Specifications
| Processor family | PowerPC 970 / 970FX / 970MP, 1.6–2.7 GHz, single, dual, or dual dual-core |
|---|---|
| Architecture | 64-bit big-endian PowerPC (ppc64) |
| Enclosure | Anodized-aluminium tower, shared across all four generations |
| Memory | DDR, later DDR2; up to 16 GB on the Late 2005 Quad |
| Networking | Gigabit Ethernet on every generation; a second port on Late 2005 |
| Cooling | Air, except the liquid-cooled Dual 2.5, Dual 2.7, and Quad 2.5 GHz |
| Operating system range | Mac OS X 10.2.7 through 10.5.8; 10.5 Leopard is the last PowerPC-supported release |
| Produced | June 2003 – August 2006 |
The rows above are the facts that hold across the whole line. The unit in
the lab is now known: a Late 2005 PowerMac11,2, the single-socket
dual-core 970MP at 2.3 GHz on PCI Express — the row set in bold in the
table below. The rest of the per-generation detail stays on the page as
reference, since “Power Mac G5” names four machines and the contrast is
what makes the identification mean anything.
By generation
| Generation | Released | Processor | Model identifier | Bus and slots | Cooling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power Mac G5 (Mid 2003) | Jun 2003 | Single or dual PowerPC 970, 1.6–2.0 GHz | PowerMac7,2 | AGP 8X Pro + PCI or PCI-X | Air |
| Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) | Jun 2004 (dual); Oct 2004 (single 1.8) | Single or dual PowerPC 970FX, 1.8–2.5 GHz | PowerMac7,3 (dual); PowerMac9,1 (single 1.8) | AGP 8X Pro + PCI or PCI-X | Air, except liquid on Dual 2.5 (the first liquid-cooled Mac) |
| Power Mac G5 (Early 2005) | Apr 2005 | Dual PowerPC 970FX, 2.0–2.7 GHz | PowerMac7,3 | AGP 8X Pro + PCI or PCI-X | Air, except liquid on Dual 2.7 (Panasonic loop) |
| Power Mac G5 (Late 2005 / Quad) | Oct 2005 | Dual-core, or two dual-core, PowerPC 970MP, 2.0–2.5 GHz | PowerMac11,2 | PCI Express (2× x4 + 1× x8/x16, no AGP) | Air, except liquid on Quad 2.5 |
A few points a table flattens:
- The 970FX is a 90 nm die shrink of the same 970 core. The 970MP puts two of those cores on one die, which is how Apple got both a single-socket “Dual” and a dual-socket “Quad” out of the Late 2005 machine.
- The memory ceiling runs from 4 GB on the single-processor models to 16 GB on the DDR2-based Late 2005 Quad.
- Apple’s own catalogue name “Late 2004” is not a clean processor
boundary. It bundles the three dual-processor 970FX models introduced in
June 2004 with a genuinely later single-1.8 GHz machine from October
2004 that carries a different Model Identifier,
PowerMac9,1, and a slower HyperTransport bus derived from the iMac G5. Both live under the one Apple generation page, so the split is theirs, not a mistake here. - To identify a unit that will not boot: the model and EMC numbers are on a sticker on the underside or rear panel — roughly A1047 / EMC 1969 on the 2003–2005 machines and A1117 or A1177 / EMC 2023 on the Late 2005 Dual and Quad.
Single-source and unverified figures
- Weights (reported around 39–49 lb across the generations, rising with the liquid-cooling hardware) rest on Wikipedia’s table alone; Apple’s own spec pages for this era carry no weight row to check them against, so they are noted rather than asserted.
- Codenames (Omega, Niagara, Cypher and similar) and a fifth “Late 2004” order number, M9494, appear in Wikipedia without a citation that held up on a second look. Left out rather than repeated as fact.
- Per-unit detail for the lab’s
PowerMac11,2. The eBay listing gives a Dual-core 2.3 GHz processor, model A1177, and 2 TB of storage; the processor and model identifier match Apple’s Late 2005 Dual, and the 2 TB is the seller’s figure rather than a confirmed measurement. The listing names neither the installed memory nor the graphics card, so those stay open for this unit.
Sources: Apple’s four Power Mac G5 technical-specifications pages (Mid 2003, Late 2004, Early 2005, Late 2005), read in full and cross-checked against EveryMac’s per-model pages and Wikipedia’s specifications table; the operating-system range against Wikipedia’s supported-OS table and the general record of 10.5 Leopard as PowerPC’s last release; the liquid-cooling and leak detail against EveryMac’s dedicated FAQ and Wikipedia’s defects section. Links are on the overview.