Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
The Power7 chip alone costs $900. Does anyone think of a way to build a consumer PC at a reasonable price based on a processor that costs $900?

A PowerMac G6! Or G8 because of the Power 8, but whatever.

Yes I know that's a ridiculous dream, but "RISC is good."
 
Last edited:
The Power7 chip alone costs $900. Does anyone think of a way to build a consumer PC at a reasonable price based on a processor that costs $900?

I might build a PC with a 3970X.

----------

What socket does this this thing have? If it is the same as a 970, then the only thing stopping it from working in a G5 is the firmware.
 
We've been here before. Not possible.

Assuming it has the same 970 socket, physically it is possible. For it to actually work, it would need a firmware update, which doesn't exist. However, and this is a bit of a strech, seeing that the Power8 was open sourced, how do we know that 3rd parties will not build upgrades like they did with the G4?
 
Assuming it has the same 970 socket, physically it is possible. For it to actually work, it would need a firmware update, which doesn't exist. However, and this is a bit of a strech, seeing that the Power8 was open sourced, how do we know that 3rd parties will not build upgrades like they did with the G4?

Then your are still limited by a very old I/O bus, with 533 mhz DDR2 RAM and PCIe 1.0

Lets be real, if apple ever leaves intel i will be for ARM. And that wont be for a very long time until arm can start touching Intel's performance.
 
Assuming it has the same 970 socket, physically it is possible. For it to actually work, it would need a firmware update, which doesn't exist. However, and this is a bit of a strech, seeing that the Power8 was open sourced, how do we know that 3rd parties will not build upgrades like they did with the G4?

It's highly unlikely POWER8 would be using the same socket as the 970s and also highly unlikely that if that were true that companies would create upgrades for PowerMacs.

----------

Then your are still limited by a very old I/O bus, with 533 mhz DDR2 RAM and PCIe 1.0

Lets be real, if apple ever leaves intel i will be for ARM. And that wont be for a very long time until arm can start touching Intel's performance.

If Apple leaves Intel it will be for AMD or some POWERISA based processors. It will take ARM YEARS to catch up with X86 and POWERISA, Intel is already close to ARM with power consumption while also being more powerful.
 
It's highly unlikely POWER8 would be using the same socket as the 970s and also highly unlikely that if that were true that companies would create upgrades for PowerMacs.

----------



If Apple leaves Intel it will be for AMD or some POWERISA based processors. It will take ARM YEARS to catch up with X86 and POWERISA, Intel is already close to ARM with power consumption while also being more powerful.

It wont be for AMD unless they start lowering TDP on their designs. Power has a much longer way to go as far as power consumption is conceded.

Also Intel is no where near ARM in power consumption. An entire ARM system with external controllers can run on 2.5 watts, the lowest powered intel chip is at 14 watts alone with not external controllers.

The Cortex A15 chips are actually getting very impressive with hardware virtualization and OpenCL supporting GPU'S. You could build over a hundred node ARM virtualization cluster and power it from a single solar panel on your roof.

Today ARM is still far behind Intel i will agree with you on that, but they have consistently built chips that preform better and stay far under 5 watts of power consumption. Thats a big deal to apple, and i am willing to bet they are heavily researching the possibility of going towards ARM if they can pull it off.

Unless of course intel can make par performing chips that run with a TDP under 5 watts. Then we may even see Intel iPhones.
 
Intel has chips already running in some smartphones.

The only Intel smart phones that exists use old Atom designs, Anything before Clover Trail+ (AKA Medfield) was just a hair better than the Tegra 3 in just about every aspect except GPU performance. Shortly after that NVidia announced the Tegra 4 which blew devices like the RAZRi away.

Both the Tegra 4 and the A15 blow the Clover Field+ away, let alone Medfield. Some of the benchmarks intel released for Clover Field+ were heavily skewed by using x86 optimized benchmarking software. (AnTuTu 3.3)

Intel is definitely up to something, especially considering it's recent FCC approval of the CZ120. But it isn't there yet.
 
Assuming it has the same 970 socket, physically it is possible. For it to actually work, it would need a firmware update, which doesn't exist. However, and this is a bit of a strech, seeing that the Power8 was open sourced, how do we know that 3rd parties will not build upgrades like they did with the G4?

Not a chance that it is the same socket. IBM has gone through several generations of sockets since the PowerPC 970.

For example, the Power8 memory subsystem allow for 230GB/s sustained memory bandwidth which is about 50x higher than the 970.
 
Assuming it has the same 970 socket, physically it is possible. For it to actually work, it would need a firmware update, which doesn't exist. However, and this is a bit of a strech, seeing that the Power8 was open sourced, how do we know that 3rd parties will not build upgrades like they did with the G4?

Dude, just stop it.

It doesn't use the same 970 socket. It doesn't use the same 970 bus. Much like the move from the "NetBurst bus" to the onboard memory-and-PCI-express controllers Intel made from the first generation Mac Pro to the current, the POWER8 now has onboard memory controller and PCI express controllers - the PowerPC 970 did not. It is not electrically possible to put a POWER8 in a PowerPC 970 system, no matter the amount of "adapters".

Even if it did, it would need a firmware update nobody is going to write. It's as far beyond "a bit of a stretch" as someone making an adapter for a Pentium 3 system to run the latest Core i7.

Third parties won't make upgrades because even if it were possible, the R&D would be so significant that it wouldn't be worth the effort for such a small market. Why do you think there are no current G5 upgrades to newer/faster G5s already?

For the love of all that is :apple:, stop your pointless trolling please. NOBODY around here listens to you any more, they just laugh at you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pc297
This.

Dude, just stop it.

It doesn't use the same 970 socket. It doesn't use the same 970 bus. Much like the move from the "NetBurst bus" to the onboard memory-and-PCI-express controllers Intel made from the first generation Mac Pro to the current, the POWER8 now has onboard memory controller and PCI express controllers - the PowerPC 970 did not. It is not electrically possible to put a POWER8 in a PowerPC 970 system, no matter the amount of "adapters".

Even if it did, it would need a firmware update nobody is going to write. It's as far beyond "a bit of a stretch" as someone making an adapter for a Pentium 3 system to run the latest Core i7.

Third parties won't make upgrades because even if it were possible, the R&D would be so significant that it wouldn't be worth the effort for such a small market. Why do you think there are no current G5 upgrades to newer/faster G5s already?

For the love of all that is :apple:, stop your pointless trolling please. NOBODY around here listens to you any more, they just laugh at you.
 
let the guy dream, if it wasnt for dreamers we never would have gotten to the moon.:cool:
There's dreaming about going to the moon, and then there's dreaming about going to the moon using a steam locomotive with a solid fuel rocket strapped on it.

This is the latter.
 
There's dreaming about going to the moon, and then there's dreaming about going to the moon using a steam locomotive with a solid fuel rocket strapped on it.

This is the latter.

Are you saying going to the moon in a steam locomotive duck taped to a rocket WOULDN'T be awesome?!?!?!
 
There's dreaming about going to the moon, and then there's dreaming about going to the moon using a steam locomotive with a solid fuel rocket strapped on it.

This is the latter.

Cue rabidz7:

What is the width of the locomotive? If it is large enough, a rocket could be placed in it.

Yes it can be done, I just need someone to tell me how to do it.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.