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Fellow Dual G5ers...

L

lem0nayde

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 26, 2002
171
0
NYC
Just got my G5 and I have some issues with its performance. Wondering if anyone else has them and wants to voice them. Here are mine:

1.) Despite a fresh install on a formatted drive and all current updates - the OS seems sluggish, unresponsive and buggy. It appears as though it is not working well with the new chip. Hopefully Panther fixes this.

2.) Vector trouble - the G5 seems to hate vector, particularly fonts. It slows down a lot when accessing fonts in almost every application. I've cleaned and font doctored all of my fonts, so I know they aren't corrupt.

3.) Photoshop, despite the G5 plugin, is having some weird issues with refreshing and, again, type. Images get all strange and pixelated when I use the type tool on them.

4.) Plus, is it me - or does it just not seem as fast as you expected? That's not to say it is slow, but the boost from my Dual 867mhz G4 is not what I expected.

5.) The power source thing totally sucks - mine chirps, screeches and whizzes constantly. I've called Apple they say it is "normal" behavior for the power source - but they will be offering power source replacements in November through retail outlets.

This is the second time I've had to replace a power source Apple, I'm so over that nonsense.

My machine:
Dual 2gig G5
2.5 gig RAM
2 250GB Serial ATA Drives
All of my software is legit and freshly installed from the box.

Let's here the range of experiences out there.

Joe
 
Re: ATTENTION fellow Dual G5ers.

Originally posted by lem0nayde
Just got my G5 and I have some issues with its performance. Wondering if anyone else has them and wants to voice them. Here are mine:

1.) Despite a fresh install on a formatted drive and all current updates - the OS seems sluggish, unresponsive and buggy. It appears as though it is not working well with the new chip. Hopefully Panther fixes this.

2.) Vector trouble - the G5 seems to hate vector, particularly fonts. It slows down a lot when accessing fonts in almost every application. I've cleaned and font doctored all of my fonts, so I know they aren't corrupt.

3.) Photoshop, despite the G5 plugin, is having some weird issues with refreshing and, again, type. Images get all strange and pixelated when I use the type tool on them.

4.) Plus, is it me - or does it just not seem as fast as you expected? That's not to say it is slow, but the boost from my Dual 867mhz G4 is not what I expected.

5.) The power source thing totally sucks - mine chirps, screeches and whizzes constantly. I've called Apple they say it is "normal" behavior for the power source - but they will be offering power source replacements in November through retail outlets.

This is the second time I've had to replace a power source Apple, I'm so over that nonsense.

My machine:
Dual 2gig G5
2.5 gig RAM
2 250GB Serial ATA Drives
All of my software is legit and freshly installed from the box.

Let's here the range of experiences out there.

Joe
Click to expand...


I'm on 1.8 G5 and don't have any of those probelems even though I work with Photoshop and and fonts all the time.

As fasr as fans go, yes, Dual is loud. Don't forget it has an extra fan for the second processor and they rotate faster. 1.6's fans rotate slow comparing to Dual.
The most annoying are two small bottom fans from power source though. They are the loudest.
 
Re: ATTENTION fellow Dual G5ers.

Originally posted by lem0nayde
1.) Despite a fresh install on a formatted drive and all current updates - the OS seems sluggish, unresponsive and buggy. It appears as though it is not working well with the new chip. Hopefully Panther fixes this.
Click to expand...

well, I'm on a 12" 1 ghz albook, and for me, the OS is fast, responsive, and incredibly stable. I have a 4200 RPM hard drive and 768 RAM.

Clearly, your dual kills my PB in speed in everything from processor to bus speed to HD speed to RAM amount and speed, to GPU.

So something sounds wrong here to me. How can I be having a better experience with the OS than you given the MASSIVELY more powerful machine you're on?

well, I'd say it's one of 4 things:
1) your dual is defective in some way.
2) I got a supercharged powerbook and no one told me.
3) our expectations are drastically different.
4) one of us is lying.

#3 seems the most likely to me. But even still, how could our expectations be *that* different? Since #2 is a joke really, and I'm just going to assume no one is lying, that would mean that in addition to different expectations there's something wrong with your G5. Bad RAM is my first thought.

I've heard of DOA duals, but never one with your high specs and bad performance. As I said, something sounds wrong here.
 
Yeah, my fear is that something is wrong. However -- the Apple Hardware Test shows all thumbs up. I wonder if mixing my bought RAM with Apples preinstalled RAM could be the cause. I've mixed RAM brands before with no problem...but who knows.

I know that my Dual 867 MDD felt more responsive than this machine in many ways. Something weird is going on.

I've waited to long for this machine to deal with this crap. ugh.

Maybe Panther will solve the problem.
 
Well I went from a G4 800 to 1.6 G5 and it feels snappier,games are faster and my main application is running faster in timed tests.

No apparent noise beyond hd access and certainly the 1.4 p4 2 meters behind me is much louder than the G5 that I have diagonally behind my monitor just over an arms length away. Only problem is where to put it,floor is too dusty, it doesnt fit in cupboard under desk by 1 inch in height and internal speaker sounds funny if machine is at 90's to me with not enough room on my desk to put it facing the front.
 
I would just wait until Panther is released. I have had a few issues with my machine, but I am waiting to reformat and put a fresh install of panther on it when this Friday. Hopefully that will solve my issues, if not I will call and let my bitches and gripes be known.

FYI

Dual 2ghz
1.5 GB RAM
160 GB HD
10.2.8 (g5) now
 
Originally posted by macstudent
I would just wait until Panther is released. I have had a few issues with my machine, but I am waiting to reformat and put a fresh install of panther on it when this Friday. Hopefully that will solve my issues, if not I will call and let my bitches and gripes be known.

FYI

Dual 2ghz
1.5 GB RAM
160 GB HD
10.2.8 (g5) now
Click to expand...

What kinda of problems are you guys having? My 1.8 works flawlessly, and i have very high expectations from the new things i buy.
 
Re: Re: ATTENTION fellow Dual G5ers.

Originally posted by QCassidy352

2) I got a supercharged powerbook and no one told me.
Click to expand...

You too? Wow...they must have put those new G4s on crack because these things run circles around G5s!

Not really, though...either your machine is defective or there is a serious software conflict going on, because those things are monsters and I've seen xbench scores that are triple that than any G4 system I've seen tested for those new dual G5s. Perhaps wait for Panther, if it is still not working right, I'd be asking Apple what is wrong.
 
You can try running it without Apple's Hynix RAM installed, since there "may" be an issue with early Hynix RAM & 3rd party RAM.

You can try pulling the AGP card and reinstalling it to make sure it's fully seated. Since there "may" have been some machines where the card became unseated.

You can also try Panther, and hope Apple includes a firware update that correct any outstanding issues.
 
From the beginning (when I first opened the package) I cannot poweron the computer if I have a moniter pluged into my dvi side. I am currently using a vga lcd with the vga to dvi adapter. My second moniter is an ADC and it does not have problems with it.

What happens is that when the dvi moniter is plugged in and I try and hit power, nothing happens. but if I unplug it and hit power, it begins to power up. So I simply plug it back in and be on my way. Since restarts are not affected by the moniter it doesn't bother me. I also rarely turn the computer off. I am hoping panther fixes this.

My other issue is something that has happened a few times. My computer is in my bedroom and a few times in the middle of the night it starts to go full tilt with the fans( full blast to nothing, back and forth) and turning the moniters on. It scared the crap out of me the first time it happened to me. It has happened twice since I recieved my dual at the beginning of this month.

The rest are minor software issues which I feel I can fix when I reformat for Panther.
 
Re: ATTENTION fellow Dual G5ers.

Originally posted by lem0nayde
Just got my G5 and I have some issues with its performance. Wondering if anyone else has them and wants to voice them. Here are mine:

1.) Despite a fresh install on a formatted drive and all current updates - the OS seems sluggish, unresponsive and buggy. It appears as though it is not working well with the new chip. Hopefully Panther fixes this.

....

4.) Plus, is it me - or does it just not seem as fast as you expected? That's not to say it is slow, but the boost from my Dual 867mhz G4 is not what I expected.
Click to expand...


No, my Dual G5 is not as fast as I expected. It's faster. =)

Here was my initial reaction (copied from a post I made on another board):

*****

Just received my Dual G5 on Monday (stock config except for 1.5 GB of RAM plus Airport Extreme and no modem).

Wow, this computer is really, really ridiculously fast. Admittedly I am upgrading from an iBook 500, so that skews my view a bit, but I swear this is the biggest *perceived* performance jump I have ever seen in an upgrade, and back in 1995 I upgraded straight from a Mac SE (not even the SE/30...we are talking about an 8 Mhz 68000) to a PowerPC 601!! Okay, admittedly the SE was running System 6 and the PPC was running System 7.x (which was only partially PPC native), so it's not quite a fair comparison, but still...

Jon Rubinstein was right, the G5 *is* the best computer that Apple has EVER built. And I don't mean that in an absolute sense (obviously it is better than any of the previous machines...that's why it's replacing them), but relative to its contemporaries.

I just don't understand how this machine is SO fast. It's the first computer I have ever had where I feel like I can run as many different tasks at any given time as I want and there will be no effect at all on its responsiveness. And it's not like I have only been using slow machines. The iBook was getting quite slow by this time, but at work I use P4/3.06 machines running XP with 512 MB of RAM, which is pretty much state of the art (yes, I know that the P4/3.2 machines with 800 FSB exist, but it is close enough for govt. work ), and somehow this just feels much faster and more responsive than even those machines (which already felt very fast in general compared to the iBook). And I'm not even running Panther yet!!!

And it's so sleek too. The aesthetics are just awesome.

All in all, I'm a pretty happy customer, if that wasn't immediately clear.

****



5.) The power source thing totally sucks - mine chirps, screeches and whizzes constantly. I've called Apple they say it is "normal" behavior for the power source - but they will be offering power source replacements in November through retail outlets.

Joe
Click to expand...

Yeah, I notice a little chirp every now and then, but not enough that I am going to bother exchanging the power supply (unless it gets significantly worse). It usually happens with disk access, and it's not as loud as the disk anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

Oh, my specs are:

Dual G5
1.5 GB RAM
160 GB Drive
Radeon 9600 Pro
Airport Extreme
No Modem
10.2.8
 
I felt the same way when upgrading from my 400 MHz G3 to my 1.25 GHz G4...wow, talk about a night to day jump. I cannot imagine what you dual G5 people are experiencing.
 
When I jumped from my PowerMac 8500 with a 300Mhz G3 upgrade card to a dual 1.25 G4 (2003) it was mind boggling faster.

You might try removing the RAM modules that you purchased and just leave the one that came from Apple. That would tell you if it is a memory problem. Also, try running the XBench app and compare with what others have posted (or some other benchmark app).
 
Re: Re: Re: ATTENTION fellow Dual G5ers.

Originally posted by Powerbook G5
... those things are monsters and I've seen xbench scores that are triple that than any G4 system I've seen tested for those new dual G5s. Perhaps wait for Panther, if it is still not working right, I'd be asking Apple what is wrong.
Click to expand...

this is what I'm talking about. And what macrumors12345 posted above seems to be how most dual G5 owners experience's have been.

Something isn't right in your case. Your old dual 867 is a good machine, but there's simply no way it should be in any way more responsive than a dual G5. Something seems to be wrong here. :-/
 
Just wait and 'hope' the new operating system fixes it

Be "proactive" in fixing the problem, pick up the phone and have a yell. Either that or return it and buy a dual AMD Opteron System, where in that world Money talks and Bull**** walks. When ever I have hardware problems (most likely what your having) with my AMD system it's a simple trip to the shifty PC dealer and a straight out swap

Don't put up with apples ****, YOU are the customer and YOU are always right!
 
This is true, that I am apples customer. I am currently using this computer for a lot of work, and I can wait until Friday to see if this fixes my problems. If it does not, then I will be calling and letting them know what is going on.

Has anyone else had the problem with not being able to power on with a vga to dvi adapter pluged in?
 
If you're running Norton, you can try removing it and any kext files it installed. And wait until they ship a G5 Panther approved version.
 
Pushing a button isn't the issue. The problem is that with the moniter plugged in, even if I press the power button it will not power up. I have to remove the dvi adapter from the back, power on, then attach the adapter again.

It is a pain to do this everytime I wish to power on.
 
so far no prob
g52x2 with 2 gigs ram
mainly a photoshop box
I did read about the power supply in some being bad and they will replace them
other than that I didnt have a g4
I still use the PC for some stuff but am enjoying the Mac experience ;)
reminds me of the smile I had when I first got my 128k Mac back in the 80s ;)
man I am getting old !!!!
 
Originally posted by manitoubalck
Be "proactive" in fixing the problem... When ever I have hardware problems (most likely what your having) with my AMD system it's a simple trip to the shifty PC dealer and a straight out swap

Don't put up with apples ****, YOU are the customer and YOU are always right!
Click to expand...

If I's that much of an issue Fix it!
 
>manitoubalck

Calm down, don't get in a fight with yourself. :eek:

You're quoting yourself. I do it myself -- but only when I'm too lazy to retype a response I answered in another thread.

Doing it in the same thread like that makes it seem like the meds are a tad off. ;)
 
You responded

Originally posted by macstudent
The worst part about talking to yourself, is when you get a response.:D
Click to expand...

The point is that the problem wont fix itself, and apple wont call you and ask how are things going. YOU have to take the first step
 
Re: Just wait and 'hope' the new operating system fixes it

Originally posted by manitoubalck
Be "proactive" in fixing the problem, pick up the phone and have a yell. Either that or return it and buy a dual AMD Opteron System, where in that world Money talks and Bull**** walks.
Click to expand...

Riiight. And what OS are you running? Linux? I hear that Microsoft is a very customer centric company. The customer is always right...except when s/he doesn't install the latest 4,578 security patches, in which case it is *completely* the customer's fault that SoBig.F or Slammer or whatever hosed the machine.

Go troll elsewhere.
 
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