“Given my experience with a dual-2.0GHz Power Mac G5, I had high hopes for the new iMac Core Duo. The original Power Mac G5’s level of performance is the gold standard to which all other Macs are judged, even to this day. I had hoped the new iMac would be the $1700 equivalent to the original Power Mac G5 dual-2.0GHz, but unfortunately it’s not that simple,” Nick Aziz writes for Apple Insider. “Setting up the iMac was a painless process. My biggest challenge was locating the power switch, but the iMac’s clean, buttonless bezel is worth this one-time hassle. The iMac boots very quickly in about 44 seconds, which compared to a minute and three seconds for the dual-2.0GHz Power Mac.”
“The first thing about the iMac that will catch your eye is its display — a brilliant, 20-inch flat panel that puts many other monitors to shame. The 1680×1050 resolution offers enough pixels to fit plenty of information, while leaving standard text very readable,” Aziz writes. “Unfortunately, all is not well in the world of Front Row, Apple’s new media software that offers a simple and centralized way for users to play their music, enjoy photo slideshows, and watch video such as DVDs, iMovies, and programming purchased from the company’s iTunes Music Store. In my experience with the new iMac — and with other iMacs at my local reseller — there is a great deal of latency when using the bundled infrared Apple Remote. Sometimes it doesn’t respond to my inputs at all, while other times Front Row simply lags. With several applications running, it takes 10-20 seconds for Front Row to open. Likewise, it takes an equally irritating amount of time for Front Row to close, and for the system to return to normal. Navigating the Front Row interface is also an aggravating experience, with long delays between actions.”
“Native Intel software on this machine are probably as quick as those on a the Power Mac G5 dual-2.0 mentioned earlier. The new machine may be 2X faster than this, and 3X faster than that, but in the end, it is on par with a similarly-clocked dual-processor Power Mac. And that’s a good thing — a Power Mac-rivaling computer can be had for $1,700 — that’s an $1,100 savings over a G5 tower with a 20″ Cinema Display. Of course, the compact all-in-one iMac has nowhere near the expandability of a Power Mac, but for most users, the iMac is an incredible proposition,” Aziz writes.
As for Rosetta – running PowerPC-only applications on an Intel-based Mac, Aziz describes it as “simply unusable” and writes, “When considering an Intel Mac, ask yourself this: ‘Are the programs that I use every day available as dual binaries?’ If the answer is yes, you’ll have the best Power Mac for under $1700 you ever owned. If the answer is no, you’ll be in for a bit of a wait before the full potential of the system can be realized.”
Much more in the full review here.
MacDailyNews Note: Rosetta loves RAM. Rosetta eats RAM for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Rosetta needs RAM, a lot of RAM. The more RAM you have installed, the better Rosetta seems to perform – keep this important factor in mind if you have some PowerPC-only apps you need to run and don’t expect a Mac with 512MB of RAM to be blazing fast when utilizing Rosetta.
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Related MacDailyNews articles:
Increasing RAM improves Mac OS X’s ‘Rosetta’ performance? – January 25, 2006
BusinessWeek: Apple’s new iMac Core Duo is an iMac on Steroids – February 02, 2006
AnandTech: Apple iMac G5 vs. iMac Intel Core Duo – February 01, 2006
Thurrott: ‘I highly recommend Apple’s new Intel-based iMac’ – January 31, 2006
Thurrott: ‘Nothing on Windows approaches the quality of Apple’s iLife ’06’ – January 31, 2006
Computerworld: Apple’s MacBook Pro ‘fast, really fast – looks like a real winner’ – January 28, 2006
MacSpeedZone: Apple’s iMac Core Duo nearly as fast as Power Mac G5 Quad – January 26, 2006
InfoWorld: Apple perfects the desktop personal computer with new iMac Core Duo – January 25, 2006
Flawed CNET review pans Apple’s iMac Core Duo with 7 out of 10 rating – January 23, 2006
Washington Post: Wait a month or so before buying Apple’s appealing new Intel-based iMac – January 22, 2006
Apple’s Intel-powered iMac provides a smooth transistion from PowerPC – January 21, 2006
PC Magazine review gives Apple iMac Intel Core Duo 4.5 out of 5 stars – January 20, 2006
Time names Apple iMac Core Duo ‘Gadget of the Week’ – January 20, 2006
Mossberg: New Intel-based iMac the best consumer desktop with the best OS and best software bundle – January 18, 2006
I received my 20″ dual-core at the weekend, and sold my 20″ G5 2.0Ghz to a friend of mine. I noticed the increased speed of native apps immediately and the system is much more responsive.
I have 2GB RAM in mine, and Rosetta performs just fine. I wouldn’t dream of Running Photoshop on it though – that’s just not possible at a really acceptable speed – but everything else, and I mean everything except for graphically-intensive apps – works like a dream whether a native app or via Rosetta.
read this: ROSETTA IS JUST FINE – so long as you have at least 1GB – preferably 2GB – of RAM. Apple should never have let these go out of the factory with less than 1GB. I think this was a huge mistake. The reviews would have been far more favourable had they kitted out the machines with more RAM where purchasers hadn’t opted to add any more when they ordered. But in the greater scheme of things, people should realise the machine is simply awesome – its the fastest Mac you could want to use outside of a quad-G5. At least, when you’ve got plenty of RAM
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Appleinsider are just sore they didnt get any rumors right and Apple took them to court.
I have had my new 20″Core Duo iMac (1GB RAM) for about a week and a half now, here is my 2¢.
It’s quite fast, and Photoshop Elements (don’t have the full version) runs pretty well under Rosetta and the native apps run on par with my PowerMac 1.8 Single G5 (900MHz Bus 1.5 GB RAM). Eye TV (500) records HD content well as long as you are not watching while it records or doing the Mac thing of having 5 apps running at the same time. As Eye TV is heavily dependent upon AltiVec and AltiVec support was added to Rosetta just before the launch of the Core Duo iMac, that’s pretty impressive.
I wonder why Apple went with a 1680 X 1050 display, as 30 more pixels would have allowed native resolution in 1080i on the display. It should also be noted that the launch of Front Row is a bit slow and the menus seem to take a long time to load if you have a lot of content. Maybe the database for Front Row should pre fetch the data on launch of the computer rather than construct it on the fly. I’m sure updated versions of Front Row will improve on this.
The performance benchmarks will only improve with time as SSE optimization for the Mac OS is in it’s infancy. As Apple software developers, ATI software developers and Intel optimization tools improve i think we will be seeing a significant improvement in performance across the board.
Considering the short time Apple & Intel had to bring this off, I’m impressed and quite pleased. The Apple Crossgrade program is going to allow me to upgrade (as a Soundtrack Pro owner) from FCE & Soundtrack Pro to the full suite for just $199. Do the math people– that’s like a huge rebate on the cost of the machine.
Yummy yummy RAM
shame aboot the front row video problem
http://www.consumermachine.com/
🙁
My new 20″ iMac Core Duo with 1gb RAM should arrive by the weekend. I’m reducing my Office use so I’m not overly concerned. I do use Photoshop Elements occassionaly. Everything else is iLife or iWork.
frappo, seems the video problem has been fixed.
From the link you provided:
“UPDATE #2: Installing 8G1165 confirmed to eliminate video problems.”
So looks like some units shipped with an older version of the Mac OS X 10.4.4 build which had a bug. Users who have the older build can get updated installer discs from Apple.
Up here in Montreal, a substantial number of fairly reasonably priced Windows computers featured in the various advertising flyers frequently feature one gig of RAM. I’m thinking Apple might need to match this default circumstance if they have hopes of continuing the spate of favorable press that has been to their recent advantage.
Makes me wonder… if an iMac Core Duo is about as fast as a PowerMac dual G5,… what are the Intel PowerMacs* going to be like performance wise?
*name not yet defined so I’ll use this for now.
“Native Intel software on this machine are probably as quick as those on a the Power Mac G5 dual-2.0 mentioned earlier. The new machine may be 2X faster than this, and 3X faster than that, but in the end, it is on par with a similarly-clocked dual-processor Power Mac. And that’s a good thing — a Power Mac-rivaling computer can be had for $1,700 — that’s an $1,100 savings over a G5 tower with a 20″ Cinema Display. Of course, the compact all-in-one iMac has nowhere near the expandability of a Power Mac, but for most users, the iMac is an incredible proposition,” Aziz writes.
I think this is the most important statement in his review.
Rosetta is definitely usable, but as MDN correctly points out, just don’t expect to use it for heavy Photoshop work with only 512MB of RAM installed. The iMac is not targeted toward those that do a lot of heavy Photoshop work anyway, so for the reviewer to call Rosetta “simply unusable” is simply not an accurate or fair statement.
I have a 17″ iMac Core Duo with 1GB of RAM and Photoshop is quite usuable on it for light duty work. MS Office, Quicken and other PPC apps I’ve tried run as fast under Rosetta as they do on a fast G4 system. I’ve actually been quite pleasantly surprised with Rosetta’s performance. After reading all the reviews, I was expecting a lot worse than it truly is.
I second what Rob said about the performance of apps under Rosetta. I also have 1GB RAM and find that application speed is very impressive indeed. I hope soon to add another 1GB of memory to see what effect that has.
Rob— I’ve made the same statement about iMac and PhotoShop over and over, and I agree. Since when did the benchmark for an iMac (a consumer level platform) become PhotoShop ( a pro level application)? I know… PhotoShop ran great on the most recent G5 iMac. But please, we all know by now that PPC apps are going to be disadvantaged while running on an Intel processor. The fact that they run at all is amazing. Just goes to show the level of miracles that many assume from Apple and Steve Jobs. No other computer manufacture could (or would even dare to consider) as switch as momentus as the one being pulled off right now on the Macintosh.
it’s the updated discs that are causing the video problem
look for a sw patch in the next few days