"Old" 1.8 G5 vs. "New" 1.8 G5

messiahmessiah
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
MacUser UK recently ran a review of the new DP1.8 G5, and they concluded that whilst the differences were miniscule, the new machine beat the old machine.



Which you might expect.



Except that the new machine has half the RAM and half the hard disk space, and the stripped down version of the motherboard. So in real world terms, it must offer real speed increases over the old machine.



So what are the differences between the outgoing and incoming families of G5s? Have Apple tweaked the logic boards slightly? Are there new versions of some of the controller chips etc.? Perhaps faster hard drives?



Anybody know?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    maccaronimaccaroni Posts: 7member
    Well it's PPC970 vs PPC970FX. But no idea what kind of differnce that makes =)
  • Reply 2 of 10
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Well, since the new G5 1.8 is at the low end, it costs less than the previous 1.8 G5, which served as the middle of the line model.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    messiahmessiah Posts: 1,689member
    But there must be technical differences that explain the extra performance.



    How can a machine with 256MB of RAM even match a machine with 512MB of RAM in a Photoshop test - never mind beat it?



    This performance gain is coming from somewhere. Unfortunately I don't know enough about the differences between the 970 and the 970FX. Does the FX have a larger/faster cache or something?
  • Reply 4 of 10
    messiahmessiah Posts: 1,689member
    But there must be technical differences that explain the extra performance.



    How can a machine with 256MB of RAM even match a machine with 512MB of RAM in a Photoshop test - never mind beat it?



    This performance gain is coming from somewhere. Unfortunately I don't know enough about the differences between the 970 and the 970FX. Does the FX have a larger/faster cache or something?
  • Reply 5 of 10
    messiahmessiah Posts: 1,689member
    Got to keep that post count up.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    jeremiah richjeremiah rich Posts: 853member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Messiah

    Got to keep that post count up.



    Me too Seriously though, I think I remember reading the G5 has a better tuned velocity engine (or whatever they call it on the G5). Plus I would imagine it has a new revision of memory controllers and the like, which would really affect it's photoshop performance...
  • Reply 7 of 10
    messiahmessiah Posts: 1,689member
    The reason I'm asking is that I'll need to buy one shortly, and I have the choice of the outgoing model at a knocked down price (£1620, down from £1849) or the new model (£1449).



    The outgoing model's got the full-on motherboard, twice the RAM and drive space. But the new one does seem to be a little more "finely tuned".



    The RAM and the hard disk space don't bother me because I'll be upgrading the RAM (ditching the original) and swapping out the drive anyway.



    I'm being drawn to the new machine...
  • Reply 8 of 10
    mac hammer fanmac hammer fan Posts: 101member
    I don't need PCI-X slots and I doubt I will need more than 2 GB within the next 3 years, so I have decided to buy a Dual G5 1.8 rev B with 1GB RAM (2 x512).

    But with a larger hard disk. (160 GB)

    The advantages of the new G5 over the old is the better DVD-drive (107 at 8 speed vs the 106 4x speed).

  • Reply 9 of 10
    messiahmessiah Posts: 1,689member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mac Hammer Fan

    The advantages of the new G5 over the old is the better DVD-drive (107 at 8 speed vs the 106 4x speed).



    That's true. I hadn't thought of that.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    mac hammer fanmac hammer fan Posts: 101member
    I ordered my G5 Dual 1.8 revB with 1GB RAM based on the review here:

    http://www.lowendmac.com/musings/04/0609.html

    I doubt that there will be a noticeable speed difference between the new and the old Dual 1.8, except of course if you use PCI-X (but I don't.)

    I am convinced it is a faster machine than the G5 Single 1.8 with PCI-X slots released last year.

    And I have read at MacWorld that PCI-X will be replaced by PCI-Express (faster) in the near future.
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