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Low End Mac

@lowendmac.bsky.social

We believe in the long term value of Apple hardware. You should be able to use your Apple gear as long as it helps you remain productive and meets your needs, upgrading only as necessary. We want to help maximize the life of your Apple gear. lowendmac.com

663 Followers  |  50 Following  |  608 Posts  |  Joined: 19.11.2024  |  1.8078

Latest posts by lowendmac.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Mini replica of the Apple Store tree planter seating.

04.08.2025 14:09 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 84    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 5    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Always be a student.

04.08.2025 10:47 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Itโ€™s definitely not DiGiorno.. since thereโ€™s power delivery.

04.08.2025 08:47 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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AMD-8131 PCI-X Midbridge Chip (2003-05 PCI-X Power Mac G5 only) - Low End Mac Have you ever wondered why thereโ€™s an AMD chip on the back of your Power Mac G5โ€™s logic board, or what itโ€™s even doing there? For higher end Mid-2003 thru Early 2005 Power Mac G5s, thatโ€™s the PCI-X โ€œM...

New article! Ever wanted to know about that AMD 8131 chip on the back of your PCI-X Power Mac G5? Here's everything you need to know, including a downloadable PDF (in-article) of the full technical breakdown from AMD.

lowendmac.com/2025/amd-813...

03.08.2025 23:48 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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IBM CPC945 Northbridge chip tech specs (Late 2005 Macs) - Low End Mac The IBM CPC945 is a redesigned Northbridge chip mostly for the Dual-Core PowerPC 970MP CPU. It has technical upgrades over the IBM CPC925, including a faster HyperTransport Bus. Itโ€™s also capable of t...

New article! In the process of digging deep to correct a block diagram with mislabeled transfer speeds, I ended uncovering some info about the Northbridge controller chip used in Late 2005 Macs.

lowendmac.com/2025/ibm-cpc...

03.08.2025 15:18 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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"Loki" XCPU Tech Specs: The IBM PowerPC chip for the Xbox 360 - Low End Mac While not at all an Apple product, the Xbox 360 shares some strikingly close DNA to Apple computers of the mid-2000s. Namely, the IBM PowerPC chip which powers the Xbox at its core. This chip was anno...

New article! A brief comparison between the PowerPC 970MP and the original IBM Xbox 360 "Loki" Xenon CPU.

lowendmac.com/2025/loki-xc...

02.08.2025 23:06 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Here's the slightly updated, different chart for the Late 2005 Power Mac G5 logic board. As it turns out, the Late 05 retains the PCI bus for the Boot ROM/Airport/USB Controller/BT. The Graphics card not only has 16 PCIe lanes, but is also connected via the NB. Other PCIe devices use the mid bridge.

02.08.2025 05:24 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 6    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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IBM PowerPC 970MP (Third-Generation G5): Tech Specs - Low End Mac The G5 is a 64-bit member of the PowerPC processor family that is fully compatible with 32-bit code. The third generation of G5 chips were first used in the Late-2005 Power Mac G5. These were the very...

New article! All the details (and some tidbits) about the very last PowerPC chip in any Mac, the PowerPC 970MP (a.k.a. 3rd-gen G5).

lowendmac.com/2025/ibm-pow...

02.08.2025 04:51 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 6    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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Stumbled into this online about the Mid-2004, Late-2004 and Early 2005 Power Mac G5 logic boards - while researching about the PowerPC 970MP. Gonna add this to some of the LEM articles.

flylib.com/books/en/3.1...

02.08.2025 00:49 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Safari 26 is out for Sonoma and Sequoia. Looks slightly different from the Sequoia safari when using compact mode.

01.08.2025 12:16 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Memoirs of some recent work in PS CS4 on the Power Mac G5 - Low End Mac Itโ€™s a combination of factors that keep me going on this platform: muscle memory, learned skill, perceived ease of use, having an excuse to keep a decades-old platform going.. the list goes on. Everyt...

New article

lowendmac.com/2025/memoirs...

31.07.2025 20:38 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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According to late 2000s concept art, this was the future - Low End Mac Does anyone remember a time in the late 2000s, when there was tons of futuristic-looking concept art about future tech? Especially after the original iPhone came out, there were many mockups of sleek ...

lowendmac.com/2025/accordi...

31.07.2025 19:02 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Metal 4: An overview - Low End Mac Metal is the current generation of low-level graphical API that Apple uses, which powers the hardware accelerated graphics on their OSes, namely macOS. Metal 1.0 was introduced on September 30th, 2015...

New article! An overview of the latest Apple API for graphical hardware acceleration.

lowendmac.com/2025/metal-4...

30.07.2025 20:55 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Now available: iOS 18.6, macOS 15.6, and other OS updates - Low End Mac This week Apple has announced a flurry of updates for certain versions of their operating systems, most notably macOS 15.6 and iOS 18.6. The iOS update comes with 29 security fixes. There are a total ...

lowendmac.com/2025/now-ava...

30.07.2025 17:56 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

It's the iPad G5 in Deep Purple

30.07.2025 16:02 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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According to concept art and renderings from the late 2000โ€™s, this is exactly what they said the future was gonna look like:

30.07.2025 14:32 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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LEM Software Index - Low End Mac Copyright laws protect work from being freely duplicated and redistributed which extend over to the makings of software and hardware wherever the law is unexpired. When the copyright holder no longer ...

lowendmac.com/lem-software...

30.07.2025 02:37 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The M1 iMac nearly had an Apple logo under the screen - Low End Mac Precisely as the headline sounds, the Apple Silicon iMac almost ended up having this same design cue as the intel iMacs. First shared by Kosutami on X and first reported by 9to5Mac (as well as MacWorl...

New article!

lowendmac.com/2025/the-m1-...

29.07.2025 17:40 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Recent site changes and updates: Week of July 27th - Low End Mac In continuation of the site updates posted before, we will continue covering changes in the form of periodic posts whether theyโ€™re big or small. We want our readers to see the changes done to the site...

lowendmac.com/2025/recent-...

29.07.2025 14:31 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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[Success] iBook Clamshell Soldered RAM Upgrade - Low End Mac For years now, myself and many others have made attempts to upgrade soldered RAM on PowerPC-based Macs, without any success. As Iโ€™ve found from my vast experience doing such upgrades on Intel machines...

A new LEM article by Collin Mistr (DosDude1)! Thank you for sharing.

lowendmac.com/2025/success...

28.07.2025 12:42 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

An interesting read, thought-provoking but I don't have much hope for Intel competing with/replacing M-series chips. Intel already placed its bets on (and cancelled) 20A and 18A.. but Intel could make secondary chips like power management, controller chips, etc; like one person commented.

28.07.2025 11:56 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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[Success] PowerPC Mac Soldered RAM Upgrade For years now, myself and many others have made attempts to upgrade soldered RAM on PowerPC-based Macs, without any success. As I've found from my vast experience doing such upgrades on Intel machines...

DosDude1 strikes again! This time, he takes a Clamshell iBook's soldered onboard RAM up from 64 MB to 128 MB.

forums.macrumors.com/threads/succ...

28.07.2025 10:58 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

This looks beautiful. Thank you for sharing!

27.07.2025 05:33 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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A short break in the weeks of overcast skies gave me enough good light to snap some photos for an upcoming post on some of my favourite accessories.

27.07.2025 02:48 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 66    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 4    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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This is how I practically use the PCI to PCIe adapter - for the OWC PCIe SSD in the G5. Although you can't boot off of it in a Power Mac G5, you can't do so except on a Mac Pro 3,1 and up

The only downside is, you can't go to sleep mode with this adapter + SSD combination in a Power Mac G5.

26.07.2025 18:59 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
A man looking at a tv test pattern at the 2025 TV Shootout

A man looking at a tv test pattern at the 2025 TV Shootout

Iโ€™m judging the 2025 TV Shootout today, just staring at OLED TVs in a dark room for 8 hours with a dozen other display nerds. I am in heaven

26.07.2025 16:24 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 223    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 10    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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So how much power does a Power Mac G5 really use? - Low End Mac What started as an exercise to definitively answer the power consumption levels of a Power Mac G5, turned into some fascinating insights about the way I use electricity at home. Seeing the real-world ...

New article! Taking a look (and a little deep dive) into the energy consumption stats of a Power Mac G5.

lowendmac.com/2025/so-how-...

26.07.2025 16:36 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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iOS 26 Beta 4 is out: Build 23A5297m - Low End Mac iOS 26 Developer Beta 4 and Public Beta 1 are out this week, with iterations to the UI and plenty of work going under the hood of the OS. There were two slightly different build numbers that went out,...

lowendmac.com/2025/ios-26-...

24.07.2025 23:15 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Brand new customizable Apple Calligraphy wallpapers - Low End Mac As Apple puts it: โ€œPick a wallpaper, make it your own, download your designโ€. You can pick between the gallery, or customize the logo and background. The default image which shows up is purple, but th...

lowendmac.com/2025/brand-n...

24.07.2025 17:02 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Thank goodness Developer Beta 4 retains PowerPC VNC and file sharing support still, even though network volumes now have new icons!

24.07.2025 16:24 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

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