.0 G5.

Do you really find this to be true? I moved from a 400 MHz Pismo (G3) to a 1.33 GHz G4 Powerbook and I noticed a difference in web browsing. They were both running the same version of OS X at the time of the switch, and the same version of Safari. Yet I found that web pages loaded and rendered at least twice as fast, and with java applets the difference was even more pronounced. Scrolling and searching are much faster in the new Powerbook, too.

I'd say the Pismo is adequate for surfing, but to say it is essentially the same as a faster machine is, in my experience, misleading.
 

Little Endian

macrumors 6502a
Apr 9, 2003
754
205
Honolulu
tamara6 said:
Do you really find this to be true? I moved from a 400 MHz Pismo (G3) to a 1.33 GHz G4 Powerbook and I noticed a difference in web browsing. They were both running the same version of OS X at the time of the switch, and the same version of Safari. Yet I found that web pages loaded and rendered at least twice as fast, and with java applets the difference was even more pronounced. Scrolling and searching are much faster in the new Powerbook, too.

I'd say the Pismo is adequate for surfing, but to say it is essentially the same as a faster machine is, in my experience, misleading.

I strongly Agree with You. Web browsing experience is much better with a fast machine in comparison to one that is considerably slower. Java Applets and Flash based stuff render much faster when on a newer G4 or G5 in comparison to an older G3 or G4.

Some folks say that people only see benefit from a fast machine if your running Professional CPU intensive stuff or Gaming but that is not true. Browsing the web is faster and more enjoyable with a machine that can handle Java Applets and Flash with ease. I can also think of other non pro things where one could see an advantage over an old imac. I used to have an old imac G3 400DV and must admit that wathching a movie sucked big time on it as the CPU and GPU were barely powerful enough to playback the movie without Choppiness. DVD Playback on todays machines are cake now. Also It used to take me about 20-30 minutes to rip an hour+ long CD now it takes me about 2-3 minutes on my G5 with the same Compression Formats and Bitrates. Multi-tasking with little slowdown is also a plus with a faster machine. How about trying to deal with a 2000+ photo library in iphoto? G5 makes a big difference. Ever try scrolling through an itunes library with 6000+ songs on a G3? there again the G5 makes the difference. I could mention many other things that are non-proffesional that many people do that would see huge improvement with a Faster Machine.
 

Makosuke

macrumors 604
Aug 15, 2001
6,666
1,250
The Cool Part of CA, USA
Really, there is no comparison. Once you get up around a 700MHz G3 or a 500MHz G4, then you could say that for very simple stuff (web browsing, e-mail, and word processing), there won't be a huge difference. A fast G4 or a G5 would feel a bit crisper, but they'll bot be comfortable.

When you're way down at a 500MHz G3, then it's going to feel a little "laggy" even with fairly simple stuff. It'll work fine, and although it'll slow it down a bit I've found computers that old will run more smoothly with 10.3 installed, but they're just not going to compare to a modern machine.

And, for what it's worth, the G5 is very VERY fast at any speed. Even the 1.6GHz iMacs are impressive.
 

Jo-Kun

macrumors 6502a
Dec 20, 2003
677
0
Antwerp-Belgium
Pismo said:
How does a VW Bug compare to a Ferrari 360 Modena? Please :rolleyes:

well the bug is cheaper ;-)
I wish I had a 360 Modena, I would sell it and get some extra mac & photostuff and another less flashy, more usefull car (try putting a box of studioflashes and camera equipment in a 360 modena :-D)
 

gwuMACaddict

macrumors 68040
Apr 21, 2003
3,124
0
washington dc
Anarchy99 said:
i have a 500mhz g3 imac dv se how does it compare to the dual 1.8g5 and
haw is the g3 vs the g5 in general

you're kidding, right? not that i have anything else to add that the above posts dont cover, but i hope this was posted in jest or sarcasm... :rolleyes:
 
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