G5/2.5GHz MP Power Mac versus Other High End Macs

Originally posted August 10th, 2004, by rob-ART morgan, mad scientist with the assistance of remote mad scientists. Updated September 14th, 2004, with Bryce and Photoshop CS results We finally were able to do some testing ourselves on the G5/2.5GHz Power Mac through the generosity of ProMax, one of our supporters who puts together turnkey video editing systems. We were able to confirm the results sent to us by remote scientists from Hawaii and Canada back in August. CONCLUSIONS and COMMENTS 1. The G5/2.5GHz MP Power Mac completed CPU intensive tasks from 14 to 24% faster than the G5/2.0GHz MP, the former "top of the line" machine. Other than the liquid cooled CPUs, it amounts to a "speed bump" more than a revision. 2. Some of you are wondering about the FireWire 800 RAID 0 write deficiency unique to G5 Power Macs that Bare Feats Lab discovered many moons ago. Has it been fixed in the "2.5"? Not according to one of our remote scientists who has dual LaCie Big Disk Extremes running on separate channels. His old G4 Power Mac has write speeds of 20MB/s faster. We plan to do our own testing in a few days to confirm this. 3. I've moved the 3D Graphics Test results and conclusions to PAGE TWO. If you are looking to buy a G5 Power Mac for yourself, check with the Apple Online Store, Apple Retail Store near you, local Apple dealer, and/or Small Dog Electronics. If you are looking to get the 256MB Radeon 9800 Pro "Special Mac Edition," it is available from the following vendors: Other World Computing Small Dog Electronics Buy.com (the 9800 Pro SE qualifies for the $10 off coupon and free shipping) Has Bare Feats helped you? How about helping Bare Feats?