Dual Core vs Dual Processors on a G5?

[davidg4781]

There's a 2.3 GHz DC on Craigslist for $125. When I first noticed it it didn't mention which Dual it was but now I'm wondering which one would be best, of if there's a difference.

For informational purposes I've been looking for a G4 QS but searched for G5s and thought this looked like a good buy. It comes with keyboard, mouse, wifi dongle, and installed software which would be removed when I install Leopard.

 

[SuperKerem]

There's a 2.3 GHz DC on Craigslist for $125. When I first noticed it it didn't mention which Dual it was but now I'm wondering which one would be best, of if there's a difference.

For informational purposes I've been looking for a G4 QS but searched for G5s and thought this looked like a good buy. It comes with keyboard, mouse, wifi dongle, and installed software which would be removed when I install Leopard.

That's a pretty good deal. Put simply, dual core is generally better than dual processor, in terms of efficiency and speed. There was another thread on this a while back.

 

[bunnspecial]

All else being equal, a dual core should beat a dual processor anytime.

All else is not equal, though. The DC G5s use faster RAM(PC-3200 vs PC2-4200), can hold more RAM(16gb vs 8gb) and have PCIe vs PCI-x.

All in all, DCs are faster systems. I use a 2.0DC at work, and it's as fast as I could ask for what I do on it-aside from playing .Youtube videos

 

[SuperKerem]

All else being equal, a dual core should beat a dual processor anytime.

All else is not equal, though. The DC G5s use faster RAM(PC-3200 vs PC2-4200), can hold more RAM(16gb vs 8gb) and have PCIe vs PCI-x.

All in all, DCs are faster systems. I use a 2.0DC at work, and it's as fast as I could ask for what I do on it-aside from playing .Youtube videos

Forgot to mention this as well! OP, if you're looking to do any sort of online browsing/video try and avoid the earlier 2003/2004 G5s and stick to the 2005 Dual Core 2.0Ghz+

 

[Cox Orange]

Always go with the DC, only if you are cheap on money, the DP offers a wider range of Graphics card choices.

Here is a nice chart of tests run with DCs and DPs:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1047649/dualcorebenchmarks.html

Further more http://www.macworld.com/article/1047816/powermacg5rev.html

If you don't mind noise also look at the Quad. Re liquid cooling leakages, I would say, if they haven't leaked since now, they should be fine, but keep an eye on temps (you can set an alarm with some apps) and the innards.


Also, aren't the DCs are a bit quieter than the DPs or am I wrong (from memory)?

 

[SuperKerem]

Always go with the DC, only if you are cheap on money, the DP offers a wider range of Graphics card choices.

Here is a nice chart of tests run with DCs and DPs:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1047649/dualcorebenchmarks.html

Further more http://www.macworld.com/article/1047816/powermacg5rev.html

If you don't mind noise also look at the Quad. Re liquid cooling leakages, I would say, if they haven't leaked since now, they should be fine, but keep an eye on temps (you can set an alarm with some apps) and the innards.


Also, aren't the DCs are a bit quieter than the DPs or am I wrong (from memory)?

I have a Quad G5 and a dual 2Ghz, both Late 2005, all I can say is that the quad runs a little louder, it is kind of noticeable but I definitely wouldn't call it distracting. This is normal for the Quad G5s as they have twice the processing power as all the other models!

I haven't owned any DP G5s, so I can't tell you if they are louder or not. However, since there are two CPU chips in the DPs and only 1 (dual) CPU in the DC, I'm guessing that the DP's going to be louder.

Also, is there a built in way of checking the G5 temps? I haven't been able to find a way in the OS itself and don't know of any particular monitoring apps. I've heard of iStat but I'm pretty sure that's Intel only?

 

[bunnspecial]

iStat Nano works in 10.4 and later, both PPC and Mac.

I like Temperature Monitor, as it can often read more temperature sensors than iStat Nano and also is less resource-intensive than iStat.

Anyway, as far as noise, my DC 2.0 sits about a foot and a half from my left ear, and I don't really even notice the fans running unless I'm doing something really CPU intensive.

The only DP G5 I have is my Xserve, and it's noisy but then the thermal design is quite a bit different than a G5 tower(it has 10 small, high speed fans that pull air through long ducts). My single 1.8 is about as loud as my DC 2.0.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Always go with the DC, only if you are cheap on money, the DP offers a wider range of Graphics card choices.

Here is a nice chart of tests run with DCs and DPs:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1047649/dualcorebenchmarks.html

Further more http://www.macworld.com/article/1047816/powermacg5rev.html

Reading through those reports, there's little between the dual core and dual processors considering the DC have faster memory and double the L2 cache - maybe they're hampered by having only one FSB vs the DP two?

I've honestly never felt a massive difference between my current DP and the Quad I had - only when number crunching.

 

[SuperKerem]

iStat Nano works in 10.4 and later, both PPC and Mac.

I like Temperature Monitor, as it can often read more temperature sensors than iStat Nano and also is less resource-intensive than iStat.

Anyway, as far as noise, my DC 2.0 sits about a foot and a half from my left ear, and I don't really even notice the fans running unless I'm doing something really CPU intensive.

The only DP G5 I have is my Xserve, and it's noisy but then the thermal design is quite a bit different than a G5 tower(it has 10 small, high speed fans that pull air through long ducts). My single 1.8 is about as loud as my DC 2.0.

To be honest, after switching from a dead-silent rMBP to the Quad, it's definately louder, but if it was the only machine I was using, I'd get used to it pretty quick.

Thanks for the app suggestions, I'm looking into it now!

 

[jbarley]

I've heard of iStat but I'm pretty sure that's Intel only?

I run iStat Menus 3.19 on my quad G5 running Leopard, works well and gets me all the tempereatures and fan speed sensors.

 

[poiihy]

I run iStat Menus 3.19 on my quad G5 running Leopard, works well and get all the tempereatures and fan speed sensors.

Wow nice theme there. Nice dock and background.

 

[SuperKerem]

I run iStat Menus 3.19 on my quad G5 running Leopard, works well and get all the tempereatures and fan speed sensors.

Nice, I have a quad as well! Could you possibly hook me up with a dmg for iStat?

Also, on a sidenote, have you got any other G5s and how loud is the quad when compared to them? I'm asking this because my quad is louder than my dual 2Ghz G5! Probably because of the higher processing power but anyway, this will be sorted once I find out the exact temps.

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Wow nice theme there. Nice dock and background.

I have to agree with you on that!

 

[jbarley]

Nice, I have a quad as well! Could you possibly hook me up with a dmg for iStat?

No problem right here, now scroll about 1/2 way down the page till you hit "Download iStatMenus 3.19"

I do have a dual 1.8 G5 and I'd have to say the noise level difference between the 2 is not really noticeable.
One trick to make the noise a bit more tolerable is go into system preferences>Energy Saver>Options and set the Processor Energy to anything but Automatic. This will cut down on the cycling up and down a lot.

 

[SuperKerem]

No problem right here, now scroll about 1/2 way down the page till you hit "Download iStatMenus 3.19"

I do have a dual 1.8 G5 and I'd have to say the noise level difference between the 2 is not really noticeable.
One trick to make the noise a bit more tolerable is go into system preferences>Energy Saver>Options and set the Processor Energy to anything but Automatic. This will cut down on the cycling up and down a lot.

Cool, thanks. I have my CPU set on Reduced btw, much quieter than Automatic!

 

[davidg4781]

I bought it!!

I plugged it into the 20" Cinema Display I have (glad I had that) to make sure it turned on and everything worked before wiping the HDDs. It does appear that it's a fresh install of OS X, the dates are showing February 21/22.

I don't have speakers for this, so that's going to be something to get. I may also get the Wifi/BT board, if it's inexpensive. Right now it's sitting right next to the router so wifi's not an issue and I only have one BT Magic Mouse. GPU is the GeForce 6600... doesn't look to be one of the higher end cards, but it'll do for now.

I'll start a new thread about this maybe tomorrow or something. I have to be at work in 8 hours so I don't want to start anything.

It also needs to be cleaned out inside. I'll have to do some research on how to do that best. It's a little dusty, not too bad though.

 

[Orizence]

I bought it!!

I plugged it into the 20" Cinema Display I have (glad I had that) to make sure it turned on and everything worked before wiping the HDDs. It does appear that it's a fresh install of OS X, the dates are showing February 21/22.

I don't have speakers for this, so that's going to be something to get. I may also get the Wifi/BT board, if it's inexpensive. Right now it's sitting right next to the router so wifi's not an issue and I only have one BT Magic Mouse. GPU is the GeForce 6600... doesn't look to be one of the higher end cards, but it'll do for now.

I'll start a new thread about this maybe tomorrow or something. I have to be at work in 8 hours so I don't want to start anything.

It also needs to be cleaned out inside. I'll have to do some research on how to do that best. It's a little dusty, not too bad though.

I think if the Ram and hard drive is decent, I think the next Upgrade should defiantly be the GPU, ditching the 6600 is a good choice....

 

[davidg4781]

I think if the Ram and hard drive is decent, I think the next Upgrade should defiantly be the GPU, ditching the 6600 is a good choice....

It has 4 X 1 GB, 2 X 256 MB RAM, and 2 X 40 GB HDD. It'd be awesome if they were SSDs since they're so small but I doubt it. Right now I'm doing a zero out erase on them, just in case, so I can't open it up to check.

I guess I can start a new thread now, while I wait.

 

[redheeler]

All else being equal, a dual core should beat a dual processor anytime.

All else is not equal, though. The DC G5s use faster RAM(PC-3200 vs PC2-4200), can hold more RAM(16gb vs 8gb) and have PCIe vs PCI-x.

All in all, DCs are faster systems. I use a 2.0DC at work, and it's as fast as I could ask for what I do on it-aside from playing .Youtube videos

Not to mention the late 2005s came with faster GPUs.

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Funny timing for this thread by the way, I've worked out an incredible deal on a 2.0 DC late 2005 G5 which I will use to replace my annoying 2.0 DP original G5. I should be picking it up tomorrow.

 

[bunnspecial]

Not to mention the late 2005s came with faster GPUs

I haven't benched the stock 6600 in my DC, but I'd just about be willing to be that the 6800 Ultra in my 1.8 Single is a better performing card, and definitely not better than the X800(flashed FireGL X3) I have lying around waiting to get used.

With that said, the higher end late '05 GPUs are better than the high end AGP cards for the earlier G5s.

 

[redheeler]

I haven't benched the stock 6600 in my DC, but I'd just about be willing to be that the 6800 Ultra in my 1.8 Single is a better performing card, and definitely not better than the X800(flashed FireGL X3) I have lying around waiting to get used.

With that said, the higher end late '05 GPUs are better than the high end AGP cards for the earlier G5s.

Oh, in that case what GPU upgrade would you recommend for a late '05?

 

[bunnspecial]

Oh, in that case what GPU upgrade would you recommend for a late '05?

The graphics card options(not including flashed cards) for the late '05 are-in order of increasing performance-the 6600, 6600LE, 7800gt, and FX4500.

Most 2.0 DCs I see have the 6600LE or 6600.

Member Surrat has an ongoing benchmark thread with several of us contributing. The 7800gt is a small step below the 6800 Ultra, and a decent step below the X800 or X850. The FX4500 is between the X800 and X850.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1848060/

I wouldn't hesitate to use either of these card to upgrade a late '05 G5, but they're still not better than the best early '05 cards.

Without benchmarking, though, I'd venture to guess that either a 6600LE would significantly outperform the FX5200 that came stock in a lot of AGP-based G5s, and probably is a also a decent step above the Radeon 9600 that is one of the more common upgrade cards in AGP G5s.

The high end AGP G5 cards can cost a pretty penny. I think I paid about $60 for my 6800 Ultra. Genuine Mac-edition X800 and X850s are fairly scarce and tend to bring good prices when they come up for sale. The FireXL G3 can usually be had for $30-40 and flashes easily and beautifully into a X800.

 

[redheeler]

The graphics card options(not including flashed cards) for the late '05 are-in order of increasing performance-the 6600, 6600LE, 7800gt, and FX4500.

Most 2.0 DCs I see have the 6600LE or 6600.

Member Surrat has an ongoing benchmark thread with several of us contributing. The 7800gt is a small step below the 6800 Ultra, and a decent step below the X800 or X850. The FX4500 is between the X800 and X850.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1848060/

I wouldn't hesitate to use either of these card to upgrade a late '05 G5, but they're still not better than the best early '05 cards.

Without benchmarking, though, I'd venture to guess that either a 6600LE would significantly outperform the FX5200 that came stock in a lot of AGP-based G5s, and probably is a also a decent step above the Radeon 9600 that is one of the more common upgrade cards in AGP G5s.

The high end AGP G5 cards can cost a pretty penny. I think I paid about $60 for my 6800 Ultra. Genuine Mac-edition X800 and X850s are fairly scarce and tend to bring good prices when they come up for sale. The FireXL G3 can usually be had for $30-40 and flashes easily and beautifully into a X800.

The one I'm looking at getting should have the 6600LE. Good to know that it's still a step up from the upgraded R9600 out of my my DP G5, unfortunately this is the card with the disappearing cursor issue. Bugged me so much that I changed it for a cheap stock R9600 with 1 ADC/1 DVI instead of 2x DVI and less VRAM. One of the reasons I've always hated that DP (the second reason is either having only one CPU or blasting fans).

Still kind of a disappointment that the baseline GPU is worse compared to the prior generation while everything else is better, I'll think about getting an upgrade for it. The main problem is that I'd just hate to spoil such a good deal with an expensive GPU upgrade.

 

[MatthewLTL]

I run iStat Menus 3.19 on my quad G5 running Leopard, works well and get all the tempereatures and fan speed sensors.

Where did you get the Dock theme James? Surely would look better than the 2D dock,

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I have a Quad G5 and a dual 2Ghz, both Late 2005, all I can say is that the quad runs a little louder, it is kind of noticeable but I definitely wouldn't call it distracting. This is normal for the Quad G5s as they have twice the processing power as all the other models!

I haven't owned any DP G5s, so I can't tell you if they are louder or not. However, since there are two CPU chips in the DPs and only 1 (dual) CPU in the DC, I'm guessing that the DP's going to be louder.

Also, is there a built in way of checking the G5 temps? I haven't been able to find a way in the OS itself and don't know of any particular monitoring apps. I've heard of iStat but I'm pretty sure that's Intel only?

Correct me if I am wrong, but ISN'T the Quad G5s actually 2 Dual Core processors? So techincally speaking a Quad G5 is a DP G5.

 

[jbarley]

Where did you get the Dock theme James? Surely would look better than the 2D dock,

Dump the childish "red" text and I'll consider telling you!

 

[Cox Orange]

Here is the full list of PCIe GPUs in order (slow to faster):
http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Blog/71BBF3EF-9713-4C53-8B80-26771F8A4087.html (if you go back one page, you see how big the chart/variety for AGP cards is).

On the Xserve: comparing it to the PowerMacs in noice is a joke of course. I had one shortly and immediately after start up it will sound like a jet engine, so that, if you are not used to enterprise servers, you will think there is something wrong and the fuses will fly out of the wall soon.

PS: I'd also recommend trying "temperature monitor" app and see if you prefer iStat or that.

@ keremtezcan:
yes the article I linked too sugguests, that they are close. Mind the DC is a tiny bit faster in Video encoding. I once read a post by Japamac over at the apple discussions forum, where he explained, why the DCs can't make better use of the faster RAM, there is something to the design that limits them, but more something about the SPD protocols etc.. (this crippling thing is actually common for Apple. They did it with the MDD that coukld take DDR over SDRAM and the RAM was as fast as SDRAM).