G5, are we ready?

[D*I*S_Frontman]

G4/G5 Projections

I have a rather straightforward question. As long as everyone seems to be under the impression that G5's are not forthcoming in July, and that additional motherboard updates and modest CPU speed bumps are all we can expect, is it possble that we could see multiple processor usage increase? 4, 6, or 8 G4 chips in a new tower designed to aggressively suck the extra heat out?

I am obviously not a hardware engineer, so I don't know what extra throughput pressures additional processors put on a motherboard or drives, but if OS X is so fabulous at spreading out processing work across multiple CPU's, then why not a quad 1ghz tower? I'd love to run at least 48 simultaneous tracks of 96khz/24bit audio using MOTU's Digital Performer with scads and scads of plug-ins runniing as well. I don't care if the chip is G3, G4, G5, or G to the 47th power--I just want real-world functionality.

So, oh wisened Mac tech gurus, tell me why Apple wouldn't just jam towers full of CPUs as a stop-gap between now and when the next chip actually ships? Or after, for that matter!

Anxiously awaiting your answers...
Bart

 

[mrich75]

g5

Motorola, reps have been saying for a while in press releases,
that the g5 will be more than a match for the itanium chip.

 

[wrylachlan]

Re: G4/G5 Projections

Originally posted by D*I*S_Frontman
I have a rather straightforward question. As long as everyone seems to be under the impression that G5's are not forthcoming in July, and that additional motherboard updates and modest CPU speed bumps are all we can expect, is it possble that we could see multiple processor usage increase? 4, 6, or 8 G4 chips in a new tower designed to aggressively suck the extra heat out?

I am obviously not a hardware engineer, so I don't know what extra throughput pressures additional processors put on a motherboard or drives, but if OS X is so fabulous at spreading out processing work across multiple CPU's, then why not a quad 1ghz tower? I'd love to run at least 48 simultaneous tracks of 96khz/24bit audio using MOTU's Digital Performer with scads and scads of plug-ins runniing as well. I don't care if the chip is G3, G4, G5, or G to the 47th power--I just want real-world functionality.

So, oh wisened Mac tech gurus, tell me why Apple wouldn't just jam towers full of CPUs as a stop-gap between now and when the next chip actually ships? Or after, for that matter!

Anxiously awaiting your answers...
Bart

There's no reason they physically can't do it, but there is a cost/performance ratio consideration. The more processors you add to a board, the complexity of the support infrustructure increases geometrically. So while going from one processor to two is easy, two to four is more difficult, and four to eight is a serious engineering task. Also the performance increase per processor falls off the more processors you have as a greater percentage of the processing power is spent "syncing". Furthermore, while running multiple-processes tends to use multiple processors fairly efficiently, a single photoshop instance wouldn't be able to efficiently use 8 processors because its MP support is optimized for 2.

I'm not saying that you don't get a performance benefit from multiple processors, just that the cost/performance ratio goes up the more processors you have. Right now Apple feels that 2 chips is the "sweet spot" for MP. And maybe with the volume of G4 chips they are using the price per unit may drop to the point where Quad processor systems come in at an acceptable price/performance ratio. I wouldn't totally rule out Quad G4's at MWNY. But you can pretty much forget about anything more.

 

[gopher]

Biggest problem is software

Too much software is so dependent on videocard technology that no matter how fast they make the processor, it is the videocard that will make the difference. In most Mac machines, even the non-upgradable ones it is easier to replace the processor than the videocard. What would be really nice is if they started making G5s that could fit in the Flat Panel iMac, would be if Apple would upgrade machines by replacing the whole motherboard in their repair shops. We as users should demand for such a service. Until we can convince our game developers to develop exclusively for processor technology, it won't matter how fast our processors become, we need better videocards.