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G4 vs G5
- Thread starter Dronecatcher
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Nice vid, thanks. Shows just how good the G4 really was. Would have been nice to see an evolutionary progression along the path Motorola/Freescale was following, instead of IBM's take on it. Even though the POWER line is still going strong, I'd have loved to see what a multi-core 64-bit G4 could have done in a Mac instead of the game consoles their derivatives ended up in. Alas 
It would be interesting to compare my Dual 1.8Ghz G5 against a dual 1.42 MDD. I don't have one, I do however have a dual 1.25.
I also have a single 1.8 G5 I could probably put against some G4s when I have time.
I think that what freescale later did with the G4 architecture was probably better then where IBM went with the G5. I strongly agree what this guy said about G4s being limited. A G4 on a faster bus, with SATA and the ability to use more than 2GB of ram would really bring G4s up to date more.
I also have a single 1.8 G5 I could probably put against some G4s when I have time.
I think that what freescale later did with the G4 architecture was probably better then where IBM went with the G5. I strongly agree what this guy said about G4s being limited. A G4 on a faster bus, with SATA and the ability to use more than 2GB of ram would really bring G4s up to date more.
Given the G5 is a far more complex chip and had one monstrous frontside bus at the time, I feel like this demonstrates how apple made significant sacrifices for higher clock freqs and 64-bit computer marketing. Actually, did Apple pay as much attention to any other product line as they did with the PowerMac G5, before Intel macs came out?
Given this is a performance per watt comparison, there's also the fact the 7455 is a chip from 2002 on a 180nm process, while the 970mp is a 2005 chip on a 90nm process. Dynamic powermanagement not being fully relevant to this is also disabled on every dual G4 machine but always enabled on G5s (I mean nap, not DFS).
Okay, I'm done totally being partial to the G4.
Given this is a performance per watt comparison, there's also the fact the 7455 is a chip from 2002 on a 180nm process, while the 970mp is a 2005 chip on a 90nm process. Dynamic powermanagement not being fully relevant to this is also disabled on every dual G4 machine but always enabled on G5s (I mean nap, not DFS).
Okay, I'm done totally being partial to the G4.
G5s are similar to Pentium 4s in just this manner... The fact that both Intel and Apple at the time were only caring about clock speed and wanted to win that race.
Personally I think G5s are way faster than P4s are, but in that respect they aren't that much faster than a G4 would be at the same speed. Not unlike a PIII being more efficient and possibly faster than a similar speed P4.
I think the Dual Core G5s did a way better job and had they continued development couldv'e become even greater. But by the time those came out Apple knew for a fact they would be the last PPC macs...
Not back then. By the time they were making G5s, and announcing the undelivered 3GHz PowerMac G5 it was. I did say the G5s are faster than the P4s they went up against.
I've personally used the later 3Ghz and 2.8Ghz P4s. I didn't do any benchmarks but my 1.8Ghz G5 feels way faster.
I'd say it depends. The OS in general definitely feels faster and more responsive on the G5 but for me it heavily depended on what I ran. I haven't used a P4 as much as a G5, though. And the P4 was more on the low-cost side
Could someone say how G4 1.25 Dual compares to G5 2.3 Dual, subjectively? I’m not interested in formal benchmark here.
I had a dual 1Ghz MDD and have had a 2.3 Dual Core G5 since then. The performance difference for me was night and day. Most of it honestly though is due to the memory, graphics card and pcie capabilities. Makes multitasking seamless no matter how much bs you throw at it (see screenshot), sits around 60-70% with all this non-sense going on. I couldn't do that on the MDD.
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No contest between my dual 1Ghz dual QS and that of my G5 2.3. As with @davisdelo there's no way that the dual 1Ghz G4 in my QS could cope with the tasks that are thrown at my G5. Matter of fact, it also completely demolishes my 3.06Ghz P4 and all of my first-gen Intel Macs - with the exception of my Mac Pro.
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Got it, thank you. I have just been thinking whether to get 1.25 DP as well, but considering your comments, I drop the idea. I find 2.3 DC acceptably fast, but won’t enjoy anything significantly slower, at least for a desktop.