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G5 vs Opteron, Finally
metfoo writes "It's been months since the G5 and Opterons have been available for purchase. When the G5 systems were first released, many Mac bashers and AMD nuts discredited the G5's performance. They always ended their comments with 'Wait until its compared to an Opteron, then we'll talk.' Well, it's finally time to talk. Barefeats has posted an article comparing the two systems. The G5 line was compared to a Dual 2GHz Opteron and the results are impressive. In gaming, the Opteron system proved to be superior, which is partly due to the superior 9800XT over the base Radeon 9800. The G5 spanks the Opteron in many of the non-gaming tests, except for the Photoshop tests."
Several of you took issue with the price comparison, saying that you if you ordered the parts from the cheapest sources and built the Opteron yourself, you could get it for under $3000. I believe you. A do-it-yourself system is much cheaper. But there's no such thing as a build-your-own Power Mac. That's why we compared it to an Opteron from a "we build it for you and guarantee the whole thing" company like Xicomputer.
Under $3000 you say??? And your total was how much??
The total rose to $4107.
Shit, give me a call, I'd even buy a plane ticket and fricken hand deliver it if you allowed me a $1200 dollar markup.
yes OSX is nice, but it is seriously crippled by Apples ignorance to maintain one mouse button!
I hate to remind you but, Maximum PC is a very PRO AMD, ANTI mac publication, Their reviews of games are very biased as to which game houses send them review copys, and are typicaly full of non-thorough reviews, and random flamebait blather. Hell, i would consider toms hardware to be a extremely respectable source even compared to them......
People bash Apples for one good reason. THEY SUCK:
- The Opteron won 4 out of 7 tests.
- One test it lost by only 2% (basicly parity).
- One test it came 2nd in wouldn't run on one G5 system (unreliable software?)
Conclusion: In 6 / 7 tests there was no clear advantage to picking a G5.
However, given price / performance - Pentium 4 hyperthreading processors are still the best buy for apps you want to run NOW. By the time you need to replace it, a *far* faster 64-bit system it will be available for peanuts. (A P4 / 3.0 GHz machine can be obtained for about $1000 if you build it yourself).
(Oh and they whine that the Opteron was running a 9800 XT (and the G5 a 9800 Pro). When the difference is only about 8% - and wouldn't have made that much difference when the G5 looses by 40% in the Unreal Tournament benchmark.)
Why do I want a system with such superior hardware yet every other game comes out later, and every other good application is not readily available before the PC. OSX has no reason to exist. Go ahead Mac users, flame me. All 4 of you.
"The best thing about Apple is the nutritional value, not Steve Jobs." - Richard Simmons
Carping Anonymous Coward, either debate it, or use the various mod features to filter it/me out. I have to see your anonymous cowardice across my screen, so you might as well post something constructive. Only in your cowardly world is an ontopic Slashdot post "spam". Open your mind and you might learn something. Or close your mouth, and watch as others learn.
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make install -not war
Besides, who the hell cares what Sun and SGI has ever done *on the desktop?* I get the same reaction to that as I do to all the endless bleatings I had to endure when Apple claimed the G5 was the first 64 bit chip and every all-knowing idiot screamed "WHAT ABOUT THE DEC ALPHA?" Right. Like the Alpha was found on SO MANY desktops back in the day. RIGHT. :/
The fact is that Apple's finally got their shit together after years of suffering at the hands of Motorola. and they are making the best personal computer made today. Just accept the new reality - I know it's hard, but you'll find a new target to bash on.
Who in the right mind spends over $3K on a computer? Who in the right mind buys the fastest CPU just to get a 5% gain in speed for 100% more the cost? Get real here!
Most people here spend $1K for the next best thing... like a $200 Athlon 64 3000+.
Bunch of dumbasses!
I am a "died in the wool" OS X and 2000/XP/2003 fan. I use and own multiple OS X Macs and Windows XP/2003 PCs. I think they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. I tend to use my XP machine more these days as it is comsiderably faster (Athlon XP 2400+) than my Macs (Quicksilver 867 and TiBook 667). I also seem to like screwing with MS technologies (.NET) or Windows software, more often.
However, I would strongly agree with your opinions concerning the OS X UI. I was just stating that your post was NOT objective, as it clearly contained anti-MS sentiment. What did you do at MS if I may ask? Tech support? Software engineering/design? Other?