Hey I was just wondering if there are any of you out there that have a Powermac G4 dual 1.25 ghz, I am looking into it as my mac-to-be and wondering how it handles the more up to date apps and games. Thanks!
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Any Powermac G4 1.25 ghz owners out there?
- Thread starter crowdaddy
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I agree with Godfather. I think this will be my workhorse for the next years to come. Just stuff it with ram, dump in a good video card and I think it'll last you a while.
G4 is not that Great at the newest stuff, just see anybench. I have been running 1.47 for a year so i should know. G4 is going to leave you wanting wether your running Ut2004,Halo, Nascar 2003 with a full field, soon to be released Doom3 which is going to bring some G4 owners to their knees. G4 is old slow and crippled and dont let the zealots fool you. You want to surf and write grandma a letter its fine, start playing with video,garageband or the latest greatest games and you wish you had a G5. my 2 cents.
my gf has a powermac 1.25 Ghz tower and she loves it. Runs everything splendidly. Don't Hurt Me is the biggest critic of the G4 on these boards, but he seems to fail to realize that almost all of us are still using G4s (many slower than 1.25 Ghz) and we find them to be *more* than adequate. New, high end games are not going to be kind to a 1.25 Ghz g4, that's true. But garageband will work fine, as will all but very demanding video projects. Put in a good amount of RAM, and these applications will respond very well - at least that's my experience with my 1 Ghz powerbook, and my gf's with her powermac.
I have a couple 400hmz G4s that run current versions of the software I use and they don't know they're 4 years old. So don't tell them, okay.
I have a dual 1ghz PowerMac and it hasn't choked on anything I've given it. The thing is a workhorse and it will be for many years. It'll play all the current games to my satisfaction.
I have a dual 1ghz PowerMac and it hasn't choked on anything I've given it. The thing is a workhorse and it will be for many years. It'll play all the current games to my satisfaction.
A friend of mine has an 800 MHz G4 iBook with a 14.1-inch display and he can run plenty of games on it (MoH:AA, Halo, UT 2003, SoF:II). The performance is definately not that great, even though he think it is (he has never owned a high-end PC).
In other words, with a DP 1.25 GHz G4 computer, you are getting over three times the clock speed than my friend, a better graphics card, and a new processor architecture altogether. You should have no problems with that machine, but you might want to wait until WWDC and pick up a 1.6 or (DP) 1.8 GHz G5 refurbished or new and unopened. The speed difference won't be that noticeable although it will be a little faster, and you get the 64-bit architecture, which should be useful in the years to come.
The PowerMac G4s sold on the Apple website aren't that much cheaper than the PowerMac G5s, so you might want to think first before buying. If you can stretch another $200 dollars, you should probably get a G5.
In other words, with a DP 1.25 GHz G4 computer, you are getting over three times the clock speed than my friend, a better graphics card, and a new processor architecture altogether. You should have no problems with that machine, but you might want to wait until WWDC and pick up a 1.6 or (DP) 1.8 GHz G5 refurbished or new and unopened. The speed difference won't be that noticeable although it will be a little faster, and you get the 64-bit architecture, which should be useful in the years to come.
The PowerMac G4s sold on the Apple website aren't that much cheaper than the PowerMac G5s, so you might want to think first before buying. If you can stretch another $200 dollars, you should probably get a G5.
yea i hope they dont completely shove out the G4 line after WWDC, it is a different type of system with its expandibility et all.
By the way, what is the advantage of having a dual boot with OS 9?
By the way, what is the advantage of having a dual boot with OS 9?
I owned a 1.25GHz PM G4 single-processor for two or three weeks. In that time I upgraded the RAM from 768MB to 1.25GB, and installed a Pioneer 106D, so I had dual opticals with both a Combo and a Superdrive.
The single-processor PM G4 felt amazingly fast. My previous desktop was a 700MHz eMac with 1GB of RAM and Pioneer 105 Superdrive.
I sold that PM and bought my current desktop, a 1.8GHz PM G5 single.
Although wide doesn't own a Mac yet, he knows what he's talking about. If you snag a good deal on a G5, you'll likely be happier than if you got a G4.
When G5s first came out, the speed tests had dual G4s beating single G5s. Now that some applications (notably Final Cut Pro) have been updated with G5s in mind, my single G5 is pulling even and passing up dual G4s.. Compared to my computer the 1.42GHz dual G4 is faster, but the 1.25GHz dual G4 is slower. This is a trend which will continue, because as Dont Hurt Me has said a bunch of times, G5s are now and the future; G4s are the past.
As far as expandability of G4s compared to G5s, consider this. The 3rd and 4th hard drive connection built into G4 towers is ATA66. That's slow because modern IDE hard drives are ATA100 and ATA133 (the latter is more than twice as fast as ATA66). You have to add a PCI card to get ATA133 speeds from the 3rd and 4th hard drive bays.
It's exactly the same way with the G5. You need to add a PCI SATA card to add a 3rd, 4th, 5th 6th and 7th hard drive inside (with TransIntl.com's Swift Data 200 / ProMax's SATAMAXi system plus Wiebetech's G5 Jam).
As for the second optical drive, it's true that it'd be nice to have another one in the computer, but I have a FireWire case with a second optical drive in it (it's the CD burner that used to be in my eMac before I added the Superdrive to it). I've connected the second optical drive only once. I suppose once I get a combo drive it will be nice to duplicate DVDs that way, but as it is I create disk images of all the movies I make, and burn copies from those.
One last note about expandability - PM G5s (all but the 1.6) have a hands-down advantage in RAM capacity.
OS 9 bootability is essential for everyone who needs a new Mac but has to run legacy applications. Classic in OS X doesn't work for many apps. People have to run legacy programs because either OS X versions don't exist yet, aren't as good or better yet, or they're simply too costly to upgrade.
The single-processor PM G4 felt amazingly fast. My previous desktop was a 700MHz eMac with 1GB of RAM and Pioneer 105 Superdrive.
I sold that PM and bought my current desktop, a 1.8GHz PM G5 single.
Although wide doesn't own a Mac yet, he knows what he's talking about. If you snag a good deal on a G5, you'll likely be happier than if you got a G4.
When G5s first came out, the speed tests had dual G4s beating single G5s. Now that some applications (notably Final Cut Pro) have been updated with G5s in mind, my single G5 is pulling even and passing up dual G4s.. Compared to my computer the 1.42GHz dual G4 is faster, but the 1.25GHz dual G4 is slower. This is a trend which will continue, because as Dont Hurt Me has said a bunch of times, G5s are now and the future; G4s are the past.
As far as expandability of G4s compared to G5s, consider this. The 3rd and 4th hard drive connection built into G4 towers is ATA66. That's slow because modern IDE hard drives are ATA100 and ATA133 (the latter is more than twice as fast as ATA66). You have to add a PCI card to get ATA133 speeds from the 3rd and 4th hard drive bays.
It's exactly the same way with the G5. You need to add a PCI SATA card to add a 3rd, 4th, 5th 6th and 7th hard drive inside (with TransIntl.com's Swift Data 200 / ProMax's SATAMAXi system plus Wiebetech's G5 Jam).
As for the second optical drive, it's true that it'd be nice to have another one in the computer, but I have a FireWire case with a second optical drive in it (it's the CD burner that used to be in my eMac before I added the Superdrive to it). I've connected the second optical drive only once. I suppose once I get a combo drive it will be nice to duplicate DVDs that way, but as it is I create disk images of all the movies I make, and burn copies from those.
One last note about expandability - PM G5s (all but the 1.6) have a hands-down advantage in RAM capacity.
crowdaddy said:
OS 9 bootability is essential for everyone who needs a new Mac but has to run legacy applications. Classic in OS X doesn't work for many apps. People have to run legacy programs because either OS X versions don't exist yet, aren't as good or better yet, or they're simply too costly to upgrade.
there was a refurb G5 1.6ghz on apple's site yesterday.
$1299!!! i didn't know whether to grab it or wait for a refurb of the current (not old) DP 1.8ghz for what will probably be $1599 in a month or two. i went back to look at the refurb page again and think about it one last time, and it was gone. must be a sign that i should wait.
but i would advise anyone contemplating buying a 1.25ghz G4 to see if you can grab a G5 1.6ghz refurb for $1299... another one is sure to pop up.
$1299!!! i didn't know whether to grab it or wait for a refurb of the current (not old) DP 1.8ghz for what will probably be $1599 in a month or two. i went back to look at the refurb page again and think about it one last time, and it was gone. must be a sign that i should wait.
but i would advise anyone contemplating buying a 1.25ghz G4 to see if you can grab a G5 1.6ghz refurb for $1299... another one is sure to pop up.
adamjay said:
This is contrary to all logic that I've been using.
To recommend a single 1.6 over a dual 1.25? I mean, come on... seriously? If I'm crunching video on a program such as FCE, you're saying go with a single over a dual?
I think right now is a bad time to buy a non-top of the line machine (look at macmall for evidence - the price structure still hasn't been figured out).. but I wouldn't make the choice you're arguing.
The powermac G4s just seem so much more expandable than the other desktop offers right now, I feel like I have more stretch room with it.
cr2sh said:This is contrary to all logic that I've been using.
To recommend a single 1.6 over a dual 1.25? I mean, come on... seriously? If I'm crunching video on a program such as FCE, you're saying go with a single over a dual?
I think right now is a bad time to buy a non-top of the line machine (look at macmall for evidence - the price structure still hasn't been figured out).. but I wouldn't make the choice you're arguing.
EZ... i read the subject to be 1.25 ghz G4 (single) , i didn't realize it was a dual. obviously a dual G4 would be the better buy.
crowdaddy said:
I have a feeling that it is goodbye...
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=8872
Given the $200 price difference between the PM G4 Dual and the new PM G5 1.8 Dual (after adding the SDD) , I think that the performance increase is worth it compared to the PM G4.