Hi Jay,
can't say how the two 20-inchers compare. I can compare our week-old 20" iMac G5 with our 17" 1.25GHz iMac G4.
The new iMac allows you to choose three settings for your CPU. If you choose 'highest', the G5 is much faster than the G4. It is noticeably faster. Benchmarks prove it is faster by a substantial amount, but the good news is, it 'feels' faster in real world use also. Initially I wasn't too impressed, but then I realised it was because the CPU was set by default to 'automatic'. Once that was changed, the speed difference is really remarkable. I would probably say that the speed difference in 'real world' experience (though benchmarking will probably tell a different story) between our 20" G5 and 17" G4 is about the same as that between the 17" G4 and our previous iMac, a 500Mhz G3 DVSE. I'm saying 'probably about the same' to mean that unreflectively, that's what it felt like. I'm not sure whether this helps, it's totally unscientific. But maybe it does.
I'll give you an example. Moving from Adobe GoLive 6 to 7 CS meant a big slow down on the G4. Things became very sluggish, for whatever reason. On the G5, GoLive is back to the speed it had in version 6, if not faster. That alone is worth a lot of time saved to us.
The G5 is also quieter than the G4, at least ours is, although there are some teething problems with the power supply unit in some machines that cause a bit of a problem with noise. Apparently Apple is replacing the defective PSU pretty fast and it is a DIY job (they send you the part and you fit it yourself). I understand the percentage of users affected is not large.
The G5 takes very little desk space. There is a slight loss in the clearing space below the screen. On the G4 you have about 6/7 inches between the screen and the desk level. On the G5 the screen (=the computer!) is about 3 inches above the desk. But in terms of desk footprint, the 20" G5 is probably taking up one third of the 17" G4 base (is the 20" G4 wider?).
In terms of overall speed, it is clear that Panther is still slow in some respects. It copies files very fast for instance, but because of both the richness of the graphics and the amount of directory information contained, it is undeniable that the speed at which new windows are displayed in the Finder or in open/save dialog boxes could be improved. If you find the OS 'a little slow' on the G4, you will certainly see a difference on the G5. But I think the most noticeable difference is in application behaviour. I've seen some screenshots of Tiger at the appleinsider site and it looks as if they are streamlining the GUI, so I expect we'll get a speed improvement on that account alone.
If you look back to my posts over the past week or so, I have been saying how much we are liking our new iMac. Personally, I now like it even more than I like the G4 iMac, which I thought was a wonderful computer. These new iMacs take things to a new level. They are right: where has the computer gone? In the sense that now you've nothing standing between you and your work. You see your thoughts/ideas on screen and there is nothing between you and them, no knobs to fiddle with, no speaker grid, no slot, no cables (if you go Bluetooth, which i strongly recommend) no nothing: just the screen and your mind. Awesome.
Apparently, shipping times now are pretty quick, btw. So if you decide to go for it, it shouldn't take too long.
Walter
On 5 Oct 2004, at 20:32, iMac List wrote:
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 2004 15:47:02 -0500 Subject: How does the new 20" G5 iMac compare with the 20" G4 iMac? From: Jay Boshara <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
How does new 20" G5 iMac compare with the 20" G4 1.25 GHz iMac? Have people
begun to receive the new iMac yet (and if not, how long is the wait)? If
people have begun to receive it, is it much faster than the 1.25 iMac? If
so, what percent improvement do you think? Is it any quieter than the 1.25?
Does it take up substantially less desk space, especially in terms of depth?
The specs suggest that it is smaller, but I would like to hear from new
owners.
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