Apple Unleashes the World’s Fastest Personal Computer—the Power Mac G5

WWDC 2003, San Francisco—Apple unleashed the world’sfastest* personal computer—the Power Mac G5—featuring theworld’s first 64-bit desktop processor and the industry’sfirst 1 GHz front-side bus. Powered by the revolutionary PowerPC G5processor designed by IBM and Apple, the Power Mac G5 is the firstpersonal computer to utilize 64-bit processing technology forunprecedented memory expansion (up to 8GB) and advanced 64-bitcomputation, while running existing 32-bit applications natively.

“The 64-bit revolution has begun and the personal computerwill never be the same again,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’sCEO. “The new Power Mac G5 combines the world’s first64-bit desktop processor, the industry’s first 1 GHz front-sidebus, and up to 8GB of memory to beat the fastest Pentium 4 and dualXeon-based systems in industry-standard benchmarks and real-worldprofessional applications.”

Delivering the industry’s highest system bandwidth, the PowerMac G5 line offers dual 2.0 GHz PowerPC G5 processors, each with anindependent 1 GHz front-side bus, for an astounding 16 GBps ofbandwidth. The line also features the industry’s highestbandwidth memory (400 MHz 128-bit DDR SDRAM with throughput up to 6.4GBps); the industry’s fastest PCI interface available on adesktop (133 MHz PCI-X); and cutting-edge AGP 8X Pro graphicscapabilities, all within a stunning new professional aluminum enclosurefeaturing innovative computer-controlled cooling for quietoperation.

The PowerPC G5 processor is a result of the strategic relationshipbetween Apple and IBM. At frequencies up to 2 GHz, the PowerPC G5introduces 64-bit processing technology to desktop computing, whilealso running 32-bit applications natively. The PowerPC G5 processorarchitecture is based on a completely new execution core that featuresmassively parallel computation for an unprecedented 215 in-flightinstructions, full symmetric multi-processing, two double precisionfloating point units and an optimized Velocity Engine. The PowerPC G5chips are fabricated in IBM’s $3 billion state-of-the-artsemiconductor facility in East Fishkill, N.Y.

The new Power Mac G5 is the world’s fastest personal computerbased on SPEC CPU 2000 benchmark results and leading professionalapplication performance tests when compared against 3.0 GHz Pentium4-based systems and 3.06 GHz Dual Xeon-based systems:

In the SPEC CPU 2000 independent testing comparing the Power Mac G5against leading 3.0 GHz Pentium 4-based systems and 3.06 GHz DualXeon-based systems, the Power Mac G5 won three out of four keybenchmark tests. All tests were run with the same industry standard GCC3.3 compiler to insure a fair comparison;

Single processor tests results show the Power Mac G5 an impressive21 percent faster than the 3.0 GHz Pentium 4-based PC onSPECfp_base2000, which measures single processor floating pointperformance, and 10 percent slower on SPECint_base2000, which measuressingle processor integer performance.

Dual processor tests results, which determine the fastest personalcomputer since dual processor systems are faster than single processorsystems, are a clean sweep with the Power Mac G5 beating the 3.06 GHzDual Xeon workstations by an incredible 41 percent onSPECfp_rate_base2000, which measures the total floating pointthroughput of the system, and edging out the same system by threepercent on SPECint_rate_base2000, which measures total integercomputation throughput.

In addition to outperforming Pentium 4- and Dual Xeon-based systemsin industry-standard benchmarks, the Power Mac G5 ran significantlyfaster than Pentium 4 and Dual Xeon-based systems on performance testsof the most popular applications for creative professionals:

On a test of 45 commonly used actions, Adobe Photoshop ran twice asfast on the Power Mac G5 than on 3.06 GHz Dual Xeon workstations; LogicAudio on the Power Mac G5 can play nearly 40 percent more tracks withreverbs applied than Cubase SX running on a 3.06 GHz Dual Xeonworkstation; and Genentech Blast runs up to five times faster on aPower Mac G5 than on a 3.06 GHz Dual Xeon workstation.

Complementing its computational power, the Power Mac G5 providesleading-edge expansion with dual 1.5 Gbps serial ATA interfaces; theindustry’s fastest PCI interface available on a desktop with a133 MHz and two 100 MHz, 64-bit PCI-X slots; and AGP 8X Pro graphicscapable of supporting the power and thermal demands of high-endprofessional graphics cards. The Power Mac G5 comes standard witheither the NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 or the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro graphicscard. As a build-to-order option for unprecedented 3D design,visualization and gaming, the Power Mac G5 line also features the ATIRadeon 9800 Pro—a workstation-class graphics card featuring perpixel and vertex shaders, and providing an astonishing fill rate of 3billion textured pixels/second.

The Power Mac G5 delivers industry-leading connectivity andhigh-performance I/O for creative professionals with Gigabit Ethernet,FireWire 800, two FireWire 400 ports, three USB 2.0 ports, dual displaysupport, optical digital audio input and output, analog audio input andoutput and a headphone jack. The system also supports 54 Mbps AirPortExtreme wireless networking and is Bluetooth ready for wirelessconnections to a host of Bluetooth-enabled peripherals.

The Power Mac G5 features a stunning new anodized aluminum alloyenclosure, designed to meet the needs of the most demandingprofessionals. The new enclosure is built around four independentlycontrolled thermal zones for advanced airflow management, with fans ineach zone that are individually controlled based on a sophisticatedcombination of thermal and power monitoring, resulting in the Power MacG5 running two times quieter than the previous Power Mac G4. The G5enclosure also features an easy-to-open access panel allowing quickaccess to internal components for tool-less installation of memory,hard drives, optical drives or an AirPort Extreme card. Front and rearhandles allow professionals to rapidly and safely move Power Mac G5swhen and where they need them, and front-mounted FireWire, USB2, andheadphone ports provide convenient access for popular peripherals.

Pricing & Availability

The Power Mac G5, with a suggested retail price of $2,999(US), includes:

• Dual 2.0 GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5;

• Dual Independent 1 GHz front-side buses;

• 512MB 400 MHz Dual Channel (128-bit) DDR;

• 8 DIMMs, 8GB maximum memory;

• 160GB Serial ATA hard drive;

• AGP 8X Pro graphics slot;

• RADEON 9600 Pro-64MB DDR;

• 3 PCI-X slots (one 64-bit 133 MHz, two 64-bit 100 MHz); and

• 4x SuperDrive.

The Power Mac G5, with a suggested retail price of $2,399(US), includes:

• 1.8 GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5;

• 900 MHz front-side bus;

• 512MB 400 MHz Dual Channel (128-bit) DDR;

• 8 DIMMs, 8GB maximum memory;

• 160GB Serial ATA hard drive;

• AGP 8X Pro graphics slot;

• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra-64MB DDR;

• 3 PCI-X slots (one 64-bit, 133 MHz, two 64-bit 100 MHz); and

• 4x SuperDrive.

The Power Mac G5, with a suggested retail price of $1,999(US), includes:

• 1.6 GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5;

• 800 MHz front-side bus;

• 256MB 333 MHz Dual Channel (128-bit) DDR;

• 4 DIMMs, 4GB maximum memory;

• 80GB Serial ATA hard drive;

• AGP 8X Pro graphics slot;

• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra-64MB DDR;

• 3 PCI slots (64-bit, 33 MHz); and

• 4x SuperDrive.

The Power Mac G5 line will be available in August and will ship withMac OS X “Jaguar” with Mail, iChat, Safari, Sherlock,Address Book, QuickTime, iLife (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, andiDVD), iSync, iCal, DVD Player, Classic environment, Acrobat Reader,Art Directors Toolkit, EarthLink, FAXstf, FileMaker Pro Trial,GraphicConverter, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office v. XTest Drive, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, QuickBooks for Mac New UserEdition and Developer Tools.

The Power Mac G5 will be available in build-to-order configurationsthrough the Apple Store (www.apple.com). Options include up to8GB of RAM, 250GB hard drives, Combo drive, graphics cards (NVIDIAGeForce FX 5200, ATI Radeon 9600, ATI Radeon 9800), AirPort ExtremeCard, Bluetooth module and an Apple Fibre Channel PCI Card.

* “World's fastest” based on SPEC CPU 2000 benchmarkresults and leading professional application performance tests against3 GHz Pentium 4-based Dell Dimension 8300 and 3.06 GHz Dual Xeon-basedDell Precision 650. SPEC CPU 2000 benchmarks run with GCC 3.3 andindependently tested; professional applications tested by Apple, June2003.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with theApple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with theMacintosh. Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computingexperience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumersaround the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internetofferings.