It'll be interesting to see if Apple really delivers this time. In the past, Apple has consistently claimed a performance superiority over PCs that has been MIA in an actual design/publishing workflow environment. I've worked on both platforms for more than 12 years. In fact, a Mac was the first computer I ever used, and I currently have a Mac G3 and a PC sitting side by side on my design studio desk. But, in my experience, "real world" Mac performance has lagged behind PCs for the past five or six years. Three years ago, at a time when I was running a G3 at my former employer's office, I was bringing PhotoShop work home to a Dell 133 Mhz Pentium I with 80 MB of RAM to get some actual work done. At that time I could have complex documents open in PhotoShop 4, PageMaker 6.5 and CorelDraw 7, run a Web browser, an e-mail application and download a file or listen to a CD all at the same time on my little old PC, something that consistently choked the technically superior G3 (with its PhotoShop 4, Illustrator 7, Quark 4, etc.). Running simultaneous multiple apps and functions with multiple files open all day is how people really work and PCs have had the edge here for quite some time now. It wasn't until my employer upgraded the office computer to a G4 that I enjoyed superior performance vs. my ancient home PC. Now that I'm running my own design business, the bulk of my work is produced on a newer PC. It out-performs the G3 by leaps and bounds and makes for an easier workflow between myself and my clients. Benchmark tests don't predict real world performance.
The multiple aspects of how this machine will crack the whip are enticing, not just megahertz, but thru-put! 64bit is huge, as is the 1gig front side bus. Having followed David's earlier articles... his contrarian approach to the importance of megahertz alone could blind some into thinking he was an apologist for Macs. This article is on target showcasing the multiple leading edge technologies that Apple has broght together. If you are doing video or sound that demands it...these puppies should kick ass- and with a professional grade operating system to boot-(which may be more important than mhz!).
Hiowever: personally, I am still cranking out designs on my 400 mhz imac, running Jaguar...and I can clean & jerk more than most Designers because I know my system, my programs, and how to optimize my workflow. I spend less than an hour a day in photoshop, and am doing more web stuff now (not requiring much heavy lifting) ...so I will probably wait till 2nd generation G5s for my own speed rush.
Submitted by Dick Lennox on Tue, 07/08/2003 - 11:14.
As far as I'm concerned, any claims are all hot air until the product actually ships.
I'm finally(!) replacing a 400 Mhz G3, probably with one of the 1.25 DP systems available now. Mostly because it's available NOW, not another 1-2 months out. I've been waiting over 2 years to replace this thing, and I can't wait any longer.
But in the 2 or so years that there has been no really new Mac models announced, PC's have come a long way with XP and the fact that a lot of workflows run with PDF files, who cares what box the PDF's were created with?
Apple should have done something besides fooling around with all of the consumer goods and portables, and given the higher end content creators something to work with.
They've lost a lot of ground, and it may never be recovered. I'm glad the G5 is finally out, but I feel it's (at least) a year too late. Maybe this thing will really rock, but as printing becomes more of a manufacturing process, and a generic (PDF) standard is embraced, it becomes less important what box was used to create stuff.
Submitted by geozinger on Thu, 07/03/2003 - 01:51.
"Real" real world performance?
It'll be interesting to see if Apple really delivers this time. In the past, Apple has consistently claimed a performance superiority over PCs that has been MIA in an actual design/publishing workflow environment. I've worked on both platforms for more than 12 years. In fact, a Mac was the first computer I ever used, and I currently have a Mac G3 and a PC sitting side by side on my design studio desk. But, in my experience, "real world" Mac performance has lagged behind PCs for the past five or six years. Three years ago, at a time when I was running a G3 at my former employer's office, I was bringing PhotoShop work home to a Dell 133 Mhz Pentium I with 80 MB of RAM to get some actual work done. At that time I could have complex documents open in PhotoShop 4, PageMaker 6.5 and CorelDraw 7, run a Web browser, an e-mail application and download a file or listen to a CD all at the same time on my little old PC, something that consistently choked the technically superior G3 (with its PhotoShop 4, Illustrator 7, Quark 4, etc.). Running simultaneous multiple apps and functions with multiple files open all day is how people really work and PCs have had the edge here for quite some time now. It wasn't until my employer upgraded the office computer to a G4 that I enjoyed superior performance vs. my ancient home PC. Now that I'm running my own design business, the bulk of my work is produced on a newer PC. It out-performs the G3 by leaps and bounds and makes for an easier workflow between myself and my clients. Benchmark tests don't predict real world performance.
Under the desktop G5 Article
Good information. Well written.
Balanced review of G5s
The multiple aspects of how this machine will crack the whip are enticing, not just megahertz, but thru-put! 64bit is huge, as is the 1gig front side bus. Having followed David's earlier articles... his contrarian approach to the importance of megahertz alone could blind some into thinking he was an apologist for Macs. This article is on target showcasing the multiple leading edge technologies that Apple has broght together. If you are doing video or sound that demands it...these puppies should kick ass- and with a professional grade operating system to boot-(which may be more important than mhz!).
Hiowever: personally, I am still cranking out designs on my 400 mhz imac, running Jaguar...and I can clean & jerk more than most Designers because I know my system, my programs, and how to optimize my workflow. I spend less than an hour a day in photoshop, and am doing more web stuff now (not requiring much heavy lifting) ...so I will probably wait till 2nd generation G5s for my own speed rush.
I'll reserve my enthusiasm until it actually ships
As far as I'm concerned, any claims are all hot air until the product actually ships.
I'm finally(!) replacing a 400 Mhz G3, probably with one of the 1.25 DP systems available now. Mostly because it's available NOW, not another 1-2 months out. I've been waiting over 2 years to replace this thing, and I can't wait any longer.
But in the 2 or so years that there has been no really new Mac models announced, PC's have come a long way with XP and the fact that a lot of workflows run with PDF files, who cares what box the PDF's were created with?
Apple should have done something besides fooling around with all of the consumer goods and portables, and given the higher end content creators something to work with.
They've lost a lot of ground, and it may never be recovered. I'm glad the G5 is finally out, but I feel it's (at least) a year too late. Maybe this thing will really rock, but as printing becomes more of a manufacturing process, and a generic (PDF) standard is embraced, it becomes less important what box was used to create stuff.