Review: Power Mac G5 Quad
- Article 1 of 9
- Computer Arts, December 2005
Apple's first Mac to feature four CPUs smashes all speed records
When Apple released the G4 and started claiming Mac users had supercomputers on their desktops, there was much justifiable guffawing. G4s were good, but not that good. If ever there was a time for Apple to launch such a campaign, however, it's now. The Apple Power Mac G5 Quad has arrived.
The Quad makes previous Power Macs look puny in many ways, and Apple has clearly pulled out all the stops in terms of raw speed. The biggest change here is the switch by Apple from single-core to dual-core processors. Each processor now contains two CPUs, and with two dual-core 2.5GHz G5s that makes the Quad a four-way machine.
With this kind of CPU power, bottlenecks can be a problem, but Apple has done its level best to avoid these. Each processor gets 1MB of L2 cache and a dedicated 1.25GHz frontside bus; the whole PCI-express bus can squeeze an impressive 4GB of data through per second, making this a ridiculously fast machine at times.
Graphics processing with the Quad shows a definite improvement over the previous dual G5s, which relied on AGP-based graphics cards. The whole of the Power Mac bus architecture has shifted to PCI Express, with three open PCI Express slots available: two four-lane and one eight-lane. The fourth slot is taken up by a PCI Express graphics card.
By default, the Quads come with Nvidia GeForce 6660 PCI Express graphics cards with 256MB of video RAM, which stomp over the ATi Radeon of the previous generation. The 512MB Nvidia Quadro FX 4500, a built-to-order option, puts an extra grand on the price but can support two 30-inch Apple Cinema HD displays and includes a stereo 3D goggles port – handy for anyone working with 3D animation.
The switch to PCI Express from AGP comes with at least one drawback, and that's software redundancy. Certain packages will not work without an AGP card so it's worth ensuring your software will be compatible before you buy. Adobe's Creative Suite 2 and Macromedia Studio 8 worked without difficulty, but Final Cut Pro 4.5 HD and Compressor 1.x will refuse to run, even though they work just fine on other G5s.
Mind-blowing memory
Memory is also faster, thanks to a switch from 400MHz DDR SDRAM to 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM. The standard memory installed on the Quad is 512MB, but there are enough slots to take the system up to 16GB – although that would bring the price up by a whopping £8,000.
Hard drive space remains relatively anaemic at 250GB, but space for an additional serial ATA drive within the Quad's enclosure allows for a maximum built-to-order option of 1TB of storage for £600 more. Should you need more, the Quad includes a second jumbo-framecapable Gigabit Ethernet port for connection to a storage area network. Alternatively, you could get your hands on a fibre channel PCI Express card for £400.
In our tests, the Ethernet ports were a little 'flaky', with network connections dropping mid-copy at times. Whether that was a network issue or a problem with the ports was unclear, but the reams of network configuration notes in the Quad's manual suggest the ports are relatively high maintenance. Make sure your network manager is around when you take delivery of a Quad to deal with problems quickly.
Other minor improvements include a better aerial position for wireless technologies such as AirPort and Bluetooth, support for Bluetooth 2.0 and Apple's Mighty Mouse. You'll probably find yourself switching to another multi-button mouse or turning off all but the main button after a few days, but the mini-trackball is a worthwhile addition.
Bold claims
Speed is of utmost importance here, and with a base price of £l2,300 and a top price of £12,900 (a couple of Apple 30-inch Cinema HD displays will add a further £3,600), we were expecting the Quad to provide some seriously speedy kit.
We weren't disappointed. Our first test? Video encoding using the relatively unoptimised open-source 'mencoder' application. On a 700MHz G4, it takes a good hour and a half to encode a 45-minute video. On the Quad, it took just ten minutes. If you're still using a G4, the Quad is a massive step up in speed.
If you already own a dual G5, the Quad is still a huge speed improvement. With Final Cut Pro 5, while we couldn't quite get the 60 per cent speed improvement on SD video encoding that Apple promises over the dual G5, we were able to get an impressive 50 per cent improvement out of the Quad. Similar claims about Adobe After Effects rendering (up 69 per cent) and LightWave 3D animation (up 59 per cent) were again only mild exaggerations.
Photoshop CS2 enjoyed great leaps in speed. Most filters completed in just a few seconds, making it hard for us to test Apple's claim of "45 common filters and actions" being "43 per cent faster" without employing ridiculous file sizes. Even converting a 100x80cm 300dpi image from RGB to CMYK took just 11 seconds. It was only when we chose to 'Crystallize' virtually the whole image that we brought the Quad to its knees: end-to-end, the whole filter took a little over three minutes to run. Nevertheless, that was one of the longest results we came across.
The Quad G5 is an incredibly fast machine and, while it may be tempting to hold off until the end of 2006 for Apple's first Intel-based Power Macs, the G5 is still an extraordinarily powerful chip. Four G5s are even more powerful, so if you need a new machine, need the power and you have the money, you won't go wrong with a Quad.