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Superchicken · May 6, 2003, 11:35 PM

Hey I'm just curious as to what you guys think. We just got FW 800, APE, and all that... so I'm curious do you think that the new power macs with the 970s will be just the current ones possibly a new case but with a new mobo system bus and processor... or do you think they will add something else to them?

jcadam · May 6, 2003, 11:49 PM

Originally posted by Superchic[k]en:
Hey I'm just curious as to what you guys think. We just got FW 800, APE, and all that... so I'm curious do you think that the new power macs with the 970s will be just the current ones possibly a new case but with a new mobo system bus and processor... or do you think they will add something else to them?

well, they really SHOULD add serial ATA and AGP 8X...........

TimmyDee51 · May 7, 2003, 12:22 AM

I can see the benefits from Serial ATA (is it a standard yet?) but I hear that AGP 8x really has little advantage over 4x. What would be nice is PCI-X.

MindFad · May 7, 2003, 01:10 AM

I definitely expect AGP 8X (to go with a shiny new ATI 9800 or 9700, please) and faster ATA. I think that'll do just fine. And hopefully these new chips will move down to the iMac lines fast to make some really good gaming machines. Maybe that'd spur developers some, or at least give the Mac some more notice.

DaedalusDX · May 7, 2003, 01:31 AM

Originally posted by Superchic[k]en:
Hey I'm just curious as to what you guys think. We just got FW 800, APE, and all that... so I'm curious do you think that the new power macs with the 970s will be just the current ones possibly a new case but with a new mobo system bus and processor... or do you think they will add something else to them?

Personally I think the new architecture will be the one huge thing about the new Powermacs, if they ever ship them. I imagine a completely new case design will be in order, which will once again be huge...

In terms of other features, I really strain to see what else could be put on there. USB 2.0? That seems probable, but I keep saying its not all that useful...

Personally, a kick in the arse with just the processor and the architecture would be enough for me to reach for my wallet uncontrollably...

jcadam · May 7, 2003, 02:27 AM

Originally posted by TimmyDee51:
I can see the benefits from Serial ATA (is it a standard yet?) but I hear that AGP 8x really has little advantage over 4x. What would be nice is PCI-X.

Actually, with a super fast bus like the PPC 970 is supposed to run on, AGP 8X will make more of a difference. In high-end cards (for now), anyway.

native serial ATA drives are just beginning to appear (Western Digital just released a 10,000 RPM SATA drive), with serial ATA interface being available in high-end PC motherboards for the last few months.

Cipher13 · May 7, 2003, 07:28 AM

To catch up with the PC world, Apple needs:

More FireWire ports.
USB 2.0.
8x AGP
Built in 5.1/6 channel sound.
Serial ATA with RAID (hardware).
Dual LAN maybe.

Etc...

CheesePuff · May 7, 2003, 08:37 AM

Originally posted by Cipher13:
To catch up with the PC world, Apple needs:

More FireWire ports.
USB 2.0.
8x AGP
Built in 5.1/6 channel sound.
Serial ATA with RAID (hardware).
Dual LAN maybe.

Etc...

Actually the latest Power Mac G4's with FW800 support have USB 2.0, but they are not officially supported. But someone made some drivers for em... search MacNN news for the past 3 weeks.

hmurchison2001 · May 7, 2003, 10:31 AM

Actually, with a super fast bus like the PPC 970 is supposed to run on, AGP 8X will make more of a difference. In high-end cards (for now), anyway.

How do you figure this? The whole premise of DiME was to allow a Graphics card to store and retrieve textures from main memory. In theory we should have today 16MB cards and DiME to grab textures from local memory but Game Developers quickly found that it was easier to just stack more memory on the card which is always faster. So in essence the main functionality of AGP was stripped and while I would like to see 8x on Macs it's purely marketing now. Cards will continue to add more local memory to maintain speed.

Leonard · May 7, 2003, 11:14 AM

Originally posted by Cipher13:
To catch up with the PC world, Apple needs:

Built in 5.1/6 channel sound.

Etc...

This is what I'd really like to see. The sound system on Apple's machines hasn't been updated in awhile. With Apple pushing iTunes, iPod and the Music Store it would make sense for Macs to support at least 5.1 surround sound.

dfiler · May 7, 2003, 12:55 PM

Originally posted by Leonard:
This is what I'd really like to see. The sound system on Apple's machines hasn't been updated in awhile. With Apple pushing iTunes, iPod and the Music Store it would make sense for Macs to support at least 5.1 surround sound.

I third the motion for modern audio support. My powermac contains the worst audio circuitry that I own. Maybe apple is just waiting for people to realize the potential of firewire... but in the mean time, we're left with sub-par audio quality.

Digital Hub my Ass! (Only if digital hubs don't include sound)

Axo1ot1 · May 7, 2003, 02:18 PM

Yeah it would be pretty fresh to see dolby sound, maybe even THX certified sound in the macs. My MDD has pretty bad sound quality which is made completely intolerable by the interference the processor seems to cause.

dr.george · May 7, 2003, 02:39 PM

i think AGP 8x has to be default on new machines to help the Gaming area in macs ...

Originally posted by TimmyDee51:
What would be nice is PCI-X.

what the hell is PCI-X ?

bradoesch · May 7, 2003, 02:46 PM

Originally posted by dr.george:
i think AGP 8x has to be default on new machines to help the Gaming area in macs ...

what the hell is PCI-X ?

http://webopedia.com/TERM/P/PCI_X.html

Hi I'm Ben · May 7, 2003, 05:07 PM

Originally posted by bradoesch:
http://webopedia.com/TERM/P/PCI_X.html

better question, why the hell is it better

bradoesch · May 7, 2003, 06:18 PM

Originally posted by Hi I'm Ben:
better question, why the hell is it better

It's faster...that's all I can see. Neat name too. Sounds powerful.

DrBoar · May 8, 2003, 09:19 AM

1. Hopefully multichannel sound support, something PCs had for years. The Macintosh had the lead with the Quadra 800 or so but in the last 10 years or so almost nothing has happened with the sound

Apple put their bet (and lost) on DVD playback instead of CDR but forgot the sound.

Games with surround sound ought to be fun. Playing AvP and hearing something running at you from behind ought to be really scary

2. Some front mounted FW and USB ports would be nice as would quiter fans.

3. Anything that contribute to speed

jcadam · May 8, 2003, 02:19 PM

Originally posted by Leonard:
This is what I'd really like to see. The sound system on Apple's machines hasn't been updated in awhile. With Apple pushing iTunes, iPod and the Music Store it would make sense for Macs to support at least 5.1 surround sound.

If apple really wanted to go all the way they could add optical ins/outs on the pro machines.

Akarso · May 8, 2003, 03:02 PM

i'm surprised nobody brought this up. what i would like to see in the new systems is for apple to allow high-end/power users the chance to overclock their machines. maybe allow access to the bios and be able to change system settings such as 1 MHz FSB increments, voltages and AGP/PCI locking, etc. well, that's even if the new architecture supports stuff like that.

dfiler · May 8, 2003, 03:53 PM

Originally posted by Akarso:
i'm surprised nobody brought this up. what i would like to see in the new systems is for apple to allow high-end/power users the chance to overclock their machines. maybe allow access to the bios and be able to change system settings such as 1 MHz FSB increments, voltages and AGP/PCI locking, etc. well, that's even if the new architecture supports stuff like that.

That would be nice. But I would classify the people who desire this as techno-weeny tweakers, not high-end or power users.

Overclocking and tweaking is almost exlusively the domain of young gamers, the type of people who don't typically make hardware purchasing decisions. Not that there is anything wrong with over-clockers. Yet, they don't comprise a very profitable market for most (or perhaps all) profitable computer manufacturers. They are the type of consumers who piece together their own custom PC gaming rigs anyway.