Apple Power Mac G5 (Early 2005) vs Apple Power Macintosh 6500/250

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Power Mac G5 (Early 2005) compared with Power Macintosh 6500/250

	ApplePower Mac G5 (Early 2005)	ApplePower Macintosh 6500/250
Overview
Released
Released	April 2005	1997
Performance
Processor
Processor	2 × PowerPC G5 2000 MHz (Power Mac Early 2005), 2 × PowerPC G5 2300 MHz (Power Mac Early 2005) or 2 × PowerPC G5 2700 MHz (Power Mac Early 2005)	PowerPC 603e 250 MHz (Power Macintosh 6500/250)
CPU cores
CPU cores	2	1
Graphics
Graphics	ATI Radeon 9600 (128 MB) or ATI Radeon 9650 (256 MB)	–
Memory
Memory	512 MB, 4 GB or 8 GB (better)	32 MB or 48 MB
Storage
Storage	160 GB to 250 GB (better)	4 GB
CPU
CPU	Two physical PowerPC G5 processors at 2, 2.3 or 2.7 GHz, each with 512 KB L2 cache and no L3 cache. Front-side bus per processor is 1, 1.15 or 1.35 GHz. The dual 2.7 GHz model uses liquid cooling.	250 MHz PowerPC 603e with 32 KB L1 and 256 KB L2 cache and a 50 MHz system bus
GPU
GPU	Dual 2 and 2.3 GHz: ATI Radeon 9600 with 128 MB DDR and two single-link DVI outputs. Dual 2.7 GHz: ATI Radeon 9650 with 256 MB GDDR3, one single-link and one dual-link DVI output. Optional NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL with 256 MB has two dual-link DVI outputs and occupies the adjacent PCI slot.	Built-in video uses 2 MB SGRAM; Apple lists 24-bit colour up to 832 × 624 pixels and 8-bit colour at 1280 × 1024
Memory type
Memory type	Stock 512 MB PC3200 DDR400, installed in matched pairs. Dual 2 GHz has four DIMM slots and a 4 GB maximum. Dual 2.3 and 2.7 GHz have eight slots and an 8 GB maximum. Configuration rows keep the stock drives and graphics at base and maximum memory.	32 or 48 MB in Apple's Canadian configurations, with two 168-pin DIMM slots and 128 MB maximum
Storage type
Storage type	Stock 160 GB on dual 2 GHz and 250 GB on dual 2.3/2.7 GHz, all 7200 rpm Serial ATA. Two internal drive bays; optional 250 or 400 GB drives, including two 400 GB drives. One optical bay with 16x SuperDrive supporting DVD±R and up to 4x dual-layer DVD+R recording.	4 GB internal ATA hard drive, 1.44 MB floppy and 12× CD-ROM in Apple's Canadian launch configurations; a Zip drive was fitted to some bundles
Expansion slots
Expansion slots	AGP 8x Pro graphics slot. Dual 2 GHz has three 64-bit 33 MHz PCI slots. Dual 2.3 and 2.7 GHz have PCI-X: two 100 MHz slots and one 133 MHz slot.	Two PCI slots plus communications, TV and video-input expansion slots; the communications slot carried a modem in some configurations
Display
Screen
Screen	None built in	None built in
Connections
Ports
Ports	3 × USB-A, Ethernet, headphone jack	Ethernet, headphone jack
Ethernet
Ethernet	1 Gb/s	–
External displays
External displays	Up to 2	–
Front ports
Front ports	USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and headphone minijack.	–
Back ports
Back ports	Two USB 2.0, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, Gigabit Ethernet, optical S/PDIF input/output and analogue audio line-in/out. Three chassis USB ports in total, plus keyboard USB 1.1 ports. AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR and a V.92 modem are optional.	Apple Desktop Bus, DB-15 video, external DB-25 SCSI, two serial ports, 10BASE-T Ethernet, audio connections and front headphone jack
External displays
External displays	Two displays in extended desktop or mirrored modes. Radeon 9600 supports two displays up to 1920 × 1200; Radeon 9650 supports one 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display via dual-link DVI. Optional 6800 Ultra DDL supports two 30-inch displays. DVI-to-VGA adapter included.	–
Speakers
Speakers	Built-in speaker; analogue and optical audio connections.	Built-in stereo sound with integrated subwoofer, as described in Apple's Canadian launch notice
Keyboard and mouse
Keyboard and mouse	Apple Keyboard, Apple Mouse, USB extension cable and DVI-to-VGA adapter.	–
Design and power
Type
Type	Tower	Tower
Weight
Weight	20.2 kg	–
Operating system
Operating system	macOS	macOS
Size and weight detail
Size and weight detail	The exact maker sheet labels height as 47.5 cm, width 20.6 cm and depth 51.1 cm. Earlier G5 sheets label height/depth in the opposite order; main dimensions are omitted because those published axes conflict. Maker reference weight is 20.2 kg and varies with configuration.	Apple lists 16 × 7.8 × 16.9 inches (height × width × depth) and 44.5 lb
Power supply
Power supply	450 W on dual 2/2.3 GHz; 600 W on dual 2.7 GHz, as stated by the maker.	–
Materials
Materials	Aluminium enclosure.	–
In the box
In the box	Mac OS X Tiger and iLife ’05. Apple’s 27 April 2005 launch says these models are available “this week”; first sale is kept at April precision rather than treating the announcement as a confirmed delivery day. The older single 1.8 GHz model retained in the launch range is represented separately as Late 2004.	Apple support lists 17 February 1997 as introduction. Its 4 April 1997 Canadian launch notice confirms the 6500/250 available immediately, but does not establish that as its first on-sale date; released is therefore year-only. The photographed seller unit's installed components were not used for the original configurations.