02-15-2006, 11:39 AM

Eventually, this year or next year, I'd like to get a high-end Mac. The two options I'm looking at are the PowerMac G5 Quad and the MacBook Pro. I'm curious as to how they would stack up against each other with the following configurations:

PowerMac G5:
2.5ghz Quad-core G5
4gb ECC ram
2 Raptor 150's in RAID 1
7800GT with 256mb vram or Quadro FX 4500 with 512mb vram
30" Apple Cinema display

MacBook Pro:
2.16ghz Core Duo processor
2gb ram
100gb 7200rpm hard drive
30" Apple Cinema display

The G5 offers more power; the MacBook Pro offers portability. My main applications will be Painter, Adobe CS apps, iLife 2006, Final Cut Express HD, Lightwave, and BodyPaint. How would these two configurations compare? I know the G5 would own the MacBook Pro, but I'd imagine the MacBook Pro would have significant performance with those applications. Fire away!

02-15-2006, 03:24 PM

None of the above mentioned programs run nativley on a Intel chip. Unless you buy the 'Universal' versions of them.
You really cant compaire the 2 machines.

The Powermac G5 is probably closer to 2-3x times faster, in real life, you figure 2.7x4, as compaired to 2.16x2

The Macbook Pro would have a hard time with writing to the hdd, simply because of the bus speed of the laptop, as were the Powermac G5 has faster bus speed. Plus the speed of the drive is 10k, as opposed to 7.2k on the Macbook Pro.

02-15-2006, 05:12 PM

If you're waiting for next year, you might as well get whatever Power Mac is out then presumably with the Woodcrest chip.

02-15-2006, 10:38 PM

From what you have listed the Quad is an obvious choice, unless you need the portability. It's the fastest system out there. Now, the thing is, if you're not buying right now, it's too early to make a choice already. If you're going to buy during the summer, Apple may already come out with some new hardware; if you're going to buy next year, even more so.

02-15-2006, 11:32 PM

I am planning on waiting until Rev. B of the MacBook Pros, whenever they come out. I'm leaning towards portability right now, plus the MacBook Pro can run a 30" Apple display, which I'm absolutely estatic about. I'm currently not doing a whole lot of 3D rendering, but if I do get a MacBook Pro I can always grab a few Minis and hook up Lightwave's ScreamerNet to handle rendering so that the laptop isn't tied up. And, of course, there's always my good old G4 Cube Right now I'm in the middle of a project where we are all using PCs and Windows-based software; it'd be a pain and a time killer to do the switch now. As soon as this project is finished, I'm switching over and will try to convert everyone else. Ahh listen to me, I'm like a little Apple guerilla terrorist lol.

02-15-2006, 11:38 PM

if you are dead set on portability go with the macbook, it might be a little slower but when you need something you usually have to sacrifice something else...i am also sure that the powermac has handles on it for some reason
-chris