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innerimager · Dec 20, 2004, 11:21 PM

Dual 2.5- Any reasons to choose one or the other? (Mostly for image processing) Thanks....Peter

MORT A POTTY · Dec 20, 2004, 11:35 PM

yes, chose highest because it really will give you better performance, unless you are extremely anal about your electric bill....

and I do mean EXTREMELY

d.fine · Dec 21, 2004, 05:25 AM

Originally posted by MORT A POTTY:
unless you are extremely anal about your electric bill....

I use automatic cause it will give you what you need at the moment, it won't slow you down ... it also sees to it tha it run less hot, hence less noise, not like this is an issue with a G5, but hey, I want this machine to go a long way, so I don't need everything running full power all the time, just me.

Weezer · Dec 21, 2004, 06:40 AM

Originally posted by d.fine:

it won't slow you down ...

that's not true. Benchmarks are much higher when automatic is turned off.

Randman · Dec 21, 2004, 07:20 AM

You could always set it to automatic, then go to highest when needed.

Unless my PB is low on battery, I always opt for "11" on any Mac though.

innerimager · Dec 21, 2004, 07:44 AM

I did a quick test running a Nik filter (sunshine) on a large (14mp/75MB Kodak) file.
Automatic- 4.49 sec
Highest- 4.45 sec
every little bit helps as long as I'm not shortening the life of the Cpu by running it hotter all the time. Thanks....Peter

Arkham_c · Dec 21, 2004, 08:33 AM

I leave mine on automatic. The machine is much quieter that way.

Randman · Dec 21, 2004, 08:34 AM

As long as you have air circulating and don't run it too hot for sustained periods of time, it won't shorten the life any.

Cadaver · Dec 21, 2004, 11:23 AM

I leave mine on highest, and I haven't noticed any increased fan noise.

When I first got the machine, I did an automatic vs. highest mini test with Let1KWindowsBloom. Two seconds faster in highest vs. automatic. Not much but every little bit helps.

Zubir · Dec 22, 2004, 08:11 PM

Um, Apple included this feature for a reason, guys... G5's run hotter than hell. It's your money, though. You'll see the difference in your electric bill, at least for those of you whose parents don't pay it. Is .2 seconds faster worth the extra expense, and the risk of shorter CPU life?

Randman · Dec 22, 2004, 08:23 PM

What differences are you talking about in electrical costs and cpu life?

MORT A POTTY · Dec 22, 2004, 08:34 PM

Originally posted by Randman:
What differences are you talking about in electrical costs and cpu life?

the extra electricity cost would be very low, (a quarter?) and I've yet to see any evidence that running them on highest would shorten the life at all.

if anyone cares to clarify the situation, then by all means, please do so.

michaelb · Dec 22, 2004, 08:37 PM

For those of you who have experimented with swapping between High and Automatic: did you notice much difference in how the fans rev up when the CPU usage climbs?

What surprised me a bit is the way that High doesn't maintain a faster fan rate anyway, as if there's still a bit of "auto" in High mode...

macaddict0001 · Dec 22, 2004, 09:23 PM

I would think that if you need a machine that fast you would need any bit of performance you could muster.

paranopete · Dec 23, 2004, 04:37 AM

I work mainly with after effects and cinema 4D doing nothing but heavy cpu intensive stuff. I tested the automatic vs. highest settings and difference is so minmal (about 1%/2% performance plus) that I decided to leave it at automatic. I also noticed that there is a little annoying squeak from the graphics card when I turn the machine to highest.

So from my point of view: leave it automatic!!!

PS: I use a PM 2x2 Ghz RevB with Radeon 9600 Pro.

Randman · Dec 23, 2004, 04:52 AM

There is no "universal" right. Too many factors: Ram, operations, how many apps are open, climate, condition of machine, the maintainence done on it, etc.

UnixMac · Dec 25, 2004, 09:51 PM

Originally posted by Randman:
There is no "universal" right. Too many factors: Ram, operations, how many apps are open, climate, condition of machine, the maintainence done on it, etc.

I use High.... there is a huge difference in CPU intensive apps.. Adobe, FCP etc..

Don't waste time with automatic. I use that on my PB for when I'm not plugged in, that's it.

Zubir · Dec 26, 2004, 09:05 AM

Originally posted by MORT A POTTY:
the extra electricity cost would be very low, (a quarter?) and I've yet to see any evidence that running them on highest would shorten the life at all.

if anyone cares to clarify the situation, then by all means, please do so.

Make that about $10-20 a month, and it's just common sense that the life of the processor will be shortened by running it full blast. Granted, the time frame may be 4 years vs. 5 or 6 years. Still, whatever floats your boat.

Randman · Dec 26, 2004, 09:22 AM

$10-$20 a month? You must be joking.

jcadam · Dec 26, 2004, 10:17 AM

Set it to maximum performance.

Only little girls deliberately lower the performance of their equipment to save on 'noise and pennies'.

Randman · Dec 26, 2004, 10:19 AM

Unless you're on a laptop.

Zubir · Dec 26, 2004, 09:47 PM

You guys are crazy to ignore a deliberate safety feature that will extend the life of your computer, and save money on your electric bill (probably your parent's,) just to get an extra second on a render. Put down the pipe and stop playing benchmarks as if they were games. NOBODY CARES if you can render 2 seconds faster. Really.

Randman · Dec 26, 2004, 10:10 PM

Zubir, you really should stop posting in this thread as you have no idea.
Computers are made for high performance work. Unless you're going to be rendering video 24/7 for months at a time, you are not going to hurt your computer.
Letting air circulate around the computer will help it, not shutting it down will help it. There's a reason why Apple has the different settings (more noticeable in a laptop). The performance settings actually have as much to do with sleep and spin-down as actual performance.
If Apple thought High would shorten the life of the computer, they wouldn't have included it.
Go to any publishing firm or company that puts Macs to work every day. They're not on automatic.

macaddict0001 · Dec 26, 2004, 10:17 PM

Originally posted by Zubir:
Make that about $10-20 a month, and it's just common sense that the life of the processor will be shortened by running it full blast. Granted, the time frame may be 4 years vs. 5 or 6 years. Still, whatever floats your boat.

It doesn't really shorten the life of the processor unless you have inadequate cooling or tyhere is a defect in the processor. Not only that but it costs almost nothing, especially when compared to how fast your computer goes down in value.
Lets say your utility company charges 7 cents per kilowatt of electricity, turning your processor to automatic saves aproxamently 10 watts each month if you put your computer to sleep when it will not be used for an hour or more. 7*0.01=0.07 or0.0007 dollars. note that you could save much more by taking off three strings of lights for the holidays.

UnixMac · Dec 27, 2004, 12:27 PM

Originally posted by Zubir:
You guys are crazy to ignore a deliberate safety feature that will extend the life of your computer, and save money on your electric bill (probably your parent's,) just to get an extra second on a render. Put down the pipe and stop playing benchmarks as if they were games. NOBODY CARES if you can render 2 seconds faster. Really.

I, being a 35 year old head of household who pays all the bills have no problem with the added $20/month (which is completely a number pulled from thin air).

The fact is though, the High mode is not just 2% faster.... it's a lot faster. Again, only on my laptop in BATT mode do I use automatic... otherwise high... Who cares if the CPU fries in 5-6 years anyway.. by that point the computer is a giant paperweight anyway.

Fact is, the CPU is not likely to fry at all..

Hi I'm Ben · Dec 28, 2004, 11:36 AM

YOU CAN ONLY BUY HARDDRIVES AND RAM DIRECTLY FROM APPLE OR YOUR MACHINE WILL EXPLODE.

Macanoid · Dec 28, 2004, 11:47 AM

I'd like to be able to press of hot-key to switch between high and reduced. When I'm just surfing and non-processor-taxing stuff I always switch to reduced. My 2x2 GHz G5 is totally quiet then. When I'm running Logic, Motion or similar stuff I switch to High. Perhaps we should have a switcher-application that is application dependent, that way your machine automatically switches to High when a certain application is launched. (to me this is different to Automatic!)

Randman · Dec 28, 2004, 12:03 PM

With Tiger, should be able to do this easily with automator.

Macanoid · Dec 28, 2004, 12:38 PM

do you refer to the hot-key switching or application based switching?

Luca Rescigno · Dec 28, 2004, 01:10 PM

Originally posted by Hi I'm Ben:
YOU CAN ONLY BUY HARDDRIVES AND RAM DIRECTLY FROM APPLE OR YOUR MACHINE WILL EXPLODE.

lol

BurpetheadX · Dec 30, 2004, 08:10 PM

Originally posted by Randman:
You could always set it to automatic, then go to highest when needed.

Unless my PB is low on battery, I always opt for "11" on any Mac though.

If you set it to 11, your Mac might spontaneously combust and leave a little green gobulal behind...

ideasculptor · Dec 31, 2004, 10:43 PM

So much talk about extending the life of the processor. Has anyone here ever had a processor cease functioning due to overuse? I run servers 24x7 for years on end without the slightest increase in flakiness, assuming adequate cooling to begin with. I've got a 133Mhz Pentium from 1995 or 96 which has been on 365 days per year for 8 or 9 years now, running as my firewall. I've run servers in a 2000 CPU render farm which work at 100% of capacity for years. Admittedly, they get replaced for performance reasons before they could wear out, but I've never seen any reason to be concerned about the longevity of a CPU, even under the most extensive loads imaginable. If it isn't flaky when you get it, it isn't going to get flaky unless it isn't adequately cooled. Motherboards and PCI cards might go bad, but I've never seen a CPU that was working perfectly suddenly sto9p functioning. Take it out of a bad motherboard and it will fire right back up.

--sam

murbot · Jan 1, 2005, 01:23 AM

Um, yeah, You buy the fastest Power Mac ever made, and you cut its balls off to save a couple of dollars a month on your power bill.

Smart.

Oh, and yeah, it will surely cause your processor to die much earlier. The thousands of people running SETI and F@H are destroying their machines by using their extra clock cycles, too.

I'm really glad I came across this thread before buying a new Power Mac. Christ, I was planning on setting it up to run as fast as possible. I had no idea that was so stupid.

THANK YOU EVERYONE.

UnixMac · Jan 1, 2005, 08:06 AM

Originally posted by murbot:
Um, yeah, You buy the fastest Power Mac ever made, and you cut its balls off to save a couple of dollars a month on your power bill.

Smart.

Oh, and yeah, it will surely cause your processor to die much earlier. The thousands of people running SETI and F@H are destroying their machines by using their extra clock cycles, too.

I'm really glad I came across this thread before buying a new Power Mac. Christ, I was planning on setting it up to run as fast as possible. I had no idea that was so stupid.

THANK YOU EVERYONE.

LOL!