Dang. This G5 stuff...

[Gr0und_Zer0]

Guys, I'm really thinking about getting a G5.

A few reasons:

- It's FAST.
- It's a standard in the recording business.
- We all know Digidesign puts 90% of all its efforts in developing for the Mac and the remaining 10% for pc (I don't know the exact numbers, but I get the feeling this is the way it is).
- Practically runs straight out of the box. No assembling, and no need to, because these machines are made with very high quality parts.

Oh, and not THAT important, but:

- OS X looks damn cool, hehehehe...

What are you guys thinking?

[Carl Fuehrer]

Yep, I'm thinking of moving to the dark side too. Extremely tempting. [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[vonbleak101]

Man if you can afford it, go for it. But its a lot of money. If i were you i would wait till the end of the year, when AMD and Intel release there next gen of CPU's and then decide. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Carl Fuehrer]

But even if AMD and Intel come out with a 64-bit machine that is 10X faster than the G5, it's all about the compatability issues for me. After doing the RTAS petition, I am sick of being left behind and not even given the respect I deserve as a consumer. Also I run a working studio so it would boil down to a business expense and upgrade. I am starting to very much out grow my 002 so the G5 would most likely see an HD system for me.

[Calvin]

I hear you guys. Even if this G5 isn't this fast amazing machine that all the mac guys want it to be, and even if it isn't going to be as fast as the next generation of AMD's clawhammers. Just the fact that it is probably going to be just as fast as my current system(which is plenty fast for everything I could even need from it) and the huge amount of pluggins available I think would probably make this worth it. I'm not a mac guy, but for my studio, I think that the extra versatility will be worth it. You have got to admit that there are lots of pluggins out there that you would like to use and now that they have a system that will be able to handle a decent amount of these, well I'm thinking about buying in.

[zboy2854]

If you're going to go Mac, the G5 is in fact a great reason, but not necessarily to get the G5. I've seen the price of the latest model G4's drop since the announcement of the G5. The G4 dual 1.25Ghz machine instantly fell to $1599, a $400 drop, and the single CPU 1.25Ghz G4 dropped to $1299 (store.apple.com). And I saw the now discontinued dual 1.42 Ghz G4 going for $2125, down from $2700 (smalldog.com). Something to chew on anyway.

[yavuzj]

Well,

AFAIK, I do not think any of the MAC users buy into MAC because they are the fastest machine. However, most like the OS. I hated OS9 but like OSX.

The new machines (G5s) look great. I am sure they are a big improvement in design. On the PC side, I like Carillion. As far as making my own, I decided that I am done with that. I spent a lot of time learning and tweaking my own computers and came to realize that it takes a lot of time for me. I kept changing parts and tweaking my computer just because I could. I mean, if you guys can make one and keep it for 2-3 years and make another one, that is great. My personality did not let me do that. I wanted the newest processor and fastest burner etc...

This is me...

[La Flange]

Guys there's an important thing you need to know about audio on Macs. The G4 and G5 processors have a certain technology that must be implemented in the software, called Altivec. Without Altivec enabled, the software cannot take advantage of SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) or the 128-bit register. These two capabilities represent a major speed boost for 24-bit audio, in the order of 250% (24 fits into 64 2 times, but fits into 128 5 times). This is why lower-speed G4's have competed with higher-speed P4's with graphics apps for so long.

At present virtually NO audio plug-ins are Altivec-enabled, so a G4 or G5 will run at about 40% efficiency. And plug-ins must also be made compatible with OS X, not all are yet, and even those that can run on it aren't Altivec-enabled.

This is why I'm here now. Six months ago I had a 800MHz G4 which couldn't handle a healthy rack of plugs, sold it used for $1200 and bought a new 2GHz Athlon system for $850 which is about 5x faster for audio.

I was a 10-year Mac user, so I'm also very excited about the new G5's, but without Altivec they'll be on crutches too. They're really only G4's with 64-bit ram addressing and faster front-side buses, and although OS X is a far better OS than XP, it's really still in its adolescence and has some issues to be worked out.

So stick with your PC at least until your fave plug-ins support OS X and Altivec. I hate to say it, but AMD will undoubtedly have released a comparable processor before Altivec is fully supported in Mac audio software anyway. It's been 3 years since the G4 processor was introduced, if they haven't supported Altivec by now they maybe never will.

[Haigbabe]

Originally posted by La Flange:
Guys there's an important thing you need to know about audio on Macs. The G4 and G5 processors have a certain technology that must be implemented in the software, called Altivec. Without Altivec enabled, the software cannot take advantage of SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) or the 128-bit register. These two capabilities represent a major speed boost for 24-bit audio, in the order of 250% (24 fits into 64 2 times, but fits into 128 5 times). This is why lower-speed G4's have competed with higher-speed P4's with graphics apps for so long.

At present virtually NO audio plug-ins are Altivec-enabled, so a G4 or G5 will run at about 40% efficiency. And plug-ins must also be made compatible with OS X, not all are yet, and even those that can run on it aren't Altivec-enabled.

[chomp]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Except, check this...

http://duc.digidesign.com/cgi-bin/ub...;f=24;t=022479

Under V 6.02, a Mac is seeing an increase in track counts using the 002 (as opposed to the 001).

They get a 25% increase while we get a decrease of about 25%. Whoa! Let's hope that 6.1 does us the same favours!

Best regards,

Haigbabe

[Calvin]

I can't imagine that plugin producers would imediatly jump on this altivec issue that you stated. It is plain to see that all of the major studios are going to want to jump up to the new g5. Digi has already announced that it has become a priority to get Pro-tools ready for the new processor. And besides it's one more update that the pluggin manufacturers can sell to the clients. I don't think any of the pluggin manufacturers would like to risk losing some of their business because they weren't G5 compatible.