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Is the G5 Power Mac a good machine?

gazfocus

gazfocus

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 3, 2008
1,650
0
Liverpool, UK
I have been waiting for a Mac Pro update for ages but now that they have bumped the prices up, I can no longer justify the prices.

So......... I have been looking at iMacs and the G5 Power Macs but what is the difference in performance likely to be?

I will be using it for Web Developement, light video editing, and word processing, etc.
 
Tallest Skil said:
G5 has a PowerPC chip that is no longer supported and slow as heck.

In comparison to the iMac, of course. Just get a new iMac or a refurb Mac Pro.
Click to expand...

Refurbs are the same price as the HE price so no real advantage. Thanks for your opinion :) You're always quick to reply :D
 
Geekbench supports this, too

Airforcekid said:
Get a last gen iMac or a new 24 inch one the power will kill a G5!
Click to expand...

Even the middle of the road 2 core 2.66 ghz 2008 iMac beats the top of the line 4 core 2.5 ghz 2005 PowerMac G5, according to Geekbench, 3553 vs. 3244. Link
 
Is the G5 Power Mac a good machine?

Yes, it was great in it's time. Now, saddly thats past.
 
If you can get a good price, it's still a capable machine, along with its expandability. But unfortunately time is starting to take a toll on them as the Intel's continue to progress faster and faster and are starting to beat the fastest G5's that were ever released.

I think it's a great machine like I said, it depends on the price, I wouldn't make a significant investment at all at this point.
 
Don't buy anything less than a Core2Duo. That excludes the first generation Intel Macs - the kinks were still being worked out.

Consider a second hand core2duo iMac, or if you have a friend at university, a new one with HE discount and 3 year free applecare.
 
They would be purely a collectable machine. Those machines were used to develop the Xbox 360 games if I remember. So much potential was promised with this platform that never happened.

I purchased the original model and it really raised my electric bill during the years I had it in my home by at least $30 bucks per month.
 
The first generation 20" iMac Core Duo 2Ghz, now also a three year old machine, will already kill -any- G5 PowerMac; the only possible exception -might- be the Quad G5, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Furthermore, all G5 Macs that I've seen or have heard of had severe quality problems and spent more time being fixed or repaired than they spent at their respective work places. The Dual G5 that I shortly had was completely replaced with a new machine three times by Apple.

I most certainly wouldn't waste my money on one of those buggers. Rather buy yourself a used first generation Intel iMac than a G5. Those first gen. Intel iMacs were among the best quality series Apple has ever shipped.
 
Doesn't it depend on what kind of software the OP is using? If they're using software compiled for power pc macs, would the hardware difference be offset by the rosetta process?

Unlikely, yes. But it may be a possibility.

I had a dual processor 2.0 g5 powermac, and it was a good machine. I'd stay the heck away from the water cooled models. But I sold it to buy a c2d iMac while I could still get somewhat of a premium for the machine.

It seems to me that the op's uses wouldn't really demand a mac pro anyway, would it?
 
You may want to consider a used or re-furbed MacPro if you are going to use apps that can use more cores.

iMacs are severely lagging in cores and are not keeping up with the industry. iMacs just don't have enough cores for the apps that can use them and have no internal expansion.

Unfortunately it looks as if Apple is going back to their old ways of stagnating their hardware.

It would be nice if Apple would fill the infamous APPLE GAPING LINEUP HOLE but if they made an iMac with a quad chip, IMO, they would probably take away a large chunk of the MacPro sales.

Sigh.
:(
 
Winni said:
The first generation 20" iMac Core Duo 2Ghz, now also a three year old machine, will already kill -any- G5 PowerMac; the only possible exception -might- be the Quad G5, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Click to expand...

the link posted earlier in the thread suggests that the quad G5 beats the core duo imac by quite a bit.

But yes, current imacs will be faster than G5s, and you won't have to worry about the hardware not being supported on future releases.
 
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