Geek Talk: Using PowerPC Macs in 2011?

Episode 2 of my new 'Geek Talk' series. Please leave your feedback!
Thanks for watching and I hope you all enjoy...

http://www.twitter.com/tom_j_smith

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Using PowerPC Macs in 2011?
• PPC
• OSX
• Apple
• Mac
• Steve Jobs
• PowerMac G5
• G4
• PowerBook

[17fattys]

Hey, thinking of buying a 2GHz dual CPU G5 to replace my pentium 4 pc. i only really use iTunes, Google chrome, Macromedia Fireworks, Flash, Dreamweaver as well as office and python. Should i buy a G5?

[ItsMyNaturalColour]

@17fattys The latest versions of Dreamweaver don't run on PowerPC Macs. Google Chrome doesn't support PPC at all. Adobe have either stopped releasing Flash updates for PPC or they will do very soon. Not too sure about the other programs you mentioned. It's worth a research to see what runs :) But you can pretty much guarantee that most developers will ditch PPC some time this year.

[vincentlm77]

I'm making a website on PowerPC macs in 2012. I have done extensive research and from what I can tell, when you get the right software, a G4 is still a very good machine (I don't own any G5s). Here's a little sneak peak of the kind of info I will post on that website:

This one is for Apple... Did you know a supposedly "obsolete" G4 Quicksilver single 933 mhz can play Vimeo HD 720p videos?? Did you know a dual 1.42 ghz MDD can play 1080p HD? Min req Core2duo for 720p... Really Apple??

[ItsMyNaturalColour]

@vincentlm77 That's a really good idea. It's good to keep things like PowerPC alive for the people who can still find a use for them.

About the HD thing, I had a Single 933Mhz Quicksilver and it was a slug. lol. And my 1.5Ghz PowerBook couldn't play 720p. The Dual G4's are closer to the mark and it's usable with HD content :)

[vincentlm77]

@ItsMyNaturalColour You need to get CorePlayer and tweak up the preferences a bit to get these magic results. But this IS really working nice. Quicktime is sluggish, its the real culprit, thats why a 933 is enough for HD 720p with CorePlayer but you need a Core2Duo to play HD nicely with Quicktime. If you still have your PowerBook around, you could try that. My 1.67Ghz PB plays HD just fine.

[ItsMyNaturalColour]

@vincentlm77 I've never tried CorePlayer. Sounds interesting :) I always used VLC player to play my media on PPC Macs.

[TheAngryAppleNerd]

hey tom i remember when i was an mac noob asking you loads of questions haha i have learned so much in that time im just want to say thanks for all the video and help and now have my self an imac 21.5 I5

[007Knightjp]

To be honest, I found a really good deal on a Powermac G5 DP / 2GB Ram / AGP graphics, etc. My main uses are just web browsing with the very occasional video editing and photoshop. Besides that, I learning Ojective-C which means I'm getting into programming. Would you suggest I get myself a Mac Mini or a go for the G5.

[rocktheflare]

by the way its a g5 quad 2.5. 4gb ram. u think it can handle?

[rocktheflare]

wish i could have seen this sooner but i just bought a high spec powermac with intentions to edit with finalcut 7 to find out its not compatible. SHOULD i switch to an older edit software or just get rid of this thing?

[MysterySoftware]

I can understand you, I have a really nice G3 iBook and 2 PowerPC G4 here and I love them.

[RonjaMiin]

I just bought an old G5 (late 2005) - Dual 2GHz

I only get 1000 in Geekbench but other Dualcore powermacs get 2000 ... why?

[ImAwesomeProductions]

Nice video, the first time I saw this I decided on what I wanted in my setup, MacBook Pro, Quad G5 with 3 monitors, and my current laptop with Windows 7, Ubuntu, or Chrome OS (I haven't decided).

[packernicholas]

Nice Video

[trainman665]

I would of watched this the whole way through if our internet could actually do something. It has taken 30 minutes to load 50 seconds of video. The big internet boffins probably wont install faster internet in my area as its not worth it (they wont make enough money). I will be looking forward to getting 4G internet when it comes out! It's supposed to be faster than broadband!

[17fattys]

@ItsMyNaturalColour Ahh im not bothered about running the latest versions of software as most developers have stopped supporting single core CPUs under windows, its Chrome thats the most annoying. Might still get a G5 though, for £150 for 2ghz dual its still not a bad machine and defiantly an improvement on my p4 machine.