Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
PowerBook G5 in January a give in?
- Thread starter macreator
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I think the cupertino crew have got their work cut out - unless they do away with the slimeline factor of the current line of G4 powerbooks...
I have just bought a 17" PB and next to it in the store was a very similarly specced sony (i think, could have been hp - does it matter?) laptop - it looked like my 3 old's toy computer - big, bulbous and plastic - and only slightly cheaper than the stylish and waife like apple product. Urrrggghh.
I am pretty sure apple won't go that route.
I have just bought a 17" PB and next to it in the store was a very similarly specced sony (i think, could have been hp - does it matter?) laptop - it looked like my 3 old's toy computer - big, bulbous and plastic - and only slightly cheaper than the stylish and waife like apple product. Urrrggghh.
I am pretty sure apple won't go that route.
There are no guarantees... period.
That being said, there is a possibility, but I dont think anybody can make even a somewhat educated guess until we get much, much closer to that date.
That being said, there is a possibility, but I dont think anybody can make even a somewhat educated guess until we get much, much closer to that date.
michaelrjohnson said:
Good point. First we have to wait for AppleInsider to post pictures and then Apple legal to tell them to take the pictures down... then we will know they are coming.
I think an announcement even at NAB next year would most likely be wishful thinking.macreator said:
There is no such thing a the G5-Mobile and the e700 is not yet shipping.Florida Gator said:
Both good thoughts though, it will probably not be a 970FX when the G5 PB's finally come out.
I think that a G5 (970FX) Powerbook in the 1.4-1.6GHz range should be possible. The 1.4 is being advertised for use in the embedded systems market even in dual configurations. Power draw and heat dissipation is very much under control at 1.4GHz and is suitable even for a slim notebook. At 1.6GHz you have perhaps twice as much heat to deal with so this is still manageable in the 17" case and possibly even the 15" case. The supporting chipset puts off some extra heat as well, but there is some room for compromise at the cost of some performance. The next generation of Ati GPUs appear to generate less heat and draw less power than before so this also is good news.
I think some approximate reasonable specs for 1Q2005 could include:
12"PB-1.4GHzG5/Mobility Radeon x300GPU
15"PB-1.5GHzG5/Mobility Radeon x600GPU
17"PB-1.6GHzG5/Mobility Radeon x600GPU
Even though the G4 15" PB is also available at 1.5GHz the new model should perform much better at the same clock speed. A 15"PB@1.6GHz model might also be possible but would require very innovative cooling. I just hope sufficient attention is paid to the I/O subsystem since this is absolutely critical in a laptop. The current G4 Powerbook beats the G5 PowerMac in some respects when it comes to I/O according to Barefeats.
I think some approximate reasonable specs for 1Q2005 could include:
12"PB-1.4GHzG5/Mobility Radeon x300GPU
15"PB-1.5GHzG5/Mobility Radeon x600GPU
17"PB-1.6GHzG5/Mobility Radeon x600GPU
Even though the G4 15" PB is also available at 1.5GHz the new model should perform much better at the same clock speed. A 15"PB@1.6GHz model might also be possible but would require very innovative cooling. I just hope sufficient attention is paid to the I/O subsystem since this is absolutely critical in a laptop. The current G4 Powerbook beats the G5 PowerMac in some respects when it comes to I/O according to Barefeats.
It's possible that they'll run two form factors for a while until the g5 is small/portable enough i.e. Current ultra portable/desirable g4 and a larger mobile machine sporting a g5. The g5 version could be a hybrid of the powerbook and imac concepts i.e. a heavier design, still portable like a laptop but offering functionality more like a desktop in terms of the way it folds out and is used. This would justify the two form factors and prolong the life of the g4. It would also be a lower risk route because apple wouldn't be betting on the g5 for all portable pro machines. You know how these things go, there's bound to be a few teething problems with the first batch of g5 portables.
phonic pol said:
I seriously doubt you would see two divisions with the PB line. That is what the iBook is. The iBook will have the G4 for a while after the PB goes to G5. That is the division that will exist within the portable line.
yamabushi said:
I don't think so. The pipeline in the G5 is much longer. If they get the bus speed up + L3 cache then maybe. But just the chips at the same clockspeed - G4 should be faster.
Anyway, my guess is that IBM needs to develop a special notebook chip which runs cooler. And that takes its time.
Form Factor
Actually, Apple has G5 PowerBooks running at 2.5 GHz right along side the PowerMacs. The problem is that Jon Ive is having a brain fart trying to design a enclosure that trumps the style of the current Aluminum enclosure. And you KNOW that Steve is NOT going to releaze a new PowerBook without a radically new enclosure.
Why do you think we've been waiting so long for an iMac? Jon Ive is just having a hard time creating 'the next big thing'.
Actually, Apple has G5 PowerBooks running at 2.5 GHz right along side the PowerMacs. The problem is that Jon Ive is having a brain fart trying to design a enclosure that trumps the style of the current Aluminum enclosure. And you KNOW that Steve is NOT going to releaze a new PowerBook without a radically new enclosure.
Why do you think we've been waiting so long for an iMac? Jon Ive is just having a hard time creating 'the next big thing'.
pjkelnhofer said:
I was just doing a bit of lateral thinking! Think about it, what I described above could be the long awaited revised imac, just slightly more portable and very desireable. Of course they won't call it a power book but the divisions between the two could lessen.
Considering Motorola is now rebranding PPC970 products and selling them, it isn't a very hopeful sign of Freescale having a competing product anytime soon.
Then again there are some odd happenings beginning with the 7447A, like the odd document about changes to the pinout.
Then again there are some odd happenings beginning with the 7447A, like the odd document about changes to the pinout.
The powermac G4 was introduced in September 1999. The powerbook G4 was introduced in January 2001--just under a year and a half. If we have a similar life cycle for G5s, we should be expecting powerbooks in October 2004.
This is all conjecture, of course, but I suspect Steve would wait for MWSF if that's when it's ready -- that's about when computers announced in October would start shipping anyway.
This is all conjecture, of course, but I suspect Steve would wait for MWSF if that's when it's ready -- that's about when computers announced in October would start shipping anyway.
i am expecting a G5 powerbook in january. i'm hoping this current lineup is the last one with a G4 inside, but as we have seen with the problems (thus delays) with the 90nm process --- it may very well be that we will see one more G4 revision before the G5 would be released in WWDC 2005. if that happens, we will likely see the last G4 powerbook in november this year.
it's so nice to guess
whatever apple does, i will not buy the revA G5 powerbook but rather wait for at least revB model. i have a revA 15" albook in hand so i can wait for a while. this has a 1.25GHz cpu so the G5 powerbook would have to be +2.5GHz before i can justify a new one.
(generally speaking user will notice the performance difference when the clock speed doubles or triples. so while having a 2GHz G5 powerbook would look nice, it wouldn't be that dramatically faster than this G4 beast. and while the current 15-incher looks more impressive in tech specs - 20% cpu speed increase for example - the real-world advantage shouldn't be much. and by real-world i mean protools; by nearly doubling the clock speed, i noticed a very nice performance gain by switching a 667mhz tibook to this one. but it wasn't a "night and day" difference.)
it's so nice to guess
whatever apple does, i will not buy the revA G5 powerbook but rather wait for at least revB model. i have a revA 15" albook in hand so i can wait for a while. this has a 1.25GHz cpu so the G5 powerbook would have to be +2.5GHz before i can justify a new one.
(generally speaking user will notice the performance difference when the clock speed doubles or triples. so while having a 2GHz G5 powerbook would look nice, it wouldn't be that dramatically faster than this G4 beast. and while the current 15-incher looks more impressive in tech specs - 20% cpu speed increase for example - the real-world advantage shouldn't be much. and by real-world i mean protools; by nearly doubling the clock speed, i noticed a very nice performance gain by switching a 667mhz tibook to this one. but it wasn't a "night and day" difference.)
Don't you mean given?
Hmmm... it's pretty much guaranteed it'll be water cooled, and there's bound to be numerous returns and repairs for it. Maybe Apple will increase Apple Care price for the new PBs.
Hmmm... it's pretty much guaranteed it'll be water cooled, and there's bound to be numerous returns and repairs for it. Maybe Apple will increase Apple Care price for the new PBs.
\pjkelnhofer said:
You also forgotton about the Powertune G5 a.k.a mobile G5. They run cooler then the current 970fx chips. Now the only thing to do now is design, the battery, and find a way to shrink lcs. The Powertune is also going to be in the imac G5. With the news of the imac G5(hopefully) in september the chances of the Powerbook G5 in January only increases. But, still not a given.