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More to Come for Towers?

arn

arn

macrumors god
Original poster
Staff member
Apr 9, 2001
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Matthew Rothenberg writes in an eWeek article that the 1 GHz PowerMacs are only the tip of the iceburg:

Multiple eyewitnesses insist that Apple is far along in the development of new towers that already offer clock speeds in the neighborhood of 1.6GHz and triple the performance of the current systems' 133MHz system bus. My sources say the tangible boosts in graphics performance and Mac OS X speeds are immense.
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2002/01/30/more-to-come-for-towers/
does this mean that the G5 is coming... well, i'm not expecting a G4 at 1.6Ghz... i guess, they'll probably stop the production around 1.2ghz because i heard it several times from reliable sources about the G4 limit and i'm just thinking they're right!

So , i will get an iMac as soon as possible and perhaps, i should decide to change it in 2 years... ! but i was told by someone that the demand is pretty large... so i'll wait...
before i was attracted by the G4 933, but have you seen the price... that too much expensive, that's why i changed my mind nad decided to buy an Imac. Just waiting for the G5... and no G5 till july!
 
I've got mixed feelings about this rumor...

Personally, I think it's silly to expect significant bumps coming in July. (MacWorld Expo NY)

The timeframe is simply too close. At the very best, I feel like mild speed bumps could occur this year... speed bumped Apollo's perhaps... Historically, Apple has not done such frequent updates... expect for the last 3 expos, they've done Pro bumps (733 high end, Jan '01. Dual 800 July '01. Dual 1GHz Jan '02)

All whisps of info re the G5 is that we should not expect it until MWSF 2003 at the earliest.

arn
 
1 year from now is way too long for apple to hold off a major charge in the PC market. I think the iMac is a warning shot across the bows of winteldom, and that we'll see some real magic at some point later this year. I mean we're talking technology time here, and a year is just too long for Apple to hope to remain competitive, which is why they opened the stores, neh?
 
Newer PMs sooner rather than later

First of all these new G4s didn't get put into production last week. They were conceived of, tested, built, wharehoused and distributed for some time before the silent intro. People have already purchased Dualies.

They are obviously a planned stop-gap solution with the iMac nipping at the heels of the "pro" level Power Macintosh line.

Virtually NOTHING has changed beyond the CPU daughter card. No new I/O, not even ATA/100 drive interface. Except for Dual 1 GHz its a total :eek: (yawn).

There were some reports that test boxes of substantial performance were just this past month picked up or scheduled to be picked up by February. Now this article speaks to radically new computers with monster performance coming soon.

The normal test cycle is said to be 6 months, wrapping up in January/February. One set of mystery boxes were said to have incredible performance (compapred to G4s and other Wintel junk). More than likely this is the major mobo overhaul Apple has been working on for some time. Major buzzword inclusion finally.

Now that iMac 2 rollout is actually rolling and new G4s are filling pent up demand, the next major change to Apple hardware can begin.

I would expect a totally new Power Mac by MacWorld New York or at the VERY latest Seybold this fall. Again they must be BUILT after Apple places orders for components, mfg. lines are updated and the channel is cleared.

There may be another bump to the current G4 desktop before then, but nothing major I would wager. If you need new iron BUY IT NOW! If you see a sudden promo to clear G4s, not just Displays but the G4 itself be prepared for an update. NEVER BUY BEFORE AN EXPO/SEYBOLD!! Ask the guy at As the Apple Turns, big whoops there fella (Dual 800 a few weeks before Dual 1 Ghz for less $).

BTW what happened to the server-specific hardware? Seybold is coming up in a few weeks... who knows?:confused:
 
No way!

1.6 ghz will not be this year. I think it would be next year...The G5 hopefully will be announce at MWNY, but will not be 1.6ghz...hopefully 1.4 ghz or 1.2 ghz...
 
I think G5 this year

I think we will definetly see G5's this year, although I am unsure when exactly. I think we wil see them at MWNY, although Macworld Tokyo is possible, but not probable. We will see, me persoanlly, I am waiting for a G5.
 
old news

The Register reported 3-4 months ago that developers were receiving test towers running G5s at 1.2-1.6 ghz with all kinds of new goodies (including the enigmatic "Gigabit," whatever that is) under the hood. These rumors were one of the reasons why people were so rabidly expecting G5s at the last MWSF. But they turned out to be pure fantasy.

this dude Rothenberg is just recycling old rumors. Don't put much stock in 'em. My guess is Apple-Moto will get more milege out of the MPC 7455 than just six months. But anything is possible. It's almost impossible to make long-term prognostications with Apple.
 
G5

Apple has to go with G5s at MWNY! Waiting a year will be too long and just speed bumping won't solve the problem completely. They should go with G5s and use the G4 chips for iMacs or iBooks. Apple needs to do something drastic with its profesional line, 1ghz is nice but that is a 200mhz speed difference with iMac. Apple needs to widen the gap by alot and they need to impress the Wintel users with 1.6ghz G5s, that would surely win converts. As I have said in other posts, Apple needs a BIG show to release a BIG new thing. That way Apple would get lots of Media coverage for G5. Lets hope for G5 at MWNY:) :D ;) :cool:

_______________________________
Not all who wander are lost.

Be sure to vote in my poll in Hardware Rumors, it fits this topic to a T.
Will we see G5s at MWNY? Vote in the poll!
 
Why a G5?

The G5 may not be faster than a 1.6 G4. I do not think the G5 uses an altivec-engine, which will dramatically drop the processor. G4 1.6 GHz will be a quick puppy, escpecially if they boost the bus. I know that a G5 will not come in July, or else apple would have done a MINOR update to the G4 (ex. G4 DP 933 with GeForce 3, 512 RAM, 80 Gig HD). So please stop with "the G5 is coming July (MWNY) because you are wrong. The G5 will be out at MWSF MAYBE.
 
Apollo iMacs?

I am really hoping this is not true.I hope Apple tries to "top out" the G4 in the iMacs and give us the G5 in towers by July.If this report is to believed,look for G5 by next year!
 
re: G4's and possible G5's

The current shipping G4's are a minor speed bump to keep customers happy. G5's are in testing..and will be presented as soon as they are ready. Apple knows they are falling behind the Wintel world. The G5's will bring a faster bus, DDR ram, and possibly some new Apple toys.

When? as soon as they are ready. Apple wants sooner than later. I would predict MWNY. and maybe even WWDC.
 
Ummm

Has anyone read the articles about the new G4? This is an extremely slow speed! These are the new apollo G4's. I bet if they stuck a 1.6 GHz Apollo G4 in a new case, and called it a G5, nobody would know. This new chip has POTENTIAL for faster processor speeds, and faster buses.
 
Re: Why a G5?

Originally posted by Mac_User
The G5 may not be faster than a 1.6 G4. I do not think the G5 uses an altivec-engine, which will dramatically drop the processor. G4 1.6 GHz will be a quick puppy, escpecially if they boost the bus. I know that a G5 will not come in July, or else apple would have done a MINOR update to the G4 (ex. G4 DP 933 with GeForce 3, 512 RAM, 80 Gig HD). So please stop with "the G5 is coming July (MWNY) because you are wrong. The G5 will be out at MWSF MAYBE.
Click to expand...

Uhh... the G4 is only running a 133 bus, the G5 will blow that away. And the G5 will have DDR RAM. The G5 will definitely be faster than the G4.

I disagree. If Apple had made the MINOR update people would be squawking even MORE about how close the iMac is to it! Does that make much sense? I think the G5 IS coming in July. Or Seybold. And you can't rightfully say anyone is wrong because you're just as much in the dark as me and everyone else.

If not, you've violated Apple's NDA. :D
 
Re: Why a G5?

Originally posted by Mac_User
The G5 may not be faster than a 1.6 G4. I do not think the G5 uses an altivec-engine, which will dramatically drop the processor. G4 1.6 GHz will be a quick puppy, escpecially if they boost the bus. I know that a G5 will not come in July, or else apple would have done a MINOR update to the G4 (ex. G4 DP 933 with GeForce 3, 512 RAM, 80 Gig HD). So please stop with "the G5 is coming July (MWNY) because you are wrong. The G5 will be out at MWSF MAYBE.
Click to expand...

The G5 will fry the G4. The G4 is crippled by weak integer and floating point hardware, and especially by its bus. Altivec is great, but even if the G5 doesn't have it (which I doubt), the G4 will still lose.
Currently the Motorola roadmap shows the G5 (MPC 8500) having Altivec.
The IBM roadmap shows their G5 (or at least their next G3/4 like PPC processor) having an "integrated SIMD engine". Sounds like Altivec to me. More interesting is that the fact that it says it will be dual core. The Motorola chip's big point (aside from the bus and DDR ram) is that it's 64 bit. Unfortunately, I have no clue whether Apple will go with Motorola or IBM.
 
G5 Testing

Hi everyone

I've been reading some of the threads on this site for a few weeks and this is one where I thought I could provide some info.

I have a customer that does a lot of CG work in the film industry. They have been testing one of the famous beige box systems for about the last 3 months. It just went back this week. This one had dual 1.6GHz G5's with 2GB DDR RAM and GeForce 3 graphics.

The G5s indeed use Altivec and the performance on this thing was absolutely amazing. They use several DP800s and the test unit was way more than 4x faster. None of the software has been optimized for 64 bit so all the apps were running in 32 bit mode.

Considering this is the end of the evaluation period, the timing seems about right for MWNY release.
 
We are all right!

well, i've just read the entire thread and i might say that MWNY is the most popular one for the G5 annoncement... and i'm pretty sure, we're not wrong. I should be very imprested to see these G5 tower by May ( i'm talking about Tokyo, whenever it is)...
For this Macworld, i'm just expecting faster powerbook, perhaps iPod2 :) but please, do not touch to the iMac... i've just purchased one and i want the best, well at least for 2 month...
 
Re: Re: Why a G5?

Originally posted by Catfish_Man


The G5 will fry the G4. The G4 is crippled by weak integer and floating point hardware, and especially by its bus. Altivec is great, but even if the G5 doesn't have it (which I doubt), the G4 will still lose.
Currently the Motorola roadmap shows the G5 (MPC 8500) having Altivec.
The IBM roadmap shows their G5 (or at least their next G3/4 like PPC processor) having an "integrated SIMD engine". Sounds like Altivec to me. More interesting is that the fact that it says it will be dual core. The Motorola chip's big point (aside from the bus and DDR ram) is that it's 64 bit. Unfortunately, I have no clue whether Apple will go with Motorola or IBM.
Click to expand...
And why do you believe this? People think they know things but they dont. Who knows, it may not have DDR. It most likely will not fry the G5 because you cant really tel much faster than a 2 proccessor G4 1GHz, and if they upgrade the G4s bus, its gonna be close
 
Re to Mac_User

If your post was addressed to me, no I am not on the test team. I provide networking support to the organization that is and had the opportunity to see some of the tests they were running.

I won't provide any real evidence because I suspect Apple could trace anything hard back to my client which would cause a lot of undesired legal problems with NDAs and such. May sound lame but that's the way it has to be.

Sorry I can't give you anything more concrete.
 
apollo iMacs

I thought about apple dumping the powermac g4 and putting the apollos into the new iMacs when some of the first rumors came out about the g5. With the iMac now boasting the "profesional" chip (the iMac right now does not have a 7455)my hopes the apollo being put into the iMacs seems closer than ever.

Yes the g4 still has plenty of life in it. Yes motorola just finished its apollos and wants them used. And yes these 7455's could very well be phased over to the iMac in favor of the new g5's in the pro line. It may be possible that apple put the apollos out in the new towers not only to appease the restless profesional crowd, but to test out their new chip as well.

Another thing to consider is that the 7455 run much cooler than the current g4 that is in the iMac. With this in mind and apple's love of fanless cooling, we may see the next iMac revamp sans fan (cube users/lovers would be all over this and it seems like something Ives/jobs would do).

Of course these are just hopes and ambitions but hey, ya gotta dream right?

gbojim- I hope you are right. Sounds good.
 
It's all starting to make sense, now!

It appears the Apollos have been ready for some time. So why didn't we see the towers updated @ MWSF? That's simple: it would have made the new iMac look less impressive.

But in the long run, Steve knows he needs to put a TRUE separation between the Consumer & Pro lines again. If he didn't know for sure that he could make that gap, and soon, we'd never have seen a G4 in the new iMac... especially not at 800MHz. And with the Apollos, he knows he's got some speed bumps stored up for the iMac's future.

If Steve weren't planning something big for the Pro line this summer, then he would have postponed this last little update until Tokyo, and given us a 1.2 or 1.4GHz Apollo in the pro line instead of 1GHz.

If he were to do just another little speed bump at MWNY this summer, then it would be in both the consumer line & the pro line, and so the Pro's still wouldn't have the gap over the consumer line. He knows he needs to widen that gap soon. The 1GHz update gave him enough time to finish testing the G5 for the summer. That's why we haven't seen FireWire2 or Gigawire yet, either. It's all going to be part of the whole, beautiful package. And beautiful it will be...


Of course, this is all just speculation... :)
 
Re: Re: Re: Why a G5?

Originally posted by Mac_User

And why do you believe this? People think they know things but they dont. Who knows, it may not have DDR. It most likely will not fry the G5 because you cant really tel much faster than a 2 proccessor G4 1GHz, and if they upgrade the G4s bus, its gonna be close
Click to expand...


its 64 bit - its about the addressing, stoopid. ;)
 
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