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new powermacs

L

LGRW3919

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 6, 2005
142
0
cupertino (no joke)
hey all
does anybody have any guesses as to when the powermacs will be updated
(i don't care about the reported Xstation). any guesses on the specs and pricepoints?
thanks
 
My guess is at WWDC in June. Hopefully we'll hit 3 GHz at last :)

I'm definitely upgrading when they come out, my G4's getting a bit old.
 
Nermal said:
My guess is at WWDC in June. Hopefully we'll hit 3 GHz at last :)

I'm definitely upgrading when they come out, my G4's getting a bit old.
Click to expand...


As the Buyer's Guide points out, when the latest round of Powermacs were announced, it took 3-4 months before the top end 2.5GHz even started shipping, so realistically we'd expect it to be longer before the next Powermac revision, which is has been.

Although we'd all like to see the 3GHz model, I think one of two things will happen. If it is announced, I'm affraid it may take as long, or even longer, to ship when compared to when the 2.5GHz was announced. That is, if a 3GHz
G5 is announced in June, don't realistically expect to be able to get your hands on one until September at the earliest.

Or, Apple may just do price cuts or perhaps expand/realign the current Powermac lineup to something like a reduced cost Dual 1.8, Dual 2.2 at the same cost as a current Dual 2.0, and a reduced price Dual 2.5. Or, maybe 3 GHz is too far a jump and Apple will be content to announce a Dual 2.7 or something. Who knows! Anyone else want to jump in on the speculation?
 
It's also possible that the Power Mac could be undated in March or April, just to get it out of the way prior to WWDC. That way they can concentrate on Tiger and an other surprises. My hope is that Apple has learned its lesson and there won't be the delays of last time.
 
wdlove said:
My hope is that Apple has learned its lesson and there won't be the delays of last time.
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What do you mean, "learned its lesson"? Apple didn't delay the shipment of the 2.5's on purpose. Simply saying "hey let's make 2.5 G5's now!" won't make them magically appear out of the IBM plant. There are a lot of engineering problems to overcome in making high clock speed chips.

Perhaps you are trying to insinuate one of two things. Either that you hope Apple "learned its lesson" and won't bump their clock speeds ever again, or that Apple won't announce a higher clock speed chip until they have ample stock of them.

I hope you mean the latter. The problem with this approach is that if Apple doesn't announce bumped clock speed until they have an ample supply, it will make everyone very antsy, etc.
 
are we still worried about clock speed? dual 2.5 sounds pretty good

intel has the most respect for their centrino processors which don't have the clockspeed but has the results
 
3Ghz for sure

If Apple released a 2.7 or 2.8Ghz machine for their top end in their next revision (a 10% speed increase), they would probably get laughed out of the game.

Not to mention the feedback from the media and consumers.

3.0Ghz is the logical step, 2.0 to 2.5, now 3.0. Maybe even 3.25Ghz. (2.0 to 2.5 is a 25% speed increase after all.)

Just a matter of when.
 
deanbo said:
If Apple released a 2.7 or 2.8Ghz machine for their top end in their next revision (a 10% speed increase), they would probably get laughed out of the game.

Not to mention the feedback from the media and consumers.

3.0Ghz is the logical step, 2.0 to 2.5, now 3.0.

Just a matter of when.
Click to expand...
2.5GHz is still hella fast :cool:
 
intel went from 2.8 to 3.0 to 3.2 ghz and stayed there for a long time

and only recently did i see a computer with a 3.6 pentium 4 chip in it
 
Watch Apple shock us when they bring out a 5GHZ processor. Oh yeah a 200% increase lol, then they make lower end processors to cut down cost.
 
anubis said:
What do you mean, "learned its lesson"? Apple didn't delay the shipment of the 2.5's on purpose. Simply saying "hey let's make 2.5 G5's now!" won't make them magically appear out of the IBM plant. There are a lot of engineering problems to overcome in making high clock speed chips.

Perhaps you are trying to insinuate one of two things. Either that you hope Apple "learned its lesson" and won't bump their clock speeds ever again, or that Apple won't announce a higher clock speed chip until they have ample stock of them.

I hope you mean the latter. The problem with this approach is that if Apple doesn't announce bumped clock speed until they have an ample supply, it will make everyone very antsy, etc.
Click to expand...
wdlove isn't a newbie; don't treat him like one. Anyone familiar with Apple would really like to see them get their act together when it comes to delivering products on time and in volume. wdlove is very familiar with IBM, chip supply etc. (He's a demi-god with a different moniker, by personal choice).

Anyway, my guess is a minor speed bump before WWDC or a major update at WWDC (which, unfortunately, won't be delivered on time).
 
Phat_Pat said:
2.5GHz is still hella fast :cool:
Click to expand...

Yes. 2.5 is hella fast, but 1.2 isn't. The faster the top of the line is, the faster the bottom of the line and middle of the line will be too. Most people can't afford the 2.5, but might still want a really fast computer.
 
I dont think I've ever guessed anything right regarding Apple. That said, it sure feels about right for an update. Although, I've got a dual 2.0 G5 and it friggin screams, so I think I'm OK until we get a little further down the road, like say dual 4.0s. Even though I wont be getting a new machine for a while, its nice to see them come out with new goods.
 
anubis said:
I hope you mean the latter. The problem with this approach is that if Apple doesn't announce bumped clock speed until they have an ample supply, it will make everyone very antsy, etc.
Click to expand...

Too late, it's already been a year just about, with no powermac updates. I would expect in the last 1-3 months Apple has been trying to build stock of whatever systems they'll be announcing. My hope would be the 'forever and a day' expected dual 3GHz machine will appear, but I'm not holding my breath anymore on the issue. I've bought my one, low power, updated machine for this year. Maybe, if Steve and friends are nice, I'll buy his dual 3.2GHz machine they'll be releasing, sometime the beginning of next year when they actually start shipping. :rolleyes:
 
jefhatfield said:
are we still worried about clock speed? dual 2.5 sounds pretty good\
Click to expand...

There are still remnants of the "mhz myth", and the G5 still has the lowest clock speed of the bunch. Intel got up to 3.6ghz, and AMD is at 2.6ghz with the new Opteron.

More importantly, don't misinterpret the mhz myth. It doesn't mean that mhz mean nothing, it means that mhz between 2 different chip designs mean nothing. In other words, a 2.5ghz G5 may be faster than a 3ghz P4, but a 3ghz G5 is still faster than a 2.5ghz G5. 3ghz would be a 20% clock speed increase, very respectable.
 
jefhatfield said:
intel has the most respect for their centrino processors which don't have the clockspeed but has the results
Click to expand...


True that. Intel also seems to be shifting focus from trying to bulldoze through the 4GHz barrier and beyond to implimenting their Centrino line into desktops. Seems a lot of users are less interested in their browser opening 0.1 seconds faster than in having a small, low power, low heat, low noise computing platform.
 
I predict dual core/dual processor.

I'm hoping for a dual core/dual processor system. Apple got samples of these processors from IBM last August. I would expect these chips to be in the 2.5-3.0GHz range at the top end. And IBM is supposed to be shipping those in quntity soon. (If they aren't already.)

Apple getting a dual core/dual proc system out the door whould be a nice feather in their cap. And one of those would look good under my desk with a 30" display on my desk.

Oh, I also hope that Apple has the ATI X800 as an option. It would be nice to have a one slot video board. It has two display connectors, but only one of them can support the 30" Display... That's all I need. If I ever add a second display, it'll be a smaller one.

And timeframe? Somewhere between now and the release of Tiger.
 
Zaty said:
From IBM's AltiCec website: "The G5 chips include the IBM 970, 970FX, and 970GX; these are essentially POWER4™ cores with an AltiVec unit bolted on." So the 970GX does exist. However, there is no information about the CPU itself.

Link: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/pa-unrollav1/
Click to expand...


IBM has plenty of chips announced. Go ahead and search their site further to see that they already have the "G6" Power5 and they are already developing the "G7" Power6 and "G8" Power7.

It's not that the higher clock speed/higher power chips don't already exist for real, shipping platforms. They're just too cost inhibitive to put in a consumer machine.

No doubt the 970GX exists. However, it's just as easy to clump it with the entire Power5 line and say that although IBM is making them, it may not yet be in the price or yield range Apple needs.
 
I upgraded from a G4 867 to a G5 Dual 1.8Ghz and the speed up was amazing. The new machine screamed. Now, however, it doesn't feel as fast as when I got it. It's not because of bloat since I did a clean install of OSX Panther. I guess I am used to the speed now. Take it for granted perhaps.

Here's hoping for 3Ghz G5 with dual cores.
 
one thing to notice about powermac

Saw on the (US) apple store site that the single cpu (1.8ghz) model is sitting at a ship date of 5-7 days...perhaps a sign of a phase out :rolleyes: ? I mean, they got the imac inventory sorted out, which I would believe was hogging a good portion of the 1.8 cpus....any thoughts???
 
anubis said:
...

No doubt the 970GX exists. However, it's just as easy to clump it with the entire Power5 line and say that although IBM is making them, it may not yet be in the price or yield range Apple needs.
Click to expand...
A bit of a correction. A 970 chip is not a Power chip, it's a PPC (PowerPC) chip that was derived from the Power technology. And the 970 was derived from the Power 4 and not the Power 5.

The 970 Series is being designed for Apple. Apple may not use every chip in the line and other companies may use some of the chips.
 
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