Charles Seiter publica en la revista Macworld (edición de Enero de 2004) una evaluación de Mathematica 5 donde destaca las espectaculares mejoras de velocidad en cálculo numérico y el sofisticado sistema de selección automática de algoritmos para la resolución de un amplísimo abanico de problemas. Sin embargo, remarca que es un sistema optimizado para plataformas de 64-bits pero no para Power Mac G5.

"Mathematica 5 is a major upgrade to a landmark application for engineers, scientists, and other people who work with complex math. It has many new functions, but more important is that most older functions run much faster than they did in version 4.2. There's only one disappointment: Mathematica 5 is optimized for many 64-bit systems, but not for the Power Mac G5 -- yet. Even so, on a G5, the program runs like a gift from a friendly alien spaceship..."