What do you think about the Mac G5

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around opinions and experiences regarding the Apple Mac G5, focusing on its performance, design, and comparison with PCs, particularly in gaming and professional applications. Participants explore both subjective impressions and technical critiques.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express dissatisfaction with the Mac G5's design, describing it as "ugly," while acknowledging its speed and potential future improvements.
  • There are claims that Macs lag behind PCs in performance, with suggestions that Apple manipulates benchmark tests to present their products favorably.
  • Participants note that gaming performance on Macs is inferior to that on PCs, primarily due to the prioritization of game development for PC platforms.
  • Concerns are raised about the reliability of Apple's performance claims, with references to specific benchmarking practices that may skew results.
  • Some users mention that while Macs are favored in certain professional fields, such as video editing, they also experience significant stability issues, contradicting the perception of Macs as more stable systems.
  • There is a discussion about the usability of Macs for programming, with some arguing that PCs offer better tools and ease of access for programmers.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus; there are multiple competing views on the performance, design, and usability of the Mac G5 compared to PCs, with ongoing debate about the validity of Apple's marketing and the experiences of users.

Contextual Notes

Participants reference specific benchmarking reports and comparisons that highlight potential biases in testing methodologies. There is also mention of varying user experiences based on professional needs and personal preferences.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to individuals considering the Mac G5 for personal or professional use, particularly those weighing its capabilities against PC alternatives in gaming and creative industries.

Mattius_
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http://www.apple.com/powermac/video/

speaks for itself...
 
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As a mac user, I think the computer itself looks ugly. IMHO.

Plenty fast tho, with promises of 3ghz in 12 months...looks like apple is fighting back. PCs are still far better for games tho, simply because games are usually made for them first, then ported to the mac, if they are ported at all.

Gaming? Buy a pc. Anything else? Go getcha a mac
 
Apple's claims to the contrary, Macs are still far behind pc's in performance. In recent years, Apple has become quite good at manipulating tests in its favor.

Its nice to see a new product from them (long time since the last one) but they have a long way to go to become relevant again.
 
I won't disagree with that, Apple does slant results...

just like other mfcs do. There will never be a day that I trust ANY mfc who says their own product is better than another mfc's offering. Wait for independent tests, I say.
 
Mac severly manipulated their test restults. They used different codecs in the betchmarking programs and turned off hyperthreading on the Intel, among other things. Here is the report written by VeriTest (company that did the benchmark): http://www.veritest.com/clients/reports/apple/apple_performance.pdf
 
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That's really interesting. They also used a single processor in the Dual Dell the G5 and used OSX up against Redhat when it would seem that they could have used SUSE linux on each machine for a more direct comparison of hardware specific power. Although they did use less memory in the G5 which seems weird. It was a prototype system though.

I don't use Macs personally but from comments from friends that use them for video editing, apart from the fact that in their industry you just don't use any other platform (for small stuff anyway), they run into some fairly significant crashing problems too. I always thought that stability was supposed to be one of the bonuses of the mac. Prices have dropped a fair bit recently so maybe they will become more popular.

If only they ditched the single button mouse.

Raavin :)
 
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Go getcha a mac

I disagree. I use a Mac, but for "everything else besides games", is like saying Mac rules at everything.

PC seems to be popular for programming.


I mean, you would have no problem finding compilers that are easy to use without use of the command line or need to compile it yourself.
 

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