So any of you who have upgraded from a power book g4, to a macbook pro, how do you feel about the switch? are you happy with your new computer? How would you rate your G4 against you MacBook Pro? I'm just wondering if I should make the switch...
So any of you who have upgraded from a power book g4, to a macbook pro, how do you feel about the switch? are you happy with your new computer? How would you rate your G4 against you MacBook Pro? I'm just wondering if I should make the switch...
This is a trick question, right?
Intel. As things stand, wouldn't go near PPC with a barge pole. Who'd have thunk it?
I haven't used a macbook pro yet but I have a G4 powerbook and it sucks. I also use a quad G5 and people have said the macbook feels the same as that. My guess is it's a whole lot better. I know Apple marketing is sugar-coated but when they say the macbook pro is 4-5x faster than a G4 laptop, I have no doubt in believing them. Not mainly because the macbook is so good mind you but because the G4 laptops are such crap in comparison.
The PowerBook is slower than an Intel, but I would not go around saying a machine sucks because it is slower.
My iMac runs laps around my 1.5Ghz Powerbook, but the Powerbook is awesome for what I ue it for. Video encoding, iMac 1.83 Core Duo, anything else other than that the PB still kicks any windows computers butt. That is just how it is!!!!
So any of you who have upgraded from a power book g4, to a macbook pro, how do you feel about the switch? are you happy with your new computer? How would you rate your G4 against you MacBook Pro? I'm just wondering if I should make the switch...
The only thing that is difference is speed and features.
You can't not like the extra features...
and being faster is never a problem.
So obviously the MacBook Pro is better. Except of course if you heavily use Photoshop, one of the only remaining signifficant applications that is not Universal Binary.
A MacBook Pro feels the same as a Quad G5? The MacBook Pro is great, but come on now, let's not get carried away.
Well, it certainly sounds far fetched but from my using the quad for quite a while doing a whole load of different tasks with loads of different CPU intensive apps - mainly video encoding, 3D, Photoshop etc, it almost always uses at most half the power it has for each application and so it doesn't actually feel any faster than a dual-G5.
If you had two apps running at the same time then the story would be different but people rarely do that. You can't work in Photoshop and Shake at the same time. Background encoding is one area where it might come out on top.
The benchmarks logically show that the core duo and dual-G5 are about the same in terms of CPU performance with the Core Duo sometimes coming out better.
So, I would be quite prepared to believe the Macbook will feel like a Quad G5.
Quote:
The PowerBook is slower than an Intel, but I would not go around saying a machine sucks because it is slower.
It sucks because of how much Apple charge for it and for the display quality. You can get a used 2.8GHz P4 Sony Vaio with a 64MB Radeon for £550. You'd be very hard pressed to get a powerbook for that price and even then, it's still slower.
Quad G5: Two dual-core 2.5GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5 procs
Frontside bus 1.25GHz per proc
L2 cache 1MB per core for a total of 4MB
MacBook Pro: ONE dual core 2.16GHz 32-bit proc.
Frontside bus 667MHz
L2 cache 2MB shared between the cores.
No WAY does the MacBook Pro feel like a Quad G5. Maybe a Dual core 2.3 G5 but still doubtful. Physics still exist even inside the MBP.
I own an original dual 2GHz G5 and a new 2GHz MacBook Pro. They are close but the G5 still schools the MBP. I do a LOT of video and multitrack audio work....I record/capture to the MBP and offload the actual project files to the G5 to render the video and apply the audio effects etc...
Without the 7200 RPM internal drive in the MBP or an external FW drive attached...it's slower than the G5...which has two 7200 RPM SATA drives...
I have a 1.5ghz Aluminum Powerbook and recently I purchased a 17" Intel iMac. It's nice and I love it, but if you're looking at replacing your Powerbook with a Macbook Pro, I'd have to advise to wait. There are still dozens of things that my powerbook can do faster simply because there aren't the universal versions available yet. When using Toast to encode a DVD, the intel machine performed slower than my G4 Cube. Certain applications that I love simply won't open in the intel environment through Rosetta. So I would say hold off until there are more Universal applications before you replace your old with the new. But that's just me.
thanks everybody for the input, iguess the main reason I started this thread was- I have a 15 inch pb 1.5, I do a lot of garageband/logic work, I guess I was just trying to find out how different the intel feels when recording and mixing, I do have some issues with my pb, but I don't know if I reallycan justify upgradidng to the macbook pro. I KNOW its probably better, but is it so much better that I need to get it soon, I mean this computer im using is only a year and a half old...
I KNOW its probably better, but is it so much better that I need to get it soon, I mean this computer im using is only a year and a half old...
Yeah it is soooo much better. The Macbook is like having a G5 in a laptop. However, as people have said, it doesn't have all the native Intel binaries yet. I think garageband and logic are universal now but you still have to pay for the upgrade.
If that's all the binaries you use then I'd say to get one. Just bear in mind the upgrade fees for universal software.
Even though you say the powerbook is only a year and a half old, the technology inside it is nearer 5-6 years old. Y'know how much a used G4 Mac Mini is? Around £250. They have similar components to what's in your powerbook. Apple have been selling them for £1000+ for far too long.
In their defence, they are nice machines but haven't been worth their price tag for a long time given their performance.
You can always wait to see what the ibooks come out like. You might be able to upgrade your powerbook to an ibook without losing any money. The only downside is the ibook may have shared graphics, which most certainly would be slower than your powerbook GPU.
I had the latest model 15" PB and switched for a MacBook Pro. I am glad I made the switch. The only thing I don't like is the heat of the MBP. I have the latest revision logic board (I had to send in the unit for a week) and it is still too hot. Apple said "its not a laptop, its a notebook". Well my powerbook notebook didn't get this hot.
Comments
Originally posted by hankx32
So any of you who have upgraded from a power book g4, to a macbook pro, how do you feel about the switch? are you happy with your new computer? How would you rate your G4 against you MacBook Pro? I'm just wondering if I should make the switch...
This is a trick question, right?
Intel. As things stand, wouldn't go near PPC with a barge pole. Who'd have thunk it?
My iMac runs laps around my 1.5Ghz Powerbook, but the Powerbook is awesome for what I ue it for. Video encoding, iMac 1.83 Core Duo, anything else other than that the PB still kicks any windows computers butt. That is just how it is!!!!
Originally posted by hankx32
So any of you who have upgraded from a power book g4, to a macbook pro, how do you feel about the switch? are you happy with your new computer? How would you rate your G4 against you MacBook Pro? I'm just wondering if I should make the switch...
The only thing that is difference is speed and features.
You can't not like the extra features...
and being faster is never a problem.
So obviously the MacBook Pro is better. Except of course if you heavily use Photoshop, one of the only remaining signifficant applications that is not Universal Binary.
Originally posted by Marvin
I haven't used a macbook pro yet but I have a G4 powerbook and it sucks. I also use a quad G5 and people have said the macbook feels the same as that.
A MacBook Pro feels the same as a Quad G5?
Originally posted by iPeon
A MacBook Pro feels the same as a Quad G5?
Well, it certainly sounds far fetched but from my using the quad for quite a while doing a whole load of different tasks with loads of different CPU intensive apps - mainly video encoding, 3D, Photoshop etc, it almost always uses at most half the power it has for each application and so it doesn't actually feel any faster than a dual-G5.
If you had two apps running at the same time then the story would be different but people rarely do that. You can't work in Photoshop and Shake at the same time. Background encoding is one area where it might come out on top.
The benchmarks logically show that the core duo and dual-G5 are about the same in terms of CPU performance with the Core Duo sometimes coming out better.
So, I would be quite prepared to believe the Macbook will feel like a Quad G5.
The PowerBook is slower than an Intel, but I would not go around saying a machine sucks because it is slower.
It sucks because of how much Apple charge for it and for the display quality. You can get a used 2.8GHz P4 Sony Vaio with a 64MB Radeon for £550. You'd be very hard pressed to get a powerbook for that price and even then, it's still slower.
Frontside bus 1.25GHz per proc
L2 cache 1MB per core for a total of 4MB
MacBook Pro: ONE dual core 2.16GHz 32-bit proc.
Frontside bus 667MHz
L2 cache 2MB shared between the cores.
No WAY does the MacBook Pro feel like a Quad G5. Maybe a Dual core 2.3 G5 but still doubtful. Physics still exist even inside the MBP.
I own an original dual 2GHz G5 and a new 2GHz MacBook Pro. They are close but the G5 still schools the MBP. I do a LOT of video and multitrack audio work....I record/capture to the MBP and offload the actual project files to the G5 to render the video and apply the audio effects etc...
Without the 7200 RPM internal drive in the MBP or an external FW drive attached...it's slower than the G5...which has two 7200 RPM SATA drives...
BUT--if you are buying new, go Intel. I would not buy a new PowerPC machine today.
Originally posted by hankx32
I KNOW its probably better, but is it so much better that I need to get it soon, I mean this computer im using is only a year and a half old...
Yeah it is soooo much better. The Macbook is like having a G5 in a laptop. However, as people have said, it doesn't have all the native Intel binaries yet. I think garageband and logic are universal now but you still have to pay for the upgrade.
If that's all the binaries you use then I'd say to get one. Just bear in mind the upgrade fees for universal software.
Even though you say the powerbook is only a year and a half old, the technology inside it is nearer 5-6 years old. Y'know how much a used G4 Mac Mini is? Around £250. They have similar components to what's in your powerbook. Apple have been selling them for £1000+ for far too long.
In their defence, they are nice machines but haven't been worth their price tag for a long time given their performance.
You can always wait to see what the ibooks come out like. You might be able to upgrade your powerbook to an ibook without losing any money. The only downside is the ibook may have shared graphics, which most certainly would be slower than your powerbook GPU.