[redcalx]

Alright, I know similar thread to this have been done to death but I dont think I've seen anyone comparing the difference between G5's yet.

Heres my problem.

I ordered a G5 already but I was only able to afford the 1.8 I do mostly Illustrator/Photoshop/Flash work, but I am interested in trying out some video editing stuff and I bought Final cut express with my G5. (If it helps, I'm upgrading from a Dual 1.25)

In the past couple days it's been bugging me that I didnt order the Dual 2.0, it's only about $600 more (Canadian funds) but it's money I just dont have right now.

The 1.8 should treat me fine shouldnt it? Especially compared to what I have now, or would anyone reccomend putting a little extra on the credit card for the 2.0? If I do that, it's going to make things tough for a while.

Honest replies appreciated.

[teh tenk]

You don't need either system if you have a dual 1.25 now. Honestly.

[redcalx]

Why do you say that? I was able to get a great price on my G4 (almost the same price the Apple store is selling them for) and it makes sense to upgrade.

Why would you say that?

Originally posted by teh tenk:
You don't need either system if you have a dual 1.25 now. Honestly.

[tikki]

Originally posted by redcalx:
Why would you say that?

Because a Dual 1.25 G4 is plenty fast for everything you are doing now and wanting to do in the future.

[mikemako]

that's a tough one! My advice would be to stick with what you already bought. a 1.8GHz G5 will be a fairly nice upgrade from the 1.2GHz G4.. BUT consider that there might be some disappointments since you will be moving from a dual to a single processor. When I upgraded my DP 533MHz G4 to a SP 1.3GHz (with an upgrade card) I noticed 2 things: a much more responsive system while doing 1 thing at a time, and a less responsive system (worse performace) when it came to multi-tasking. I'm not ever going to buy a SP system again.

If you were to get the 2GHz DP I am hearing rumors that you might not receive it until the end of Sept.. just get the 1.8GHz for now and get a faster machine in 18 months once they've had a revision.

[teh tenk]

Originally posted by redcalx:
Why do you say that? I was able to get a great price on my G4 (almost the same price the Apple store is selling them for) and it makes sense to upgrade.

Why would you say that?

I say that because a dual 1.25 is still a great system for Photoshop, Flash and even video editing.

If you got a great deal on the trade-in, more power to ya. But it doesn't make sense to upgrade, seeing as the dual 1.25 is a powerful machine that will do everything that a G5 will do for you.

Is it just a case of wanting the latest and greatest? If so, go for the Dual 2.

[Commodus]

I wouldn't worry. You're not going to kill yourself unless you're stressing your apps to the limit (running super-huge Photoshop projects, etc.) and it'll still probably be a significant jump over your dual G4.

Remember: life's for the living. Don't suffer substantially in other aspects of your life just to process a rendering filter a few seconds sooner.

[redcalx]

I'll stick with the 1.8 then, but since this is moving from a Dual G4 to a single Processor G5, with the new improcements to the processor and front side bus do yout hink that will elimnate problems I would have seen moving from DP to SP? I'm just worried now that I'm going to end up with a slower machine.

Originally posted by mikemako:
that's a tough one! My advice would be to stick with what you already bought. a 1.8GHz G5 will be a fairly nice upgrade from the 1.2GHz G4.. BUT consider that there might be some disappointments since you will be moving from a dual to a single processor. When I upgraded my DP 533MHz G4 to a SP 1.3GHz (with an upgrade card) I noticed 2 things: a much more responsive system while doing 1 thing at a time, and a less responsive system (worse performace) when it came to multi-tasking. I'm not ever going to buy a SP system again.

If you were to get the 2GHz DP I am hearing rumors that you might not receive it until the end of Sept.. just get the 1.8GHz for now and get a faster machine in 18 months once they've had a revision.

[mikemako]

You will not end up with a slower machine. It is likely that all of the benefits of the G5 outweigh the downsides of moving to a single processor, but we really don't know for sure.

On a side note, my buddy CMG told me that if I'm gonna upgrade, it should always be to a processor at least 2X the speed of my current one.

[awcopus]

CANCEL THAT ORDER.

Can't believe you didn't spend the extra money to stay on a dual processor machine. Having just discovered the absolute glory of DP computing, I'm in awe of your willingness to leave that behind. Shock and awe.

Doesn't matter how fast the fsb is, the 1.8 G5 will still have a harder time with concurrent processing in different apps than the dual would. THAT's the whole point of DPs...but you know that already.

You want an honest reply? I say, take a chill pill, cancel your order tomorrow, sit pretty with your current machine, and wait for more affordable dual processor G5s to arrive. Like, literally put the money you were going to spend on the 1.8 in a fixed interest rate CD or something for 6 or 12 months, save some money on the side, and buy a dual G5 later.

I would never invest in a computer with this big massive empty useless space in it where a second processor is meant to be. God, Jobs described Panther and the G5 as being designed from the ground up to take advantage of dual processing. Clearly the 1.6 and 1.8 are just first-gen anomalies based on constrained chip availability.

[coolmacdude]

Stick with what you bought. Don't go into a large financial hole for a bit more performance. Too many people have made that mistake and suffered for it.

[Superchicken]

Oh my goodness... a 1.8Ghz G5 is more than twice the speed of a 1.25Ghz G4, HENCE considering you never see a true 100% gain from DPs what's your point guys?

If the opperation is finishing at twice as fast as a 1.25Ghz G4, you should not notice a difference, infact you should notice far more speed from the G5. people 2+Ghz P4s were besting the G4, this thing clobbers a 2+Ghz P4 why worry?

[awcopus]

Originally posted by Superchic[k]en:
Oh my goodness... a 1.8Ghz G5 is more than twice the speed of a 1.25Ghz G4, HENCE considering you never see a true 100% gain from DPs what's your point guys?

If the opperation is finishing at twice as fast as a 1.25Ghz G4, you should not notice a difference, infact you should notice far more speed from the G5. people 2+Ghz P4s were besting the G4, this thing clobbers a 2+Ghz P4 why worry?

Mr. Chicken, the point isn't speed, it's productivity...moreover, it's user experience. When I'm surfing the web while FCP4 is rendering something out, and I see NO performance hit...or when I'm running a Photoshop batch-automation thingamajig while fooling around in Soundtrack...AND I SEE NO PERFORMANCE HIT... that's the benefit of a dual processor configuration. I don't find it hard to believe that the 1.8 will be faster at individual tasks head-to-head with a dual G4 (especially given that monster front side bus), but that wasn't the point here. This dude is used to using a dual processor, and now he's moving to a single processor because the only dual G5 is too expensive right now.

I stick with my recommendation. Enjoy your dual and wait for a less costly G5 dual to emerge...OR...spring for the current dual G5, which should be available by <d'oh> October.

[cowerd]

I stick with my recommendation.

Your recommendation doesn't mean anything (not picking on you, really). Nor does anyone elses until someone does some good benchmarking on a production machine with a production OS. The less disingenuous recommendation would be to wait until they're released and benched. That is if someone has serious misgivings about how much performance will be gained by a G5 purchase. Any comments about issues with moving from two processors to one processor also cannot be addressed until some profiling is done, and I am sure that results will be very dependant on the app/apps used. Given that PS is more bandwidth bottlenecked than processor bottlenecked for most operations, the simple conclusion that there would be a performance hit while multi-tasking a single 1.8GHZ G5 is also not so clear cut.

[Azzgunther]

As others have said, we just don't know how great a difference a SP 1.8 ghz G5 will have from a DP 1.25 ghz G4.

Personally, I would try to resist my urge to buy now. I think this is the earliest generation of a line of systems that are going to be reaching 5.5-8 ghz at the end. Looking back in three years, I would personally be happy with myself if I waited for the 2nd generation to be released and got a cheaper DP system than a first generation SP system.

There are going to be such great things coming out that buying too soon is, in my estimation, a mistake.

However, if you are buying now it's really just too hard to say if a DP-2ghz system is going to be much better than SP 1.8ghz.

[Arkham_c]

Originally posted by awcopus:
You want an honest reply? I say, take a chill pill, cancel your order tomorrow, sit pretty with your current machine, and wait for more affordable dual processor G5s to arrive. Like, literally put the money you were going to spend on the 1.8 in a fixed interest rate CD or something for 6 or 12 months, save some money on the side, and buy a dual G5 later.

I agree with this advice. If your current machine were a lot slower, it might make sense, but your machine is fast enough to make the upgrade to a single 1.8 a poor choice.

[Souljah]

good luck getting your hands on a DP 2ghz before Oct/Nov....cancel your order and wait 60 days... anyways by the time Apple can deliver you'll have saved up the extra $600 to be able to afford it. ;-)

Rumor posted on another site.....
"G5s sales have gone far beyond Apple's own expectations, though optimistic they were. About 65Ê000 Dual 2GHz G5s were preordered to the Apple Stores (both physical and online [no physical Apple Store is available in Europe. Ndt]). Even Apple were surprised by the success of their top of the line model, whereas mono 1.8 they thought would be more popular was "only" sold to 26Ê000 pieces.
This disparity of sales appears to cause problems. IBM is able to deliver far more 1.8 G5s than 2.0 GHz. As evident as it may seem, the top of the notch model requires twice as much processors apiece...
This enormous rush on dual G5s would cause these machines to ship later than anticipated. No panic though, every day IBM production of 2GHz CPUs increases."

[redcalx]

Thanks for all your opinions, I appreciate them.

I decided to change my order to the Dual 2Ghz.

My reason for "rushing into this" is:

I was able to sell my Dual 1.25 for the same price the apple store sells them for right now, and the chance to do that was getting slimmer by the day.

I did not lose my position in the Que for my G5, despite changing my order (this was confirmed to me by the guy I placed my order with), and they also said that many Dual G5's would be shipping in August as my 1.8 was scheduled to.

Even if I have to wait until Mid September/Begening October, it gives me time to make up the difference in cash.

Anyway, as I said, thanks for your opinions, I appreciate all of your help!

[idyll]

Good choice, I'm sure you'll enjoy your new machine!

[redcalx]

Now... the wait.... oh the long wait. At least I still have one last Dual 1.25 to use until the G5 shows up (I had 2)

Originally posted by idyll:
Good choice, I'm sure you'll enjoy your new machine!

[Axo1ot1]

Well it looks like the dualies aren't coming for another month or two, so you can use the interim time to make up the extra $600

[awcopus]

You made the right decision. Congrats! ...and good luck with the wait.

[Axel]

MacBidouille says that 1.8 GHz DP may be coming to fill the gap while Apple's trying to keep up with the demand for 2.0 GHz machines (which reportedly are delayed until end of September)

[DeathMan]

The blind continue to lead the blind in these G5 vs. G4 debates.