New G5 Power Macs "Fastest Desktop In The World"

In the hardware part of his keynote address at WWDC, Jobs officially introduced the G5-based computers previously leaked on the Apple store. The new G5 machines, with the IBM 970 processor, use the "world's first 64-bit desktop processor" (and the "fastest 64-bit processor ever") but run both 64-bit and 32-bit apps natively, and run up to 2GHz. The bus is 1GHz ("fastest ever") and it is designed for dual processing and full symmetric processing.

Beyond the many numbers, the bottom line is that the new machines have a new architecture, and that the memory speed is now the bottleneck, not the processor or bandwidth speeds. So they can have up to 8GB of 128-bit DDR RAM, as it is efficient to keep data in memory. The memory bandwidth is one of the most talked-about features of the new architecture.

USB 2.0 is now included, as are FireWire 400 and 800, Bluetooth, AirPort Extreme, and digital audio in and out. The 4x SuperDrive is now standard, and it can house up to 500GB of internal storage.

For video, the GeForce FX5200 is standard on low-end models, Radeon 9600 Pro on high-end models.

The case of the new machines is redesigned too, from the ground up, focusing on decreasing noise and heat. It is an aluminum enclosure, with ports for FireWire and USB on the front, and a door on the side to get into the box. It has four distinct "thermal zones" with computer-controlled cooling with its nine (yes, nine) independent fans. And it is much quieter than its predecessor.

The G5 is 10 percent slower than the P4 and Xeon in SPEC int scores in single-proc units, but 20 percent faster in FPU scores, and the dual-proc G5 beats the dual-proc Xeon in all SPEC scores.

The models are a single 1.6 GHz ($1999), single 1.8GHz ($2399), and dual 2GHz ($2999). They will ship in August. A 3GHz processor will be available from IBM in 12 months.

Apple notes that recompiling apps for the 64-bit architecture is easy, and in some cases can be done in minutes.

There was no word about the heavily anticipated redesign of the 15" PowerBooks.

Comments

AGP? I don't want no stinking legacy bus.

[Thinkit3]

PCI-X has nearly the same bandwidth. Why put legacy crap on this? What's next? A 5 1/4 floppy?

Re:The Dream System.

[Jerrry]

There's nothing here you couldn't do in an Opteron system. With an Opteron system built from scratch, you'd have the option of replacing the processor(s) or the motherboard when newer technology became available. With Apple, there's no upgrade path short of buying a new system, which can get expensive.

Speed is good... but price?

[mnemonic_]

Why should I pay for something that is 10%-25% faster when it costs 30% as much as a PC? I care about value over absolute top performance.

I don't care about the Mac's legendary ease of use, I'm not braindead. Windows XP is very stable for me (3d graphics in Maya, 2d in Photoshop, video editing in Combustion, games), so OS X is not matter. And I don't care about any of those iLife applications.

So why should I, a PC user, buy a dual 2GHz G5 Power Mac instead of a 3GHz P4 PC, if I care about bang for the buck?

Seems TOO fast....

[dasmegabyte]

You know, with all that cooling, and the chip running faster than expected, I'll bet Apple is overclocking these things. Why else would a company that's typically prided itself on simplicity of design come out with this case that's a cross between a Kryotech PC and a Boeing turbine?

And I'll bet that mesh front panel's gonna get all gunked up with dust and cat hair. It'll probably look like the air filter I just pulled out of my turbocharged Volkswagen. Ugh. Hope the thermisters know to shut down or slow down the chips!

Re:if it read

[rkz]

i wholeheartedly agree.

Gayist Desktop In The World

Re:Impressive, technica blog says 3 Ghz in a year

[Brento]

Uh, I just went to the Dell online store and configured a Precision 650 with dual 3.06 Xeons, a DVD burner, 512 MB RAM, 150 GB IDE drive, and no monitor.

Jobs figured out a while ago that you've got to make the top model competitive by throwing in a DVD burner. Rather than pricing that one, try comparing really similar models:

Apple G5 1.8ghz single CPU with 256mb ram, 80gb drive, and SuperDrive - $1,999
Dell Precision 450 with dual P4 2.4ghz, 256mb ram, 80gb drive, and 4x DVD burner - $1,932

Even if the single G5 is pretty quick, it's still not quicker than a faster clocked, dual-cpu model.

Re:Apple is claiming Fastest SPEC

[rkz]

Apple is lying, very egregiously. If you go to veritest.com and download the report, it gives these numbers:

specint_base2000
G5: 800
P4: 889
Xeon: 836

specfp_base2000
G5: 840
P4: 693
Xeon: 646

So, the G5 is the slowest in integer but fastest by quite a bit in FP. But wait: these tests were done using gcc, which nobody in the Intel world would actually use to compile code that needs to run fast. At specbench.org, I see for the P4, using Intel's compiler (hey, gcc is now Apple's compiler, right?)

specint_base2000: 1164
specfp_base2000: 1200

Admittedly, this just proves that gcc sucks, but that's all you get from Apple. Nothing has changed, Intel is still winning and Apple is still lying about it. ...wearing a skin-tight topless leather jumpsuit, with cutaway buttocks and transparent crot<ch panel.

Will the mac fags shut the hell up now?

Re:SUN's vs Apple's Markets

[sogoodsofarsowhat]

And the intel / AMD world will eventually eclipse both of these specialty market players. (Laugh all you want but in the end the big boys, and thats not SUN, not APPLE, not any of these sliver marketers, will sell more boxes then all these REALLY good companies combined....thats how it is kids...in the end you will be able to order up a DELL for 1/3 the money that will do the job and that is what will make the BIG money....) Although i am glad to see Apple starting to play again...in the end that is all they are doing is playing....Now go worship those that have already WON the game...his name is BILL...

Re:Technical details here

[BitGeek]

Hmmm... the thing is, you can't get a dual processor pentium, or one with a 1GHz 64bit frontside buss, or even one with Hypertransport.

(Is AMD Shipping it on its chips yet?)

Frankly, you can't get a pentium (at any price) That is as fast as the G5, and you can't get the architecture of the G5 in a PC computer. And certainly not for less than $3K!

That said, the design doesn't lend itself well to the web or quicktimes... I think the machines probably look really cool in real life (like the iMac loooked funny on the web with that big screen, but in real life looks very elegant.)

Re:Apple's G5 Performance Spec Page

[prockcore]

See my other post about this.

Apple is blatantly lying about the Dell Precision 650 SPEC benchmarks. Go to SPEC's site and compare what SPEC says about the Precision 650 versus what Apple claims.

Yes, it's correct

[autopr0n]

Explain whats wrong or fuck off, idiot.