G5 2 Ghz vs 2.5 Ghz

Ok so i work mainly with a great deal of Photoshop and high intensity photo graphics and am moving from PC to Mac. I am wondering if it would be more wise to go with a G5 2.5 with the standard video card or to go with the G5 2 Ghz with the ATI 9800 XT and some boosted RAM. They come out to be pretty close in price so im wondering which would be a better config. Thanks and im sure ill be happy with either but i dont know what is better for performance and for the ability to remain somewhat close to the cutting edge for a while. Thanks

k3rmi7 said:

Ok so i work mainly with a great deal of Photoshop and high intensity photo graphics and am moving from PC to Mac. I am wondering if it would be more wise to go with a G5 2.5 with the standard video card or to go with the G5 2 Ghz with the ATI 9800 XT and some boosted RAM. They come out to be pretty close in price so im wondering which would be a better config. Thanks and im sure ill be happy with either but i dont know what is better for performance and for the ability to remain somewhat close to the cutting edge for a while. Thanks

Click to expand...

I was in the same situation a few months back when I ordered my dual 2.0 G5. Right after I ordered it they sent me an email and told me the 2.5 just came out and that I could upgrade for the same price so I did it. I just got my dual 2.5 with 9800xt on Friday. Took three months to get. I guess it was worth it, haven't yet used it for anything but web surfing.

I'm a graphic designer and I'm sure that either the dual 2.0 or the dual 2.5 will work for whatever you need to do seeing as I'm still using my 5 year old PC for my work. I think the new mac is probably even more computer than I'll need for some time. I'm sure both configurations will have some lasting power. I think if you can get the 2.0 w/ the 9800xt for the same money as the base 2.5 then get that one. It's nice to have the top of the line graphics card mated with a powerful processor. Plus with some extra RAM you'll have a great computer. I'm sure it will be very comparable to the 2.5 G5 or better with the added upgrades.

Good Luck with your choice!

I would go with 2GHz with 9800XT and more memory. When it comes to the computer upgrades, CPU is usually the least pronounced. Unless you upgrade to 50% or faster processor, the difference would be measurable, but hardly noticeable in the real apps. On the other hand, 512MB is not really enough for Macs, and you will notice significant difference going with 1GB or more. The most pronounced upgrade is probably the videocard, especially on Mac OS X. On Windows platform, you would never use the 3D hardware unless you run 3D games. On OS X, even the basic windowing utilizes 3D hardware. I would imagine 9600XT is already plenty fast enough for you, but if you budget allows, you should get the best videocard.

Here is the basic difference of the two systems.

Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
1GHz frontside bus/processor
64MB DDR video memory

Dual 2.5GHz PowerPC G5
1.25GHz frontside bus/processor
128MB DDR video memory

G5 video question

I am about to order a G5 and wondering about the video specs. I've heard that the Quartz display technology hands off some of the on screen rendering tasks to the video card, but don't if any of the video cards help this or if they are for specific applications (gaming, 3D rendering, etc.).

Are the DDR video memory specs posted below refer to memory on a video card, or is this memory on the motherboard? Sorry, but I'm a techno-challenged Luddite.

I do mostly Photoshop image editing work, some graphic design (layout, illustration) and a little bit of 3D work. Which of the video card options from Apple help me, and how? I've also read the ATI offers a "9800 Pro Special Mac Edition" video card is supposed to be a great performance/value card. Is this the same card Apple offers?

thanks for your info on this,
Dave

rman said:

Here is the basic difference of the two systems.

Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
1GHz frontside bus/processor
64MB DDR video memory

Dual 2.5GHz PowerPC G5
1.25GHz frontside bus/processor
128MB DDR video memory

Click to expand...