The 'Supercomputer' on a chip

[jbee]

I'm confused. I thought the G5 was the 'Supercomputer' on a chip and that was the thing that made macs better than PCs.

Now both macs and PCs will have THE SAME chips.

So how can a mac be faster / better other than the OS?

Am I missing something here?!

 

[iGary]

I'm confused. I thought the G5 was the 'Supercomputer' on a chip and that was the thing that made macs better than PCs.

Now both macs and PCs will have THE SAME chips.

So how can a mac be faster / better other than the OS?

Am I missing something here?!

That was Steve's™ line for the G4.

 

[jbee]

Yep...i know but...

That was Steve's™ line for the G4.

I'm aware of that. What i'm trying to say is that previously the G5 WAS faster than the PC equivalent...but now macs are no longer faster than their PC equivalents - in fact a lot of PC laptops feature faster INTEL chips than are currently on offer in the MacBook Pro.

My point is this: Macs are now not faster than PCs?

 

[Blue Velvet]

That was Steve's™ line for the G4.

Exactly. My dual 1.42 PM is a supercomputer.
It says so in the little booklet that came with it, so it must be true.

 

[iGary]

I'm aware of that. What i'm trying to say is that previously the G5 WAS faster than the PC equivalent...but now macs are no longer faster than their PC equivalents - in fact a lot of PC laptops feature faster INTEL chips than are currently on offer in the MacBook Pro.

My point is this: Macs are now not faster than PCs?

Depends on the Mac.

 

[iGary]

Exactly. My dual 1.42 PM is a supercomputer.
It says so in the little booklet that came with it, so it must be true.

😀

 

[FF_productions]

So far the intel chips in the iMac and Macbook Pro blow-out their PPC counterparts...If anything, Apple has leveled the playing field by going with intel.

 

[cblackburn]

So far the intel chips in the iMac and Macbook Pro blow-out their PPC counterparts...If anything, Apple has leveled the playing field by going with intel.

Exactly, they have blown away the G4. I have no doubt that the G5 will still be top dog on the desktop until at least Jan 07, if not later. Apple were forced to ditch the PowerPC line because of lack of low power G5 chips and it would be unfeasable to have PowerPC long term in the desktop and Intel in the laptop.

Chris

 

[Chundles]

I'm aware of that. What i'm trying to say is that previously the G5 WAS faster than the PC equivalent...but now macs are no longer faster than their PC equivalents - in fact a lot of PC laptops feature faster INTEL chips than are currently on offer in the MacBook Pro.

My point is this: Macs are now not faster than PCs?

Are they Core Duo's or Pentium M's?

A 1.8GHz Core Duo is much quicker than a 2GHz Pentium M.

 

[Glenn Wolsey]

Exactly. My dual 1.42 PM is a supercomputer.
It says so in the little booklet that came with it, so it must be true.

You could almost take on West Virginia Tech's supercomputer with that beast 😀

 

[mad jew]

There's more to a computer's speed than simply the chip. I like to think that OSX is better optimised for its hardware (including the chip, among other parts) than Windows is, meaning Macs are still faster. Of course, I'm bloated from all of Steve's Cool Aid™. 😱

 

[strider42]

I'm confused. I thought the G5 was the 'Supercomputer' on a chip and that was the thing that made macs better than PCs.

Now both macs and PCs will have THE SAME chips.

So how can a mac be faster / better other than the OS?

Am I missing something here?!

The G4 and G5's were arguably faster the intel chips of the same speed.

Since that advertising line was used, PC's have gotten way faster. With the new intel architecture, they are even more efficient. the combination of hihger efficiency and higher clock speeds means that difference ahs declined or even gone the other way. Not that it was totally honest to begin with. PC's have wiped the floor with macs in some areas for years. Macs were competitive or faster in others. Now its a level playing field. The truth is, the mac was never better/faster except for the OS anyway. it Mac os, high quality parts and OS integration witht he hardware that made a mac a mac, not some advertising BS fom steve jobs.

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

The G4's we're legally classified as "supercomputers"... times have changed, the PPC chips just aren't supercomputers, yeah they can be fast, but they aren't "supercomputers" any more. Intel has gone way up and IBM has gone way down. I'm sure you know this.

 

[mcgarry]

The famed Apple "supercomputer" ads were for the PowerMac G4, which debuted in August 1999. See this page (scroll down a bit) for the basics. Search these forums for links-a-plenty, including the ads themselves. So, that was over 6 years ago ... yeah, a few things have changed.

As for G5s being marketed with the term, that was a bit more recent, and mostly had to do with stuff like this. There's plenty of coverage of this elsewhere too, just search if you're interested.