The Power Mac G5 is and always will be a outstanding feat of design and engineering . It ’s packed with state - of - the - art technology , and its capabilities are still toppingly oppose to the needs of the pro users it ’s made for . But one affair has clearly changed since the automobile ’s debut almost two eld ago : it ’s no longer something anybody ’s likely to get too excited about .
At least that ’s my reaction after spending a couple of days with the three newfangled double - central processing unit configurations Apple harbinger in April . Without the 3GHz processors many of us had hoped to see by now , and with no other major alteration in technology , design , or even pricing , this spring ’s “ speed gibbosity ” strikes me as something of a yawner .
Sure , there are welcome advances : the processors are a little faster , the hard drives are vainglorious , and there ’s more memory — double the picture memory in the standard graphics notice , and an overdue increase to 512 MB of organisation random-access memory in the $ 1,999 “ Good ” configuration .
The job is that such changes are just detectable when you ride down at the novel machine . Except that they came with Tiger preinstalled , I would n’t have been capable to tell apart them from their predecessors without running System Profiler or pulling out my stopwatch . Even on benchmark trial , the improvements are modest — in the Macworld Lab ’s Speedmark tests , the new model outpaced the corresponding systems from the previous Power Mac generation by only about 11 pct .
In short , the Power Mac G5s remain great ware for those who require maximum public presentation and expandability . But if you have n’t felt compelled to get one yet , nothing in the in style update is likely to change your mind now . And if you already have a Power Mac G5 , you in all likelihood wo n’t find the improvements compelling enough to absolve trading up .
Ready for the Big Screen
That say , some of the changes deserve a minuscule more attending . One is improved living for gargantuan displays . antecedently , none of the Power Macs , not even the top - of - the - line model , supported the 30 - column inch Apple Cinema HD display without a $ 450 or $ 500 rise to the Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL computer graphic card . That card blocked one of the PCI or PCI - X enlargement time slot .
In the unexampled $ 2,999 Power Mac , however , the stock graphics card — the ATI Radeon 9650 with 256 MB of random access memory — can drive the Apple mega - monitor , the 30 - inch Cinema HD display . The Radeon 9600 ( the notice that ’s standard in the $ 1,999 and $ 2,499 system ) still ca n’t handle the 30 - in exhibit — it ’s limited to a paltry two 1,920 - by-1,200 - pixel display , such as Apple ’s 23 - inch Cinema HD matte board — but purchaser of either of those model can upgrade to the Radeon 9650 for a mere $ 50 .
( If you want to run two 30 - inch Cinema HDs from one card , you ’ll still have to take a hop for the Nvidia menu , which will still cost you an redundant $ 450 or $ 500 , depending on which system you ’re advance . )
One historical tone : the fresh Power Macs apparently score the final departure of the Apple Display Connector ( ADC ) . All the video cards Apple offers with the new Power Macs have dual DVI connectors . If you want to hook up an older ADC - free-base display , you ’ll need Apple ’s DVI - to - ADC transcriber ( $ 99 ) or a third - party combining weight .
Double-Layer Fun
All three dual - processor machines now sport a SuperDrive with two significant improvements over earlier versions . First , this drive is faster : it read DVD , and burn DVD+R magnetic disk , at up to 16X , twice the speed of the former genesis of drives . Second and more important , the new movement can handle double - layer DVD+R media , which control a walloping 8.5GB — nearly twice the capacity of single - layer videodisc discs ( 4.7 GB ) .
In concrete terms , two-fold - layer discs ( already used in manufactory - pressed commercial video recording DVDs ) hold up to 3.5 hours of MPEG-2 video , compare to 2 hours on single - layer discs . If you ’re run to high - definition picture , it ’s impossible to be as specific , because single file sizes produced by H.264 , the standard codec for in high spirits - definition video , variegate with the content . But in any character , you could expect a duple - layer disc to hold about 70 percent more than the single - layer sort .
Professional picture producers are the bighearted beneficiaries of double - layer accompaniment . threefold - stratum technology has long been standard for commercial , mill - pressed DVDs , but until now , Mac video editor in chief involve single - disc versions of self-aggrandising projects for final proofing either had to send their work out to a armed service bureau or employ non - Apple drives that are n’t directly compatible with Apple ’s iDVD and DVD Studio Pro . Now that Apple has moved to double - layer for its own drives , video editors can burn professional - ordered series labor directly from the Apple program .
Even if you ’re not a video recording professional , the increase capacity of the new SuperDrives also makes them more serviceable for backups or archiving honest-to-goodness projects . I was afraid such discs would be readable only on figurer with the latest DVD drives , but I was proud of to discover that ’s not the case : just as older drives can read two-fold - layer DVD video discs , they can also read 8.5 GB data disk .
A few cautionary notes, though:
1 ) You may have to hunt a bit to regain threefold - layer DVD+R discs . The Apple Store in business district San Francisco had none on the shelf , and when I expect , the clerk seemed to have no idea what I was talking about . At this writing I ca n’t find them at Apple ’s online fund , either , though other on-line outlets do hold them .
2 ) They ’re not tinny . When I finally located some double - layer disc at CompUSA , the store only had three - packs for $ 20 . you may find lower prices online , of path , specially if you buy in bulk , but do n’t expect the kinds of bargain that are now vulgar on exclusive - layer DVD media .
3 ) If you go double - layer , you ’ll have to start minding your pluses and style again . Apple so far supports only double - stratum DVD+R media , not the videodisc - R combining weight that ’s just now give the marketplace . ( deliberate reviewer will note that even as the DVD - formatting war seems to be spluttering , they have expanded into the linguistic realm : Apple is following the DVD+RW Alliance in calling two - layer + roentgen discs “ dual - layer , ” even though the -R association Apple has antecedently been aligned with , the DVD Forum , insistently refers to its version as “ dual - bed . ” )
4 ) Do n’t expect blaze pep pill . The new SuperDrive , like other double- or treble - layer drives , has a maximum focal ratio of 4X for two - bed burning . When I tried backing up 7.5 GB of data point from the Finder , Disc Burn need nearly an hour—51 minutes and 37 seconds , to be exact — to do the chore . ( The crusade spend half that time on verification . )
[ Henry Norr is a frequent contributor toMacworld . ]
EDITOR ’S NOTE : This article has been update to correctly list the variety of double - bed media supported by the Power Mac ’s SuperDrive .
