Apple Power Mac G5 - Manual (Page 28)

Music and Audio
The Power Mac G5 supports more tracks and more plug-ins than any previous Power
Mac, giving audio professionals a wealth of creative options—all in a native environ-
ment. In addition, Mac OS X Core Audio offers a scalable platform supporting 32-bit
high-resolution audio, a plug-in called Audio Units for DSP and Virtual Instruments,
and plug-and-play connectivity for modern and legacy audio gear. The built-in optical
S/PDIF connects to other audio equipment for pristine sound quality without trouble-
some ground loops.
Logic
To quantify the performance advantages of the Power Mac G5 for audio production,
Apple tested Emagic’s Logic Platinum 6.3.1. Apple created a processor-intensive work-
load containing multiple unique audio tracks, assigned five default reverb plug-ins to
each of the audio tracks, and tested each platform to see which application could play
more plug-ins.
The dual 2GHz and dual 1.8GHz Power Mac G5 systems can play 155 and 137 plug-ins,
respectively, compared with a maximum of 64 plug-ins on the Dell Dimension XPS and
84 plug-ins on the Dell Precision 650. Impressively, the 1.6GHz Power Mac G5 played
23% more plug-ins than the 3.2GHz Pentium 4–based system. 1
Power Mac G5 systems were tested using Logic Platinum 6.3.1. The Dell Dimension XPS, Alienware Aurora, and Dell
Precision 650 were tested using Steinberg Cubase SX 2.0.1.
Power Mac G5
Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
Power Mac G5
Dual 1.8GHz PowerPC G5
Dell Dimension XPS
3.2GHz Pentium 4
Power Mac G5
1.6GHz PowerPC G5
79 plug-ins
Dell Precision 650
Dual 3.2GHz Xeon
84 plug-ins
Alienware Aurora
2.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 FX-51
44 plug-ins
80 160 0
Simultaneous reverb plug-in playback
Maximum number of plug-ins
64 plug-ins
155 plug-ins
137 plug-ins
28 Technology and
Performance Overview
Power Mac G5
Emagic Logic
Now optimized for G5.
Audio Plug-in Results