Power Mac G5/Dual 2.3GHz

Apple adds a dual-core processor -- two processing units on a single chip -- to its Power Mac line. The new desktops also add PCI Express, a high-performance interface that's particularly appealing to video pros. (To that end, the Power Mac line offers several video card build-to-order options above the Nvidia GeForce 6600 that comes standard on this model.) Also new: a double-layer SuperDrive, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, and faster DDR2 RAM.

Reviewed Full Review

Compared with their predecessors, the Power Mac G5 Dual models offer an array of new workstation-class capabilities, including impressive improvements in graphics, advanced networking, enormous memory capacity, and state-of-the-art expansion slots.

Pros: Very good performance; excellent graphics capabilities; huge memory capacity; PCI Express slots.

Cons: No improvement in performance compared with dual-processor model; no backward compatibility with PCI or PCI-X cards.

Basics

Reviewed Price: $2,499

Processor: Dual-core 2.3GHz PowerPC G5

Information about this system on Apple's website

Lab Tests

Speedmark 4.5 Score254
Cinema 4D XL 9.5.210:58
iMovie 6.0.10:36
iTunes 6.0.30:50
Photoshop CS20:54
Compressor
Unreal Tournament 200453.6fps
Tested ConfigurationMac OS X 10.4.5, 1GB of RAM

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