[roders]

With Macworld coming up, is now a good time to buy a dual 1.8?
I've been offered a swap for my SP 1.8, but I could just sell it instead.

[WizOSX]

Originally posted by roders

With Macworld coming up, is now a good time to buy a dual 1.8?
I've been offered a swap for my SP 1.8, but I could just sell it instead.

It depends on what you mean by swap—how much do you have to pay to move up to the dual.

[starman]

I would wait. That's what I'm doing.

Mike

[D'Espice]

It's not worth it - you won't notice a difference between the SP 1.8 and DP 1.8

[tthiel]

What???? You have got to be kidding.

Originally posted by D'Espice:
It's not worth it - you won't notice a difference between the SP 1.8 and DP 1.8

[D'Espice]

No, I'm dead serious. You will only notice a difference in SMP optimized applications like, say certain Photoshop filters or video editing.
But you won't notice a difference 90% of the time.

[AB^2=BCxAC]

I beg to differ. I use a dualie G4 867 and single G4 800 - same RAM, HD. The difference is night and day: faster app starts, etc. Illustrator 10 .ai files open about 3 times faster, especially with suitcase auto-activations. "LaunchCFMApp" -haha - is not a bear on performance on the dualie, and Office is much faster. I can only imagine that two G5 processors night be nicer than one. S'plain why that wouldn't be apparent? No one has to wait ever while using a G5?

[D'Espice]

If you beg to differ then please do. We are talking about a PowerMac G5 here, not G4.

Here's why I say he will barely notice the difference between the SMP PowerMac G5 and the non-SMP PowerMac G5:
If an application is not SMP optimized, a second CPU will not improve performance at all. SMP optimized applications however will be faster, not even close to twice as fast but somewhere between slightly and 60%.
OS X is SMP optimized which means that OS X itself will become faster if you add a second CPU. However apparantly the G5 is so fast that OS X is already snappy and responsive which means that you will not notice the difference between the SMP 1.8 GHz PowerMac G5 and the non-SMP 1.8 GHz PowerMac G5.

Mind you, I'm talking about the G5 here, G4 is something totally different.

[zelig2]

A dual 1.8 will over all be faster than a single 1.8 one. For the main reason that there's typically more than one process running at a time. If you booted to a bare system with only one application that's not optimized for SMP then you probably won't notice a difference. For me, I typically have at least 5 apps running at any given time in addition to the system resource processes. iTunes, DVD Studio Pro, Photoshop and Final Cut all at the same time will run much smoother on a dual system than a single processor machine.

[Busemann]

Originally posted by D'Espice:
If you beg to differ then please do. We are talking about a PowerMac G5 here, not G4.

Here's why I say he will barely notice the difference between the SMP PowerMac G5 and the non-SMP PowerMac G5:
If an application is not SMP optimized, a second CPU will not improve performance at all. SMP optimized applications however will be faster, not even close to twice as fast but somewhere between slightly and 60%.
OS X is SMP optimized which means that OS X itself will become faster if you add a second CPU. However apparantly the G5 is so fast that OS X is already snappy and responsive which means that you will not notice the difference between the SMP 1.8 GHz PowerMac G5 and the non-SMP 1.8 GHz PowerMac G5.

Mind you, I'm talking about the G5 here, G4 is something totally different.

Uh.. you'll see night and day improvements just by having more than one application open at the same time. No matter if each app is SMP optimized or not. If you stay in Finder doing window resizing and slow motion minimizing the difference isn't big, but try encoding mp3's, render Photoshop images and editing an iMovie at the same time and the second processor really comes in handy..

[D'Espice]

Originally posted by Busemann:
[...] but try encoding mp3's, render Photoshop images and editing an iMovie at the same time and the second processor really comes in handy..

Be honest, how often does that happen
Of course two apps that both cause 100% CPU load will be faster on a Dual G5 than a Single G5.
But in everyday work it won't be noticeable - I stick to that. I have had my share of experience with SMP and non-SMP machines and in everyday use, it did not make a difference.

[sodamnregistered2]

I have had a dual 604e/180, G4/450, G4/800 and now my G5/2GHz. You'd have a hard time convincing me that a single proc is the way.

That said, also, note, that if Apple announces new machines at Macworld, it will be a couple of months before you can get your paws on one.

[D'Espice]

Originally posted by sodamnregistered2:
I have had a dual 604e/180, G4/450, G4/800 and now my G5/2GHz. You'd have a hard time convincing me that a single proc is the way.

I wouldn't even try... for quite a while, the only way to keep up with x86 CPUs was for Apple to put in a second CPU. Now with the G5 they don't need to do that anymore - the second CPU is like having the cake and eating it too.

[Love Calm Quiet]

Today's reason for NOT getting DP 1.8:

http://www.forbes.com/2003/12/22/cx_ah_1222aapl.html

Sounds like DP ~2.6~ in ??Jan?? Feb?? with IBM's imminent burst!

[OreoCookie]

Originally posted by D'Espice:
If you beg to differ then please do. We are talking about a PowerMac G5 here, not G4.

Here's why I say he will barely notice the difference between the SMP PowerMac G5 and the non-SMP PowerMac G5:
If an application is not SMP optimized, a second CPU will not improve performance at all. SMP optimized applications however will be faster, not even close to twice as fast but somewhere between slightly and 60%.
OS X is SMP optimized which means that OS X itself will become faster if you add a second CPU. However apparantly the G5 is so fast that OS X is already snappy and responsive which means that you will not notice the difference between the SMP 1.8 GHz PowerMac G5 and the non-SMP 1.8 GHz PowerMac G5.

Mind you, I'm talking about the G5 here, G4 is something totally different.

I beg to differ, too. I usually have at least 7 apps open at once. Especially those based on Java really eat a lot of CPU while doing stuff. Having a second one really helps here.

Plus, when he wants to sell it, it'll be a lot easier to sell a dual to someone than a single CPU machine.

[teknik]

God I can't wait to graduate! I'll save my grad money until July O4!!!

[starman]

Originally posted by Love Calm Quiet:
Today's reason for NOT getting DP 1.8:

http://www.forbes.com/2003/12/22/cx_ah_1222aapl.html

Sounds like DP ~2.6~ in ??Jan?? Feb?? with IBM's imminent burst!

Well, I didn't want to say anything, but my Bothan Spy in California said the same thing to me this morning.

Looks like waiting was the smart move.

And, this will be the first time in I don't know how long, where my Mac is a faster clock speed than my PC (2.53 GHz P4).

If a dual 2.6 is announced, I'm all over it like white on rice.

Mike

[MindFad]

Originally posted by starman:
Well, I didn't want to say anything, but my Bothan Spy in California said the same thing to me this morning.

Looks like waiting was the smart move.

And, this will be the first time in I don't know how long, where my Mac is a faster clock speed than my PC (2.53 GHz P4).

If a dual 2.6 is announced, I'm all over it like white on rice.

Mike

Word.

Though I have no money.

But word.

[Busemann]

hmm.. it seems the G5 will increase by more Mhz in 6 months than the G4 did in 4 years