"On top of that, if you actually compared it to an x86 compatible 64-biot chip on the market, i.e. the opteron, I'm sure you'd see much different numbers. (actually, I've seen preliminary results of specfp on an off the shelf opteron, and it was faster)"
The main difference here is the Opteron is not meant as a DESKTOP processor.
Not yet, no. The Opteron core will soon be used in Desktop chips, and will be named the Athlon 64. Meant specifically for desktop processors, with the same Opteron x86-64 core.
that was like a completely different language.
i understood "not yet, no."
that's pretty much it 
[Comment was edited by celtica on July 07, 2003 at 04:33:27 PM]
no, it is meant as a workstation processor, which is EXACTLY what apple is touting this as. Not to mention the athlon-64 is not going to be much different other than not having the memory controller in the cpu package and having SMP capability crippled. boxxtech sells dual opteron workstations you can get right now. Pricing is very similar to the dual g5 systems you cannot.
[Comment was edited by raz-00 on July 07, 2003 at 04:51:27 PM]
Ok... BOXX Tech System, configured like the Apple system:
Configuration
$4,265.00
Apple System: (With added RAM to equal the BOXX system)
$3,249.00
raz-00
can you read? In the single processor tests, the 2ghz p4 beats or comes within a very close margin of the g5. On top of that, they are comparing the p4 against it for floating point performance, which is not the p4's forte. Put a current athlon against it, and i'd bet the gap would vanish. It would probably vanish if you used a 3ghz p4 as well. Dollar cost wise, theya ren't comparing apples to apples.. so to speak. They draw a conclusion that it has more megaflops per mhz, which means jack shit. So does the athlon. But it's not like you can only fit so many megahertz in the computer rack, or there is some fixed pricing scheme based on Mhz. But dollar for dollar, it's basically on par with the 32-bit intel and amd processors.
On top of that, if you actually compared it to an x86 compatible 64-biot chip on the market, i.e. the opteron, I'm sure you'd see much different numbers. (actually, I've seen preliminary results of specfp on an off the shelf opteron, and it was faster)
Apple does finally have a competitive product, unfortunately theres is new while the competition is basically preparing to move on to the next thing. If theya re lucky, their CPU has the kind of headroom for improvement that the athlon processors had, which could leave the mac as a viable but slightly expensive choice rather than a seriously overpriced piece of hardware that gets smacked aorund like a red-headed stepchild when it comes to performance. It'd just be nice if apple didn't run their marketing campaign like bill clinton testifies about getting head.
[Comment was edited by raz-00 on July 07, 2003 at 01:31:18 PM]