Qaud G4 Towers on the way?

[vitaboy]

Macosrumors.com recently posted this interesting tidbit

"One very interesting new development is a growing belief that Apple may be ready to unleash Quad Processors on us, with the help of the new memory bus and PPC 7470 chips. If true, this alone could signify an entirely new era in Mac performance, and could create a class of pro machine that can truly outclass anything the Wintel world has to offer, once it matures. We'll be keeping a close eye on this one."


They don't actually say whether this bit of info comes from one of their sources, but rather gives a vague "if this is true" qualification.

But even if Apple announces new towers using 1.5 GHz [CORRECTED] G4 (which is unlikely in my opinion) later this month, I'm of the sentiment that Apple needs nothing less than a quad-processor tower with a modern subsystem in order to prevent their desktop sales from imploding in the next quarter as pro users become unable to resist the siren call of 3.0 GHz PCs.

This is what I'd like to see with the new towers (note this is just my wishful thinking/hopeful guess):

"Fast" Configuration:
--------------------------
1.0 GHz PowerPC G4
256K L2 Cache
2 MB L3 Cache
256 MB PC2100 DDR
60 GB Ultra ATA Drive
Combo Drive
ATI Radeon 9000
56K Internal Modem
$1,499.00


"Faster" Configuration:
-----------------------------
Dual 1.2 GHz PowerPC G4
256K L2 Cache
2 MB L3 Cache
512 MB PC2700 DDR
80 GB Ultra ATA Drive
SuperDrive
ATI Radeon 9000
56K Internal Modem
$2,099.00


"Fastest" Configuration:
------------------------------
Dual 1.4 GHz PowerPC G4
256K L2 Cache
2 MB L3 Cache
512 MB PC2700 DDR
100 GB Ultra ATA Drive
SuperDrive
NVIDIDA GeForce4 Ti
56K Internal Modem
$2,799.00

"Ultimate" Configuration:
------------------------------
Quad 1.4 GHz PowerPC G4
256K L2 Cache
3 MB L3 Cache
1.5 GB PC2700 DDR
2x100 GB Ultra ATA Drive
SuperDrive
NVIDIDA GeForce4 Ti w/128 MB
56K Internal Modem
$3,499.00


All the machines would feature the usual standard features with regards to networking and ports. The pricing might be optimistic, but I think Apple needs to start acting more aggressive on that front. But I think the pricing for this hypothetical hardware would make things interesting again.

Thoughts? Comments?

[pezagent]

Originally posted by vitaboy
Macosrumors.com recently posted this interesting tidbit

"One very interesting new development is a growing belief that Apple may be ready to unleash Quad Processors on us, with the help of the new memory bus and PPC 7470 chips. If true, this alone could signify an entirely new era in Mac performance, and could create a class of pro machine that can truly outclass anything the Wintel world has to offer, once it matures. We'll be keeping a close eye on this one."

What sort of application available on the consumer market would be able to utilize such a beast?

Why would I invest in an Apple (AIM) quad system when Intel or AMD already make faster and cheaper chips?

How would Apple enter a market whos needs are already being met by other manufacturers?

[Captain Code]

Originally posted by pezagent


What sort of application available on the consumer market would be able to utilize such a beast?

FinalCut Pro, Maya, iMovie, iTunes, MacOS X, Photoshop, DVD Studio Pro, and any other respectible graphics or video program.

Going from a single 500MHz G4, to a dual 500MHz G4, you can see a big speed boost in the OS as well as the above apps. So, imagine how fast a quad G4 system would be.

[pezagent]

Originally posted by devonferns


FinalCut Pro, Maya, iMovie, iTunes, MacOS X, Photoshop, DVD Studio Pro, and any other respectible graphics or video program.

Going from a single 500MHz G4, to a dual 500MHz G4, you can see a big speed boost in the OS as well as the above apps. So, imagine how fast a quad G4 system would be.

Yes, but the dual G4s get their buts kicked by the dual AthlonXP 2100... so if you're laying out the extra moola for a quad system that still underperforms AMD or Intel, what's the point?

[Captain Code]

Because it's a Mac. If you don't understand that then you're at the wrong forum.

[fryke]

A quad system would outperform a dual AMD system easily - in special tasks. It would be important a) for Macintosh customers (prosumers) who just want the BEST and b) for the image of Apple (we make the best desktop UNIX workstation in the world [true or not, it's marketing, Intel also says their Pentium4 processors accelerate the internet]).

[Erix]

I don't know anyting technically about multiple cpus but wouldn't it be better (cheaper) if Apple uses more advanced (G5?) cpus instead of quad systems?
IMO quad cpu systems should be for the times when you can't make better, more efficient cpus. What do you think?

[uoba]

I agree, bunging 4 processors into a machine isn't a sign of a company confident of winning a processor race. But, with Motorola truly messing up Apple's prospects, 4 processors are better than 2, are better than 1

As for pezagent, do we have another PC protaganist in our mists?

As devonferns states 'because it's a Mac'...

I would rather be on the lowest configured Mac capable of running OSX than the fastest flavour of a PC chip running 98, 2000, or XP