Apple Announced New Power Mac G5--Dual 2.5 GHz, Liquid Cooling, ATI Radeon 9600 XT and 8X SuperDrive

Yesterday, Apple announced a new top-end Power Mac G5 (PMG5) which raised the maximum CPU speed to 2.5 GHz and this model gets two of them at $2999. In fact, all three PMG5 models are now dualies with the other two models getting the dual 1.8 ($1999) and 2.0 GHz ($2499) G5 CPUs of the previous mid- and top-end models. The new top-end PMG5 also gets a redesigned cooling system which includes liquid cooling and an improved base graphics card, an ATI 9600 XT. All Power Mac G5s get 8X DVD-burning SuperDrives.

When the PMG5 was introduced last June at WWDC 2003 by Steve Jobs in his keynote address, he announced to a huge applause that the G5, maxed then at 2.0 GHz, would reach 3.0 GHz by the summer of 2004 approaching the 3+ GHz of Intel CPUs. Well, the newest PMG5 closes only half the gap but it still represents a 25% increase, a significant increase. According to Apple's speed tests, the new dual 2.5 GHz PMG5 beat a 3.4 GHz Pentium 4 by nearly 100% on Photoshop operations where speed is money. It also beat a dual 3.2 GHz Intel Xeon PC by over 70%. The new PMG5 also demonstrated similar performance superiority over top Intel boxes in video, imaging, audio and bioscientific processing.

All this power creates heat and the new dual 2.5 GHz PMG5 has a new cooling system design, including liquid cooling for the G5 CPUs. It still uses 9 quiet fans in four "zones" contolled by many heat sensors but the lower case where the CPUs are looks cleaner.

The new ATI 9600 XT base graphics card is better that the 9600 Pro that came with the former top of the line 2-GHz model. It's faster and has more VRAM (128 vs 64 MB). The optional 9800 XT is faster and has more VRAM (256 vs 128 MB) than the previous optional 9800 Pro.

The SuperDrive in our dual 2-GHz PMG5 burns DVDs at 4X but the new PMG5s all get 8X SuperDrives. Here are the specs for all three current models: