Apple today unveiled its new Power Mac G5 desktop line with every model featuring dual 64-bit PowerPC G5 processors. The top model, featuring two 2.5 GHz processors, the industry’s fastest front-side bus running at 1.25 GHz per processor, and advanced liquid cooling starts at $2,999. The entry model, featuring dual 1.8 GHz processors, starts at just $1,999.
“Our professional customers, across many creative and scientific markets, have been impressed with the extraordinary performance of the dual processor Power Mac G5 running Apple’s Unix-based Mac OS X,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing in the press release. “This new Power Mac G5 line has dual processors in every model to deliver even higher performance for our pro customers who need it.”
Powered by the PowerPC G5 processor, the Power Mac G5 utilizes 64-bit processing technology for memory expansion up to 8GB, and advanced 64-bit computation while running existing 32-bit applications natively. The top of the line Power Mac G5 now offers dual 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5 processors, each with an independent 1.25 GHz front-side bus for an astounding bandwidth of up to
20 GBps. All Power Mac G5 systems ship with Mac OS X version 10.3 “Panther,” which in combination with the Power Mac G5 provides creative professionals and scientists with computational power never before realized on a desktop system.
The Power Mac G5 outperforms competing desktops on the market today and ran significantly faster than 3.4 GHz Pentium 4 systems on performance tests of the most popular applications for creative professionals and scientists, including:
– On a test of 45 commonly used actions, Adobe Photoshop ran almost twice as fast on a dual 2.5 GHz Power Mac G5 than on a 3.4 GHz Pentium 4-based PC
– Logic Pro 6 on the dual 2.5 GHz Power Mac G5 played up to 138 more tracks with reverbs (over four times more) than with Cubase SX on a 3.4 GHz Pentium 4-based PC
– Final Cut Pro HD running on a 2.5 GHz Power Mac G5 can run eight streams of 8-bit SD video versus five streams on a dual 3.06 GHz Xeon-based Avid workstation.
The Power Mac G5 line offers leading-edge expansion with dual 1.5 Gbps serial ATA interfaces, the industry’s fastest PCI-X interface technology and AGP 8X Pro graphics. The Power Mac G5 comes standard with either the NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 Ultra or the ATI Radeon 9600 XT graphics card; the ATI Radeon 9800 XT high-performance graphics card is available as a build-to-order option for incredible 3D design, visualization and gaming. All Power Mac G5 desktops deliver industry-leading connectivity and high-performance I/O, including Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800 and FireWire 400 ports, three USB 2.0 ports, optical digital audio input and output, built-in support for 54 Mbps AirPort Extreme wireless networking and an optional Bluetooth module.
The dual 1.8 GHz and dual 2.0 GHz Power Mac G5 models are available now, and the dual 2.5 GHz Power Mac G5 model is expected to be available in July through the Apple Store, at Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The single 1.25 GHz Power Mac G4, with suggested retail
price of $1,299 (US), will no longer be in production and is available for purchase while supplies last through the Apple Store, at Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.
The Power Mac G5, with a suggested retail price of $1,999 (US), includes:
– Dual 1.8 GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5;
– 256MB 400 MHz 128-bit DDR SDRAM (4GB maximum);
– 80GB Serial ATA 7200 rpm hard drive;
– AGP 8X Pro graphics slot;
– NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 Ultra with 64MB DDR SDRAM;
– 3 PCI slots (64-bit, 33 MHz); and
– 8x SuperDrive(TM) (DVD-R/CD-RW).
The Power Mac G5, with a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:
– Dual 2.0 GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5;
– 512MB 400 MHz 128-bit DDR SDRAM (8GB maximum);
– 160GB Serial ATA 7200 rpm hard drive;
– AGP 8X Pro graphics slot;
– NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 Ultra with 64MB DDR SDRAM;
– 3 PCI-X slots (one 64-bit 133 MHz, two 64-bit 100 MHz); and
– 8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW).
The Power Mac G5, with a suggested retail price of $2,999 (US), includes:
– Dual 2.5 GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5;
– 512MB 400 MHz 128-bit DDR SDRAM (8GB maximum);
– 160GB Serial ATA 7200 rpm hard drive;
– AGP 8X Pro graphics slot;
– ATI RADEON 9600 XT with 128MB DDR SDRAM;
– 3 PCI-X slots (one 64-bit 133 MHz, two 64-bit 100 MHz); and
– 8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW).
All Power Mac G5 systems ship with iChat AV, Safari, Sherlock, Address Book, QuickTime, iLife (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and GarageBand), iSync, iCal, DVD Player, Classic environment, Art Directors Toolkit X, EarthLink Total Access 2004, GraphicConverter, Microsoft Internet Explorer, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, QuickBooks for Mac New User Edition, Xcode and Zinio Reader.
Build-to-order options include up to 8GB of RAM, 250GB Serial ATA hard drives, Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) drive, graphics cards (NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 Ultra, ATI Radeon 9600 XT, ATI Radeon 9800 XT), AirPort Extreme Card, Bluetooth module, Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple Wireless Mouse, PCI-X Gigabit Ethernet Card, Apple Fibre Channel PCI Card and Mac OS X Server version 10.3 “Panther.”
More information about Apple’s new Power Mac G5 line here.
wake up!!!
there’s new power mac with liquid cooling..
as kramer would say….giddy up!!!
Waaaaaayyyyy cooooolll. (pun intended)
D’ye think they held back for one day to make the rumor sites sweat?
Anyway, a great product line. O yeah, “but Steve promised 3 GHz within a year”. Who cares as long as those new machines will be available.
So, is it totally unreasonable to want to spend $15k for a fully loaded Dual 2.5GHz PM with dual displays? Just wondering…..
Interesting, the dual 2.5 with liquid cooling rocks, but is Apple always sooo cheap with the RAM? 256 mg for a dual 1.8??? and for 3 grand the couldnt give you the 9800 Pro? I noticed they moved them all to 90nm G5s.
I know these machines are awesome and are superfast and I want one, but the bottom 2 configs are almost (besides 8xSuperdrive and the 907fx) identicle to what they releases a year ago with a price drop.
Am I the only one who finds that weird?
I’m sure when the XServe G5 was announced they said the 970FX was supposed to be 20-30% faster than the 970. Can anyone confirm this, and whether the new G5s use an FX?
Heh, Matt. You did the exact same thing I just did. Maxxed out all the options to check top top top end.
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Hot dang! A radiator! They could’a taken it further and provided a cappucino fitting on the front. How can I resist a gurglin’ tower?
Slightly disappointing. And WTF on the video cards? Well, anyway, the rumors were correct. I noticed the refurbs went away.
The big question is as above, is the new 2GHz faster than the previous 2GHz?
If these are being announced today, what the heck awaits us at the end of the month!
G5 iMac at WWDC
So cool (pun intended).
Did anyone think perhaps Jobs released this minor upgrade now just to tell us in 3 weeks that the 3GHz G5 will ship in September, one year from the original? If we’re honest, their’s really only 1 new system here and it is quite possible for Jobs to add the dual 3GHz as the new top of the line.
Liquid cooled G5 Powerbook at WWDC anyone? HMMM…..
drool….drool….
This is clearly the same 2.0ghz part from the Xserve that is overclocked to hell to 2.5Ghz. Sure, IBM will stamp it as a 2.5ghz part, but it really isn’t. The liquic cooling isn’t for quiet. It’s for the overclocking.
THIS IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM. IBM cannot get it’s crap together to put out parts. The only difference between Motorola and IBM now is that back then, liquid cooling wasn’t an option.
Moreover, their liquid cooling is designed by an idiot. Closed loop for 2 processors!!?!? Duh. One of the processors is going to pour HOT water on the other. So one processor will always be running hotter than the other. This has lame ass hack spelled all over it.
I’m worried again for Apple’s processor and machine design again.
Finally this machine, beyond making the entry level headless mac prohibitively expensive, is NOT suitable for a lot of pros. It’s a fully HUGE tower and it still cannot have more than 2 hard drives and one optical drive. Pathetic.
The only thing that is good about all of this is they announced it before WWDC, because it’s such a complete miserable dissappointment, it would have been a big downer. Kudos to Apple’s marketing for playing that right to get this crap news out of the way beforehand.
Expect G5 sales to stay relatively crappy.
Hey Arrogant Mac Guy, I think you are right about the G5 Tower sales. But, laptop sales will also slow until a G5 is available, as well. Most current users are waiting for the next generation before spending any more money.
I guess we will see what happens at MacWorld. Once the whole line is G5, Apple will be in good shape for years to come.
Man am I glad I got the dual 2 Ghz when I did – it still rules the roost. But clearly this is bad news for Apple. I know the benchmarks on Apples website look very favorable, but I am curious to see what AMD comes out with between here and the next Powermac release.
This isn’t even an update, it’s an imposter! Seriously, the dual 2.0 and 1.8 tell the story. I agree the 2.5 is probably just an overclocked 2.0…
Ugh.
the space between the models is very strange. It kind of suggests that we’re in a ‘inbetween’ stage due to the new processors. If i had to guess i would say that the 3 gig model will be top of the line sooner rather than later (could be this WWDC’s “one more thing”), and that the dual 1.8 is not long for this world.
I think the 2.5 is not meant to be the top of the line for very long – i.e. all new powermacs will feature liquid cooling soon. I think the 2.5 was brought out now to signal the future of the powermac in the coming months.
At either WWDC or Paris i expect a really expensive new Powermac announcement with all the options people here are clamouring for (better vid card, bigger HDs, more RAM, more optical drives). That announcement should come before these new 2.5’s start shipping so that the top of the line users can have the top of the line powermac.
so … the lineup in Septemeber should be 2.0 (or thereabouts)/2.5/3.0.
This is not going to do it…
Such a huge box and only 2 HD’s.
I thought Apple was all about DV give me a Dual-64bit AMD and a 64-bit MS-OS and lots of HD’s with killer graphics card and it will smoke these funny liquid-cooled toys from Apple.
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Mike, you’re probably correct in your analysis – they are some strange numbers. We won’t be seeing any new PowerMac announcement at the WWDC though, that’s for sure. Perhaps by Christmas we’ll get the jump to the next level. I think that may be a bit optimistic, but we’ll see.
As far as Sputnik goes, show me reliable benchmarks of any machine within a similar price range of these Macs that “smokes” them and I will listen. Otherwise you just sound like just another hate spewing Mac Basher.
not impressed…
putting the credit card back in my wallet.
sigh….
Hmm. Difficult one this. 2.5GHz 90nm processor isn’t far off the 2.6GHz I was expecting, but I would have thought 2.0GHz+ offerings for the lower down machines would at least have been attempted. It’s been clear for months that 3GHz wasn’t going to happen, but I’m a bit disappointed with this nonetheless.
However, I think a 1.6GHz G5 iMac is now a certainty at WWDC, which is the machine they really need to bring out
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imac g5 not likely dave:
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/06/09/apple/index.php
And I agree, this top of the line stuff is nice and flashy but not the real battle.
true, the iMac upgrade will be nice, and I convinced my neighbor to buy one when they get updated. One more sale for Apple. Personally I could care less, as I am the proud owner of a dual 2ghz, which is a faaaassst machine. I will be purchasing a new display, however, so that is exciting. It woulda been sweet to see Apple do a little better here, though. I wonder if AMD is gonna be able to leap frog IBM here, or wether the process will be hard on them too.