Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

kjd88 · Mar 14, 2007, 05:55 AM

I have a dual 2ghz g5 from back in the day and am looking to upgrade to something a little faster. Is a 2.16ghz core duo imac faster? I mainly do high intensity video encoding and editing.

mac128k-1984 · Mar 14, 2007, 08:39 AM

I believe it will be provided that you're running Universal Binary applications. Say your running Photoshop, well then the G5 will be slightly faster because of the performance hit that Rosetta adds.

barefeats has benchmarks on all sorts of things like this, I dug up this one and it shows the intel mac is faster but the test was for UB versions of applications.

kjd88 · Mar 14, 2007, 12:35 PM

yes they will be universial binaries. i will mostly be using ffmpegx and fcp.

kjd88 · Mar 14, 2007, 12:38 PM

because the resell price of my powermac is equal to the price of the new imac 20in, can you think of ANY reason as to keeping the powermac?

zac4mac · Mar 14, 2007, 12:53 PM

I have a revA G5DP2.0, also had an MBP 2GHz for a while(sold it last month). Power and speed were comparable. Photoshop was much faster on the G5, not a little. As noted by others, the MBP was as fast or faster with UBs. BOINC was 50% faster - a SETI or Einstein unit took 3 hours on the G5 and only 2 hours on the MBP. Audio and video encoding seemed faster on the MBP but not as much as BOINC.

Biggest reason to keep the G5 is if you need a better video card than the iMac has. My G5 came with the Radeon 9800Pro(128MB I believe), it now has a 256MB X800XT... big difference. The iMac has most of the other bells and whistles covered, drives can be external vs. internal without too big of a hit. Good luck deciding.

Z

Lateralus · Mar 14, 2007, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by zac4mac

BOINC was 50% faster - a SETI or Einstein unit took 3 hours on the G5 and only 2 hours on the MBP.

Were you using the AltiVec enabled BOINC build?

kjd88 · Mar 14, 2007, 12:59 PM

i still have a powerbook g4 that runs photoshop as fast as i need it to, so it wont be a problem waiting for cs3.

i have the same powermac as you. so the 9800pro 12mb is better than an x1600 128mb? will i notice any hit in video editing?

mac128k-1984 · Mar 14, 2007, 01:01 PM

If your running UB then there's no reason not to go.
First off you're taking advantage of a superior cpu,
Your setting yourself up for the future
If the need arises you can run parallels and/or bootcamp.

While the G5 is a great machine, the writing is on the wall for the PPC platform.

btw the 24" imac is a nice machine

kjd88 · Mar 14, 2007, 01:11 PM

hmmm. i never thought about getting the 24inch until now, but the more i think of it, the more i think i can afford it.

mac128k-1984 · Mar 14, 2007, 01:23 PM

I think the 24" imac is one of the in-between machines.
Its doesn't have the same horsepower as the MacPro but its close. It also doesn't have the hefty price tag that the Macpro carries, the only downside I see is the lack of expansion, particularly in the drive bay area.

Lateralus · Mar 14, 2007, 01:32 PM

Originally Posted by mac128k-1984

Its doesn't have the same horsepower as the MacPro but its close. It also doesn't have the hefty price tag that the Macpro carries...

Huh? The Mac Pro has 146% more processor power and only a 25% higher price tag.

kjd88 · Mar 14, 2007, 01:36 PM

imacs have external video support right?

chris v · Mar 14, 2007, 01:55 PM

"Back in the day?"

I know I'm showing my age, but my Power Center 150 was "Back in the day." I still think of my Dual 2.0 as a blazing-fast monster machine (whatever it takes to avoid CPU envy, right?

).

Avanon · 02:35 AM

Heh, I'm with Chris on still feeling the love for the Power Mac G5. Just got a MBP recently, and while it is crazy speedy I still feel like I have a better overall experience on the G5. My buddy got a Mac Pro and yes, it's beautiful, but he had all kinds of weird things like the CD door not shutting, etc... inconsequential to the thread, but bothered me a bit.

Honestly, in my opinion the speed difference between a new iMac and your G5 doesn't warrant an upgrade alone. The fact that selling your G5 would pay for it tilts the scale slightly. I, for one, fear the modular form-factor of the iMac and, while it makes for a stunning machine, it scares me regarding expansion and upgrades, as well as the fact that the screen is built-in.

Judging from your posts, it sounds like the most important factor is that the software you want to use is Universal Binary. That will determine how worth it to you it is to trade one non-upgradeable system for another.

my $.02