How big is the actual G5 chip (not the heatsink)

[mikemodena]

Well we all know the massive size of the G5 heatsink, but I'm just curious as to how big the actual processor is. Is it a lot bigger than say an AMD Processor, or a G3 or G4? My school had a G3 and the chip was tiny. If anyone had any pictures that would be great.. I'm really curious on this one.

 

[ReanimationLP]

About the size of a AMD Athlon 64 from what I've read.

 

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man says....google...there are loads of pics out there....oh yeah!

 

[homerjward]

About the size of a AMD Athlon 64 from what I've read.

which, iirc from when i built my pc, is a little bigger than an inch and a half square.

 

[macbaseball]

Is this what your looking for. I'm not an expert on this kind of stuff...

Link

 

[mikemodena]

Wow.. that heatsink is massive compared to the processor.. I know the G5 generates a ton of heat.. but why? Thanks for the pics..

 

[homerjward]

Wow.. that heatsink is massive compared to the processor.. I know the G5 generates a ton of heat.. but why? Thanks for the pics..

you may have noticed they dont have whiny, annoying fans on them like amd's stock coolers. (not sure about intel's) they're passively cooled like that, in addition to the case's big, quiet fans, for quietness.

 

[macbaseball]

Wow.. that heatsink is massive compared to the processor.. I know the G5 generates a ton of heat.. but why? Thanks for the pics..

I think it's just chip design. My guess it was orignally designed to be very fast, and size and heat weren't that big of a concern. It seems like IBM planned poorly for the future, because I remember when it first came out the fans were huge and there was major concerns about overheating. IBM engineers were always fighting an uphill battle with trying to get the G5 cool and into a laptop.

 

[reberto]

Hmm.... Is that 2x the size of a AMD Athlon XP.

About the size of a AMD Athlon 64 from what I've read.