Apple announced their first set of machines based around an Intel processor, the MacBook Pro and the iMac. They’re claiming both machines significantly outperform the ones they’re replacing. Very easy to believe for the Powerbooks, since those were running 6 year old processors at three year old clockspeeds. The iMac isn’t so clear. Since they’ve all gained dual core processors, concurrent applications or usage patterns will probably benefit, and the ATI Radeon X1600 will certainly help the case, but will we really see across-the-board performance improvements of 2 times or more?
The 2001 dual 500 Mhz G4 I’m using to write this post is long past the point of seeming dated, but I’m going to hold out as long as I can before replacing it with the latest and greatest. I had a strong inclination to pick up one of the new iMacs, but I’m worried about application compatibility early on, and quite frankly, Apple has had a poor track record with first-generation products. There’s also the drive issue — how long will I have to wait before I can get a good printer driver for my Canon Pixma IP5000 printer and my HP Scanjet 4670 scanner? I probably shouldn’t be so worried about the printer, because there’s always gimp-print, but the scanner is definitely something to watch.
Sure, I could always hook it all up to the old G4 and use file and printer sharing to solve the problems, but then I’d be taking up even more space with computer gadgets than I am now, and one of the upgrade rationalizations for an iMac is to save space and clutter.
Don’t get me wrong, I still want one, but I’m trying to hold out.
Two things I read today.
1) From the reports I’ve read the performance using Rosetta is good enough to mimic the previous generation iMacs (i.e. 1.9Ghz G5). It apparently runs without the usual trauma of something like Classic, or Virtual PC.
2) The drivers for your current equipment should run just fine in Rosetta since it’s an integral part of the OS
For me, the inclusion of a great GPU and the ability to span an external DVI display (albeit with a $19 additional adapter) were the selling points.
If you want, I’ll load the drivers on mine when it comes in and we can see if it will work. I am just as curious at this point.
Oh, I almost forgot to add that Java is native (i386 from Sun) and apparently it screams. I hadn’t really thought about it, but the i386 version always was faster.
That’s great news about the JVM. I wonder when Apple will bother to ship a recent Java3D?