Comparing power, Mac and PC

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Hello everyone, I'm typing on my very first Mac! Although its not what you think, its an old G4. I got it for dirt cheap so I could check out Macs, I've been a PC guy my whole life. I may keep this Mac around but I'm thinking about getting a real Mac. Real meaning something I will actually be able to do my photography stuff with. I installed Lightroom but its really slow, although I do have 896mb RAM.

Anyway, enough introduction and background, heres my question. Right now my PC is a AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ with 1g of RAM and a Radeon x1600Pro 512MB DDR. So its a dual core right around 2.0Ghz.

I'm actually quite happy with the performance of my PC although I would upgrade the RAM if I were to keep it. I'm just thinking of switching to Mac for the sake of switching.

If I were to switch to a G5 with dual core right around 2.0 Ghz and a gig or so of RAM, will I get about the same performance that I'm getting from my PC? I'm just concerned about losing horsepower because I think my PC runs quite fast. I don't really want to save for an iMac because I would want the 24" (I have a 22" monitor now and couldn't go any smaller) and when I buy a new computer I think I want it to be a Macbook. So if I switch, I want it to be a fairly even exchange...

Right now there is a G5 single core 1.8Ghz with 1g RAM for $500 with a 17" Cinema Display (which I'd probably just sell) How much photo editing power would I lose?

Sorry for the long post but I will appreciate the input, thanks!

Chad
 
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2.66Ghz Penryn C2D iMac
A dual G5 would pwn your Athlon system. I've used a couple of them, they are fast computers even though they are pushing 2-3 years old, even the single G5 1.8Ghz would be a quick powerful machine. A used quad core Xeon equipped Mac Pro would be affordable to you if you can afford a G5 dual, and will give you even BETTER performance, just a thought.

If you are thinking Macbook, get the newer Pro if your gonna get one, Hybrid Sli looks pretty promising if your a speed freak.
 

cwa107


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14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
A dual G5 would pwn your Athlon system. I've used a couple of them, they are fast computers even though they are pushing 2-3 years old, even the single G5 1.8Ghz would be a quick powerful machine. A used quad core Xeon equipped Mac Pro would be affordable to you if you can afford a G5 dual, and will give you even BETTER performance, just a thought.

If you are thinking Macbook, get the newer Pro if your gonna get one, Hybrid Sli looks pretty promising if your a speed freak.

I don't know that I'd use the term "pwn", but it would certainly be comparable doing like activities.

The G5, and in fact, the entire PowerPC series of CPU is fundamentally superior to the x86 architecture. It is unencumbered by the legacy restrictions of the x86 platform and is fully RISC. So, yes, at similar clockspeeds, the G5 would have a certain advantage, but when I think about "pwning" something, in my mind it's like Corvette vs. Honda Civic ;)
 
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2019 iMac 27"; 2020 M1 MacBook Air; macOS up-to-date... always.
You may want to consider an Intel-based Mac just because of the next version of OS X.... Snow Leopard. From what I've read, Apple is focusing mostly on optimizing the heck out of it rather than adding new features (though there will be some). And it likely will be Intel-only. G5-based Macs are great, but unfortunately they will feel increasingly outdated once OS updates/upgrades cease to be available.
 
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15" Unibody MBP (2009), White MB (2009), iMac G4
I concur, while the G5s (and all PowerPC systems) were excellent for their time, and still make extremely useful systems, the future is Intel. That usefulness is going to fade as apps become increasingly biased towards Intel, and PowerPC development slows. Eventually it may be impossible to obtain new software for these older Macs. If I were to look for a used Mac now, I would look for at the very least a Core Duo. These systems will remain supported and useful for a much longer time than the PowerPC systems will.
 
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nMP 6-core/32Gb/D700/512Gb: rMBP 15" 2.3GHz/16Gb/512Gb: iPhone 6 128Gb: iPad Air 2 128Gb: NEC PA322U
I'm a graphics designer and use Photoshop a lot at work.

Anyway, I got a new Dell XPS 630i at work a few months back - Core2Quad 2.4GHz, 4Gb RAM, 500Gb HDD, 8800GT graphics, X-FI sound card running XP Pro 32-bit SP3.

At home I use the mac in my sig and I kid you not, this system will and can keep up with that PC in Photoshop - both running Ps CS3 with all updates. The PC would kick the macs butt at 3D modelling tho as my Mac has a 9650XT card which is quite old in the tooth now.

Hope that helps you, I know mines is almost the best G5 you can buy (2nd from the G5 Quad) but I'd deffo go for a dual rather than single processor Mac.

However, as others have already said the G5 will not be supported in the latest OS X. I think I will upgrade to Mac Pro next year, but that really is a maybe 'cos you can fit 2TB with 8Gb of RAM into these suckers!

Hope that essay helps you with your choice/purchase.
 
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Thanks for the input everybody. I guess I'm leaning toward keeping my PC until it gets too old and in the mean time saving for a Macbook. I think its just the price point for Macs are higher so I wouldn't be able to do a even exchange. The G5 1.8Ghz for $500 is probably as high as I could go but I wouldn't want that obsolete within a year or maybe two. I don't think my PC will be obsolete for a couple of years just because I can still upgrade it a bit as well. Hmmm....
 
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New development...

Well I might be able to dig up some extra money and I found a Mac Desktop asking $900 here are the specs:

2GHz Core 2 Duo
1g RAM
250g HD
Radeon 2400 XT graphics
Remote keyboard/Mighty Mouse

Good price? Its intel based, so that means I would be good for a few years anyway? I don't know if this is Mac Pro or what
 

cwa107


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New development...

Well I might be able to dig up some extra money and I found a Mac Desktop asking $900 here are the specs:

2GHz Core 2 Duo
1g RAM
250g HD
Radeon 2400 XT graphics
Remote keyboard/Mighty Mouse

Good price? Its intel based, so that means I would be good for a few years anyway? I don't know if this is Mac Pro or what

Sounds like an iMac to me. Not a bad price IMO.
 
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I googled those specs and came to the same conclusion. That makes me wonder if I'd rather have a Macbook for a similar price. I have a 22" monitor so I don't really need the screen of whatever size the iMac would be, although I think its gonna be th 20". So I could maybe duel monitor or get a Macbook and use my big screen when I'm at home...

As I'm looking at specs. Would there be a big advantage as far as graphics power on the 2.0 GHz iMac verses a 2.0 - 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo Macbook?
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Lombard 400, 190cs, Wallstreet 233
New development...

Well I might be able to dig up some extra money and I found a Mac Desktop asking $900 here are the specs:

2GHz Core 2 Duo
1g RAM
250g HD
Radeon 2400 XT graphics
Remote keyboard/Mighty Mouse

Good price? Its intel based, so that means I would be good for a few years anyway? I don't know if this is Mac Pro or what

Its an alright price. You can get the latest model refurbished with those specifications from the apple store for 1049$ CDN or 999$ USD with full 1 year warranty.

I googled those specs and came to the same conclusion. That makes me wonder if I'd rather have a Macbook for a similar price. I have a 22" monitor so I don't really need the screen of whatever size the iMac would be, although I think its gonna be th 20". So I could maybe duel monitor or get a Macbook and use my big screen when I'm at home...

As I'm looking at specs. Would there be a big advantage as far as graphics power on the 2.0 GHz iMac verses a 2.0 - 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo Macbook?

The biggest difference between the Macbook and the iMac is going to be the video card. In the previous generations of Macbook (white/black plastic) there is an integrated video card that shared the system memory. It is decent for day to day use but not much good in gaming. Now, if you plan to get the latest generation of macbook, then it will be find for almost all video games and editing.

As for what to get, I would either get the latest generation Macbook to connect to the LCD screen you already have, or get a refurb iMac and have duel screens.
 
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2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM MacBook, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
I'd take the deal and upgrade the RAM, the OS possibly, and maybe the hard drive.
 

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