Who's going to buy the G5 iMac? - Page 2

Gon

You're not thinking about the future though.

Offloading as much of the display work to the GPU frees the CPU up for other task. Apple has stated with their app Motion your speed will improve almost linearly with the speed of your GPU.

Thus if Quartz 2D Extreme acceleration is faster depending on the speed of the GPU I think consumers will be forced to look at what they are getting in this area beyond just gaming.

Also with Apple proclaiming the CRT to be dead it's important that consumers know that LCDs come in native resolutions. Many like the big screens but they don't like miniscule text and icons. While Apple has stated that it's not coming in the inital Tiger release they already have Resolution Independence in the PR build. Thus we will rely on our GPU to be fast because more and more of the UI is being written in a manner that allows for GPU acceleration which makes Rez Independence a feasible feature.

Honestly I guess we'll find out next spring when iLife 5 ships how important the GPU is. If we see massive speedups in Core Image enabled iLife then we'll have our final answer. Should be fun.

Whoa...

I didn't think resolution independence would come as soon as 10.5. This doesn't totally change my opinion, but it's a significant general purpose use for GPU power.

Yeah. I'm hoping maybe we get it in a 10.4.5 upate or something.

Check these out.

http://www.purrrr.net/temp/applications.png

http://www.purrrr.net/temp/quartzdebug.png

The first pic looks funny because he said every time he opened a new app the resolution had to be reset. But it does let you see how funky thinks can get. I'm hoping Apple doesn't wait until 10.5 that's 2 years away at the least.

Well this is exactly why I think that Apple really has a winner in OS/X, many of the benefits of low cost "UNIX" systems without the limitations. The problem continues to be the lack of competitive hardware to run it on the desktop. Apple did an excellent job with the XServe G5 maybe they can do that with iMac3.

I do think that you slightly underestimate the state of 3D under Linux. Sure it is far from perfect and video drivers need a lot of work, but that doesn't mean it is not being used.

You do hit one key element squarely on the head, Mac OS/x and many of its applications do make use of the video hardware now. In the future it will only be more so. I really don't understand people that say they would buy the iMac3 with a third string video card. It really makes no sense at all if you understand the platform.

Thanks
Dave

The TAM wasn't an inexpensive computer, but it certainly didn't cost $10K. Oh I did have to pick it up myself. For an additional $3K I could have had the "Concierge" service whwere they would have delivered it, set it up, and wiped my nose.

when it first was released it was indeed 10K. they quickly dropped the price and then dropped it further

I guess I should have said that I didn't pay $10K for it.

I don't mind a 25% Mac tax. I just wish/hope the new iMacs get away from the ridiculous Mac tax of 100% for a computer that is worth much less uncoupled from the display.

I heard a sales rep from PC World saying that they don't make money on the Tower boxes. Margins are razor thin everywhere. They make it on selling LCD monitors/printers (which leads to sales of expensive ink cartridges...consumables...) Therein lay a tale on the iMac 2. Couple a bad computer to a sexy design and glue it to the monitor and you make your profit off the LCD and average or less components.

Agree with above post.

If Apple goes with a single 2.4 with 9600XT video card 20 inch LCD. I'm so there.

No. Really. AIO or not. I'd lay the smack down for that.

I think there's a link to Nvidia's new graphics slot tech' for laptops somewhere. I'd like to see Apple incorp that level of flexibility into iMac 3. Access to ram, cpu and gpu would be nice.

I'm beginning to like the alu monitor iMac idea more and more.

I just hope it aint the whore of babylon style 'cripple' that iMac 2 was.

I think Amorph said that Apple have an upgradeable slot for graphics in the PowerBook? Surely even the 9700 laptop gpu with 128 megs of ram would be okay?

I don't mind the Geforce mx crap on the barebones entry level iMac 3. But I hope they offer better GPU specs as the model goes up the pay ladder. Another weakness of the iMac 2.

In the iMac mock-up concept threads they have some cool images of what the new iMac could look like. I'd buy on of the monitor mac and G5 mini-tower macs in a heart beat!

Lemon Bon Bon

Well, i am a potential buyer, though, IiiiiiiF they offer a headless machine.
A white plastic pizza box would suit my needs... also, if this headless iMac G5 has a xServe look, i wouldn't wail either

greetings

I know a few people who very likely will get an iMac G5 if they don't ugly up the design.

There is no way I can wait. I have wanted an iMAC for 1/2 year now finally they upgrade it. The 1st second it is available I'll be buying one. What is it going to look like. APPLE I WANT PICTURES!!!!!

I'm with you Volcom1206
The design of this imac has to go down in history as the best kept secret Apple has ever pulled off. I mean we know they are coming in a month and a half, at least one of these puppies has to be sitting somewhere getting its picture taken against a white background for thier website...

If it's headless, and 999, I'm buying.