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

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

	ApplePower Mac G5 (Late 2005)	ApplePower Macintosh 6500/250
Overview
Released
Released	October 2005	1997
Performance
Processor
Processor	PowerPC G5 dual-core 2000 MHz (Power Mac Late 2005), PowerPC G5 dual-core 2300 MHz (Power Mac Late 2005) or 2 × PowerPC G5 dual-core 2500 MHz (Power Mac Late 2005)	PowerPC 603e 250 MHz (Power Macintosh 6500/250)
CPU cores
CPU cores	2 or 4	1
Graphics
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce 6600 LE (128 MB) or NVIDIA GeForce 6600 (256 MB)	–
Memory
Memory	512 MB or 16 GB (better)	32 MB or 48 MB
Storage
Storage	160 GB to 250 GB (better)	4 GB
CPU
CPU	Dual models have one physical dual-core PowerPC G5 at 2 or 2.3 GHz. Quad has two physical dual-core processors at 2.5 GHz, four cores in total. Each core has 1 MB L2 cache. Front-side bus per physical processor is 1, 1.15 or 1.25 GHz respectively. Macworld’s exact Quad review describes its liquid cooling.	250 MHz PowerPC 603e with 32 KB L1 and 256 KB L2 cache and a 50 MHz system bus
GPU
GPU	Stock dual-core 2 GHz: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 LE with 128 MB GDDR SDRAM. Dual-core 2.3 GHz and Quad: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 with 256 MB GDDR SDRAM. Optional NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT 256 MB and Quadro FX 4500 512 MB; the Quadro occupies the graphics slot and adjacent x4 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 PC2-4200 DDR2 at 533 MHz, installed in matched pairs. Up to 16 GB supported; ECC configurations available from 1 GB. Rows retain the stock drive and graphics at base and maximum supported 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-core 2 GHz and 250 GB on dual-core 2.3 GHz and Quad. 7200 rpm Serial ATA drives; two internal bays. Optional one or two 500 GB drives. One optical bay with 16x SuperDrive supporting 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	PCI Express: occupied x16 graphics slot, two open x4 slots and one open x8 slot. Older PCI and PCI-X expansion cards cannot be reused in these slots.	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	4 × USB-A, 2 × 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	Three USB 2.0, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, optical Toslink input/output and analogue audio line-in/out. Four chassis USB 2.0 ports in total, plus two keyboard USB 1.1 ports. AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR are optional, with integrated antennas; built-in support does not mean modules are included.	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	Stock GeForce 6600 LE/6600 and optional 7800 GT have one single-link and one dual-link DVI port, supporting one 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display alongside a second display. Optional Quadro FX 4500 has two dual-link DVI outputs for two 30-inch displays and a stereo 3D connector. DVI-to-VGA adapter included.	–
Speakers
Speakers	Built-in speaker and optical/analogue external 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, Mighty Mouse, USB keyboard extension and DVI-to-VGA adapter.	–
Design and power
Type
Type	Tower	Tower
Operating system
Operating system	macOS	macOS
Size and weight detail
Size and weight detail	–	Apple lists 16 × 7.8 × 16.9 inches (height × width × depth) and 44.5 lb
Materials
Materials	Aluminium enclosure.	–
In the box
In the box	Mac OS X Tiger and iLife ’05. Apple confirmed the dual-core 2 and 2.3 GHz models available on 19 October 2005, with Quad expected in early November. Macs Only reports its Quad shipped on 10 November and arrived on 11 November; these later Quad dates do not change the generation’s first sale. The exact specification sheet does not publish weight or dimensions.	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.