Apple launches its gorgeous Power Mac G5, a powerhouse desktop computer with a perforated aluminum chassis that earns it the affectionate nickname “the cheese grater.” Starting at an affordable $1,999 ( , adjusted for inflation), the Power Mac G5 is the world’s first 64-bit personal computer. It’s also Apple’s fastest machine yet.
Inside its distinctive, anodized aluminum case, the Power Mac G5 boasted IBM’s PowerPC G5 CPU architecture. This provided a massive step up from the aging , which had been Apple’s high-end Mac from 1999 until 2002. Apple launched three different Power Mac G5 models running at 1.
6 GHz, 1.8 GHz and 2 GHz. All used the same , which offered higher clock speeds.
It also brought vastly improved (and massively parallel) computing capabilities. In advertisements, Apple touted the new computer’s speed when compared to PCs. The headline on one called the Power Mac G5 “ .
” “In side-by-side tests using industry-standard benchmarks, the [top end] dual 2.0-gigahertz Power Mac G5 is up to 41% faster than both the fastest Pentium 4 and dual-processor Xeon workstation,” Apple said. “And the results get even better when using real-world applications: the new Power Mac G5 runs Photoshop more than twice as fast as the fastest PCs.
” High-performance hardware Apple CEO Steve Jobs promised that a 3 GHz model would be available “within 12 months,” but it never happened. In fact, a Mac with a processor capable of running at that speed did not.
