Apple Announces New Towers: All Dual-Processes, Up To 1.25 GHz, Using Xserve Architecture (With Pic)

by , 9:00 AM EDT, August 13th, 2002

Apple has officially introduced the long-anticipated new PowerMac G4 tower line. The company has returned to an all-dual processor product mix with a dual 867 MHz model, a Dual 1 GHz model, and a new Dual 1.25 GHz model, representing a 25% increase in one fell swoop on the high end. All three models come with 2 MB of Level 3 Cache.

The company is also using the same architecture from its new Xserve rack mount server product that features support for up to 2 GB of DDR RAM, using either 266 MHz or 333 MHz modules, a major step up in RAM support on the pro tower line. The models will also feature ATI's brand new Radeon 9000 Pro graphics card with 64 MB of DDR RAM; customers can substitute a GeForce4 MX 32 MB card.

The new tower enclosures feature 4 drive bays, two bays for optical drives, 2 FireWire ports, and 4 USB ports. The units also feature Apple's standard, but industry leading, 10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet, and is AirPort ready.

All of the towers will come pre-installed with Jaguar, an official first appearance for Apple's new OS. Pricing for the units is similar to when the previous line was introduced, but only the Dual 867 MHz and Dual 1 GHz units are available now. The Dual 1.25 GHz units will be available in "the second half of September." The appearance of the new units is similar to the previous tower line, but with a new face plate. Apple's rather lengthy press release (we have a TMO Spin at the bottom, for those who wish to skip the press release):

Apple® today unveiled an all new Power Mac G4 line featuring dual PowerPC G4 processors in every model, starting at just $1,699 (US). With dual 1.25 GHz, dual 1 GHz and dual 867 MHz PowerPC G4 processors, the new Xserve™ high-performance architecture with support for up to 2GB of Double Data Rate (DDR) memory at up to 333 MHz, the industry's first ATI Radeon 9000 Pro graphics card and an enhanced enclosure with increased storage up to nearly half a terabyte, the new Power Macs are the fastest desktop workstations for creative professionals.

The new all dual processor Power Mac® G4 line also ships with Apple's new Mac® OS X version 10.2 "Jaguar" pre-installed, offering more than 150 amazing new features and applications. Taking advantage of "Jaguar's" advanced UNIX-based architecture and symmetric multiprocessing capabilities, the Power Mac G4 line delivers over 18 gigaflops (18 billion floating point operations per second), and runs professional applications like Adobe Photoshop up to 90 percent faster than a 2.53 GHz Pentium 4-based PC.*

"You can now get a dual-processor G4 system with Xserve architecture and DDR memory, pre-loaded with ‘Jaguar' for just $1,699," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "These are the fastest Macs ever, and ‘Jaguar' really makes the dual processors sing."

Bruce Chizen, president and CEO of Adobe, added, "These new Power Macs run Adobe Photoshop faster than any PC we've seen."

In addition to the super fast dual 1.25 GHz model, the new line also includes models with dual 1 GHz and dual 867 MHz processors; all with Velocity Engine and up to 2MB of advanced DDR backside level 3 cache per processor to further boost performance. All models also include next generation graphics technologies from NVIDIA and ATI, including the new ATI Radeon 9000 Pro with 64MB of DDR SDRAM, with a quad-pipe 3D engine and Smartshader technology for cinematic effects and realism. The combination of powerful graphic cards and "Jaguar's" groundbreaking Quartz™ Extreme compositor, provides customers with advanced workstation graphics capabilities that are light years ahead of any other platform. In addition, all Power Mac G4 models now include one ADC and one DVI port allowing users to drive two Apple flat-panel displays simultaneously.

The new Power Mac G4 line offers enhancements to its award-winning easy-access enclosure including four internal drive bays, each capable of hosting up to a 120GB ATA/100 drive, for a total of nearly a half a terabyte of internal storage; and two optical drive bays which can each hold a CD-RW, Combo or SuperDrive™ for burning DVDs and CDs.

The three-model Power Mac G4 line features:

a dual 867 MHz or a dual 1 GHz PowerPC G4 processor with Velocity Engine™ and 1MB backside L3 cache, and dual 1.25 GHz PowerPC G4 processor with Velocity Engine and 2MB of backside L3 cache;
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro with 64MB DDR SDRAM or NVIDIA GeForce4 MX with 32MB DDR SDRAM graphics and dual display support in all models;
support for 256 or 512MB of 266 MHz or 333 MHz DDR SDRAM, with support for up to 2GB;
four 3.5-inch hard disk drive expansion bays with either a 60GB, 80GB or 120GB Ultra ATA/100 hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
two external expansion drive bays, including support for a SuperDrive DVD-R/CD-RW and/or Combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW optical drive;
five slots, including four open high-performance 64 bit 33 MHz PCI slots and an 4x AGP slot for graphics;
two 400-Mbps FireWire ports and four 12-Mbps USB ports;
10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet built-in on the motherboard and AirPort® 802.11 wireless network ready;
a collection of productivity and professional software titles including Lemke Software Graphic Converter, Omni Group's OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner, Caffeine Software PixelNhance, and Ambrosia Software Snapz Pro X; in addition to Apple's suite of Digital Lifestyle applications including iMovie™, iPhoto™, iTunes™ and iDVD (requires SuperDrive); and
Mac OS X version 10.2 "Jaguar," Apple's next-generation operating system as the startup operating system, as well as Mac OS 9.2.2.

Pricing

The dual 867 MHz Power Mac G4, for a suggested retail price of $1,699 (US), includes:

256K on-chip level 2 cache and 1MB of DDR SRAM backside level 3 cache per processor;
256MB of DDR SDRAM;
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX with 32MB DDR SDRAM in 4x AGP slot;
60GB Ultra ATA/100 7200 rpm hard disk drive; and
Combo DVD-ROM/CR-RW optical drive.

The dual 1 GHz Power Mac G4, for a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:

256K on-chip level 2 cache and 1MB of DDR SRAM backside level 3 cache per processor;
256MB of DDR DRAM memory;
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro graphics card with 64MB DDR SDRAM in 4x AGP slot;
80GB Ultra ATA/100 7200 rpm hard disk drive; and
SuperDrive DVD-R/CD-RW optical drive.

The dual 1.25 GHz Power Mac G4, for a suggested retail price of $3,299 (US), includes:

256K on-chip level 2 cache and 2MB of DDR SRAM backside level 3 cache per processor;
512MB of DDR SDRAM memory;
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro graphics card with 64MB DDR SDRAM in 4x AGP slot;
120GB Ultra ATA/100 7200 rpm hard disk drive; and
SuperDrive DVD-R/CD-RW optical drive.

* Based on commonly used operations in Adobe Photoshop 7.0.

You can find the new units at the Apple Store now, as well as Apple's PowerMac page.

The Mac Observer Spin:

A 25% increase on the high end, along with the inexpensiveness of the dual 867 MHz models are very good news indeed. No doubt there are some in the Mac community who will be disappointed that Apple didn't introduce quad-processor 3 GHz P4s, but we think that the reality of a 25% increase on the high end is a very Good Thing™. The other improvements such a the Level 3 Cache, support for the faster RAM, and support for up to 2 GB of RAM make the new towers one of the best new models in a very long time. These units should scream with things such as Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, and 3D apps, and they should also make very good gaming platforms. We are delighted with the new units.

PowerMac G4 Page