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I recall folks claiming the G5 outperformed Pentium D, but I had both and not only was the Pentium snappier, "Roxio Toast" could burn a DVD in half the amount of time on it.

Maybe it was a software optimization issue and Toast just didn't use Altivec, but I was not surprised at all when Apple moved to Intel.

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it was mostly marketing "oooh altivec can do sooo many FP calculations that it has to be licensed as a deadly weapon". Same kinda marketing for MMX "if a programmer was an a MMX guru then basically you have a supercomputer bro"

That's all great but it was all awaiting a killer app to make it all worth it and reasonable, versus random programs rarely supporting it for a little boost.

And the name of that killer app, using these DSP type features? Local AI.

In case of Altivec, having it or not was THE difference betweeen watching a video in MPlayer or a slideshow.

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