Dual Core 2.3 or Dual Proc 2.7 G5

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What would br the faster out of the two G5, as I am looking at getting one from the Apple Refurb Store (anyone ever bought from there before?). They both have 512 ram which I'll just have to upgrade and 250 gig hard drives but I have a firewire 800/400 drive to add. I am going to mainly use this mac for After Effects and other animation, which would be the better suited.
 
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refurbs come out of their factory with the same expectation of performance as every new mac that comes off the line. only difference is you might have a pre-made scratch on the case or something. so basically what i am saying is that the refurbs are just like new, but used, with the same warantee as the new machines.

well picking between the two may become a crap shoot. the intel machine will need to emulate aftereffects under rosetta and that will be noticably slower. there also appears to be a degredation in performance under rosetta as well...read this: http://www.adobe.com/products/pdfs/intelmacsupport.pdf . PPC might be faster but adobe may release a new line of products by years end which will be universal.

if you need to buy now, i'd go with ppc.
-chris
 
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coach_z said:
refurbs come out of their factory with the same expectation of performance as every new mac that comes off the line. only difference is you might have a pre-made scratch on the case or something. so basically what i am saying is that the refurbs are just like new, but used, with the same warantee as the new machines.

well picking between the two may become a crap shoot. the intel machine will need to emulate aftereffects under rosetta and that will be noticably slower. there also appears to be a degredation in performance under rosetta as well...read this: http://www.adobe.com/products/pdfs/intelmacsupport.pdf . PPC might be faster but adobe may release a new line of products by years end which will be universal.

if you need to buy now, i'd go with ppc.
-chris


I thought powermacs were still PPC as of today?
 
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randomfactor
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hondagus87 said:
I thought powermacs were still PPC as of today?

They are its a PowerPC Dual Core processor.
 
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randomfactor
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coach_z said:
refurbs come out of their factory with the same expectation of performance as every new mac that comes off the line. only difference is you might have a pre-made scratch on the case or something. so basically what i am saying is that the refurbs are just like new, but used, with the same warantee as the new machines.

well picking between the two may become a crap shoot. the intel machine will need to emulate aftereffects under rosetta and that will be noticably slower. there also appears to be a degredation in performance under rosetta as well...read this: http://www.adobe.com/products/pdfs/intelmacsupport.pdf . PPC might be faster but adobe may release a new line of products by years end which will be universal.

if you need to buy now, i'd go with ppc.
-chris


Cheers for the quick reply but the question was about PowerPC Powermac G5 and whether to go for dual core or dual processor which are still available for the PowerPC Powermac g5.
 
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I would definitely go for the 2.3 GHz Dual-Core. It has faster RAM, faster bus speeds, PCI-E over AGP for graphics, better graphics cards, and faster expansion slots.
 
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bfx

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Tough choice.

Don't know about your specific 3D app but Lightwave renders on dual core 2.3 vs. dual cpu 2.7 are neck and neck in most cases.

Rarely more than a couple of percentage points difference either way. Depends on scene.

Main advantages of the 2.3 dual core is it's a newer platform with PCI Express. While that means it will have bus expansion available longer it also means older bus expansion cards won't work.

So if you already have expansion cards you plan on reusing that's something to consider.

And there aren't that many bus expansion options available yet, although more are being added.

Factor in planned release of Intel based PowerMacs and that Apple seems to be reducing the number of models in individual lines (only two Intel Minis, jump from 2.3 dual core to 2.5 Quad w/o a single dual core 2.5 model) and it's even more difficult to decide.


Considering the dual cpu models are no longer made (and therefore the components will probaly have more time on them) I'm leaning toward the 2.3.

bfx
 
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bfx said:
Tough choice.

Don't know about your specific 3D app but Lightwave renders on dual core 2.3 vs. dual cpu 2.7 are neck and neck in most cases.

Rarely more than a couple of percentage points difference either way. Depends on scene.

Main advantages of the 2.3 dual core is it's a newer platform with PCI Express. While that means it will have bus expansion available longer it also means older bus expansion cards won't work.

So if you already have expansion cards you plan on reusing that's something to consider.

And there aren't that many bus expansion options available yet, although more are being added.

Factor in planned release of Intel based PowerMacs and that Apple seems to be reducing the number of models in individual lines (only two Intel Minis, jump from 2.3 dual core to 2.5 Quad w/o a single dual core 2.5 model) and it's even more difficult to decide.


Considering the dual cpu models are no longer made (and therefore the components will probaly have more time on them) I'm leaning toward the 2.3.

bfx

From that comment is there a big step from the 2.3 DC to the 2.5 Quad (and the the quad 2x 2.5 DC?)
 
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bfx

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randomfactor said:
From that comment is there a big step from the 2.3 DC to the 2.5 Quad (and the the quad 2x 2.5 DC?)

Yes. <--- click

The 2.3 would be a bit faster than the reference 2.0 system - but less so than the 2.3 to 2.0 ratio might seem to indicate.

Considering refurbed prices $2149 vs. $2799 at the Apple Store the Quad is definitely worth considering.

Reading further into the article it's noted that Intel Powermacs will need more than dual 3.6 ghz Xeons to equal a G5 Quad's raw speed.

So perhaps the whole Intel factor can be disregarded.

Hard to say unless one knows Apple's plans for ultimate performance in an Intel PowerMac.

And I suspect even those may change from whatever is currently planned as Mac power users demand more performance.

bfx



bfx
 

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