Newbie, questions

trout · Feb 3, 2005

I am on the verge of switching to a MAC. Had several in college, MAC colorclassic, and a PowerMAC when apple briefly allowed third party company to build MACS.

Current PC is relatively old,
DELL XPS, 933 PIII, circa. 1999
64MG Graphics card
256MG RDRAM
10Gig Hard drive

I am in the market for a new G5 Imac I think. My wife is a teacher and we get a discount, which is nice, but $$ really isnt the issue.

Q:
1. Is a G5 Imac faster than my current set-up, Graphics as well? Will it run games better than what I have, though games are NOT my main use.
I really want the software that MAC's come with!! and stability.

2. Im hesitant to purchase with only 64mg of Graphics memory, as my PC is 6 years old!! and has 64megs of graphics! I can NOT believe a brand new MAC only has 64megs still!!!!

That is why I ask if a new MAC will be faster than my 6year old PC.

thanks for your time

trout

technologist · Feb 3, 2005

The iMac has a pretty basic graphics card. It's not a serious gaming machine.

The faster CPU will probably push the iMac's gaming performance ahead of your PC. Depends partly on which game and which resolution you're using.

There's also the 1.8GHz G5 tower, which you can customize with better graphics cards. It starts at $1350 (educational) not including monitor. A 128MB card is $45 more; a 256MB Radeon 9800 is $315 more.

(And if a 64MB graphics card shocks you, stay away from the $400 PCs that don't even have graphics memory at all.)

Thud · Feb 3, 2005

Just make sure you get at least 512MB of system memory in the Mac. OSX doesn't run well in only 256 megs.

Video memory is a bit different -- more does not mean faster, necessarily, unless you play games.

For regular 2D apps and video, 64 megs is more than enough (heck even 32 megs is enough in most cases). 3D games have to put more into video memory, like textures, bumpmaps, normal maps, and a bunch of other stuff. This is why recent games like Doom3 and Half Life 2 really need 256 megs of memory on the video card to run at full detail.

But, if you don't play games on the mac, most of the video memory on a 128meg video card will simply never be used.

brendan67 · Feb 3, 2005

trout said:
I am on the verge of switching to a MAC. Had several in college, MAC colorclassic, and a PowerMAC when apple briefly allowed third party company to build MACS.

hi

i've been running my Imac G5 since november and for sheer pleasure its easily
the best computer i've used. the only upgrade which is a must is at least 512
mb ram it comes from apple with 256mb (why they do this i don't know - to keep cost down i suppose)

i also run a pentium 4 with a 2.0gb processor and the pee cee just does not compare. even when running games e.g. call of duty medal of honor FPS games
the G5 compares favourably.

the g5 is in a different class it even takes browsing ( with firefox ) to a new higher level.

the only thing i do now on the pee cee is clean up the spyware
thats left after the children have been on the net.

remember even the HD on your Imac G5 will be 8 times bigger than
your pee cee and probably 8 times faster to get in and out of.

G5 is on a different planet

kind regards

trout · Feb 3, 2005

Thud said:
Just make sure you get at least 512MB of system memory in the Mac. OSX doesn't run well in only 256 megs.

Video memory is a bit different -- more does not mean faster, necessarily, unless you play games.

For regular 2D apps and video, 64 megs is more than enough (heck even 32 megs is enough in most cases). 3D games have to put more into video memory, like textures, bumpmaps, normal maps, and a bunch of other stuff. This is why recent games like Doom3 and Half Life 2 really need 256 megs of memory on the video card to run at full detail.

But, if you don't play games on the mac, most of the video memory on a 128meg video card will simply never be used.

I will not play games much if at all on this computer, I will be making movies of my kids and dogs and arranging photoes and burning DVD's and using my Ipod. Surfing the web and E-mailing. My wife will be doing here school stuff on it, and accounting.

I would like to play Command and Conquer Generals on occasion....does that play well on it?

trout

brendan67 · Feb 3, 2005

trout said:
I will not play games much if at all on this computer, I will be making movies of my kids and dogs and arranging photoes and burning DVD's and using my Ipod. Surfing the web and E-mailing. My wife will be doing here school stuff on it, and accounting.

I would like to play Command and Conquer Generals on occasion....does that play well on it?

trout

hi

sorry don't know about game you ask about
but the G5 was made for everything else you want to do.

get it you will not regret it.

trout · Feb 3, 2005

brendan67 said:
hi

sorry don't know about game you ask about
but the G5 was made for everything else you want to do.

get it you will not regret it.

Thanks!
Im getting one just a matter of when.......do I wait for Tiger or a graphics bump? that is the proverbial question.

trout

)(* · Feb 3, 2005

trout said:
Thanks!
Im getting one just a matter of when.......do I wait for Tiger or a graphics bump? that is the proverbial question.

trout

Id wait for Tiger. But thats late March, so i guess just save up. And since your doing video editing, get the biggest drive you can in that thing. 250GB i think it is.

Cause im trying to video edit with my Powerbook which is just 60GB, and trust me, more is much much much better.

Archiving all your work is your friend. But if all your data ever exceeds 100GB, i highly recommend a backup drive, like thats ever going to happen though

Newbie, questions

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