New G5’s….not just a speed bump….

[George Loch]

This is no suprise ofcourse. It was the same for the last rev. The enty level dual was dumbed down the same.

It still makes a great machine for a graphic artist or even a DV-only guy.

gl

[Donato M. rondinelli]

Thanks for the insight Troy. I really appreciate your vast knowledge & understanding. The COW wouldn’t be the same without you!
So when do you want to buy me lunch? Your place or mine?
-dMR

[Walter Biscardi]

[Troy E. Parker] “how the ‘new’ 2.0 machine is limited!”

Yep, gotta read that carefully before you order. Also notice how the RAM dropped to 4GB Max. That’s why I ordered the old Dual 2.0 because I’ve been doing uncompressed HD on it for at least a year and it’s totally stable for that.

The 2.7 is definitely a bit of a disappointment and I’m wondering, as others here have theorized, whether the 2.7 is just an overclocked 2.5 with some new features such as the larger hardrives, etc….

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Mitch Ives]

I agree that 2.7 isn’t enough to get excited about. Other than the all PCI-X slots, I don’t see much. The dual layer burners can be added to other Macs and may be a short lived solution once the HD burners become standard. Good call on the reduction in DIMM slots on all but the top two models…

Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.com
http://www.insightproductions.com

[Walter Biscardi]

Pretty much every G5 is about to get a speed bump when Tiger is released. According to everything I’ve read, Tiger will open up more speed in the G5 line once it’s installed. I’ll find out tomorrow.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Jeff Carpenter]

Yep, gotta read that carefully before you order. Also notice how the RAM dropped to 4GB Max. That’s why I ordered the old Dual 2.0 because I’ve been doing uncompressed HD on it for at least a year and it’s totally stable for that.
====

These kind of mistakes come from labeling the machines based on their chip speeds. You have to think of them the way Apple used to label their Powermacs: Good, Better, Best. (Or something like that. Also, exclude the single-chip 1.8 for this conversation.)

If you do it that way you’ll find that max-RAM did NOT drop to 4 GB. ‘Good’ stayed at 4 GB, which it was before, and ‘Better’ and ‘Best’ stayed at 8 GB as they were before. All that happened was they all got chips upgraded. The fact that the new ‘Better’ has the same chip speed as the old ‘Good’ is really just a coincidence. It doesn’t mean the 2.0 lost anything, the machine that only takes 4 GB of RAM is simply the old 1.8 gHz with updated chips.

I know this is a minor thing, but it can help avoid these sorts of problems. For example, a lot of web pages have been telling people that they need to buy the 2.0 gHz machine because of the RAM issue. As you’ve pointed out, that information is no longer correct. If they had simply told people they needed to buy the “middle machine” in the lineup then their advice would still be good today. I know that pretty much everyone calls them by their chip speeds, and I’m not expecting that to change, but it would sure help avoid these kinds of problems if they didn’t.

[Marco Solorio]

What bothers me is that *every* G5 at this point should all have PCI-X, not just the top two. It’s bad enough they don’t even sport a PCI-Express slot for displays! I think they’re just doing these minor, tiny technology bumps because Moore’s Law is over and there’s nothing bigger to do. This was clear to me when the Mac Mini came out. Yes, I think the Mac Mini is way cool and I’m thinking of buying 10 of them to use as a render farm, but Apple has never made a low-cost Mac in their history… they had to deliver SOMETHING at the last MacWorld because they didn’t have any major G5 updates. What better way to do it than by making a cheap Mac and throwing in G4 CPUs that are plentiful abound!

Dual 3GHz CPUs should have been at last year’s WWDC as Steve promised and dual-core CPUs should have been at the last MacWorld to have kept Moore’s Law alive. We’re nowhere near it.

Blah.

Marco Solorio  |   OneRiver Media

[Michael Horton]

[Marco Solorio] “Dual 3GHz CPUs should have been at last year’s WWDC as Steve promised and dual-core CPUs should have been at the last MacWorld to have kept Moore’s Law alive. We’re nowhere near it. “

I think this law is alive and well in the GPU.

I vote for Marco to build a 3GHZ Mac. Get your team on that will ya? I got a couple interns I can send up.

🙂

mike

Michael Horton
lafcpug
https://www.lafcpug.org

[George Loch]

I have to assume they are at the mercy of IBM. The G5 dual-core concepts were only shown a little while ago. I believe AMD and Intel have been working on them a lot longer. Honestly, that is why I have started becoming more serious about supporting both platforms. I will not abandon the mac as I love the software and I think the G5 is a great system. Having said that, I am building dual Opteron systems to handle some more of my CPU intensive tasks like 3D and compositing and then using the mac for FCP.

The fact is, OS X is a great bit of software as is practically all of Apple’s s/w tools. I celebrate what they do and appreciate it.

gl

[Troy E. parker]

Finally!…it’s is good to see that my brillance and wealth of knowledge is not lost on the masses….. But hey, when you have all day to sit around and think about that next great project you might do this year, ok…maybe next year, one has ample time to absorb such knowledge!

and with such compliments, of course lunch is on me!

T