iMac staying with the G4?
Do you think that the iMac will stay with a G4 processor for the rest of it's lifespan? I wouldn't be upset if it did as long as they kept it at a competitive speed. It makes sense for Apple's "Power" lineup to move to the 970 and the "i" lineup to stay with a G4/be upgraded to a G4. What are your thoughts?
Comments
Naturally, like they have done with past products, they will boost the mhz on the iMac periodically.
Maybe a year later..
I think it depends on two critical factors that remain to be seen:
1. the cost of the 970, and
2. the future of the G4
If the 970 is expensive and the 7457 appears to be a good chip, I'd say G4s in everything but the PowerMac for at least a year, probably more. On the other hand, a clean break from the G4 is possible if the 970 kicks the new G4's ass in cost and speed and IBM can really pump them out.
<strong>This is one of the most important questions, I think. We assume the 970 will go into the PowerMacs, but where else will they go, and how soon? iMacs? PowerBooks? I could easily see the 970 going in everything but iBooks as early as next year. And the iBook could even stay with Sahara and its G3 variants for some time.
I think it depends on two critical factors that remain to be seen:
1. the cost of the 970, and
2. the future of the G4
If the 970 is expensive and the 7457 appears to be a good chip, I'd say G4s in everything but the PowerMac for at least a year, probably more. On the other hand, a clean break from the G4 is possible if the 970 kicks the new G4's ass in cost and speed and IBM can really pump them out.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I like the idea of the G3 continuing to scale for awhile in iBooks. ibook performance w/a quartzGL capable card is very respectable with 800Mhz 750fx chips, and it is so nice and quiet - almost never a fan. runs cool. of course that goes out the window if you run altivec-intensive apps, but generally i think the g3 is a solid portable chip. wish we had an option for a faster g3 machine with better architecture - faster bus, with a better graphics chip with DDR VRAM...oh well.
of course a 970 might change my opinion....
ALSO depends how well motorola continues to do with the g4 all signs seem to point to a rapid adoption of the 970 however price is the main point so it will be interesting how to see how this pans out. I think probably 1.5 years after 970 is introduced is being more realistic...we'll see
IBM already has a G3 running at 1Ghz which would be perfect for the iBooks. Their CPU roadmap shows a few more revisions to the line which would bring it up to 1.8 Ghz or more.
Soo....if IBM is willing/able to get this new G3 to work on the PPC970's bus architecture (900mhz FSB, better I/O, Altivec unit), Apple can use it on the eMac/iMac line.
I don't know how hard it would be to adapt the 970's bus arch to accommodate the G3...does anyone with a little more tech know-how wanna speculate?