Apple Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) vs Apple Power Macintosh 8600/250

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Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) compared with Power Macintosh 8600/250

	ApplePower Mac G5 (Late 2005)	ApplePower Macintosh 8600/250
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 604e 250 MHz (Power Macintosh 8600/250)
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
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 604e with 64 KB L1 cache, 1 MB L2 cache, 100 MHz cache bus and 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 with 2 MB VRAM, expandable to 4 MB; the latter is required for video mirroring
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 MB minimum with eight 168-pin DIMM slots, expandable to 512 MB according to Apple
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 SCSI hard drive, 1.44 MB floppy, 24× CD-ROM and built-in Iomega Zip drive
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.	Three PCI slots; Apple's launch release also describes a pre-wired 5.25-inch SCSI expansion bay
Display
Screen
Screen	None built in	None built in
Connections
Ports
Ports	4 × USB-A, 2 × Ethernet, headphone jack	Ethernet
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, external DB-25 SCSI, two serial ports, AAUI and 10BASE-T Ethernet, DB-15 video, stereo audio input and output, S-video and RCA video input and output, RCA audio input and output
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.	–
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 17.3 × 9.7 × 17.3 inches (height × width × depth) and 35 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 lists 5 August 1997 as introduction and describes the 8600/250 as offered outside the US. Its French-Canadian launch release says the new 8600 models came with Mac OS 8, while the later support sheet lists 7.6.1 as original system software. An exact first-sale date for the 8600/250 was not separately established.