Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (
More info?)
The G5 I would only rate as nice but not quite there because the standard
video card is absolute rubbish.
<huntzing@pica.army.mil> wrote in message
news:1106337854.907805.198230@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Howard wrote:
>> Could you say a bit more about the G5's. How are they showing their
> age? Is
>> there stuff in the PC world that improves on those age-deficiencies?
>
> The G5 is hardly "showing its age", unless you're the geektype who buys
> the latest hardware every 4 months. If that's the case, then the
> answer to your question is that your current hardware's good enough for
> what you need, regardless of its CPU or OS or anything else
>
> Now I will grant you that Apple's G4 CPU did deserve its "long in
> tooth" criticism. Which is why an Apple laptop or mini isn't the best
> choice for doing Photoshop production on.
>
> The most important change in the G5 wasn't really its higher-than-G4
> clockspeeds, but instead was the system architectural changes that
> accompanied the chip. These changes did more than merely eliminated
> the huge bandwidth bottlenecks that the G4 suffered from: it blew the
> doors off of bandwidth availability, which allows for future growth.
> If the G5 is "showing its age", then this factor is the deathknell for
> *all* Intel CPU's.
>
>
> If you want a lightweight dose of geek stuff (with some topping from
> Apple's marketing department) see:
>
http
/www.apple.com/powermac/architecture.html
>
> The KISS take-away is that if the G4's bandwidth was a dirt road, the
> Pentium was at best a two-lane highway, whereas the G5 is a 4-lane
> German Autobahn.
>
>
> IMO, I think the real underlying comment here was a hit on its price.
> Apple has traditionally been criticized for being more expensive.
> Yeah, BMW's cost more too, and that's what a smaller production base
> will always do to a product.
>
> There's going to be difference in design ...both hardware and OS...that
> vary in their significance, depending on the person examining them, and
> there will inevitably be differences in the price tag too. The final
> cost:benefit decision is always up to you.
>
> Personally, I appreciate the G5's nearly silent operation, as well as
> the OS is effectively immune from all of the windows OS malware.
>
> My suggestion for an Apple machine to consider would be the DP 1.8GHz
> G5 PowerMac. It lists for $1999 but needs another ~$170 to bump up the
> RAM by +1GB. Do check to see if you can qualify for one of the
> discount groups (EDU/etc), as this will cut around $150 off the price.
> This system (with 1GB of RAM) should slice thru most Photoshop tasks
> quite respectfully, and I'd not expect to have to touch the machine for
> any upgrades for at least 3 years. I've used the Single Processor
> version of this machine and ~20MB Photoshop files aren't a problem. I
> did throw a 1GB photoshop file to see what it would do and while it did
> cause it to pause and chew, it did swallow.
>
> -hh
>
Facebook
Twitter