Single or Dual CPU?

Post us your two options.

ie.

Dual 1.8
1 Gig RAM
9600 XT

vs.

Single 1.8
2 Gig RAM
9800XT

In that case I would go with the dual because the RAM and Vid Card are much more upgradeable then the processor.

 

Any application that takes advantage of SMP will likely see a doubling of performance for key number crunching routines and could easiliy be twice as fast as the SP machine.

However, since you are thinking of using more memory in the SP vs. the DP -- it's likely they could possibly be about equal in performance at the SP 1GB vs. DP 512MB level.

But when you add another 1GB to the DP machine, you'll be able to tap into the extra speed (by dumping the speed sapping virtual memory's swapping of pages) -- many of the early benchmarks showed the DPs were sluggish until people boned up on memory.

So yes, down the road the DP could very well yield a big enough performance boost to make the extra $400 worthwhile in applications that take advantage of SMP -- but even Tiger will have quite a few major SMP improvements itself.

 

Duff-Man says....I would be inclined to get the dual, and save my pennies and buy more ram as soon as possible afterwards...oh yeah!

 

Even if an application isn't MP aware, the OS will distribute the load onto separate processors: example: iTunes runs on one processor and OS X on the other.

And you can always up you RAM... not so with your processor.

 

Go for Dual

Go for the Dual, OS X manages Mulitples processors a l o t better than classic ever could and therefore makes it easier for devs to make software to take advantage of it.

Consider gaming, now the initail retail release of say, Doom 3, may well only "support" a single CPU but OS X reroutes other work going on to the 2nd CPU.

Now the inevitable patch, say Doom 3.1 might very well have multiple CPU support - its a lower priority and they got it done afterwards.

Another bonus is that the amount of Dual Powermac G5's are outweighing the Single Powermac G5's - therefore creating the userbase which is willing to shell out more £££/$$$ (and if i could remember where Windows puts the Euro key on old keyboards i'd shove in those as well!!) for such software.

The future is bright my friend.

 

Get student developer connection and use the discount to buy a dual 1.8. Buy a gig upgrade on ebay for $150 so you'll end up with 1.25GB (don't pay Apple for RAM). Scrap the superdrive (if you need it buy a DVR-108 sometime in the future for less). This will come to 1949 - 20% markdown + tax +$150 (RAM) +$99ADC membership= 1936. Great computer for not much more than you hoped to spend.

 

krilled,

I too am looking to be a future Logic user. You should get the dual processor G5 b/c Logic was designed to take full advantage of the dual processor G5!! Really! If you read up on it, you'll see that...........hopefully that should make your decision easier.

I too am in the market for a Mac for audio recording, but I need a laptop. I'm looking at a Powerbook G4 of sorts, but would like to hook up dual processor G5 desktop in the future.

Mag