Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Is my G5 1.8 single officially out-of-date?

H

hikeNM

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 29, 2004
537
0
Somewhere close to a dairy in East Texas
I had a revelation last Tuesday. I realized that the Mac mini has more adavanced features than my G5(except for a slightly smaller hard drive). My G5 is 150 GB and the mini is 120 GB.

My question should really be, am I missing out on the faster processor and the great features of a newer computer by not dumping my G5 and getting a newer?
 
i went from a G5 iMac 1.8GHz to a Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz iMac the difference was night and day. Such a boost going to 2 cores.
 
By all means, rush out and buy a new C2D iMac with 4GB ram and at least 500GB hd space. You simply need one for your web-surfing, email, IM, and music usage.;)

Me, I get on fine with my trusty G4 iMac and PB. Not that I don't lust after every new Mac that comes out. Your G5 is fine unless you make money from using a computer. Even then, our printing company still has mostly G5's, and more G4's than Intel Macs.
 
I'm mainly considering it for the speed increase. I do quite a bit of iMovie work. The G5 seems strained at times when rendering. Would the C2D be a big difference from what I have?

Also, I really like idea of having FrontRow.
 
It would make a huge difference to you, i recommend the low end mini and a screen to your liking. I have a coreduo mini 1.66 and my friend has a powermac dual 1.8.
My mini feels snappier with things like the finder and wipes the floor in photoshop not just for speed but because when im working its silent when he is working the 20 or so fans in his computer kicks in.
Even my GMA 950 graphics card allows me to play the same games as him at better settings, he has the Geforce 5200 don't get me wrong nether card is anything to right home about but the GMA is better than the nvidea card. It also supports DX9 level shaders better than the notorious Geforce FX range with there DX 8.1 + some DX 9 bolted on. The effects look a lot nicer on the mini.
The dual core mini is extremely good i have 1.25 GB of ram and run photoshop, illustrator, taco, itunes, safari, mail, msn, yahoo, adium, and skype all at the same time with no slow down. Only time it slows down slightly is when i run VMware utility but that is only during the boot up of the VM and i never need to run it for long.
The way for yourself to work it out is if what i have said i do with my mini you feel you are struggling with.
 
G5's NOT out of date

I really don not think G5's are out of date by a long shot.

Leopard will support G4's. G5's will definately be supported in Leopard - and I think the following OS will support G5's too.

Another example of the G5 being relevant, is the fact that imovie '08 requires at least a G5 to run:

iMovie system requirements

Even a 1.6GHz stuffed with Crucial RAM will be fine. Plenty of bargains to be had.

F
 
FireArse said:
I really don not think G5's are out of date by a long shot.

Leopard will support G4's. G5's will definately be supported in Leopard - and I think the following OS will support G5's too.

Another example of the G5 being relevant, is the fact that imovie '08 requires at least a G5 to run:

iMovie system requirements

Even a 1.6GHz stuffed with Crucial RAM will be fine. Plenty of bargains to be had.

F
Click to expand...

While that is true and i know that lower G5s can run it, it does specifically say 1.9GHz G5 iMac or a dual 2.0GHz G5 Power Mac. So officially the single 1.8GHz is out of date for this application.
 
hikeNM said:
I'm mainly considering it for the speed increase. I do quite a bit of iMovie work. The G5 seems strained at times when rendering. Would the C2D be a big difference from what I have?

Also, I really like idea of having FrontRow.
Click to expand...

You can have FrontRow now, I have it on my iBook g4.
If you want my suggestion I think you should get a MacPro, that way it will last for 7-10 years, an iMac will only last 2-3 years (before being outdated).

And also your computer was outdated when the 1.9GHZ iMac came out.
 
my girlfriend is running a 1ghz G4, which she sometimes does little imovie videos on and it suits her fine, I'd say in another 2 years and your machine would be completely out of date, do not buy another imac though, i wish id bought a mac pro now and i do a lot of heavy video work on final cut pro, in 2-3 years I'm gunna feel the force of not having a mac pro
 
I just loaded iLife 08 on my single 1.8 G5 with 2.5gb of ram and tried to edit a simple 2 minute video. It was so slow as to almost be unworkable. When I went to process it to publish to my new web gallery it took almost an hour.

I went looking at the new Mac Pro's only to see that they are in need of an upgrade themselves.

Would getting more ram ease my pain until I can afford a new Mac Pro?
 
I have a rev.A 20" 1.8 G5 iMac with a 250gb HD and 1gb of ram, and it still works great for me. Video rendering and publishing to iWeb are very fast. Not to mention I use Photoshop Elements which hasn't been updated to Universal yet. Unless you want to run Boot Camp, the G5 still has plenty of usefulness in it. I find the iMac to be at least as fast for most tasks as my Macbook CD.
 
Scary. I have a Dual 2.3 G5, and saw that I almost made the cut from iMovie spec requirements. I also just bought the newest SR 15" MBP, but one thing I wondered is why my G5 runs way slower now than when I first bought it----I tried freeing up disk space and all---but its slow!

Other Mac owning friends of mine agree with me when I say that maybe all these Apple Firmware updates over time have screwed up the OS, and maybe Apple's making our computes slower in order to get us to buy new ones! :p
 
epardilla said:
Other Mac owning friends of mine agree with me when I say that maybe all these Apple Firmware updates over time have screwed up the OS, and maybe Apple's making our computes slower in order to get us to buy new ones! :p
Click to expand...

LOL!!! I think that sometimes too!
It's a shame, my iBook is barely good enough for web browsing :(. I'm going to sleep with my MacPro!
 
hikeNM said:
I had a revelation last Tuesday. I realized that the Mac mini has more adavanced features than my G5(except for a slightly smaller hard drive). My G5 is 150 GB and the mini is 120 GB.

My question should really be, am I missing out on the faster processor and the great features of a newer computer by not dumping my G5 and getting a newer?
Click to expand...

I'm going to notice a giant boost, going from a 533 MHz Digital Audio PMG4 to a 1.83 C2D Mini. I'll be downgrading in HDD's (both size and speed) but I'll have more RAM than I have now.

A quick fix for any machine is to install more RAM. I would try this first before upgrading.
 
Apple's priorities are Intel, but the G5 and later G4 machines are still more than capable.

Aware of the Intel switch, I held out for a MacBook.

The pre/post intel era was always going to be a watershed in the history of the Mac.
 
If you're talking officially, then Apple only considers the start of 'Vintage' hardware to be the iMac G3 (Early 2001) and the 'Obselete' rating only applies to the original 'Bondi Blue' iMac and the '5 flavours' iMacs. I still use an iMac G3 SE (600Mhz, 512MB RAM, 40GB HDD) as my main computer and it runs just fine. I don't do any movie editing on there and it does get a bit sluggish when handling my whole iPhoto library (around 2000 pics), but I can do everything else on there (including web development using Dreamweaver 8). To be perfectly honest, being a poor student, I'd give my an arm and a leg to have a 1.8GHz G5! Hehe.

Infinity
 
I used a Powerbook 12-inch as my maincomputer untill the SR MPB came.
I think the Powerbook could have lasted one more year, but I got the money now to buy a new now.

The MBP is snappier, but my PB was able to do videoediting, programming, webdevelopment, A0 sized posterwork in Photoshop etc..

Get a new machine the day you feel that your old machine is slowing you down and doesn't do the work you require it to do, not because there is some new program (that does almost exactly the same as your old program) hinders you.
 
If you are beginning to feel a slowdown in your work, then it is time to move on. I would sell the G5 asap to get as much as possible. A mini would be a good upgrade but then you would have to buy a monitor/kb/mouse if you don't have extras lying around. For a few $100 more you could get a mid-range iMac.
 
maccam said:
You can have FrontRow now, I have it on my iBook g4.
If you want my suggestion I think you should get a MacPro, that way it will last for 7-10 years, an iMac will only last 2-3 years (before being outdated).

And also your computer was outdated when the 1.9GHZ iMac came out.
Click to expand...

7-10 years, you're kidding right? The original PowerMac G3 is 10 years old!

No way you can say a computer will last that long (unless all you do is go on internet and check your mail, in which case a MacPro is overkill anyway).
 
Ripmax2000 said:
7-10 years, you're kidding right? The original PowerMac G3 is 10 years old!

No way you can say a computer will last that long (unless all you do is go on internet and check your mail, in which case a MacPro is overkill anyway).
Click to expand...

UP TO 16 GIGS OF RAM!?!?!? We will maybe need that in 10 years. The processors are upgradeable, and 3 TB hard drive space?? maybe need that in ten years. The one thing I'm worried about is the video card.
 
Nonsense! I use my PowerBook still, maybe it's me but I can't see a whole world of difference in the PB and my C2D iMacs when using regular home apps. Sure they're faster all round, but the OS doesn't feel it.
 
maccam said:
UP TO 16 GIGS OF RAM!?!?!? We will maybe need that in 10 years. The processors are upgradeable, and 3 TB hard drive space?? maybe need that in ten years. The one thing I'm worried about is the video card.
Click to expand...

Well 10 years is a long time.

I'm sure one could afford a new computer in 10 years.

ALTHOUGH, it would be nice to have a machine that lasts that long.
 
yes, out of date

check out geekbench... a mac mini with a core duo is as fast as a DUAL 2.7 powermac!!!

The G5 was a dog compared to intel. Thank goodness apple saw the light.

The contra-argument is that if the g5 meets your needs, it is not out of date... but I would sell it pronto.
 
End of the day, its your money and you can spend it how you like. Sure, you can carry on with your G5, its a great machine... but I strongly advise upgrading your Ram before you consider an complete upgrade to a new iMac/Mac

Take this for example.

iMac G5 1.8

L2 Cache: 512 KB

Ram: Installed Size: 512 MB / 2 GB (max)
Technology: DDR SDRAM
Memory Speed: 400 MHz

Graphics: ATI Radeon 9600 128 MB



iMac 2.4 (20 Inch)

L2 Cache: 4MB shared

Ram: Installed Size: 1 GB / 4 Gb (max)
Technology: DDR2 SDRAM
Memory Speed: 667 MHz

Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO 256MB


Other tidbits are Dual-layer superdrive, Uprated Airport and Bluetooth, bigger HDD

So, if you sold your current iMac and got another, the price difference only be a couple of hundred. A worth while investment I think
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back