Apple Power Mac G5

> But what other advantage did this give them? Like name specific examples. Feel free to leave, but I honestly don't see where you're coming from. Back when Apple used Intel processors, they were at the mercy of Intel's roadmap; if Intel missed a deadline for a new chip, Apple had to change plans. Obviously, that's no longer the case. Back in the Motorola/IBM days, their G5 processor ran so hot that Apple had to create a special case with 7 fans to cool it. It was an amazing engineering feat, but something Apple would never do unless they had no choice. I've used a Power Mac G5—it sounded like a jet taking off, and the fans stayed on. [2] They get to integrate new technologies quicker than being constrained by the industry. Apple launched the first 64-bit smartphone, the iPhone 5s, in 2013—at least a year before any Android manufacturer could. And when Qualcomm finally shipped a 64-bit processor, no version of Android supported it. [1] There are dozens of examples where Apple's vertical integration has allowed them to stay a step ahead of competitors. The latest is the C1 modem that shipped in the iPhone 16e. Because the C1 is much more efficient than Qualcomm's modem, the 16e gets better battery life than the more expensive iPhone 16 with Qualcomm's modem. [3] And because Qualcomm's licensing fees are a percentage of the cost of the device it's in, shipping the C1 enables them to put modems in laptops. The Qualcomm fee is significant: an iPad Air starts at $599; the same iPa…

Funnily enough I mentioned this on here a few days ago. Steve Jobs when announcing the G5 said they would have a 3Ghz model available in 12 months, and a G5 laptop. It never happened. Was a big reason in why they moved to Intel. I had a dual 2Ghz G5 Powermac, I used to call it 'Steve's folly' because when you had it going at full speed, you knew it by the excessive fan noise. They just ran too hot. When the Intel Mac mini release and it ran faster than the G5 using only about 1/10th the power, we knew it was done. PA Semi developed their PWRffcient PPC chips to be pitched to Apple. They solved all the issues of thermals and performance ceilings but by that time it was too late as the Intel transition was in action. Apple purchased PA Semi and they now do all the Apple silicon stuff. Thus I say PWRffcient was the best job application you have ever seen.

Funny you mention that machine I still have one of those laying around. It was a very cool machine indeed with a very capable graphics card but that's about it. It did some things better/faster than a Pentium III PC but only if you went for the bottom of the barrel unit and crippled the software support (MMX just like another reply mentioned). On top of that Intel increased frequency faster than Apple could handle. And after the release of the Pentium 4, the G4s became very noncompetitive so fast that one would question what could save Apple (later, down the road, Intel it turns out). They tried to salvage it with the G5s but those came with so many issues that even their bi-proc water-cooled were just not keeping up. I briefly owned of those after repairing it for "free" using 3 of them, supposedly dead; the only thing worth a dam in that was the GPU. Extremely good hardware in many ways but also very weak for so many things that it had to be used only for very specific tasks, otherwise a cheap Intel PC was much better. Which is precisely why right after they went with Intel. After years of subpar performance on laptops because they were stuck at G4 (not even high frequency). Now I know from your other comments that you are a very strong believer and I'll admit that there were many reasons to use a Mac (software related) but please stop pretending they were performance competitive because that's just bonkers. If they were, the Intel switch would never have happend in the fir…