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How much faster would a 2.8ghz iMac be than a Dual PPC 1.8ghz G5 ?

sk8ordie

sk8ordie

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 16, 2007
149
0
California
How much faster would a 2.8ghz 24" iMac be than a Dual PPC 1.8ghz G5 with 512mb ram?

Barely faster? Twice as fast? 10 times faster? Light years faster?


I couldnt find any tests so if you have input or test links let me know!
 
The Intel chips run circles around the G5 with optimized software. Think of a foot race between Jobs and Ballmer.
 
A Core Duo 2.0 Ghz would run circles around the G5.

Now, imagine a 2.8 Ghz Extreme iMac against the same G5.


Please, as I say with everybody, do not buy your ram from Apple.

Get it from www.macsales.com for like $100.

You end up with a 2.8 Ghz Beast with 4 gigs of ram.

The iMac's are nice as hell.
 
FF_productions said:
A Core Duo 2.0 Ghz would run circles around the G5.
Click to expand...

Not really. Core duos and G5s are pretty comparable in performance at the same clock. maybe the core duo is a little faster, and with the extra 200 mhz a bit faster on top of that.

But really, people are waaaay too quick to dismiss the G5. I've seen a poster claim that his core solo mini was faster than his dual 2.0 G5. Riiiight.
 
QCassidy352 said:
Not really. Core duos and G5s are pretty comparable in performance at the same clock. maybe the core duo is a little faster, and with the extra 200 mhz a bit faster on top of that.

But really, people are waaaay too quick to dismiss the G5. I've seen a poster claim that his core solo mini was faster than his dual 2.0 G5. Riiiight.
Click to expand...

OK maybe I exaggerated the speed increase...

Yeah I don't know how people can think a core solo mini can beat a dual G5. Blows my mind.
 
I can tell you that my dual G5 1.8 with 5GB of RAM was in all things faster than a base model C2D MacBook Pro that was purchased this past summer.

I don't know how much faster a 2.8 ghz imac is when compared to a macbook pro, but it seems like it can't be much more than just the difference in clock, because most of the elements are the same aside from the hard drive speed.

I think that you could spend a couple hundred bucks on your G5 and make it at least as fast as a current iMac, no matter what apple's "independent" benchmarks might claim.

In the real world, the architecture of a G5 tower is much more robust and scalable than the iMac, which is an up-sell on a laptop, made with laptop components.

You can stuff a LOT of RAM into a G5 tower, and you will benefit from it in everyday use if you actually use your machine for work. You can leave tons of heavy applications open and lots of documents in play.

You should also consider a 10K RPM boot drive. Seriously. You add 4-6 GB of RAM and a 10K boot drive and you'll be smoking. The only problem then is the piddly graphics card. May be worth picking up a G5-compatible graphics card on ebay, too.

Think of it this way: An unmodified G5 tower is a solid frame with a powerful engine and lots of room to grow. It's practically 100% potential. There is a reason that pro drag racers are still using engines and from the early '70s.

An iMac is a pimped-out honda civic that is being pushed to its theoretical limits already.

My analogy calls apart somewhat because the G5 is more agile than the iMac, as well.

so the car analogy isn't quite right. But you get the idea.

imac=cool and smarmy and already being used to basically the full potential, out of the box.

g5 tower=calm and collected, gets the job done and fast if you give it the right tools.
 
The G5 is old.

The Intel Core 2 Duo is the newest Chip Intel Has.

The Core 2 Duo is much better than a G5.

Do you see a pattern here.

I beleive that your a New iMac would run Circles around an old G5. It would do it Faster, Better, Cooler, Quieter, Sexier, and most importantly, you woudlnt be running old PPC Code which is HOPEFULLY going to die soon.
 
The iMac will be MUCH faster. I recently switched from a dual 1.8ghz G5 to a 2.4 Ghz 17" MBP and the difference is night and day.
 
Well, I have a new 500gb Seagate 7200.11 hard drive to install, so I figure that with 2gigs of RAM should speed it up and hold me off on a new purchase for a while.
 
benpatient said:
I can tell you that my dual G5 1.8 with 5GB of RAM was in all things faster than a base model C2D MacBook Pro that was purchased this past summer.

I don't know how much faster a 2.8 ghz imac is when compared to a macbook pro, but it seems like it can't be much more than just the difference in clock, because most of the elements are the same aside from the hard drive speed.

I think that you could spend a couple hundred bucks on your G5 and make it at least as fast as a current iMac, no matter what apple's "independent" benchmarks might claim.

In the real world, the architecture of a G5 tower is much more robust and scalable than the iMac, which is an up-sell on a laptop, made with laptop components.

You can stuff a LOT of RAM into a G5 tower, and you will benefit from it in everyday use if you actually use your machine for work. You can leave tons of heavy applications open and lots of documents in play.

You should also consider a 10K RPM boot drive. Seriously. You add 4-6 GB of RAM and a 10K boot drive and you'll be smoking. The only problem then is the piddly graphics card. May be worth picking up a G5-compatible graphics card on ebay, too.

Think of it this way: An unmodified G5 tower is a solid frame with a powerful engine and lots of room to grow. It's practically 100% potential. There is a reason that pro drag racers are still using engines and from the early '70s.

An iMac is a pimped-out honda civic that is being pushed to its theoretical limits already.

My analogy calls apart somewhat because the G5 is more agile than the iMac, as well.

so the car analogy isn't quite right. But you get the idea.

imac=cool and smarmy and already being used to basically the full potential, out of the box.

g5 tower=calm and collected, gets the job done and fast if you give it the right tools.
Click to expand...

benpatient, I think you are making numerous erroneous assumptions here.
Clock for clock the newer Intel processors do outperform G5s (assuming that you are using universal applications). Perhaps when you had your MacBook Pro you were comparing PPC apps that were running in Rosetta emulation. I really don't think $200 would make any Dual 1.8 G5 faster than a 2.8 Ghz imac.

The dual 1.8 G5 was not a hell of a lot faster than the dual 1.5 G4.
By the time you have purchased more memory, a better graphics card (you'd better be quick, they are all discontinued) and irritatingly noisy, small and over-priced 10k hard drives, you really should have put your money towards a new Mac Pro, and sold the G5. You'd be surprised.
 
QCassidy352 said:
Not really. Core duos and G5s are pretty comparable in performance at the same clock. maybe the core duo is a little faster, and with the extra 200 mhz a bit faster on top of that.

But really, people are waaaay too quick to dismiss the G5. I've seen a poster claim that his core solo mini was faster than his dual 2.0 G5. Riiiight.
Click to expand...

Negating the fact that this is a core 2 duo. The iMac has an extra 1GHz so even if they are comparable at the same clock the iMac will streak past the G5.
 
benpatient said:
I can tell you that my dual G5 1.8 with 5GB of RAM was in all things faster than a base model C2D MacBook Pro that was purchased this past summer.

I don't know how much faster a 2.8 ghz imac is when compared to a macbook pro, but it seems like it can't be much more than just the difference in clock, because most of the elements are the same aside from the hard drive speed.

I think that you could spend a couple hundred bucks on your G5 and make it at least as fast as a current iMac, no matter what apple's "independent" benchmarks might claim.

In the real world, the architecture of a G5 tower is much more robust and scalable than the iMac, which is an up-sell on a laptop, made with laptop components.

You can stuff a LOT of RAM into a G5 tower, and you will benefit from it in everyday use if you actually use your machine for work. You can leave tons of heavy applications open and lots of documents in play.

You should also consider a 10K RPM boot drive. Seriously. You add 4-6 GB of RAM and a 10K boot drive and you'll be smoking. The only problem then is the piddly graphics card. May be worth picking up a G5-compatible graphics card on ebay, too.

Think of it this way: An unmodified G5 tower is a solid frame with a powerful engine and lots of room to grow. It's practically 100% potential. There is a reason that pro drag racers are still using engines and from the early '70s.

An iMac is a pimped-out honda civic that is being pushed to its theoretical limits already.

My analogy calls apart somewhat because the G5 is more agile than the iMac, as well.

so the car analogy isn't quite right. But you get the idea.

imac=cool and smarmy and already being used to basically the full potential, out of the box.

g5 tower=calm and collected, gets the job done and fast if you give it the right tools.
Click to expand...


I hate to break it to you but a 2.8ghz imac will render/do anything faster than your 1.8ghz G5. It's simple evolution man, it's not just processors but the whole architecture.
 
Intel Macs are incredibly faster than G5's; my Core (1) Duo macbook will export 1280x720 h.264 in half the time of my Dual 1.8 G5. Night and day.
 
sk8ordie said:
How much faster would a 2.8ghz 24" iMac be than a Dual PPC 1.8ghz G5 with 512mb ram?

Barely faster? Twice as fast? 10 times faster? Light years faster?


I couldnt find any tests so if you have input or test links let me know!
Click to expand...


Depends on the task. If it's not a processor intensive task, then don't expect to see any improvement.

My Mac Pro (see my signature for specs) really doesn't feel any faster than my Mac Mini G4 1.25 GHz with 1 GB of RAM when performing daily tasks.

However, on my more intensive operations, it turns a 7 or 8 hour processing time into a 1 hour processing time (such as encoding video with iDVD).

Aside from my CPU intensive tasks, I really wouldn't be able to tell the difference between my old G4 mini and the my Mac Pro.
 
flyinmac said:
Depends on the task. If it's not a processor intensive task, then don't expect to see any improvement.

My Mac Pro (see my signature for specs) really doesn't feel any faster than my Mac Mini G4 1.25 GHz with 1 GB of RAM when performing daily tasks.

However, on my more intensive operations, it turns a 7 or 8 hour processing time into a 1 hour processing time (such as encoding video with iDVD).

Aside from my CPU intensive tasks, I really wouldn't be able to tell the difference between my old G4 mini and the my Mac Pro.
Click to expand...


You are 100 percent correct.

Why do you think everyone jokes around saying "Is that going to make safari snappy"

LOL, you don't need a 4-Core Monster to surf the web and listen to iTunes and check your Mail.
 
flyinmac said:
Depends on the task. If it's not a processor intensive task, then don't expect to see any improvement.

My Mac Pro (see my signature for specs) really doesn't feel any faster than my Mac Mini G4 1.25 GHz with 1 GB of RAM when performing daily tasks.

However, on my more intensive operations, it turns a 7 or 8 hour processing time into a 1 hour processing time (such as encoding video with iDVD).

Aside from my CPU intensive tasks, I really wouldn't be able to tell the difference between my old G4 mini and the my Mac Pro.
Click to expand...

+1

I just went from a 2.16 GHz C2D iMac to a 1.33 GHz 15" PB. For most things, there is no perceptible difference. The things I see a big difference on are what you expect--iMovie, mainly. Office and iWork 08 are a touch slower in certain respects, but for web, mail, iTunes, etc., I don't see any difference. I will say this--getting a 50 minute movie ready to burn took about 30 minutes on the iMac, and is (effectively) an overnight proposition on the Powerbook.
 
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