Apple Power Mac G5 Turnkey Video Editing Computer Review (page 2)

We did fire up an HP xw4100 (single CPU 3.0GHz P4, 1GB RAM: reviewed September 2003) for some head-to-head Mac vs. PC action. Granted, the single CPU Windows machine is not the latest and greatest (released in mid-2003), but the two machines are roughly in the same class. We ran the dual-platform CINEBENCH 2003 (www.cinebench.com) 3D rendering benchmark, which showed the G5 to be faster overall, with a very significant performance gain (40%) when the bench took advantage of the dual processors. Again, this wasn't a fair fight, since the PC only had a single CPU, but we think the numbers are interesting nonetheless.

Of course, 3D is not the same as video, so we also ran some tests using After Effects 6. We found that, in general, the G5 was consistently but only slightly faster (3-5%) on all basic multi-layer compositing tasks. Many effects, however, were significantly faster under Windows. For example, a Gaussian Blur was almost twice as fast on the Windows machine. We can't generalize from these results, but speculate that AE6 is better optimized for the older 32-bit Windows platform. If Adobe spends the time to optimize the code for the 64-bit Mac, we should see significant improvements.

In general, applications optimized for 64-bit processing will be much faster on the G5, but most legacy 32-bit apps will also be faster, simply because the machine as a whole is faster. The machine is quicker than the fastest G4 and it will go toe-to-toe with the fastest PCs we've seen. While we are not prepared to crown it "World's Fastest," 64-bit computing is the future and your next Mac will be a 64-bit machine. Dropping that into conversation may not get you any phone numbers at your next cocktail party, but it will impress the geeks.

As this article was closing, Apple released G5-optimized video software, including Final Cut Pro 4.1 and Compressor 1.1. We barely had time to include this note, much less re-run all of our benchmarks with the new software. Our "un-optimized" numbers were quite speedy, however, so we suspect that the new software won't disappoint.

Platform: Macintosh
OS: Mac OS X v10.2.7
CPU: dual 2.0GHz PowerPC G5
RAM: 2GB (1GB per processor/PC3200)
Hard Drive: 160GB System (7,200 rpm, Serial ATA)
Sound card: integrated, digital output
Display card: ATI Radeon 9600 (64MB)
Disc Writer: SuperDrive 4x DVD-R/RW
Additional Hardware: 1x FireWire 800, 2x FireWire 400, 3x USB 2.0, 2x USB 1.0, 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11g wireless, keyboard/mouse
Editing Software: iLife suite
Apple Cinema 23-inch HD Display: $1,999
MPEG-2 Render (2-pass VBR): 17fps

• Top Mac performance
• Stem-to-stern improvements
• 64-bit ready for the future

• Limited space for additional hard disks
• LiveType was slow

The Mac is back with a killer G5, improved from the ground up.

$2,999
Apple
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
(408) 996-1010
www.apple.com

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