PowerMac G5 Update?

[QCassidy352]

Here come all the idiots bitching casue of speed upgrades. Ever thought that Steve is holding onto the 3Ghz news till WWDC? I cant believe that many people see a Powermac speed update as bad, morons!

They're not gonna release a new powermac line tomorrow and then add a 3 Ghz model 19 days later. Do you have any idea how many people that would piss off? (answer: every single person who bought a 2.5 Ghz model). And it would cripple sales of the 3 Ghz machine, because everyone who had been waiting would have bought the 2.5 Ghz thinking "it's this, or wait another 10 months for the next update."

 

[itsa]

ThinkSecret provides some more details on PowerMac G5 Updates.

According to the rumor site, the new machines should arrive in dual 2.5GHz, 2GHz and 1.8GHz models as well as an entry level single processor 1.8GHz model. ATI 9600 XT and NVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics cards are to be offered.

ThinkSecret had warned that the bumps could be pushed back later this week. Indeed, one MacRumors source has indicated that the update may have been pushed back one day at the last minute.

Where are all the sock eaters now?

This has got to be a joke!!

 

[BobbyCat]

G5's are great at any speed

I bought a Dual 1.8 in february, right before a very strongly expected processor upgrade - that never came. The fact is I couldn't wait any longer: working in OSX on G4's was becoming a pain in the ass. Then I got this G5 and life was great again, and I mean really really GREAT. We can surely wait a few more weeks/months until the next processor upgrade.

The fact is: the current product line offer is - still - a killer. If you really need a fast Mac NOW, you should take one of those available now, because you'll be extremely happy with the G5: it's fantastic, fast, confortable, reliable and silent. Besides, even if Steve anounces new speeds at WWDC, nobody knows when they'll ship.

Bottom line: no reason to complain, and faster G5s are on the way, anyway.

 

[rareflares]

...






ok this is just getting ridiculous.




screw the damn rumors, none have them have been close to true this whole year, there's no way i'm gonna start trusting them now. I think i can live with whatever the hell Apple announces within the next three weeks including WWDC.


We're gonna get what we're gonna get, no point in bitching about it.

 

[Duff-Man]

Ever thought that Steve is holding onto the 3Ghz news till WWDC? I cant believe that many people see a Powermac speed update as bad, morons!

Duff-Man says...yeah, at least 5 other people have made that same speculation in these new powermac threads....and every time the person gets told what a silly idea it would be to update now and then again in 3 weeks....oh yeah!

 

[rinseout]

A dual 2.0 machine is far more power and speed than most people crying for the sacred 3.0 GHz promise to be fulfilled will ever need.

How could you possibly know this?

He can't, with 100% certainty. Hovever, odds are very good that a large majority of the people who are "crying" don't need to do something with their PowerMac that cannot be handled by equipment that's actually for sale.

 

[Soire]

...
screw the damn rumors, none have them have been close to true this whole year, there's no way i'm gonna start trusting them now. I think i can live with whatever the hell Apple announces within the next three weeks including WWDC.


We're gonna get what we're gonna get, no point in bitching about it.

Agreed, I'll take what I can get.

The real worry in my mind is quickly becoming when they're gonna ship...

 

[Frobozz]

ThinkSecret just updated with more details.

I'm sorry, but I just don't believe their specs. Low/mid end machines with 64megs ram? Are you kidding? Top with only 128mb?? On top of all that, the processor speeds make NO SENSE: 1.8,2.0,2.5? NO WAY.

I just don't believe it. When I see it I guess I'll have official word to be disgusted. Until then I will just hope to god they're in some sort of info-leak entrapment case.

 

[avus]

All the pandemonium in this thread, I am glad that I didn't wait for a Rev. B G5 and went for a refurbished G5 2GHz Dual last December - it was $600 cheaper than the brand new one, AND $100 cheaper than the brand new 1.8GHz Dual, so I added 2GB RAM. The only difference to me was that it was shipped with a plain brown box - the G5 itself was in immaculate condition and preloaded with 10.3. This is a work of art - I had the smoothest transfer from one computer to another (G4 533 MHz dual to G5) and it has been nothing but fast and reliable.

2.4, 2.5, or 3.0? I don't care - I have been enjoying owning the fastest Mac in the lineup for last 5 months, and Apple seems to reward my decision by delaying the release of the Rev. B G5 for at least a few days. Boy, I really feel smart

 

[sfwalter]

The Sad Thing Is...

I need a PowerMac, I have cash in hand, and I can't even buy the current models. I cannot find a local dealer that has any of the PowerMac models in stock. CompUsa is bone dry, as is MicroCenter.

 

[whookam]

ThinkSecret just updated with more details.

I'm sorry, but I just don't believe their specs. Low/mid end machines with 64megs ram? Are you kidding? Top with only 128mb?? On top of all that, the processor speeds make NO SENSE: 1.8,2.0,2.5? NO WAY.

I just don't believe it. When I see it I guess I'll have official word to be disgusted. Until then I will just hope to god they're in some sort of info-leak entrapment case.

Err... Isn't that just refering to the video memory? How much do you want?

 

[Trekkie]

OK, with this post I'm officially ignoring any/all power mac discussion threads. This is ridiculous. What cracks me up is all the whining here seems to be people that 'were gonna buy' a G5 one day soon when an update comes. What I never see is what they're using now. I wonder how many whiners are actually PC people trolling some days. This is just silly the amount of people whining about 100 - 500 MHz difference. Congrats to buying into years of Intel marketing.

Don't forget that same 'MHz is king' company just flipped to the 'BMW' speed number of 300/500/700 and actually is slowing down clock speeds on their systems.

 

[JonYo]

That's video RAM, not total system RAM

ThinkSecret just updated with more details.

I'm sorry, but I just don't believe their specs. Low/mid end machines with 64megs ram? Are you kidding? Top with only 128mb?? On top of all that, the processor speeds make NO SENSE: 1.8,2.0,2.5? NO WAY.

I just don't believe it. When I see it I guess I'll have official word to be disgusted. Until then I will just hope to god they're in some sort of info-leak entrapment case.

That's referring to the RAM on the video card, not the actual system memory. The 128MB seems ok-ish I guess, but the 64MB graphics card shouldn't be standard on any G5 PowerMac in my opinion, too low end.

The business day's more than half over, and no PowerMac update. Owell. I was expected to have to wait until WWDC, so my credit card's still ready...

- JonYo

 

[klaus]

Err... Isn't that just refering to the video memory? How much do you want?

yes, he is referring to the video memory, now you mention it, hopefully the rev's ship with 1 gig standard, well, at least the 2.5 and the dual 2.0 should

nah, the hell with it, i'm going to bed now, we'll know when the machines are on apple.com, no point in bitching about it cause we are not able to change anything about it. if you're not happy with the updates, so don't buy one, as simple as that. I'll be getting one, cause i'm running 1.9 ghz athlon xp right now, so the difference will be enormous.

signing off now

 

[sblasl]

And those would be...?

To name a few:

Power Supplies
8x SuperDrive
FirmWare Updates
And I don't have it in front of me, but some form of Cache was changed

And here is the latest from ThinkSecret:
http://www.thinksecret.com/news/g5refresh.html

I would venture to say that these are speedbump machines, and as I said, the Rev. B's have been shipping for awhile...

 

[tortoise]

The FASTEST Opteron is but a mere 2.4Ghz and that just came out. Therefore if Apple even delivers a 2.5Ghz 970fx we've a surplus of 100Mhz.

The MHz myth rears its head, on a Mac site no less. Clock for clock, the Opterons are generally a bit faster than PPC for most things and so a few percent difference in clock speed will fall slightly in favor of the Opteron on average. Blame it on the PPCs mediocre memory subsystem (or alternatively, AMDs superior one). It is worth noting that AMD is doing all this on a 130nm process; they are not relying on a 90nm process to get a speed boost, though they will be using a 90nm process shortly after IBM debugs it for them.

PPC kicks ass at DSP, but lots of big apps aren't DSP-ish. Opteron has a wicked fast memory subsystem any way you care to measure it (half the latency, almost twice the real bandwidth of PPC), which is something most apps can take advantage of since few apps fit entirely in cache.

These processors have difference focuses, and therefore different strengths. For generic high performance, the Opteron is generally better. It is how you end up with situations like I have where we use Mac workstations for visualization and DSP front-ends/terminals, but the supercomputing codes are run on Opterons -- the Opterons run rings around the G5 at the same clock for the non-DSP stuff.

 

[Mac2004]

Where do I purchase the G5 from when it comes out?

I plan on ordering a new PowerMac G5 when they are released but I have a question.......

Who do I purchase my new PowerMac G5 from?

Mac Connection catalog (no sales tax)
Mac Mall catalog (no sales tax)
Apple Store (in shopping mall)
Apple.com (online)
Comp USA

 

[DWKlink]

This is just silly the amount of people whining about 100 - 500 MHz difference. Congrats to buying into years of Intel marketing.

I think a lot of people are more upset about the rest of the machine's specs - the speed bump seems about right - 25% ain't too bad.

But to take the dual 2.0 and actually lower the graphics card in it. It doesn't make sense. I'm running a 500mhz iMac right now, so any G5 I get will blow the doors off of my current machine. But to pay the same money for a box that's got almost all the same hardware that it had a year ago - thats what's diappointing - not the speed bump.

Hopefully this rumor is lacking some truth... seems they usually miss something!

 

[dornball]

Pro video cards.....anyone, anyone?

the speculated video cards with the new PMG5's is pathetic, if it is infact the same nvidia cards as last year. when are we going to get some high end (pro) video cards, like the FireGL?

some of us professionals actaully do more than games....heavy photoshop, illustartor, formz modeling/rendering...etc.

-dornball

 

[Rocketman]

Indeed, one MacRumors source has indicated that the update may have been pushed back one day at the last minute.

I think Steve Jobs is sitting in his office, reading rumor sites and making last minute delays to release dates to TAUNT folks. It will not make any difference to sales if they are released on Tuesday, or Friday or next Tuesday. But the entertainment value to Steve has GOT to be emmense.

Look for a Pixar short on it too

Rocketman

 

[Grimace]

"long awaited speed bumpS"

That's why this crap isn't true. No one in the right mind should believe that Apple would only bump up the top model. There is no way that is considered an upgrade.

Someone from ThinkSecret is probably facing legal action now, as someone from Apple leaked false specs to find the mole.

OOPS!

 

[fluidinclusion]

Yes

I think Cupertino intentionally leaked to AppleInsider etc. a wrong info.
After hearing this stupid rumor, we'll be somewhat relieved by the
announcement of 2.0/2.4/2.6GHz PMs at WWDC

Without this rumor, we rumormongers get really mad
when Steve suddenly reveals he couldn't made 3GHz,
he only attained 2.6GHz...

I think there is a substantial amount of manipulation by many companies (Apple included) to accomplish two tasks:

1. Change perception of products when they are released (as you suggest above). This only works for the die-hards, but in Apple's case, there are more people that follow the rumors with great anticipation of future products.

2. To feel out the market place. With the advent of online message boards, companies can get a very good "feel" of what their customers expect and how they react to different possible product introductions.

Don't tell me Apple doesn't have one or more market researchers reading these boards. Steve made it clear that they do in former MacWorld keynotes.

 

[sabbath999]

I am going to buy SOMETHING in the next three weeks

I, like many, have been waiting for 6 months for the "any day now" release of the new powermacs... my dual g4 is not getting the job done efficiently(I edit wedding videos and "how to" videos, have a LOT of effects rendering).

I just couldn't bring myself to buy a new G5 when I was sure that the bump was "just around the corner."

I can't wait any longer, I am losing time and money. I am going to see what the new machines are, and I will either buy the big dog or a Rev A. 2.0 with a wad of RAM at a discount. I am also waiting for the new screens.

At this point, I really don't CARE what the specs are, I just want them released so I can get on with the upgrade.

I have been doing this stupid "I know the minute I buy something, they will replace it with something a lot faster" thing... I should have bought a dual 2.0 in November and been done with it. Waiting to buy when there is a NEED on some future phantom update is dumb, and I have been dumb about this.

 

[lewchenko]

I dont normally post about the odd apple update but this time Im gonna break tradition. I own a 12" PB, and was looking at getting a PowerMac if these upgrades lived up to any realistic hype.

They dont.

The default graphics card options are quite simply pathetic, last generation cards (and in the case of the 5200, useless for anything other than basic 2D). Why should we have to pay extra for a decent graphics card on top of the extortionate price of the mac itself.

So the PC world gets Athlon FX53's/P4 3.4Ghz combined with Radeon X800Platinum or GeForce 6800 Ultra, and we get a 9600XT in the top end machine. What a joke.

Dual 2.5Ghz is OK, but I expected more for the top end machine, especially with its cost.

Apple let us down on this one. (if the rumors are true that is....!)

 

[rDLr]

Multitasking

First, since the Dual 2 GHz is the "recommended" system for Motion, Apple certainly thinks people will need plenty of more power.

Secondly, when you have to walk away from you computer for over an hour a couple times a day to render animations and movies, you start to realize that you always need more speed.

Personally, I think that taking the whole line to Dual's makes sense because then Apple can start to develope FCP, DVD SP, and Motion to take full advantage of a Dual system (when they do that you will see serious speed differences between Single and Duals).

Although, you don't need to walk away for that hour. The thing I love about OS X is how good it is at multitasking. Right now I am rendering on a windows box that can do only that task, but I am over on my mac exporting video from Avid, compressing mpeg2's, authoring a DVD, watching a DVD, browsing the web, listening to iTunes, checking email and writing this post! There are no hiccups and I am on a dual 1.42!