Apple Releases New PowerMacs

[iGary]

I have wanted a Powerful Game Machine for a long time.

I've never understood paying 3 grand for a gaming machine (and no I'm not bashing anyone who does); why not buy an X-Box?

*confused*

Apple's are NOT gaming machines..that's a well-known fact.

 

[adamjay]

i could understand people bitching about these upgrades in that applications like Motion and Logic could use quite a bit more power. and wouldn't ya know it, those are PRO applications that demand the best, and their users demand the best out of them. there have been situations where i had to let paying my rent go overdue a week because i couldn't finish a project in time. what is my point? its the pro users that have the right to bitch, but you dont hear them bitch here because they are too busy being productive. bitching about not playing the latest first person shooter game is a.) underproductive and b.) annoying.

i guess what i am trying to say is don't complain about the price of gas when you drive a Hummer.

don't you find the saying "if you want to play games, buy a PC" kinda funny? Macintosh computers have, and always will be a tool to be productive, just remember that.

 

[PowerMacMan]

I just ordered my first Mac!!!

Power Mac G5 Dual 1.8GHz

Dual 1.8GHz PowerPC G5
512MB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x256
160GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon 9600 XT w/128MB DDR SDRAM
Bluetooth Module
AirPort Extreme Card
Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
Accessory kit

$2,019.00

 

[iGary]

Yep, and buying that generic crap is just asking for kernel panics.

It is.

Crucial - Two 1 gig sticks: 389.00

I'm using 2 gigs in my 1.25 G4 right now with it's agonizingly slow FSB.

I can't imagine how well 2 gigs of RAM in a dual 1.8 will do with a 900 Mhz FSB.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

I just ordered my first Mac!!!

Power Mac G5 Dual 1.8GHz $2,019.00
Dual 1.8GHz PowerPC G5
512MB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x256
80GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon 9600 XT w/128MB DDR SDRAM
Bluetooth Module
AirPort Extreme Card
Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
Accessory kit

Congrats, thats a nice set up glad you dumped the fx5200.

 

[iGary]

I just ordered my first Mac!!!

Power Mac G5 Dual 1.8GHz

Dual 1.8GHz PowerPC G5
512MB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x256
80GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon 9600 XT w/128MB DDR SDRAM
Bluetooth Module
AirPort Extreme Card
Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
Accessory kit

$2,019.00

Dude, you should choke out an extra 90.00 now for the 160gb drive, yes?

Congratulations, BTW

 

[adamjay]

Dude, you should choke out an extra 90.00 now for the 160gb drive, yes?

Congratulations, BTW

screw that, buy an additional 160GB Maxtor SATA off pricewatch for $91 shipped... and have 200GB total.

 

[iGary]

Get a .Mac account too - when the machine arrrives. Easy spending your money.

 

[zimv20]

i could understand people bitching about these upgrades in that applications like Motion and Logic could use quite a bit more power. and wouldn't ya know it, those are PRO applications that demand the best, and their users demand the best out of them.

i mix music using (native) ProTools on a dual 500 g4, 1 gig RAM. depending on type, i can get between 10-20 plugins going and i feel i'd be happy with twice that.

i'm going to order one of these new g5s w/in the next month and i suspect it'll be a long time (where "long time" is about 4 years) before i start hitting the plug-in ceiling again. really, by that time, i expect i'll be mixing with outboard gear anyway.

so i'm not complaining.

 

[hmg]

if Steve IS clearing the decks...

Wow... stunner.

Who would have thought apple would introduce new powermacs while the brilliant savings promo was still in effect? Unbelievable!

I'll put money, the guys who are buying new g5s today are ordering the displays too.. Apple released this update today because they need to get rid of those damn displays.

No doubt Jobs is setting the stage at WWDC, but for what?
Could he be hoping to gather interest in the Consumer driven 64bit applications.. getting people to develop for the iMac g5?

June is exhausting...

Then what the h--l might he be unveiling at the show? Maybe nothing? It is a DevCon after all, not a Apple World.... Or is it so "big" that he doesn't want it to share the stage with anything else?

Hehe

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

I've never understood paying 3 grand for a gaming machine (and no I'm not bashing anyone who does); why not buy an X-Box?

*confused*

Apple's are NOT gaming machines..that's a well-known fact.

Actually my target is around 2. consoles bite, no keyboard and playing on a ...tv, come on its just so much better with eye candy turned on full and high resolutions. This is why the standard fx5200 just kills me. Remember Apple does have a game page/sitehttp://www.apple.com/games

 

[invaLPsion]

Anyways Doom3,Far Cry and Halflife2 will be calling me soon and thats the only reason i need some juice.

Not to argue or anything, but the new G5s have "juice." The only thing that is holding them back is the graphics cards they ship with. Why not go for a G5 and buy a Radeon 9800XT?

 

[simply258]

and where are fancy new (and cheaper) displays?

Apple still has the Brilliant Savings deal (http://www.apple.com/promo/brilliantsavings/) on until June 26, so you'll probably see the new displays in WWDC.

 

[Bhennies]

Ok...so I think i'm getting a 2.5 ghz with only the bluetooth as BTO. Can I add a display to my order later on to get it wrapped in with apple care if they release the displays later on (shipping by end of July anyway).

 

[zweigand]

Oh look, someone who knows what they are talking about!

I don't know if anybody pointed this out yet, but:

VIDEO EDITING DOES NOT RELY ON THE VIDEO CARD! I don't know where people get these ideas, but I keep seeing the misconception iggyb repeats here. Editing video relies on bus speed, drive speed, and the main processors. Photoshop, for the most part, does not rely on the GPU to process its filters and effects. I'm not sure about the relationship between GPUs and 3D graphics rendering beyond how important they are for games, but I do know that with some very few exceptions, the GPU is not used for film or even video-level 3D rendering. One exception is the Balrog from Fellowship of the Ring: the fire effects were animated sprites mapped to a 3D structure and animated in realtime using an ATi card. It's in Cinefex if anyone wants to track it down.

3D hardware accelerates two things: games and QuartzExtreme.

Sorry about the rant, but I got tired of seeing this. You know what: for all of you fence sitters, if you bought the machine, you'd be the happiest Mac user on the planet. My 1.6 GHz G5 hasn't let me down yet, and it's long in the tooth (how?) and "crippled."

Yes, I'm an apologist. But I'm also a realist: does it do what you need? Yes? Then get it and stop complaining about things you don't understand.

thank you for showing me there is someone else who actually understands what GPUs enhance!

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Not to argue or anything, but the new G5s have "juice." The only thing that is holding them back is the graphics cards they ship with. Why not go for a G5 and buy a Radeon 9800XT?

I still may, most stuff doesnt take advantage of the G5 right now so its only going to get faster and Tiger isnt here yet. Just thinking of farting around with viruses,worms,spyware and what have you makes me sick. Windows does blow. Mac OS has spoiled me but the video is behind. 9800xt is a good card for sure but X800 is a Fantastic card. WWDC is coming and Doom3 isnt here yet.......just trying to make the best choice.

 

[pjkelnhofer]

Actually my target is around 2. consoles bite, no keyboard and playing on a ...tv, come on its just so much better with eye candy turned on full and high resolutions. This is why the standard fx5200 just kills me. Remember Apple does have a game page/sitehttp://www.apple.com/games

Just because they have games for Mac doesn't mean that it is an important market segment.

You really have been "threatening" to buy your PC for as long as I can remember. If you don't like the fx5200 pay the $50 for the 9600XT, if you don't like that pay the $300 for the 9800XT, if you don't like that just buy the damn Alienware. You will end up spending close to what you pay for a G5 of the same speed.

 

[jsw]

I like Dont Hurt Me, let him do what he wants and leave him alone guys.

He seems cool enough to me most of the time as well. I just figure that there comes a time to, er, fish or cut bait, and he's been sitting on the dock doing neither for too long.

IMHO, there's no perfect choice. A maxed-out PC will destroy a Mac graphically. Fact. OS X is better than WinAnything. Opinion. Either way, you've got a strong "grass is greener" argument. For a hardcore gamer, I'd say the PC is best. However, unless you're comparing the two side-by-side, a G5 with a 9800XT is going to look plenty nice.

Either way, a G5 or a nice gaming PC are both better than what DHM has, so I'm just saying that a lot of us are getting tired of the whining. Buy a $1800 pretty good PC. Buy a $1200 iMac later on. Whatever. There's no perfect solution, and DNH has to either (a) buy something or (b) just admit that he isn't going to buy something. The G5 is not a fantastic gaming machine, but it's not a bad one. And it's absolutely excellent at a lot of other things.

<Edit> DNH doesn't have to do anything. We just wish he'd do one or the other. Anything to stop the whining. </Edit>

 

[jsw]

9800xt is a good card for sure but X800 is a Fantastic card.

Don't discount the possibility of an X800 (or similar) card being available for the G5 before you need it. The 9600XT will probably serve you just fine for a year or so, and you can take the $300 you would have spent on the 9800XT and put it toward a better card later.

 

[Soire]

Ok...so I think i'm getting a 2.5 ghz with only the bluetooth as BTO. Can I add a display to my order later on to get it wrapped in with apple care if they release the displays later on (shipping by end of July anyway).

I have a similar problem, except that I'm trying to order the G5 and get the new displays, all in one order to qualify for the student developer discount. I called the business hotline and they said that once it's "processed" the order can't be updated, so I' don't know what to think...

 

[mrsebastian]

i never understood buying a $3000 plus machine to just play video games?! you'll of course need a nice display, so for sake of argument let's round that number to $4500. why not get an x-box or ps2 with keyboard and mouse, a decent plasma tv, and even through in a small home theater sound system... that would make more sense to me as a gaming system.

 

[pjkelnhofer]

Don't discount the possibility of an X800 (or similar) card being available for the G5 before you need it. The 9600XT will probably serve you just fine for a year or so, and you can take the $300 you would have spent on the 9800XT and put it toward a better card later.

I agree with you, right now the 9800XT is the best card availible for the Mac. I keep saying it doesn't make sense to put the top of line card into the a G5, they make to much money on upgrades. When/if the X800 is availible for the Mac, the 9800XT will probably become the standard in the top line and they will still charge you $300 to upgrade.

 

[littlejim]

I just ordered my first Mac!!!

Power Mac G5 Dual 1.8GHz

Dual 1.8GHz PowerPC G5
512MB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x256
80GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon 9600 XT w/128MB DDR SDRAM
Bluetooth Module
AirPort Extreme Card
Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
Accessory kit

$2,019.00

Congratulations!!

Shame you chose such a negative thread to make your announcement ... but more power to your elbow that you went ahead and made that decision despite this thread.

 

[Rhydon]

New G5's are unable to support 30" LCD!!

I second the fact that apple has made a huge mistake by allowing such poor video cards into the new revisions. Actually it makes no sense why they would do so, ESPECIALLY since they are releasing a 30" LCD screen that is engineered only to work with the powermac G5. See guys theres this little problem of the current spec video cards offered in the g5 not being able to support the resolution of the new 30"er.

It says on the powermac g5 page- under tech specs, that the maximum supported resolution of the video cards are as follows: "Support for digital resolutions up to 1920 by 1200 pixels, Support for analog resolutions up to 1600 by 1200 pixels"........ Uh oh! Dont get me wrong, but those resolutions are not anywhere close to the demanded 2560 x 1600 of the 30" LCD.

So what do we have now? looks like either something has GOT TO CHANGE in the powermac lineup (which is highly doubted), OR there will be NO 30" LCD (and going on Apple insiders track record, i am very quickly loosing my faith in their sources).

Well, anyone else have some wild guesses on this one?

-Rhydon R.

 

[Hattig]

Uh oh! Dont get me wrong, but those resolutions are not anywhere close to the demanded 2560 x 1600 of the 30" LCD.

Assuming a digital interface ...

2560x1600 is 4 million pixels ... that's 16MB of screen data. A 60Hz update would require 1GB/s pumped to the screen over a cable.

DVI operates at up to 165MHz. With RGB outputs, that is 1.65Gbps per channel, that is 4.95 Gbps in total, or around 500MB/s. I.e., DVI can only support 2560 x 1600 at 30Hz update maximum.

So the 30" display, if it has that resolution, will either utilise TWO DVI inputs (i.e., appear to the system as a dual monitor, 1280x1600 + 1280x1600 in size), or require a different, faster, interface.