Does DP 7 Need an intel mac ?

[Gone To Lunch]

Anyone out there happy with DP7 on a G5 rather than intel Mac ? The price difference here in the UK is substantial... A top spec G5 is alot cheaper than a Mac Pro.... Leaving more money for session fees...

[sdfalk]

Of Course it doesn't "need" an Intel Mac, but A top spec Mac will blow the doors off of
a quad core G5.
But You'll also be able to run far more VI's and higher end
plugins on an Intel Mac then a G5.
It depends on your needs I guess.
Remember support for software for any PPC mac is starting to dry up.
Sooner (rather then later) DP will be Intel only.

Let me add a Quad core intel Mac will blow the doors of a G5 as well..

[n2mpujack]

And if the OP ever decides to go to ProTools PPC support has been dropped in the latest revision (8.0.3). Sadly so has dae/DP functionality.

[NealF]

I'm a little confused. Aren't all the new G5s Intel? I assumed they were. So when you're differentiating between Intel and G5 do you mean an old G5 compared to the newer one? Or are the latest towers not called G5s anymore.

I'm on a G5 PPC. It's a dual core single proc. running Leopard. I can't afford the newer computer but I'm wondering if I should upgrade to DP7 from DP6. And also if on this computer I should upgrade to Snow Leopard.

Thanks.

[newrigel]

I'm a little confused. Aren't all the new G5s Intel? I assumed they were. So when you're differentiating between Intel and G5 do you mean an old G5 compared to the newer one? Or are the latest towers not called G5s anymore.

I'm on a G5 PPC. It's a dual core single proc. running Leopard. I can't afford the newer computer but I'm wondering if I should upgrade to DP7 from DP6. And also if on this computer I should upgrade to Snow Leopard.

Thanks.

Two complete different animals Neil... The Intels are a PC chip (Intel) whether the PPC's were an IBM POWER RISC processor... I think Apple should have stuck with the POWER PC RISC processors IMHO but IBM was dragging their asses to the "power per watt" game (they didn't care they are more into pure DSP power for scientific research and super computers for defense etc).
IBMs new POWER 6 architecture is a MONSTER architecture and makes the Intel stuff look like a toy! Plus, all the Hackintoshers can go back to using their crap PC's and leave OS X alone. But do a search of the POWER 6 and read up on them... blows Intels stuff away as usual! I sure hope they go back! It would be funny if Apple did because they already have the infrastructure to do it. Who knows, they could @ any time and I wouldn't blame Jobs decision for doing it (hackintosh, and performance overall).
I can see it now "and another thing" "We're going back to the POWER PC format" he he...
I'm wondering if those POWER 6 processors have the same sockets as the G5's?

[NealF]

Ah. So what was confusing me was I thought that even the new Intel Macs were still called G5. Looks like they're called Mac Pro.
We'll I'm not getting a new computer for a while so who knows, maybe they'll go back like you suggested.

Do you know if it makes a difference to use DP7 AND upgrade to Snow if I'm still on the G5?

Thanks.

[audios]

Ah. So what was confusing me was I thought that even the new Intel Macs were still called G5. Looks like they're called Mac Pro.
We'll I'm not getting a new computer for a while so who knows, maybe they'll go back like you suggested.

Do you know if it makes a difference to use DP7 AND upgrade to Snow if I'm still on the G5?

Thanks.

As you can see by my signature below, I'm running DP 7.02 on a G5 PPC with OS 10.4.11 and it RAWKS.

Way better than v. 6.02. More stable, faster and less crash issues. I won't be going to Leopard after reading more cons than pros about upgrading from 10.4.11. For all i do, the G5 works incredibly well. I see no need to shell out $3-4K (including 16G memory) for an Intel MAC and especially when they just might go back to IBM chip sets.

[NealF]

Great. That's what I was hoping to hear. I'm sticking with what I've got for a while. But I will upgrade to 7.

Thanks a lot.

[Frodo]

Do you know if it makes a difference to use DP7 AND upgrade to Snow if I'm still on the G5?

Snow Leopard is for Intel Macs only, btw.

[NealF]

Didn't know that. Thanks.

[Kellog]

Happy to reply here that I too use a G5 dual 2.7, w/OS 10.4.11 and just upgraded to DP7. So far (only a few days truthfully) it is working PERFECTLY. No crashes, no snags, just does what I paid for. And the catch phrase "seems snappier" is true in my perception. Granted, I haven't worked with MIDI much yet (just audio and Stylus RMX) so I'm not sure if there are any stuck note issues yet (hope not). Also, I installed the "Darkmod" thats available from 'iperformer' and it is handsome and seems stable as well. Good luck!

[NealF]

I just ordered it. Sounds like a no brainer.
Thanks.

[mhschmieder]

As I've mentioned in a few other posts, I have found DP 7 to perform better on my G4 than DP 6 did, and even DP 6 for the most part performed better than DP 5, so kudos to MOTU for testing so many platform combinations at a time when most vendors barely support last year's gear.

[newrigel]

Ah. So what was confusing me was I thought that even the new Intel Macs were still called G5. Looks like they're called Mac Pro.
We'll I'm not getting a new computer for a while so who knows, maybe they'll go back like you suggested.

Do you know if it makes a difference to use DP7 AND upgrade to Snow if I'm still on the G5?

Thanks.

From about 50 feet you can see the difference because the Mac Pros have 2 optical slots and the G5's have only 1. The cases are identical but the new Mac Pros are going to change that too...

[Armageddon]

I love Tiger (I'm on an Intel MacBook) and I'm frightened of my impending upgrade to Snow Leopard, but what concerns me is that the train will eventually leave the station and working with Tiger will become akin to working with Classic or, worse, 10.1. For an Intel user, it probably makes a lot more sense to upgrade, whereas Tiger is probably the last fully PPC-supported OS (and hearing all the horror stories about Leopard makes me glad I skipped that one!). I'm also planning on snagging a Nehalem iMac in the near future -- something the OP should consider in lieu of a tower, maybe? -- and I want to make sure all my plugs and VIs work in the Snow Leopard environment. I believe a few people on here have claimed that 6.03 behaves a lot better with Snow Leopard/Intel systems, and I'm holding off on upgrading to 7 for a little while longer, so I hope it's true.

Back on topic, have you considered at least snagging a Mac Mini? They're reasonably priced, you can use all your G5 peripherals (and even keep both simultaneously going via a switcher box), they take up about as much space as a DVD drive, and while they're not as fast a Mac Pro, you'd at least have an Intel Mac around til the economy gets better. Failing that, start browsing MacWarehouse.com and places like that for "blowout deals", where they try and get rid of their "antiquated" stock, like pre-Nehalem towers. As for using a G5, I think Apple and most third-party developers are aware of the huge popularity of G5 towers with musicians/home and studio engineers, and while they're pushing everybody forward, I don't think, especially with times being what they are, that they're gonna alienate that group just yet.