Apple unveils Power Mac G5; ‘World’s Fastest Personal Computer’

Apple today unleashed the world’s fastest* personal computer — the Power Mac G5-featuring the world’s first 64-bit desktop processor and the industry’s first 1 GHz front-side bus. Powered by the revolutionary PowerPC G5 processor designed by IBM and Apple, the Power Mac G5 is the first personal computer to utilize 64-bit processing technology for unprecedented memory expansion (up to 8GB) and advanced 64-bit computation, while running existing 32-bit applications natively.

“The 64-bit revolution has begun and the personal computer will never be the same again,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO in the press release. “The new Power Mac G5 combines the world’s first 64-bit desktop processor, the industry’s first 1 GHz front-side bus, and up to 8GB of memory to beat the fastest Pentium 4 and dual Xeon-based systems in industry-standard benchmarks and real-world professional applications.”

Delivering the industry’s highest system bandwidth, the Power Mac G5 line offers dual 2.0 GHz PowerPC G5 processors, each with an independent 1 GHz front-side bus, for an astounding 16 GBps of bandwidth. The line also features the industry’s highest bandwidth memory (400 MHz 128-bit DDR SDRAM with throughput up to 6.4 GBps); the industry’s fastest PCI interface available on a desktop (133 MHz PCI-X); and cutting-edge AGP 8X Pro graphics capabilities, all within a stunning new professional aluminum enclosure featuring innovative computer-controlled cooling for quiet operation.

The PowerPC G5 processor is a result of the strategic relationship between Apple and IBM. At frequencies up to 2 GHz, the PowerPC G5 introduces 64-bit processing technology to desktop computing, while also running 32-bit applications natively. The PowerPC G5 processor architecture is based on a completely new execution core that features massively parallel computation for an unprecedented 215 in-flight instructions, full symmetric multi-processing, two double precision floating point units and an optimized Velocity Engine. The PowerPC G5 chips are fabricated in IBM’s $3 billion state-of-the-art semiconductor facility in East Fishkill, N.Y.

The new Power Mac G5 is the world’s fastest personal computer based on SPEC CPU 2000 benchmark results and leading professional application performance tests when compared against 3.0 GHz Pentium 4-based systems and 3.06 GHz Dual Xeon-based systems:

– In the SPEC CPU 2000 independent testing comparing the Power Mac G5 against leading 3.0 GHz Pentium 4-based systems and 3.06 GHz Dual Xeon-based systems, the Power Mac G5 won three out of four key benchmark tests. All tests were run with the same industry standard GCC 3.3 compiler to insure a fair comparison.
– Single processor tests results show the Power Mac G5 an impressive 21 percent faster than the 3.0 GHz Pentium 4-based PC on SPECfp_base2000, which measures single processor floating point performance, and 10 percent slower on SPECint_base2000, which measures single processor integer performance.
– Dual processor tests results, which determine the fastest personal computer since dual processor systems are faster than single processor systems, are a clean sweep with the Power Mac G5 beating the 3.06 GHz Dual Xeon workstations by an incredible 41 percent on SPECfp_rate_base2000, which
measures the total floating point throughput of the system, and edging out the same system by three percent on SPECint_rate_base2000, which measures total integer computation throughput.

In addition to outperforming Pentium 4- and Dual Xeon-based systems in industry-standard benchmarks, the Power Mac G5 ran significantly faster than Pentium 4 and Dual Xeon-based systems on performance tests of the most popular applications for creative professionals:

– On a test of 45 commonly used actions, Adobe Photoshop ran twice as fast on the Power Mac G5 than on 3.06 GHz Dual Xeon workstations.
– Logic Audio on the Power Mac G5 can play nearly 40 percent more tracks with reverbs applied than Cubase SX running on a 3.06 GHz Dual Xeon workstation.
– Genentech Blast runs up to five times faster on a Power Mac G5 than on a 3.06 GHz Dual Xeon workstation.

Complementing its computational power, the Power Mac G5 provides leading-edge expansion with dual 1.5 Gbps serial ATA interfaces; the industry’s fastest PCI interface available on a desktop with a 133 MHz and two 100 MHz, 64-bit PCI-X slots; and AGP 8X Pro graphics capable of supporting the
power and thermal demands of high-end professional graphics cards. The Power Mac G5 comes standard with either the NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 or the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro graphics card. As a build-to-order option for unprecedented 3D design, visualization and gaming, the Power Mac G5 line also features the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro-a workstation-class graphics card featuring per pixel and
vertex shaders, and providing an astonishing fill rate of 3 billion textured pixels/second.

The Power Mac G5 delivers industry-leading connectivity and high- performance I/O for creative professionals with Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, two FireWire 400 ports, three USB 2.0 ports, dual display support, optical digital audio input and output, analog audio input and output and a headphone jack. The system also supports 54 Mbps AirPort Extreme wireless networking and is Bluetooth ready for wireless connections to a host of Bluetooth-enabled peripherals.

The Power Mac G5 features a stunning new anodized aluminum alloy enclosure, designed to meet the needs of the most demanding professionals. The new enclosure is built around four independently controlled thermal zones for advanced airflow management, with fans in each zone that are individually controlled based on a sophisticated combination of thermal and power monitoring, resulting in the Power Mac G5 running two times quieter than the previous Power Mac G4. The G5 enclosure also features an easy-to-open access panel allowing quick access to internal components for tool-less installation of memory, hard drives, optical drives or an AirPort Extreme card. Front and rear handles allow professionals to rapidly and safely move Power Mac G5s when
and where they need them, and front-mounted FireWire, USB2, and headphone ports provide convenient access for popular peripherals.

The Power Mac G5, with a suggested retail price of US$2,999, includes:

– Dual 2.0 GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5;
– Dual Independent 1 GHz front-side buses;
– 512MB 400 MHz Dual Channel (128-bit) DDR;
– 8 DIMMs, 8GB maximum memory;
– 160GB Serial ATA hard drive;
– AGP 8X Pro graphics slot;
– RADEON 9600 Pro-64MB DDR;
– 3 PCI-X slots (one 64-bit 133 MHz, two 64-bit 100 MHz); and
– 4x SuperDrive.

The Power Mac G5, with a suggested retail price of US$2,399, includes:

– 1.8 GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5;
– 900 MHz front-side bus;
– 512MB 400 MHz Dual Channel (128-bit) DDR;
– 8 DIMMs, 8GB maximum memory;
– 160GB Serial ATA hard drive;
– AGP 8X Pro graphics slot;
– NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra-64MB DDR;
– 3 PCI-X slots (one 64-bit, 133 MHz, two 64-bit 100 MHz); and
– 4x SuperDrive.

The Power Mac G5, with a suggested retail price of US$1,999, includes:

– 1.6 GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5;
– 800 MHz front-side bus;
– 256MB 333 MHz Dual Channel (128-bit) DDR;
– 4 DIMMs, 4GB maximum memory;
– 80GB Serial ATA hard drive;
– AGP 8X Pro graphics slot;
– NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra-64MB DDR;
– 3 PCI slots (64-bit, 33 MHz); and
– 4x SuperDrive.

The Power Mac G5 line will be available in August and will ship with Mac OS X “Jaguar” with Mail, iChat, Safari, Sherlock, Address Book, QuickTime, iLife (includes iTunes, iPhoto(, iMovie, and iDVD), iSync, iCal, DVD Player, Classic environment, Acrobat Reader, Art Directors Toolkit, EarthLink, FAXstf, FileMaker Pro Trial, GraphicConverter, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office v. X Test
Drive, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, QuickBooks for Mac New User Edition and Developer Tools.

The Power Mac G5 will be available in build-to-order configurations through the Apple Store (http://www.apple.com). Options include up to 8GB of RAM, 250GB hard drives, Combo drive, graphics cards (NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200, ATI Radeon 9600, ATI Radeon 9800), AirPort Extreme Card, Bluetooth module and an Apple Fibre Channel PCI Card.

* “World’s fastest” based on SPEC CPU 2000 benchmark results and leading professional application performance tests against 3 GHz Pentium 4-based Dell Dimension 8300 and 3.06 GHz Dual Xeon-based Dell Precision 650. SPEC CPU 2000 benchmarks run with GCC 3.3 and independently tested; professional applications tested by Apple, June 2003.

See the new Power Macintosh G5 here.