Performance
Compared to the 1.8GHz iMac G5 we reviewed last year, the 2.0GHz iMac G5 completed our Photoshop CS tests at a clip that was more than 30 per cent faster. It took the iMac G5 more than twice as long to finish the test as it took the new dual 2.7GHz Power Mac G5, but the Power Mac has the two processors (each clocked higher), a faster frontside bus, eight times the memory and a more powerful graphics card.
The iMac G5 trailed the Power Mac G5 on our new iTunes test, but it was able to edge an Intel white box with a 3.73GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processor. (We suspect iTunes runs more efficiently on the hardware on which it originated.) Lastly, on our new video-encoding test, the iMac couldn't keep pace with the high-end competition, which isn't exactly a fair comparison (to date we've tested only high-end systems, such as the dual-processor Power Mac and dual-core Intel systems on this benchmark).
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Apple iMac G5 (2.0GHz, 17-inch)
PowerPC G5 2.0GHz; 512MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 128MB ATI Radeon 9600; Maxtor Serial ATA hard drive; Macintosh OS 10.4
Apple iMac G5 (1.8GHz, 17-inch)
PowerPC G5 1.8GHz; 512MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 64MB Nvidia GeForce FX 5200; Maxtor Serial ATA hard drive; Macintosh OS 10.3.5
Apple Mac Mini (1.25GHz)
PowerPC G4 1.25GHz; 256MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; 32MB ATI Radeon 9200; ATA hard drive; Macintosh OS 10.3.7
Apple PowerMac G5 dual 2.7GHz
Dual PowerPC G5 2.7GHz; 4,096MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra AGP; 250GB Maxtor Serial ATA hard drive; Macintosh OS 10.4
Velocity Micro ProMagix DCX
3.2GHz Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840 overclocked to 4.0GHz; Intel 955X Express chipset; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB ATI Radeon X850 XT PE PCIe; two 74GB Western Digital Serial ATA hard drives in a RAID 0 array; one 400GB Hitachi HDS724040KLSA80 Serial ATA hard drive; Windows XP Professional SP2
3.2GHz Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840 white box
3.2GHz Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 840; Intel 955X Express chipset; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB Sapphire Radeon X850 XT PCIe; 160GB Seagate ST3160827AS Serial ATA hard drive; Windows XP Professional SP2
3.73GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor Extreme Edition white box
3.73GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor Extreme Edition; Intel 955X Express chipset; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB Sapphire Radeon X850 XT PCIe; 160GB Seagate ST3160827AS Serial ATA hard drive; Windows XP Professional SP2
Edited by Matthew Elliott
Additional editing by Nick Hide
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