Apple Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) vs Apple Power Macintosh 9600/300

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Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) compared with Power Macintosh 9600/300

	ApplePower Mac G5 (Late 2005)	ApplePower Macintosh 9600/300
Overview
Released
Released	October 2005	August 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 300 MHz (Power Macintosh 9600/300)
CPU cores
CPU cores	2 or 4	1
Graphics
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce 6600 LE (128 MB) or NVIDIA GeForce 6600 (256 MB)	IXMICRO Twin Turbo 128M8 (8 MB VRAM)
Memory
Memory	512 MB or 16 GB (better)	64 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.	300 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.	Bundled IXMICRO Twin Turbo 128M8 PCI video card with 8 MB VRAM; Apple lists output up to 1600 × 1200 pixels
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.	64 MB standard with twelve 168-pin DIMM slots, expandable to 768 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.	Six PCI slots, one occupied by the bundled graphics card; pre-wired 5.25-inch SCSI expansion bay and two 3.5-inch drive bays
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 on the graphics card, stereo 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.	Bundled graphics card supports one external display at up to 1600 × 1200 pixels
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
Power supply
Power supply	–	Apple lists a 560 W maximum
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's 5 August 1997 announcement says the 9600/300 was available immediately worldwide with Mac OS 8. Its support sheet lists original system software as 7.6.1.