Advice on a Powermac

I have been using a 12" Powerbook laptop in preference to a P4 Toshiba for abut a year now. It seems to run SL far better than the Toshiba. So the next step is the change of desktop PC.
As I am starting to quite like the Apple OS I am thinking of going that way.

I am looking into the possibility of getting a PowerMac G5 Dual 2.3. One of its prime uses will be for SL. At the moment I have a P4 3Ghz with an Gforce FX5900. Will I see and equal or improvement in performance with the Powermac. If not I might have to stick with the Windows route

I am wondering if it'd be worth it for you to wait for the Intel-powered Macs coming out not too long from now...

Seconded, at least wait until after Macworld this week to see what the performance of the first new Intel Macs is like.

However, the PowerMacs won't make the transition for several months, so if you need a PowerMac and don't want to wait that long, the 2.3 GHz model is probably good value, though the Quad is great for any intensive computation/video work. The graphics card on any PowerMac should be great for SL. Check Macworld's reviews for further info/recommendations.

Thanks. I am looking at a few months time anyway so I will review the market again then.

I am tempted to call at one of Apple UK's shops and ask if I can install SL to try.

Conveniently, I sometimes work at a Mac dealer, so I'll throw SL on the gruntiest Mac in store next time I'm in.

The second gruntiest mac (now the quad is out) the 2.7Ghz DP G5, with the big 256MB NVIDIA graphics card chews up and spits out SL without problems (unless you turn local lighting on). I quite typically get 10+ fps in the WA which seems to be the measure of local laginess - that's with everything except local lighting maxxed out and 192m draw range!

The range of mac performance seems to be different to PC performance - low end macs run quite stably (although slowly) at speeds that would make PCs crash, top end ones you're comparable with the gruntiest PC around. That said other settings can make a *huge* difference - for example anisomorphic filters doesn't make my fps change at all, but local lighting halves it, even in areas that have (as far as I can tell) no light objects within view range. Ripple water is so pretty it's worth the <5% hit on performance IMO.

I recently read a review of a pro-end graphics card mind. 512MB of vram - Anyone got a grand (in £) they can give me to try it out?!