What does the future hold for the G5

[Trout74]

Is there any logical reason to be shy of a iMac or PowerMac with a current or future released G-5 chip. Is there anything that they will be incapable of doing once the chip sets change to Intel designs?

The G5 is a 64bit chip, will future 64 bit applications/games be made for existing/older G5 chipsets?

Would I be better suited to just wait for the Intel Mac's, IF, I dont NEED a new computer at the present ( Because I have a 6 month old Mac mini ).

Thanks

 

[strider42]

Is there any logical reason to be shy of a iMac or PowerMac with a current or future released G-5 chip. Is there anything that they will be incapable of doing once the chip sets change to Intel designs?

The G5 is a 64bit chip, will future 64 bit applications/games be made for existing/older G5 chipsets?

Would I be better suited to just wait for the Intel Mac's, IF, I dont NEED a new computer at the present ( Because I have a 6 month old Mac mini ).

Thanks

The G5 is a 64 bit chip, but also is completely compatible with 32 bit code. So you won't have any incomaptbilities because of that.

Dual binaries (for intel and power PC) will be around for a while. So a current powermac will lasat a long time.

So while there's no reason a G5 wouldn't be a great buy, if your mini is doing what you want, why would you drop that much more money on a computer you don't actually need. In my opinion, you're better off waiting until you need a new computer, not just buying because something new came out.

 

[eva01]

this summer i bought a dual G5 there are no problems with it and i know it will last for a long time.

till rev C Intel i hope, where i can get like octuple-core Powermac

 

[fartheststar]

are you unhappy with the mac mini or do you want to do something more with it that it cannot do?

 

[Trout74]

are you unhappy with the mac mini or do you want to do something more with it that it cannot do?

not unhappy at all, I would like to be able to play a few games, but im getting too old to have time for games anymore. I would like the simplicity of an iMac, but computing wise, my mini is really fine. I am getting into my digital video camera, so I would liek to burn DVD's and such, my mini only has a CD burner, so I could wait a year on the imac, it may still be a G5 then too, which is FINE with me, just wondering if it will be problematic moving forward. I wonder what the REAL speed difference will be with a Intel iMac over a 2+GHZ G5. May not be much, may be huge I just dont know enough about either.

 

[vomitgod]

i fear rosetta

macrumors is full with geeks who just feel they have to comment even when they have nothing to say. i dont think the issue here is whether a 6 months old G5 machine is going to last few more years or not... physically it is going to be just fine, i bet it wont be falling apart....

but that for sure is not the issue here... the more importan thing, and my biggest concern, is the whole migration process, especially the PRO applications will have hard time during the migration from PPC to x86. all the geek stuff, ilife and widgets are no problem at all, furthermore the apple creative (pro) software is going to be the first on the x86 train, adobe also commited itself to support x86, but there is a bunch of software which will have to take the slow lane "rosetta". software which had direct commands to the PPC itself, and its AltiVec technology is left in the rain. rosetta is just going to be the last resort, nothing more. even worse is the situation where developers will have to produce two versions of their software - for the brand new x86 and the old PPC. for every demanding piece of software this means almost doubling the development efforts. i bet not every software company is going to do this at all, or just to some extent, leaving behind one or the other platform. and all the necessary updates will take a lot of time. some for sure will never be made.

even worse is going to be with the new cutting edge features and improvments in the PRO software - the development is going to be with x86 on the mind, not the old abandoned PPC. all the cool features that some new software á la motion 3, final cut 6, dvd studio 5, combustion 4, cinema4d 10... are going to sport, for sure wont be available to the same extent on both CPUs. the new software is going to be tailored on the x86 getting most out of its capabilities. the PPC version is going to be the 2nd class passanger.

every new technology demands lots of time until its perfectly tweaked and set up. just take a look how much time passed from the birth of osx 10.0 and its maturity in, lets say, 10.2.8. tiger 10.4 needed more than 6 months for 2 updates until it was fine with the most software. or take a look even further back in the days of 68k to PPC transition...

i tend to think that this transition is not going to be a real nightmare, but rather a headache, for all of us, both PPC folks and the x86. i am a pro user, my G5 dual is about 18 months old, a new powermac in 12 months is something i am looking for, with all the bells and whistles, but please spare me the headache as much as possible!!!

 

[Trout74]

macrumors is full with geeks who just feel they have to comment even when they have nothing to say. i dont think the issue here is whether a 6 months old G5 machine is going to last few more years or not... physically it is going to be just fine, i bet it wont be falling apart....

but that for sure is not the issue here... the more importan thing, and my biggest concern, is the whole migration process, especially the PRO applications will have hard time during the migration from PPC to x86. all the geek stuff, ilife and widgets are no problem at all, furthermore the apple creative (pro) software is going to be the first on the x86 train, adobe also commited itself to support x86, but there is a bunch of software which will have to take the slow lane "rosetta". software which had direct commands to the PPC itself, and its AltiVec technology is left in the rain. rosetta is just going to be the last resort, nothing more. even worse is the situation where developers will have to produce two versions of their software - for the brand new x86 and the old PPC. for every demanding piece of software this means almost doubling the development efforts. i bet not every software company is going to do this at all, or just to some extent, leaving behind one or the other platform. and all the necessary updates will take a lot of time. some for sure will never be made.

even worse is going to be with the new cutting edge features and improvments in the PRO software - the development is going to be with x86 on the mind, not the old abandoned PPC. all the cool features that some new software á la motion 3, final cut 6, dvd studio 5, combustion 4, cinema4d 10... are going to sport, for sure wont be available to the same extent on both CPUs. the new software is going to be tailored on the x86 getting most out of its capabilities. the PPC version is going to be the 2nd class passanger.

every new technology demands lots of time until its perfectly tweaked and set up. just take a look how much time passed from the birth of osx 10.0 and its maturity in, lets say, 10.2.8. tiger 10.4 needed more than 6 months for 2 updates until it was fine with the most software. or take a look even further back in the days of 68k to PPC transition...

i tend to think that this transition is not going to be a real nightmare, but rather a headache, for all of us, both PPC folks and the x86. i am a pro user, my G5 dual is about 18 months old, a new powermac in 12 months is something i am looking for, with all the bells and whistles, but please spare me the headache as much as possible!!!

Exactly, that is what I wanted to ask, but didnt know how to ask it. So will the new intel ones suck for while, then get better as software is made, or will the PPC ones be the best like an old gem, a CLASSIC if you will.