Speed?

[rande]

We have, like everyone a need for speed. We have started getting in huge Illust./ PDF files.
Very move is a long redraw. I was trying to talk my boss into new mac. That ain't going to happen.
We have two loaded G5s, is the new mac pro alot faster?
Would new graphics cards speed things up; any other suggestions?
thanks

 

[Prepress_Parasite]

Please share the specs of your G5's. Obviously the new machines are much faster if you are using DDR 400 now vs DDR2 800 in the new machines along with more L2 cache and a higher FSB.

 

[rande]

dual 2 GHz
PowerPC G5
mem 1.5 GB DDR SDRAM
L2 Cache (per cpu) 512 KB
Bus Speed 1GHz

How can we keep the price down for the boss but still get a kick of speed?
Base cost on a Mac Pro is 2800, if we load it up
its 5000; do we need all the bells and whisltes for a prepress/ preflight operation?

thanks

 

[rbailleu]

look on ebay

 

[rande]

Has anyone experienced the speed difference between this G5 and the base setup of the Mac Pro?

dual 2 GHz
PowerPC G5
mem 1.5 GB DDR SDRAM
L2 Cache (per cpu) 512 KB
Bus Speed 1GHz

 

[Joe]

dual 2 GHz
PowerPC G5
mem 1.5 GB DDR SDRAM
L2 Cache (per cpu) 512 KB
Bus Speed 1GHz

How can we keep the price down for the boss but still get a kick of speed?
Base cost on a Mac Pro is 2800, if we load it up
its 5000; do we need all the bells and whisltes for a prepress/ preflight operation?

thanks

Max out the ram for overall performance and put in a top of the line video card for the slow screen draws. Still, it's always going to be a PPC...

 

[prepressguru]

Hi Rande

We have 2.66Ghz Macpro's with lots of RAM (9gigs) but baseline graphic cards and we see a big improvement over the G5. We can run may apps at once and nothing slows down.

A Ram upgrade to your G5 will improve your situation as illustrator can work more in RAM instead of disk. 1.5 gig is kinda low. A new graphics card will not help. Illustrator does not offload processing tasks to the card like aperture does.

If you can convince the boss to get a Macpro you would be much better off.

Good luck

We have, like everyone a need for speed. We have started getting in huge Illust./ PDF files.
Very move is a long redraw. I was trying to talk my boss into new mac. That ain't going to happen.
We have two loaded G5s, is the new mac pro alot faster?
Would new graphics cards speed things up; any other suggestions?
thanks

 

[rande]

thanks for the input

 

[UncleSam]

At least 1 GB RAM for each CPU Core

At least 1 GB RAM for each CPU Core

If you get a MacPro 8-Core with 2GB memory, you will see the system not much faster than you old machine since each CPU core only get 256MB. We all doing multi-tasking for prepress, you have to open all applications at once to do the job. The only way to improve your system speed is add more ram. At least 1GB ram for each CPU Core, for your Dual G5, I would suggest you upgrade to at least 4GB of memory. Of course Adobe CS4 is coming, that's mean your G5 can't stay too much longer because every time they have new version, they are more hungry for CPU power too. My suggest is I would convert your Dual G5 to some kind of file server / FTP server / web server and buy a new MacPro.

 

[rande]

If you get a MacPro 8-Core with 2GB memory, you will see the system not much faster than you old machine since each CPU core only get 256MB. We all doing multi-tasking for prepress, you have to open all applications at once to do the job. The only way to improve your system speed is add more ram. At least 1GB ram for each CPU Core, for your Dual G5, I would suggest you upgrade to at least 4GB of memory. Of course Adobe CS4 is coming, that's mean your G5 can't stay too much longer because every time they have new version, they are more hungry for CPU power too. My suggest is I would convert your Dual G5 to some kind of file server / FTP server / web server and buy a new MacPro.

If we went from 1.5 GB mem to 4GB, approx how much faster would that be.
I'll be looking into addition ram sense I've read this, but do you know how much that would cost?
And is everyone really going to start dumping their G5. How much slow is that going to be?
thanks

 

[prepressguru]

Rande

You should check out this site for speed comparisons. It's very good and they pin point components.

Real World Speed Tests for Performance Minded Mac Users

Sticking with your G5 is going to be a losing battle. As stated C4 is on all our doorsteps. You are already struggling with files now imagine what is going to happen in a few more months.

You can try to improve some of the parts of your G5 with more RAM. You have the option of going to 16 Gigs. It's cheap these days. You should be able to get a price from your local supplier if not try newegg to compare. You can also put in a raid drive.

A new Mac still will be your better option. Over all all the components will be faster. Bus speed will be 1600 Ghz comparted to 1 Ghz. And each processor has a dedicated bus whereas the G5 split the bus speed between each processor. This alone makes the Macpro much quicker.

The comment of the 2 GB split between each processor or cores is misleading as it works from the pool of 2G of ram not divided up.

Good luck

 

[maxon]

Rande

A new Mac still will be your better option. Over all all the components will be faster. Bus speed will be 1600 Ghz comparted to 1 Ghz. And each processor has a dedicated bus whereas the G5 split the bus speed between each processor. This alone makes the Macpro much quicker.

The comment of the 2 GB split between each processor or cores is misleading as it works from the pool of 2G of ram not divided up.

Good luck

Prepress guru is right.

 

[kaiserwilhelm]

If you bought refurbished and added in non Apple memory, you should be able to get a SPEEDY mac for under 3K.
We bought 4 processor, not 8. That alone saved us $600 I think.
My whole department went from loaded G5's to loaded Mac Pros in February. I cannot even begin to tell you the difference. We print 20 meg pdfs constantly. They clear my screen faster than I can get my finger off of the P button.
Mind you, we have 10 gig of ram. But, ram is CHEAP.
Another barometer for me is PowerSwitch. I used to run it on a G5 with it sorting and getting my multiple SIT files put into one folder and ready to go.
It used to take 6-8 minutes to do this to 10 sit files.
Literally, it happens before my eyes now - under 1 minutes.
They can pry my Mac Pro from my cold, dead, hands.