PowerMac G5, iMac G5, eMac Specs

[vtprinz]

Think Secret says: performance gains far greater than the 200-300MHz bumps. Far greater can be double, more or even less. But overall performance of upgraded PowerMacs should be better than today's G5 at 3Ghz. AGP slot is enough powerful for the most existing graphic cards, and after all the unique graphic card I've upgraded is the B&W PCI Range 128 with a flashed Radeon 7500. If in the BTO options there will be an ATI X800, I think it will be enough for doing anything. Personally I'll prefer a fanless 9600XT. Only if cheap enough i will consider a graphic card upgrade, and only if it will not need high noise fan. RAM... only 8 Gb? I work great with 1.5 Gb now, If I'll take a new PowerMac probably I'l buy it with 2Gb, or even not (1 Gb can be enough, ore I'll take it from PC store)... Dual Layer DVD+-RW is what I need, does BlueRay disk's exist? I mean, can anyone buy them anyware?

Read the whole sentence

"The second core would deliver performance gains far greater than the 200-300MHz bumps each processor is receiving alone with the update"

It all depends on whether or not this is single or dual core. And, honestly, the specs don't point toward dual.

 

[atari]

GPUs

ThinkSecret cites "highly reliable" source to provide us with detailed specs about upcoming hardware releases.

The new PowerMacs are said to top out at 2.7GHz in the following configurations:

Dual 2.0GHz, Dual 2.3GHz and Dual 2.7GHz with 512MB RAM featuring SuperDrives with dual-layer DVD+R support. No reliable info if the new processors will offer the multi-core 970MP or not.

The iMac G5 will reach 2GHz with two 17" and one 20" configuration, while the eMac will come with 1.25 and 1.42 GHz G4 processors as well an upgraded video card (64MB ATI Radeon 9600) to take advantage of Tiger's Core Image.

While the specs listed in this thread and on other sites seem to be realistic,I question them for 2 reasons:
1.) The 9650(Mobilty) was used in some Medion(European) Notebooks,other than that it has never been mentioned anywhere.
2.) If the report is accurate all Macs but the 12inch PB would feature ATI GPUs(yes,I know BTO with the PMs would still be an option); it is highly unlikely that Apple would all of a sudden rely on only one supplier for their GPU needs;I know it used to be that way in the IMac days,but video cards were not as important back then.

 

[MM2270]

All you naysayers, chill. I have been dying for a new tower and wanted to wait for the updates. I will get the middle of the road 2.3 Ghz and be very happy. After my 800mhz iMac G4, each processor will be three times as fast as my current computer.

All you complainers are following this almost exactly:

http://www.misterbg.org/AppleProductCycle/

If you can't laugh at that, you aren't a big enough Mac fan!


I don't care what apple ships, dual layer burners would be nice (yesssss!), as would dual core, but I'll take any speed boost I can for Cinema 4d.

All you guys who say apple will lose market share should look at how well G5's perform for Pro tasks like DVD Studio Pro, Final Cut, and Cinema 4d. The Mac implementation of Open GL holds back the real time performance of C4d but the full rendering speed (raytracing and radiosity) is the best for the buck. I came very, VERY close to switching to a PC lately. But for those of us who do pro work, the Mac is a (begin Donnie Brasco accent) beautiful thing.

nice work Apple. My only problem is that THEY AREN'T HERE YET.

That link was hilarious! And not too far from the truth either. Thanks for posting that.

Look, I can see why some people will be disappointed in these PM upgrades if they turn out NOT to be dual core procs. But can we please all wait until the official Apple announcement before writing off Apple as doomed? Geez people!

All I can say is that I for one may end up getting that dual 2.0 Ghz model if they come out with similar specs and the price is good. I don't need the super duper highest end whatchamallits gizmos on my computer. And I would suspect that most of the people whining here about these specs probably have no real need for one either. I use the current dual 2 G5 at work, and I'm quite happy with it's performance. I could be happy with one like that at home for the next 3+ years. By then, the G6 or whatever will be out most likely and that would be a nice next jump for me.

And lastly, for everyone saying that PCs are gonna whip these PowerMacs butts, did you all suddenly forget that those PCs run Winblows? Honestly, I couldn't care less if my Mac ran at 1/3 the speed of the top of the line PC out on the market. It still won't run Mac OS X Tiger, arguably the most advanced and usable (not to mention fun!) OS out there, as my PM at home will. It would take a WHOLE lot for me to give up OS X for crappy windows OS.

 

[Little Endian]

how can you possibly say you were not impressed by thoughs benchmarks. current powermac g5's cannot play doom3 at

A:>The same level of performance / graphical beauty as those machines
B:>Current powermacs cannot do that while ripping mp3's in the background, and maintain a framerate above 70. hell a powermac cannot even get above 50...

the Intel Pentium Extreme Edition, and Pentium D (dual core, both) are two very kick ass chips. even as a die hard mac user i am finding it hard to want to buy a powermac with the current intel / amd performance offerings. My powerbook (1.25 AL 15inch, fully equipped) better last me a while, as the next computer i buy is likely to be a home built amd or intel based compy. as much as i cannot stand windows, i cannot justify (as a student) spending so much more on a powermac, when i could build something much faster for less. at least i have my powerbook...

You read my first post but not my second which was posted before yours and explains how I can "say that".

As far as Doom III goes it's just one Game that is not SMP aware as you might know and happens to perform horribly on the Mac right now. Just to let you know though I have compressed a DVD with Limewire running in the background while Playing Doom III on my Dual 2.5Ghz Power Mac and still managed to Get 38FPS in Ultra Quality at 1680x1050 in contrast with Only one CPU running and no background applications going I get 42.1 FPS in timedemo with the same settings. As I mentioned earlier the Mac sucks at most Games compare to the PC but hopefully that will improve. In most aspects beyond gaming the Mac performs reasonably well.

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=1385630#post1385630

 

[wdlove]

I think it would be funny if Apple leaked bad info just to spite Think Secret. I can see Steve on stage unveiling a big banner with 3Ghz on it. Anything less is a disappointment...

June 2003 - "Within 12 months, we will be at 3GHz," Jobs said. "Believe me, this architecture has legs."

I could very well be that Think Secret is being conservative with posting of the specifications for the new Mac's. Something that needs to be done for safety post the lawsuit.

 

[iGary]

102 negatives.

 

[adamfilip]

Okay, so here's my question:

Xbox Next (aka Xbox 2, aka Xbox 360 - whatever you want to call it) is going to have 3 G5's in it, all of them running at 3Ghz.

Granted, it won't ship until this fall/winter, but still, WHY CAN'T APPLE MAKE A 3Ghz G5 IN THEIR POWERMACS?


I find it sad that Microsoft will be getting 3Ghz G5's before Apple does.

Rather embarrassing

-Nate

For one thing the chips that will be in the xbox2 are not the same used in Apples powermacs.
in all likely hood it will be a single chip 3 core
custom made for microsoft. that is prob optimized just for certain processes whitch will let it scale to 3 ghz

 

[herbalizer]

I have been waiting for years and years for apple to come out with a machine that is absolutely, unequivocally better than anything x86 can do. Maybe these dual core machines will be the ticket. Their OS is amazing, but they've got to make the hardware amazing x10 to win over all the mindless x86/windoze zombies. As good or a little better isn't going to work. To top it all off the machines have got to somewhat affordable. HEH NO PROB!

 

[Fredstar]

These reports are inaccurate imo
1: Apple will not update the iMac this early, it is still according to their website as the 'new' iMac G5. It ain't gonna happen, although there will be 512mb ram 'update' soon i can't see the new graphics card or speed bumps tbh. Apple are approaching a year long update model for all of their lines, it is a sad fact but it is true.

2: Probably correct on the Powermac front though, i don't think dual core's any time soon and it is coming upto a year so they need a quick refresh. Very dissapointing for Apple's pro users - i don't mind because i will never need that speed but they are losing their competitive edge.

3:Not sure about the gfx upgrade to the eMac, perhaps a quick speed bump and 512mb ram...maybe.

Things to note though, the processor problem is NOT Apple's fault at all - it is IBM's. YES it is VERY frustrating that Apple's line, apart from perhaps the iMac and Pmac, are so behind technology but that is the way it is.
Tiger is the only thing keeping me buying a Powerbook in the summer and that they are the best looking laptop available. And again it is frustrating the year long update cycle Apple are adopting, it is annoying thinking how outdated the Powerbook will be before christmas 05. When you look at the Centrino chip getting more cache and reaching speeds of over 2ghz now, it is frustrating.
I hope for Apple's sake that they have some tricks and good updates for this year.

 

[immac]

Apple will probably do like it always does - put the Latest and Greatest New Technology in the top end model only.

So basically, only the 2.7 will be both Dual Core and Dual Processor, while all the other ones will just be Single Core, Dual Processor.

That way, the top end model will still be a significant increase over the previous top end model, while the bottom models will still receive decent updates (more hd space, better optical drives, better vid cards, small cpu boost - probably a small price reduction too).

Mark my words, that is how it's going to be. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if new models were re-engineered and had room for an extra drive or two.

My only question is are they still going to cripple the bottom models w/ regular PCI? (instead of PCI-X)

Apple NEEDS to hit one outta the park and a 3 gigDCMP AND DCMP's on the good and better boxes woulda done that.

Unfortunately the above senario seems pretty much right on to me. IBM may not be able at the present time to cull enough 3 gig chips so 2.7 is safe. Right around 90-120 days after the proud new owners of the good and better machines receive theirs, Apple announces DC upgrades to one or both of those models as b4 with the single 1.8, cause there will be sufficient chips that didn't make the cut for the high end to be used up somewhere.Then (hopefully) sometime after that we see 3.0 on the high end. IBM gets much needed breathing room and apple gets easy updates.

I can't see them crippling the "lowend" machines . Although I do wonder if PCI Express (PCIe) might make it's debut in the big daddy- it would make a LOT more sense with the AWESOME capabilities of the DCMP processor... what good is a 200mph car with 100 mph rated tires?.
Which brings us to the memory... is the 3200 adequately matched for PCIe if we do see it ?.
They can keep the Blueray and/or doublesided DVD- I can can add it later for A LOT less money- but I guess it makes for more obnoxious advertising ...

 

[h0rriddr3am]

alright guys i know everyone is hoping for big PM updates and such... im thinking that apple could be heading that way.. or at least i hope so. I work at a tiger direct outlet and of course i work with windows/linux guru's who love their hardware. Im the mac guy there and im learning their stuff all the time. They all love OS X and it's look but they think that steve jobs is the one holding apple from making anything great. I mean u can get some nice stuff and everything.. but windows xp looks like garbage and linux is great but you have to run wine to get anything to run. Alright then they were like ya they showed that doom 3 ran way slower at fps and such and it had 4 gigs of ram. Well the vid card they give is crap... and well doom3 was originally designed with direct x 9 and then porting with open gl.. so of course ur gonna lose performance. I have been working with windows for a long time... and with all the stuff that happens wrong with it.. it just seems like junk. But i'll probably just sell my G5 to my mom or something and keep my powerbook and then build a amd 64/64-fx system.. either or.

ALSO YOU HAVE TO KNOW THAT PCI-X IS NOT PCI-e

 

[tgilbey]

to my mind, if they are dual core chips, 4 core (total) machines, this is a good update. If not, it is pretty lame.
I really hope success in other product areas is not causing Apple to take it's eye off the PM ball. I love PMs but in order to continue to be the professional's choice they have to step up the graphics card situation: to be hanging around for chips that PC users have had for months is unacceptable.

Also I dislike the fact that they scrimp on key components, like RAM, to meet price points and avoid killer pricetagshock syndrome. I would seriously love to see statistics on the amount of people who actually bought the high-end PM with only 512 meg of ram. I would reckon it at below 5%. A 4-core PM with 512 meg? that is a joke. Sort it out and stop the brutal ram upgrade prices.

Same to the guy who asked why don't they make a fully-loaded iMac 20 box with BT keyboard.....because that would be a consumer marketed machine with the pricetag of a professional's PC setup

And nothing epitomises the cult of mac more for me than the idiots who side with apple in the thinksecret argument. If a major source of fun in your life is spoiled by the accurate pre-release predictions of these guys then you need to get out a bit more.
The responsibility of finding the source of the rumors is entirely apple's. If they can find an employee who broke a non-disclosure agreement then by all means throw the book at them. But to force a journalist to tell them who it was is disgusting and a violation of basic journalistic principles, which should be protected in law.

 

[xsnightclub]

Attention Moderator

How about a MR poll on what one statement Steve Jobs said that he most wishes he never did?

1: The PowerMac 3ghz statement.
2: The OS wars are over, MS won.
3: Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.

Just a small sample, any other suggestions?

My vote would be the PowerMac 3ghz statement as the one he would most like to have never said, it is so adversely affecting PM sales and will continue until they can reach 3ghz.

 

[trose]

i would be really surprised, and happy, if they shipped 9600's with 128mb with the imacs...

Me too... Apple is just horrible when it comes to video.
Main reason I keep putting off getting a new Mac for my sister is the pathetic video. I would have pre-ordered a Mini if it had 64MB of video RAM, and I would have already purchased a current spec iMac if it had 128... just can't justify the price for a last generation, non-upgradeable, video card with a paltry amount of VRAM.

If they do manage to get a 128MB Radeon 9600 in the iMac, I'll buy.

 

[xsnightclub]

Same to the guy who asked why don't they make a fully-loaded iMac 20 box with BT keyboard.....because that would be a consumer marketed machine with the pricetag of a professional's PC setup

They do, I am using one right now, also it came with 512 ram I had the Apple Store up it to 1g. And yes it was expensive, but I love it and everyone who sees it is impressed by it.

 

[daveL]

I really don't think we are talking 970MP here, or even the "GX" if, in fact, there is such a thing. The 512KB L2 cache in the specs doesn't match with the rumored 1 MB L2 cache. At the very least, one of the rumors is incorrect. In addition, if they were 970MP-based, it would make no sense not to offer at least one non-dual CPU configuration. Finally, I just can't see the 970MP being introduced at such a high clock rate. If they did manage to produce 970MPs @ 2.7 GHz, it would be a breakthrough for IBM, compared to AMD and Intel. It doesn't add up, for me, but I wouldn't mind being wrong.

On the system bus side, it's a bit hard to believe the PM line wouldn't be updated to PCIe, at this point, but given the GPU specs, I guess that has to be the conclusion. Then again, these *are* rumors. Tiger wasn't announced on April 1st, either, so ...

 

[morespce54]

I sure hope it's OS 7.5.5 bootable

[sarcasm]
You know what I would like to see also?
iPod but with color screen!!!! Maybe with a HD that can hold up to...lets say... 60GB!

Oh My! Where was I for the last 24 months???
[/sarcasm]

 

[javiercr]

the can't be dual core

If they only had a single dual-core processor Apple would not miss the marketing opportunity of calling it a Dual (since it would be a dual!)

 

[ziwi]

Holding out hope of a MP versus GX, but will probably be prodded into an upgrade - As was pointed out before this leaves little or nothing for wwdc.

 

[ts1973]

I really don't think we are talking 970MP here, or even the "GX" if, in fact, there is such a thing. The 512KM L2 cache in the specs doesn't match with the rumored 1 MB L2 cache. At the very least, more of the rumors is incorrect. In addition, if they were 970MP-based, it would make no sense not to offer at least one non-dual CPU configuration. Finally, I just can't see the 970MP being introduced at such a high clock rate. If they did manage to produce 970MPs @ 2.7 GHz, it would be a breakthrough for IBM, compared to AMD and Intel. It doesn't add up, for me, but I wouldn't mind being wrong.

On the system bus side, it's a bit hard to believe the PM line wouldn't be updated to PCIe, at this point, but given the GPU specs, I guess that has to be the conclusion. Then again, these *are* rumors. Tiger wasn't announced on April 1st, either, so ...

Spot on davel ! Best analysis of the situation I have read so far (and we're already 8 pages far).

Still a shame that the progress is so meagre however : I'm reallly in the market for a new PM (my dual 450 is 5 years old and it's my living after all), still I have some difficulty giving my hard-earned cash to Apple for this update...

 

[ScubaDuc]

I'm honestly not sure that you could get a mini to run with a 9600, a mobility 9600 but that raises the price significantly higher.

Who cares about the price? I have waited to get a mini with tiger and this core image thing bugs me. It seems to me that any computer sold should at least be able to run the apps that came with it and I would be happy to pay more for an upgraded albeit outdated videocard, if given a choice but Apple never asks us

I know an i-Mac is better for my needs but I do not want an "all in one", not since my Apple LCD rendered its soul. Besides, it would be kind of hard to hide it through customs!

 

[Falleron]

If we only get 200mhz extra at the same sort of price as current towers then I wont be buying a new PowerMac. I do "want" one! But dont "need" one. If this rumour turns out to be true, then I will buy a Mac Mini + just wait for a decent tower. I am a Mac enthusiast + therefore can make do with a slower computer while I wait for a good upgrade to happen.

However, I believe this rumour to be false! I expect more.

 

[kirk26]

That's not really an appropriate comparison. The P4 is much slower clock-for-clock than the G5. A better comparison is with the AMD Athlon, or the Opteron.
* current top-of-the-line Athlon and Opteron is 2.6Ghz.
* dual-core Opterons will be released this quarter, at 1.8, 2.0, and 2.2Ghz.

So while the incremental advance of the G5 is disappointing, it's in the neighborhood.

Yea, but P4 just smokes the Mac everytime.

 

[Zigster]

Apple has to be careful not to lose their core video-editing audience. The portable HD cams are upon us this year, and filmmmakers are going to be wanting to edit their own flicks at home....People like FCP, and will allow for some speed loss to wintel machines, but if wintel machines have a huge margin of speed advantage, they will HAVE to buy wintel. It just saves you hours and hours of rendering time.

Apple really needs a video-editing monster machine.

Me, I'd like to take the new imac out for a spin, see if it can handle my video projects...

 

[kenaustus]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought Jobs promised 3 Ghz Macs by this time LAST YEAR! Do we blame IBM only for that broken promise?

When the 3 Ghz was talked about "in 12 months" an IBM VP walked on stage and said 3 gigs in 12 months. It wasn't just Steve J talking - IBM had every intention of delivering or their VP would not have made a public announcement. Any tech company, even IBM, can hit a brick wall.

After IBM's problems moving to the 90 nm die and missing the 3 gig commitment I believe they are going to be moving faster with the dual core. It should be ready very soon - let's wait and see.