is G6 coming out anytime soon?

When did the G5 come out?

2003, Summer I believe, in the Powermac.

Is the G6 coming out
anytime soon

Short Answer: Nope. The G5 is the last of the Power PC CPUs that Apple is using, Last January they switched to Intel CPUs and motherboards, but you won't see any difference in the hardware or software (except much improved performance), unless you run some of the pro Apps. There are many reasons for abandoning the Power PC line but chief among them was that they were energy hogs and produced a lot of heat, ( the latest G5 Powermacs had to be liquid cooled! ). Today the entire line of Apple computers is Intel based, most sporting the new Core 2 Duo chips.

or would it still be a good idea to buy
a G5 now?

Well it up to you, but not from Apple, however you may get a discount from other resellers, as well you may be able to pick up a used one, but I would recommend one of the newer intel macs, and if you can wait, see what transpires at Macworld 2007 in January. Also be aware that Leopard ( OS X 10.5 ) is due out in a few months, and it will definitely take advantage of the new intel 64 bit CPUs. Don't worry there will be a version for the older PPCs too.

-Robert

And for the record, no one is calling it a G6. That alone leads me to answer your question with: If you can find a good deal on a 2005 G5, go for it. They're solid machines with lots of life left in them, and the new MacPro's are still pretty new, and pretty expensive.

Use the money you save to get more RAM or a big 2nd hard drive.

-K

Be sure to award points if we helped!

The G6 has come out...

Oh, this is really illuminating - I didn't realize
the new Intel-based Apple desktops weren't called
Power Macs because they don't have the Power PC
processor. That explains why they're called Mac Pros,
I guess? A different name for a different line?

Yup, Apple wanted to distinguish the new intel machines, the iMac is still named the iMac, iBook ---> MacBook, Powerbook ---> Macbook Pro, Powermac ---> Mac Pro, iMac (G5) ---> iMac. Personally, i find the new names slightly confusing !!

I have an iMac that's a few years old and it is just
so incredibly slow when I run all my programs at
once - Photoshop, Bridge, InDesign, Illustrator,
Dreamweaver, RIP software, iTunes, Safari, etc.!
It's gasping for breath and I always have to wait
eons for anything, and I work with huge photo files
which are bears to work with as well,

Have you considered adding some RAM, how much do you have now? With those apps you listed I would recommend 2GB Minimum RAM

so I want to
get a more powerful computer when I next get one. It
sounds like it would be a good idea if I wait for
Leopard to come out (which is when, anyone know?)

In August at WWDC 2006 Steve said that Leopard would be ready "this spring" and that's all we have officially for a date, but unofficially some rumour sites say it may be earlier, (take with a grain of salt) !! PS: Take a look at Apples website under Mac OS X Tab for a sneak Preview of Leopard, also if you have time watch the WWDC 2006 Keynote for a demo of it (at about the 30:00 min mark)

that waiting for Leopard, not a new version of the
computer, is what I should focus on.

Well its up to you, If you buy one now you will only have to upgrade to Leopard later ($), but the reason to wait until Macworld in early Jan is to see if Apple announces a "Speed Bump" in their machines. The Product cycling of Macs now that they have switched to intel is probably going to be shorter ( newer Machines come out more often ), so sooner or later you have to make the jump. From the Apps you listed as using you may want to go with the Mac Pro, of which there are over 5 million configurations available; and it is expandable in case you need to in the future. Whatever you choice, with your Apps, I would max out the RAM.

I really appreciate everyone's help - I'd love to
award points - should I just do that by clicking
solved or is there a rating system? Do I do it for
each person's reply or only the last?

Up to you. (you can mark mine as solved since I don't have any points yet .... 😉 smile!!)

-Robert

BTW What machine/config are you using now and what are you leaning towards in a new machine? maybe I can help.

I looked at the Leopard preview and Time Machine
looks amazing and sounds like a great idea! That will
be such a burden lifted, to have an automatic backup
occur.

Ya, Time Machine is going to be a Big feature, you should see the demo of it in action in the WWDC 2006 Keynote, about 30 min in. go apple - quicktime tab - apple events on the bottom right

I currently have an iMac running 10.3.9 with a
1.25GHz processor (?) and 1GB DDR SDRAM and 80GB
harddrive of which over half is filled up with, among
other things, large photo files.

OK the one with the round base, keep it, as a backup, its still good, but I would keep the HD less than 75% full.

I wish I could add
more RAM but my computer doesn't allow for any more
additions - 1BG is unfortunately the max. Kind of
unbelievable to think now, especially since I'm using
such RAM hungry programs.

Well its better than 512 MB!! I still use a PB G4 1.33 17".

BTW: Safari is a real CPU/memory hog especially if you have multiple tabs open, so I close it if i am not using it.


Maybe I should store all of

my files on an external harddrive always hooked up in
order to keep my main computer harddrive freed up?
But then what's the point of having a computer if you
have to store everything on a separate harddrive?

see above.

I want to get a Mac Pro with the new Intel chip (wave
of the future and faster) with tons of RAM - I really
think I'll save an hour a day of seconds, minutes
wasted waiting for stuff, or not being able to multi
task well.

Excellent choice, a real performance boost over the G4. I would start with 2 or 4 GB RAM (you can always add more memory later) and the "middle" graphics card the X1900 XT, why? because more and more OS X and the (Pro) Apps are utilizing the GPU as well as the CPUs. Core Image does this a lot, especially for converting/working with RAW image files, in iPhoto, Aperture. Really don't get stuck with a substandard card ( The NVIDIA GeForce 7300 ), even if you are not using any pro Apps (yet). You can visit the Aperture forum here:

http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=184

or this thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2612541&#2612541

Unfortunately when Aperture came out a year ago many bought the G5 Quad with the stock 6600 video card (rather than the 7800 or Quatro 4500 which were BTO - built to order ) which ended up being dog slow, and there was NO aftermarket upgrade cards. This caused a lot of consternation as people did not realize how much the video card was used by core image.



Why will there be a "speed bump" with new

intel machines; is it because they'll reach a broader
audience and Apple wants to release more frequently
to capitalize on that?

Well my guess is that intel releases chips more frequently than Apple/IBM/Freescale did with the Power PC.

Also there is rumours of an 8 core Mac Pro in the works, see:

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2176

and

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2236

Note that Adobe Apps and Microsoft Office run in "Rosetta" on intel Macs which is a PPC translator, they run fine but a little slower. Adobe plans to release CS3 this spring that is Universal (which means it will run natively on intel macs.

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2122

-Robert

According to this

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/stats/mac-pro-quad-2.66-specs.html

it was August 7, 2006

Apple stopped production of G5 computers in the middle of 2006. Now all Macs are Intel based. I`m reading alot of talk about Apple using AMD in the future ,but thats very hard to believe. They signed a big contract with Intel. To break it could kill Apple.

Powermac G5 dual 2.3Ghz PowerPC Mac OS X (10.4.5) 2 Gig Ram