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“Top of the Line” Workstation Redefined

Published by marco on

Updated by marco on

 PowerPC G5 (Side View)The new quad processor solution from Apple for their G5 line is an amazing machine. It would certainly be good enough for any other company to trumpet as their flagship product. Not Apple. If you enter their online shop and start to configure a system, you’ll notice that there is a curious option under “Graphic Cards”.

“Quadro FX 4500 / 512MB SDRAM [+ CHF2400.00]*”

*I was shopping in the store in Switzerland … that’s about $1875.

Cheeky.

Google will tell you that this is not a typo — the card exists and is blazingly fast. Further research on the Apple site itself finds Workstation graphics arrive on the Mac, which also tells you that the card is blazingly fast. It takes up two PCI Express slots and has two DVI outputs.

Now the option on the same page to buy a “Second Cinema Display” no longer seems out of place.

They don’t even stop there:

“ The PCI Express architecture means you can install up to four graphics cards in your Power Mac G5 — for connecting up to eight Apple Cinema Displays. … Imagine viewing high-resolution satellite images across an array of displays. Or consider controlling a suite of public information kiosks or a multimedia museum exhibit from a single Power Mac G5 system. (emphasis added)”

The Apple Store seems like it should be the first stop for a James Bond villain when outfitting his inner sanctum. Their suggestions for configuring their hardware would be laughably optimistic — except it actually will work and there actually will be people buying these setups. I can’t think of any other company today that would get away with marketing this kind of over-the-top machinery.