MacPro 3GHz versus G5 Dual 2.0 GHZ

[amcliz]

Hi there all..
I received delivery of my new ProMac 3GHz system last week with my 4GB of RAM and my 30" ACD monitor. I have been working on it now a week and I don't find much of a speed incease using my staple diet of apps like Quark 7.0 and Adobe Creative Suite CS2. The finder works fast and things like System Prefs and Spotlight run faster... but the launch of apps is still very slow... slower than my G5 Dual 2.0GHz in most cases. Has anyone else had a similar experience. I'm running all the very latest versions of everything as that's just the sort of MacAddict I am.... I have never been so disappointed with a system. My Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard and Mighty Mouse are a total disaster, as there is inconsistent pairing issues and the mouse is stuttering and lagging all over the screen. I have had it replaced once already, and now it's going back along with my MacPro for a complete new re-issue. Problems also with my 30" ACD with dancing/flickering pixels when running any black out mode area as in Quicktime / DVD or iPhoto Slideshow... for what is supposed to be the premium flat sceen computer monitor on the market it's not very impressive all these problems. Apologies for sounding so negative... but I would love to know how everyone has got on upgrading to their new Intel based MacPro systems and how it has impacted on their businesses and workflows. To me... the switch from OS9 to OSX was more rewarding than the disappointment of this MacPro upgrade. I'm still a dedicated MacUser and MacAddict, but my confidence in the Apple brand has made me question if the extra costs paid out for such so called "premium products" is actually worth it. Where's the quality control, where's the value for money. I don't mind spending big bucks once I get a big bang for that buck...

Please leave me your comments as I would appreciate your thoughts on all the issues raised above....

 

[Mikuro]

Quark and Adobe CS2 are not yet Intel-native. They run on Intel Macs through an invisible emulation layer called "Rosetta". There are three big downsides to running PPC apps on Intel Macs.

1. They run much slower.
2. They use more RAM.
3. They take 2-3x as long to load.

In many cases the raw speed of the new Intel Macs makes up for these downsides. e.g., a MacBook might run some software faster than an iBook, since the MacBook's processor is just so much faster. But with the pro systems, the hardware difference just isn't big enough to compensate for the software emulation, so it's no surprise that these apps are not performing better than on a dual G5. Adobe will not release Intel-native versions of CS2; you'll need to wait for CS3. This has all been discussed quite a bit, so search around if you want more info.

I don't know what to say about the mouse or monitor.

 

[ex2bot]

In fact, it's amazing that benchmarks show the 3 GHz Mac Pro runs Photoshop at about the speed of a quad G5. Shows how powerful the new Intel chips are.

Emulation has historically been MUCH slower than the real thing. The Rosetta emulation technology is amazing.

I'm not sure about the "flickering pixels" you're experiencing with your monitor. Could it be compression artifacts in movies that don't show up on, say, a regular television or CRT monitor but do on a more-precise LCD? Or is there really something wrong with your monitor?

As for the Bluetooth mouse, I have heard people complain about the precision of BT mice. Maybe you'd be happier with a corded mouse. Any USB mouse you find will work. I know it's not as convenient, but maybe it will work better for you.

As for long app loading times, your non-Intel apps are running in emulation as we've mentioned, so it will take longer for the Rosetta emulation software to do its thing. Emulation, if you're not familiar, in this case means running software designed for the PowerPC (G3, G4, G5) chips on the new Intel Core X Duo chips in the newest Mac, such as yours. Until all those programs are recompiled for the Intel chips, they will be slower to load and slower to run.

Look at the speed of iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes, iDVD, Garageband, Pages, Keynote, Preview, the newest ** Quark **, etc.

I looked it up, and Quark Xpress is now available in a "Universal Binary", which means it is now designed to run full speed on your Mac Pro. You might want to look into getting that!

For these Intel-optimized apps, you should get some blistering speed. You'll see even more speed when you run apps simultaneously. For example, burn a disc while surfing the net and manipulating images with Photoshop. Each application should run at full speed because there are four microprossessor cores. Of course, Photoshop will still be emulated.

Doug

 

[showngo]

I just got myself the new Mac Pro 2.66 with 3gb (2x512 and 2x1gb) of RAM. I must say I am biased I came from an original Mac mini, so this system seems blistering fast to me. Yeah the non-native apps are sluggish, but I am holding out for the new ones to be released, the way I look at it is that Apple isn't going back to the Power architecture, so all apps will be intel native soon enough.

As for the jitteriness of the bluetooth components I had this problem on my Powerbook a while ago and found a few reasons for it. Often it is not a hardware problem. I have found that it is a weak battery problem (make sure you use batteries designed for the "digital" products, such as Duracell Ultras). I also found that downloading lots via wifi can cause it to jump all over.

With my Mac Pro I stuck with the wired, simply because I only wanted bluetooth to have a cleaner looking desktop, and that would be at the expense of this jitteriness. No thanks.

I have a 20" ACD display, and have had no problems. Sorry don't know what to tell you, I am using it with the stock 7300 video card. Let me know if you want to trade monitors, I would be happy to make the swap .

Good luck.

 

[Ifrit]

30" ACD with dancing/flickering pixels when running any black out mode area as in Quicktime / DVD or iPhoto Slideshow..

I have just noticed that low end video HW (Geforce 7300 in this case) combined with OSX can produce visual artifacts on displays which use DVI as videoinput and which use a pretty high resolution.

A nice test: Try bringing up dashboard: When the screen fades to a darker color you might notice "dancing/flashing" red/green pixels in the mid of the screen, or on the corners.

Some sites claim that the graphic card isn't fast enough to output all the info (data) to the DVI port - missing information shows up as artifacts on the screen. Some displays (like the cinema display) can deal pretty good with it (either by interpolating the missing/wrong data or through other methods), other displays can't and give you a blank screen in the worst case scenario. The 7300 is a low end card. I wouldn't wonder if Apple used the version in the Mac Pro which has a limited 64bit memory interface. With a 30'' ACD while displaying an accelerated GUI it might reach its limits.