G5: I want the TRUTH

I've been siftin' and sortin' through all the bogus claims here, but few posts articulate the truth. Ready for it?

The register and MOSR are correct, to a point. The clockspeed will not meet their predictions, but this is a minor point. Of major importance is that the G5 will arrive, and it will be hideously fast.

1. Why is the G5 nearly here? Because Apple has been dumping money into G5 development ever since the 500MHz G4 debacle. As soon as the G4's scaling bug was discovered, Apple decided to cut their losses and concentrate R&D on the G5.

This year has brought very minimal gains in performance for the G4. Apple cannot remain in business for long with these sorts of gains. We've only gone frome 500MHz to 867 MHz this year, which is quite pathetic for a year. Factor in the 18 months at 500 MHz, and it's a wonder that Apple is still in business.

2. Why will the G5 debute at lower MHz? Apple has two reasons for introducing the G5 at lower clockspeeds. Number one is that they do not wish to alienate recent powermac buyers by jumping to 1.6 GHz. It would render all existing powermacs obsolete, and thus their value would bottom out. It is in Apple's best interest to maintain the value of older powermacs. Second, it is good business sense to introduce the G5 at a lower MHz, and the gradually, throughout the year, boost MHz. With each boost in MHz, Apple will get another wave of sales, and their profits will be maximized.

So expect the G5 to debute with only modest MHz gains. However, the performance gains will be staggering. 400 MHz system bus, ddr RAM....this thing is going to be a total beast. Maya is going to rock on it, and even at the lower MHz, the G5 will stomp Pentium 4s. Yes, it will be that fast.

Here's what to expect for the G5 intro:

Powermacs:
900 MHz
1 GHz
1.1 GHz
1.1 GHz, dual

The low end mac may even use a G4, with older mobo to save money and boost profits.

However, by the end of 2002, expect powermacs using G5s with speeds up to 1.8-2.0 GHz. Apple is serious about recapturing the lead in desktop computing performance. By the end of next year, the Powermac will be faster than any Wintel available, and OS X will be fully optimized and feature-laden. It is a good time to be a Mac user, and Apple is going to be gaining marketshare with a little luck. All the pieces are in place for a Mac revolution.

No, you don't understand. Alienating the customers is based primarily on MHz. Apple could sell a low-end powermac that's twice as fast as the current high-end powermac, but as long as the MHz aren't much greater, few will realize it.

As for the G5 MHz ratings, Moto is pumping out G5s all the way up to 2 GHz. 1.6 could be done by March or so. But Apple isn't going to use them...they will stick to 1.1-1.2 GHz at most for the first release. This also gives Apple time to stockpile the faster G5s so when they are released Apple has enough for dualies or more.

[quote] How about they DO release the g5's at 1.2-1.6GHz but at the same time have G5 upgrades available for DA=QS powermac owners(reasonably priced of course)? <hr></blockquote>

LOL, ROTFLMAO!!! &lt;wipes tears from eyes&gt;

Dude, will you send me some of that fine sh!t you're smokin'? 'Cause it's been really dry around here!

The chances of Apple selling CPU upgrades under Steve Jobs are about as good as the chances of me moving to Afghanistan and opening up a whorehouse. Apple makes their money off computers, not upgrade cards.

There are also technical limitations. The G5 would need a different power supply, more elaborate cooling, and probably would not run under the older sawtooth mobo without extensive modifications. Apple is busting their asses to get the G5 running on a specific mobo, and they don't have time to design a G5 daughter card for old mobos.

But mainly, the current Apple is not in the business of selling upgrade cards. Since Jobs has returned to Apple, they have done everything in their power to prevent users from overclocking, upgrading, and anything else that would postpone buying a new mac.

[quote] up until a couple weeks ago, who would have thought Apple would be in the MP3 player business? I thought that was the oddest thing... upgrade cards from Apple would make more sense.. especially if the actual G5 motherboards were in short supply, the cards would make a good transition. <hr></blockquote>

Nonsense. The mobos aren't the limiting factor here, it's the G5 chips. And if the G5 chips are in short supply (and they will be), then what do you think Apple will do:

1. Build fewer G5 powermacs so they can sell G5 upgrade cards to current Powermac owners who would rather buy an upgrade card than a new G5 powermac.

2. Use all of the G5 chips to build high-margin Powermacs.

Also, the iPod is a poor analogy, because nobody buys an iPod in place of upgrading their Mac. iPod sales can only act as an incentive for people to upgrade to newer Mac hardware, so it runs iTunes 2 better, so it has Firewire, ect.

Apple isn't out to save customers money, they are out to make money. While satisfied customers are important for good profits, this doesn't mean that Apple will forego sales to keep mac users happy. I feel like I'm stating the obvious, but apparently not:

Because of low chips supplies, which are certain for any new motorola chip, each G5 upgrade sold would mean one less Powermac sold. And the profit margin on a G5 powermac is clearly greater than it would be on some upgrade card.

Finally, if Apple were going to sell upgrade cards, why wait for the G5? There are many, many Powermac G3 owners around who would jump at the chance to buy a 7450 G4 upgrade card for their Smurf computers. If Apple offered 867 MHz G4 upgrade cards at the Apple store, they wouldn't be able to keep them in stock! So clearly Apple doesn't intend to sell upgrades.

But I'll tell you what; if Apple DOES offer a G5 upgrade card at the Apple store, I'll suck my own dick! You have my word on that one.