refurbished G5 or MacPro

Currently, I have a G4 with 400mhz and starting to get slow with all the creative apps (i.e. Flash, Photoshop, etc) wanted to know what I should do, upgrade to a refurbished G5, or go with the new mac, but then I would run into problems with adobe, and don't feel like spending the dough to upgrade to CS3 and upgdrading the Macromedia/abobe products. Any suggestions, and when do you think the G5 will become obsolete?

Hmm.. I have a G5 and I will be taking this babay through college. So probably another 4 years at least. Maybe even my masters, so 6 years.

It does all I need, and it won't be unsupported for a long time. G4s are still widely supported even today, 4 years after the PPC G5 was put out by IBM.

Since your a design person, a good processor would help you though, and Photoshop sux right now on Intel Macs.

I would consider upgrading to CS3 and getting an Intel Mac which would be a very wise long term investment. If you stick with a G5 you'll save money now, but eventually end up buying another mac sooner (especially if it's an iMac) and upgrading to CS3 anyway because you want it.

The G5 is a relatively new machine and so I think it will be around for a while. Certainly that is the gamble I made when I bought mine. The Intel Macs were already out when I got my PowerMac seven months ago, but for now, and until CS3 comes out, the PowerMac is the fastest Photoshop engine available on the market, bar none. That and the other factors I talk about next decided me on the PowerMac.

Setting Photoshop aside, consider the universe of other apps out there. Even a year or so into Apple's PPC->Intel conversion, there are still lots of programs out there that are not Universal binaries. All of these run at full tilt right now on the PowerMac. No need to wait until the manufacturer gets around to releasing a Universal.

So, when you consider that the PowerMac will be viable for several more years (I guarantee that software vendors will continue to product PPC compatible versions of their stuff for a long time - a huge percentage of their addressable market is still on PPC Macs! They would be hugely restricting their possible customer base - and hence revenue - by only doing Intel versions) and the fact that by using a PowerMac, you can run ALL the available Mac apps at full tilt right now, I would recommend the PowerMac.

Yogi is right though, long term you will want an Intel Mac, but I define "long term" for this as being about three years or so. That is when you may start to see new software titles coming out only in Intel native. This will be simply a function of what percentage of the overall Macs out there are "Intellimacs" vs. PPC Macs.

I would say go for the G5 but...
Adobe really seems to be dropping Power PC. If you want to stay current with adobe products then I say go intel.
However, for almost everything else, PPC will be around for at least 4 years. How long do you intend to keep the computer before upgrading?

Bluesmudge, what makes you say that Adobe is dropping PPC? Certainly the advance beta program for Photoshop CS3 is a Universal binary. I am running it right now on my PPC. I think that this generation of Adobe products is clearly safe for PPC. Is there a specific product you had in mind?