Apple warned over 'misleading' Power Mac speed claim

Apple has been told by the Advertising Standards Agency that its boast that the Power Mac G5 is the world's fastest personal computer is in breach of advertising legislation.

The ASA, after taking expert advice and running a series of tests comparing the Mac with the Dell Dimension 8300 and the Dell Precision 650, said the claim made in magazine adverts was misleading because the G5 wasn't "the fastest processor in all circumstances for all applications".

The ASA added that it "also understood that the G5 machine tested was still under development and the tests seemed to be configured in a way that might have given the Power Mac G5 an unfair advantage".

The ASA has asked Apple not to repeat the claim.

Two other complaints made about the ads -- namely that the PC is "the first with a 64-bit processor" and that the systems built around the G5 "can shatter the four-gigabyte memory ceiling that limits every other PC on earth" -- were not upheld.

The complaint about the 64-bit processor was rejected on the grounds that while computers had the processor they were "workstations" and not desktop PCs for home computing. The complaint over the 4GB 'ceiling' was rejected as the ASA found the G5 was the only PC that could access more than 4GB without the need for extra hardware.