Hi all. Before I begin let me say this question is to gain opinions, I'm not here to cause trouble. My observation is this. I had a 20" G5 iMac for about 12 months. It was my first mac after switching from windows so obviously I'm a relative newcomer and certainly no expert. I couldn't have been happier with the G5, for what I wanted it ran sweet as a nut with no issues and I was extremely glad I made the switch from using PC's. When the 24" version was released I knew I had to have it and upgraded straight away. Well, it's working ok but compared to the G5, just ok. It just doesnt seem to cope with things as well. When it runs properly it's much faster so I cant complain on that front but I do seem to have had many more issues than I ever did previously with random beachballs, applications not responding and safari grinds to a halt regularly. Here's a random thought, lets assume for arguments sake the problems that plague PC's are 90% windows and 10% architecture. Now the architecture has made it's way over so some of the issues appear to have followed it. Just my newbies opinion but I'd really like to hear if others going from G5 to Intel have noticed a gain in performance but a drop in reliability.
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New iMac 24" Not running smoooothly.
- Thread starter amf666
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I have to agree, to some extent at least.
I went from a G4 mini to a 24" imac, and have noticed a degree of flakiness I never had on the tried and true ppc-side.
Nothing serious or often, but occassionaly I get some garbled letters in Finder, sometimes the ipods aren't recognized when plugged in, and Safari has quit unexpectedly several times.
I used to do maitainance "just because," but now I do it "because..."
I attribute these so far minor occurences to the relatively new system; UB apps, ppc apps, new hardware all trying to get along. It'll work out eventually.
In the mean time I have a machine that feels a hundred times faster.
edit:
After writing the above, my computer took exception to the remarks and locked up, so that I had to do a power-button shutdown and restart. Safari has quit 2 times since, itunes got some scrambled letters, my USB external drive seems to be having difficulty and...a few more things
I went from a G4 mini to a 24" imac, and have noticed a degree of flakiness I never had on the tried and true ppc-side.
Nothing serious or often, but occassionaly I get some garbled letters in Finder, sometimes the ipods aren't recognized when plugged in, and Safari has quit unexpectedly several times.
I used to do maitainance "just because," but now I do it "because..."
I attribute these so far minor occurences to the relatively new system; UB apps, ppc apps, new hardware all trying to get along. It'll work out eventually.
In the mean time I have a machine that feels a hundred times faster.
edit:
After writing the above, my computer took exception to the remarks and locked up, so that I had to do a power-button shutdown and restart. Safari has quit 2 times since, itunes got some scrambled letters, my USB external drive seems to be having difficulty and...a few more things
I think that both of you have already said the answer: intel OSX is new, and ever so slightly flaky. Within a few months, I'd be surprised if there is any difference between the two CPUs. After all, 10.3.9 is the most reliable OS I've ever used.
David
David
I have to agree, my Intel iMac is more "buggy" than my various PPC systems. I'm sure it'll be fixed in time though
I had and still have some of the same issues with Safari. Every now and then, it will just shut down. The same goes for my Nikon software. But ya know what, when it does shut down, yeah, its aggravating sometimes, especially when I'm working on a photo or something, but it has never locked up the system or shut the entire thing down thanks to the Apple architecture.
OSX is not perfect, whether on a PPC or Intel platform, but when it does fart, there is no smell. Now Windows XP farts can kill after the first whiff.
OSX is not perfect, whether on a PPC or Intel platform, but when it does fart, there is no smell. Now Windows XP farts can kill after the first whiff.
I have the exact same problem here, on my MacBook, especially noticed in Safari - for some odd reason it just quits. Hm. It'll be fixed overtime, plus, Leopard is going to be optimized for Intel, so that might help. Just hold on, the issues will smooth out - I mean, it hasn't even been a year that Intel has been in Macs! Give 'er time.
How helpful.
I've had some small issues with my MBP, but downgrading to 10.4.7 fixed them for me. As for the OS being more stable for PPC, I have to disagree. Steve told us at the keynote that Apple has been compiling Mac OS X for both architectures side-by-side since day 1, so I don't understand how one of them can be more stable than the other.
The proof is in the pudding not in the pudding ad, as it were.I've had some small issues with my MBP, but downgrading to 10.4.7 fixed them for me. As for the OS being more stable for PPC, I have to disagree. Steve told us at the keynote that Apple has been compiling Mac OS X for both architectures side-by-side since day 1, so I don't understand how one of them can be more stable than the other.
Did you use the migration assistant which appeared the first time you booted up the Mac? This have caused some people to have slower systems, because PPC settings and .plist files have been copied, and since those are not native, it will always run slower.
However, as you say your iMac is plenty fast, but buggy, true. I've had a few crashes with Safari and once with iPhoto. VLC also when I had it. My brothers iBook as a comparison had 1 crash with Safari ever, in the now 3 years he owned it.
This is mostly due to the processor, since the PowerPC was capable of doing stuff, Intel chips can't ever dream of. They could overcome divide by 0 errors. It's hard to explain excactly what but this is one of the reasons Intel machines are more unstable.
It is also however due to the OS. Mac OS X 10.4 was never written from the ground up for Intel, and therefore won't work as good and snappy as on PPC's. This is why I'm upgrading to Leopard. For $129 ($99) you get not only the awesome new features (trust me, there's more than they showed us at WWDC), you also get a highly noticeable performance and reliability jump, so it's almost like owning a blazing fast, Windows running Intel Mac, with the reliability of a PowerPC. You wanna upgrade?
However, as you say your iMac is plenty fast, but buggy, true. I've had a few crashes with Safari and once with iPhoto. VLC also when I had it. My brothers iBook as a comparison had 1 crash with Safari ever, in the now 3 years he owned it.
This is mostly due to the processor, since the PowerPC was capable of doing stuff, Intel chips can't ever dream of. They could overcome divide by 0 errors. It's hard to explain excactly what
but this is one of the reasons Intel machines are more unstable.It is also however due to the OS. Mac OS X 10.4 was never written from the ground up for Intel, and therefore won't work as good and snappy as on PPC's. This is why I'm upgrading to Leopard. For $129 ($99) you get not only the awesome new features (trust me, there's more than they showed us at WWDC), you also get a highly noticeable performance and reliability jump, so it's almost like owning a blazing fast, Windows running Intel Mac, with the reliability of a PowerPC. You wanna upgrade?
A lot of people have issues with Safari Beach Balling depending on where
they go.
Sometimes it's the information coming from the web site itself that is causing problems.
Being on dial-up makes this more noticeable than ever especially when downloading .pdfs
Of course PPC applications are going to be different under Rosetta emulation
and the newer UB versions still could use a few tweaks.
Hopefully Leopard will solve some of these issues, but it's still going to be a work in progress as software engineers learn how to take advantage of all this new muti-core architecture and re-write to Universal Binary.
they go.
Sometimes it's the information coming from the web site itself that is causing problems.
Being on dial-up makes this more noticeable than ever especially when downloading .pdfs
Of course PPC applications are going to be different under Rosetta emulation
and the newer UB versions still could use a few tweaks.
Hopefully Leopard will solve some of these issues, but it's still going to be a work in progress as software engineers learn how to take advantage of all this new muti-core architecture and re-write to Universal Binary.
My two biggest gripes about OS X for ppc (I have not confirmed it on an Intel machine):
1. When viewing a pdf in safari, it freezes with the beachball until the document has been loaded and is viewable. This is the most stupid thing ever, seeing as pdfs are NEVER quick to load due to size.
2. When mounting another network drive and the network drive shutting down (for instance if it's another mac laptop that goes to sleep), or you sleep your computer while mounted, os x will freeze for 2 minutes before it's gathered that yes, the network drive is not there anymore! SURPRISE!
It's very annoying and limiting for some work when you need to stay connected all the time.
1. When viewing a pdf in safari, it freezes with the beachball until the document has been loaded and is viewable. This is the most stupid thing ever, seeing as pdfs are NEVER quick to load due to size.
2. When mounting another network drive and the network drive shutting down (for instance if it's another mac laptop that goes to sleep), or you sleep your computer while mounted, os x will freeze for 2 minutes before it's gathered that yes, the network drive is not there anymore! SURPRISE!
It's very annoying and limiting for some work when you need to stay connected all the time.
reviving this thread
my new imac came yesterday, and i have had two problems...
1. after waking from sleeping, apps beachball, and after an initial 5-10 second beachball, they are just as snappy (can also happen randomly if i go back to an app i haven't used for a while)
2. the HD and DVD drive seem much more noisy than on my 12in powerbook
is this normal?
will the santa rosa update make much of a difference, should i send this one back and wait a little while longer?
my new imac came yesterday, and i have had two problems...
1. after waking from sleeping, apps beachball, and after an initial 5-10 second beachball, they are just as snappy (can also happen randomly if i go back to an app i haven't used for a while)
2. the HD and DVD drive seem much more noisy than on my 12in powerbook
is this normal?
will the santa rosa update make much of a difference, should i send this one back and wait a little while longer?
Yeah I have the same thing with my mac pro. But now the you mention the plist I copied some over for certain apps via an external hard drive manually.
my third replacment still has the brightness hum and airport issues, and yes it does seem slower and flakier than my imac g5 which is just unexcusable. i wish id just waited for blu-ray imacs
They could overcome divide by 0 errors. It's hard to explain excactly what
Wow. Thats like saying "How many 'nothings' go into [insert number here]?". The answer is infinity, btw.
I wonder how much memory these people have that are complaining about the beachballs? Apple is famous for selling new Macs with a little less then optimum memory needs.
blu-ray imacs? lol
have you seen teh quality of blu-ray? i have both formats
hd dvd stand alone player and the ps3 for blue-ray i have 3 blu-ray movies and 16 hd dvd.
not only me but everybody i show agree that hd dvd looks way better then hd grainy look on some movies.
i have yet to see grains on any hd dvd. I SEE it all the time on the xmen 3-and sleepy hallow. Talladega nights suffer from it as well.
i have a 1080p tv set so i know is not my tv at fault.
so 1nce again why blu-ray?
have you seen teh quality of blu-ray? i have both formats
hd dvd stand alone player and the ps3 for blue-ray i have 3 blu-ray movies and 16 hd dvd.
not only me but everybody i show agree that hd dvd looks way better then hd grainy look on some movies.
i have yet to see grains on any hd dvd. I SEE it all the time on the xmen 3-and sleepy hallow. Talladega nights suffer from it as well.
i have a 1080p tv set so i know is not my tv at fault.
so 1nce again why blu-ray?
my third replacment still has the brightness hum and airport issues, and yes it does seem slower and flakier than my imac g5 which is just unexcusable. i wish id just waited for blu-ray imacs
I have a 24" imac....and am selling it, I just bought a old imac 15" superdrive for 369.00...LOL till the next macs come out!
Well, also stuff like Kernel extensions and a higher floating point performance are advantages of the PPC. The only advantages we really get are speedier and windows running macs, but I'm sure Intel will get their ass together and pwn IBM...
Re: some of these comments:
I started as fresh as could be, i.e. i didn't transfer any files from my PPC.
I have 2 GBs of memory.
Only twice has it really locked up, the second time I attribute to a Parallels bug.
I really like my iMac 24", and I'm not going to ditch it. It may take Leopard to make me "love" it, however.
I started as fresh as could be, i.e. i didn't transfer any files from my PPC.
I have 2 GBs of memory.
Only twice has it really locked up, the second time I attribute to a Parallels bug.
I really like my iMac 24", and I'm not going to ditch it. It may take Leopard to make me "love" it, however.
I have a 24" iMac, 45 days using it and I never had a system crash or had to restart the computer when I didn't want to, it gives me no problems coming from sleep also
However, I can compare directly since all day I'm working on an eMac (1ghz G4, 512 RAM, OSX 10.3.9) and from my experience, the 24" is a much faster machine, it doesn't even compare... yet, the Tiger Intel does seem more "sluggish" sometimes and has some minor bugs that can be seen with use. I never had an application crash on me on the eMac, and in the iMac at home I had several of them in 40 days, including Font Book blocking to never open again, it crashes immediately once I open it. Still, it's the best machine I've ever had... no doubt about it
I hope these OSX issues will all be fixed with Leopard.
However, I can compare directly since all day I'm working on an eMac (1ghz G4, 512 RAM, OSX 10.3.9) and from my experience, the 24" is a much faster machine, it doesn't even compare... yet, the Tiger Intel does seem more "sluggish" sometimes and has some minor bugs that can be seen with use. I never had an application crash on me on the eMac, and in the iMac at home I had several of them in 40 days, including Font Book blocking to never open again, it crashes immediately once I open it. Still, it's the best machine I've ever had... no doubt about it
I hope these OSX issues will all be fixed with Leopard.