Apple's G5 Speeds Challenged

An anonymous reader was the first of a seemingly infinite stream of people to submit a URL to an argument that makes the case that the G5 isn't quite what Apple wants you to think of it. The evidence? Apple's own press material. Worth a read.

Comments

Think Different

[corebreech]

...and benchmark different too!

Re:Think Different

[Anonymous Coward]

I resent your implications.
As a gay computer user, I find the accusation that I would be caught dead using a Mac to be highly insulting.

Re:Think Different

[Hawthorne01]

Another big problem is that they didn't include Opteron scores.

There's a reason for that. I'll let you figure out what it is.

Re:Think Different

[marko123]

I don't think you should be basing your tests on timing Hello World with a stopwatch.

I'm shocked, shocked,

[Black Parrot]

...to find that people would use benchmarketing to make a product look better than it is!

Re:I'm shocked, shocked,

[Surak]

He probably works for nVidia. :)

eh?

[cfscript]

Both Apple and Dell are guilty of using misleading prices. For example, Apple gives the price of the low-end G5 as "$1999", and the high-end G5 as "$2999". In other words, they have subtracted $1 from a $3000 computer to make it seem cheaper, which is absolutely ridiculous. This demonstrates that both Apple and Dell are willing to mislead people when stating their prices.

translation :

i am too stupid to round up.

Re:eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

I was just going to post that, EVERY industry does this. Hell, that's $1 out of $1000, the oil companies even feel the need to 'mislead' you out of a tenth of a cent every time you pump premium into your SUV.

Re:eh?

[WIAKywbfatw]

Ridiculous, isn't it? Virtually every company the whole world over rounds its pricing up or down a bit to just under a round number.

Flick through any computer magazine and you'll see hundreds of systems priced at $/£/â x99. And the same is true of cars, houses, TVs and just about every other non-grocery item.

To suddenly attribute this to just Apple and Dell is like picking on a kid just because he's got two legs and two arms.

Picking and choosing benchmark results?!

[Astrorunner]

OMG, you mean benchmarks are subjective? Marketing execs get a hard on the size of Georgia when they hear the term "benchmark." Let us all hope and pray AMD and Intel don't hear about this, lest we never be able to trust an ad campaign again!

Really smart guy

[T40 Dude]

Both Apple and Dell are guilty of using misleading prices. For example, Apple gives the price of the low-end G5 as "$1999", and the high-end G5 as "$2999". In other words, they have subtracted $1 from a $3000 computer to make it seem cheaper, which is absolutely ridiculous. This demonstrates that both Apple and Dell are willing to mislead people when stating their prices.

Mislead people ??? $2999 IS cheaper than $3000.

Re:spl=troll

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it's "slam Apple time" here on Slashdot. Submit your anti-Apple articles and we'll post them.

Don't worry, I'm sure they'll be a "praise Apple time" soon, but for now we're going to treat Apple the way Bill Gates wanted to when he found out about Safari.

Re:spl=troll

[A_Non_Moose]

He MAY have valid points but his credibility is zero.

Ummm...this is /. you know.

Are you new here?

(yeah, yeah, pot, kettle, black)

I work for...

[Anonymous Coward]

I am a Mac user. I have been using Macs for years. I am writing this article on a PowerMac G4. I enjoy using Macs.

...oh, and I work for Intel, but nevermind that part. ;)

Re:Quite

[keiferb]

And what's more, when you start running programs that use more than 2GB of data

Oh, Please. We all know we'll never ever need more than 640k.

Benchmarks...who cares?

[beavis88]

Anyone who's followed the computer industry for more than a couple minutes knows that there are lies, damned lies, and benchmarks.

Go use a machine, for tasks you'd typically perform -- that's the only benchmark that matters.

But if you must assign a number to the size of your virtual phallus, by all means, benchmark away...

Re: spl=troll

[Black Parrot]

> Yes, it's "slam Apple time" here on Slashdot. Submit your anti-Apple articles and we'll post them.

No problem; the daily SCO story will be up in a little while and then everyone will forget about Apple until tomorrow!

Re: whatever

[pigeon]

Well.. you can have my 8-bit commodore 64 for free.. so the bang for the buck is infinite..

Re:MAC PROBLEM!

[MuckSavage]

If I had a dollar for every time I've seen thius EXACT same comment. Seriously, do you just cut and paste this thing every time there is something related to apple on slashdot?

Re:whatever

[nehril]

this guy may have some points but he is whacked out:

Misleading Prices

Both Apple and Dell are guilty of using misleading prices. For example, Apple gives the price of the low-end G5 as "$1999", and the high-end G5 as "$2999". In other words, they have subtracted $1 from a $3000 computer to make it seem cheaper, which is absolutely ridiculous. This demonstrates that both Apple and Dell are willing to mislead people when stating their prices.


Next crackpot, please.

Re:What about the backplane????

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this any different than my P4 with the 1ghz FSB?

Yes. It's under warranty.

Re:Quite

[emilng]

Exactly what kind of programs, and what programs, have a need for more than 2GB of RAM?

Probably Minesweeper on Microsoft's next OS.

Re: whatever

[PhxBlue]

Even if it had a four-bit operating system made by a two-bit company? :)

Re:Quite

[Blondie-Wan]

Damn straight. My Atari 800 XL has 64k of RAM, and it works just fine (well, it used to, anyway... it's inoperative now, but not because of the RAM). You could use a word processor, a spreadsheet, or even some genuinely kickass games like Lode Runner, Centipede and Miner 2049er on it. Therefore, it's obvious no one needs all these obscene amounts of RAM people have in their comps now. 64k was good enough for me then, and it should be just fine for all these spoiled brats now.

Why, I remember how appalled I was when my friend had an Apple IIgs with 1 MB - 1 megabyte!!! - of RAM, a decade or so ago. What kind of hedonist needs that much? Bah.

These damn kids today, with their gigabytes and their FireWire and their "rock 'n' roll" music and the hair and the clothes...

Re:The Photoshop and Mathematica benchmarks rock

[word munger]

How excatly do you get 8 Gig of ram into one of these machine

Ummm... Put 1 gig in each of its 8 slots?

Re:whatever

[nanojath]

Holy shit! Now that you mention it, all KINDS of manufacturers have been pulling this "knock off a dollar" trick on me. I've been getting duped! No wonder the money goes so fast...

Re:Here we go again

[AndrewHowe]

No doubt in a couple of days time a new Amiga will be announced... Twice as fast as the G5, with integrated hardware um stuff, and all that.
Then we can really start the fan wars.
The Mac zealot replies to this guy's site were pretty funny, but Amiga worshippers are in a different league...

Re:whatever

[Anonymous Coward]

OH MY GOD Apple bundle ALL THAT?! All three applications THAT I'LL NEVER USE?! In EVERY MAC?

Well shit, here, take my $3000! Quickly!

best flame ever

[Fishstick]

I especially liked the hatemail at the end. This was my favorite:

People that go to ivory league schools that live in trailers are a very low population, lets say 1% so since there are 99% of the people living in houses then you can clearly see that people that live in trailers are stupid, when compared to they're counter parts. Or put it this way, any finite number divided by infinity results in a number so small it does not exists. So any people that live in trailers that go to ivory league school you meet in passing are just figments of your imagination. Point is if you like Macintosh use it, if you don't then well don't use it.

Heh. That sure dispels this guy's critique of Apple's benchmarks, eh?

If Apple is capable of this?

[clckwrkMalChick]

Does this mean that my Pentium III doesn't really make the internet any faster? It was all a facade to sell me more processing power? Oh, the humanity.

Thank the Lord for SPL's Soapbox

[jcsehak]

"In other words, they have subtracted $1 from a $3000 computer to make it seem cheaper, which is absolutely ridiculous."

Those lying fucking bastards. I've never seen that before in my life. Never - I repeat - never, have I seen a product priced at anything less than a perfectly round figure. I'm so glad I read spl's soapbox. I mean, I went to the Apple store, and saw that it was $1999, and I admit it, I said "I could afford this." But thanks to the philanthropy of spl, I was forced to examine it further. If you actually sit down and do the math, $1999 is not, in fact, a thousand dollars and a little more - no, innocent consumer! $1999 is nothing less than a dollar shy of $2000!

Re:Thank the Lord for SPL's Soapbox

[bmckeever]

Only you suckers who are stuck on decimal are fooled by this. I prefer my prices expressed in base 2999, so the expensive G5's cost just $10!

Re:whatever

[MORTAR_COMBAT!]

Well, when I go to buy, say, a new processor, and one store has it for $199 and the other has it for $200, I'm going to buy the $199 for the sole reason of being able to answer "Oh, 100-something dollars" to my wife's question of "How much did that stupid thing COST?" instead of having to say "200 dollars".

Hold up

[MasTRE]

You mean to tell me you guys actually thought material that starts with "As PC users know only too well" [http://www.apple.com/powermac/architecture.html] is credible? It reeks of deceit and lies.

People, people. Fruits are not faster than Pentiums. Don't believe the hype!

Nope, it's undefined.

[caveat]

Assuming it's bang/buck, and buck = 0, then bang/buck is Undefined. (division by zero!)

Re:spl=troll

[DrWhizBang]

no, everyone copies with Xerox.

Re:Quite

[Bvardi]

"These damn kids today, with their gigabytes and their FireWire and their "rock 'n' roll" music and the hair and the clothes..."

You'd rather see kids running around naked, bald, and listening to classical music coming from an apple II? :)

Re:spl=troll

[AndrewRUK]

I think you'll find everyone copies their jokes from martingunnarsson ;-)

Re:turning off features in bios

[dylan_-]

And how do you imagine Apple did that? Recompiled Photoshop from Adobe's source code?

You'll find that the Subject line appears above your username in your post.

I conducted my own test...

[DavidBrown]

...using a G5 that fell off the back of a truck and the latest computer from Dell. Borrowing Apple's technique of "tinkering" with the systems, I optimized the Dell system to it's highest level of performance. I made only a single modification to the Apple system: removing its power cord.

Interesting enough, the Dell system matched the numbers found on the SPEC website, but the G5 was unable to complete the benchmark.

I think that this test, which can be easily duplicated, shows conclusively that Apple's G5 marketing is a complete lie.

What About the Most Important Benchmark?

[Nintendork]

How long does it take for a SETI@Home work unit to complete???

-Lucas

Re:Standard Pratice

[Anonymous Coward]

Little known fact, but it's true.

The mating call of the not-at-all-endangered urbanis legendoptera.

Re:spl=troll

[quantum bit]

Neo: Whoa, deja vu.

Trinity: What did you just say?

Neo: Nothing, I just had a little deja vu.

Trinity: What did you see?

Cypher: What happened?

Neo: Someone posted about Xerox, and then there was another post that looked just like it.

Trinity: How much like it, was it the same post?

Neo: Might have been, I'm not sure.

Morpheus: Switch, Apoc.

Neo: What is it?

Trinity: Deja vu is usually a glitch in the Slashcode. It happens when they change something.

Shamelessly stolen from an Anonymous Hero

Re:Design & Speed

[gid]

until the Pentium 5 emerges

So are they going to call that new chip the "Pentium Pentium"?

get a grip

[panic_smooth]

who cares how fast it is? it's a MAC !

EXTRA! EXTRA!

[HomerNet]

• ...Apple Bencmarks Questioned by PC Geeks! Water Is Wet, Scientists Say! Astronomers Announce Sun Rises In East! Read All About It!

Re:If someone...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes I will.

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