CPU upgrades: G3 vs G4?

[Ibjr]

I've been given a 266 G3 beige desktop, and I intend to upgrade add 10.2 and let mother use it on the internet. (she will love it, and our house will move back to mac)

My question: is the G4 upgrade worth 2x as much as G3 upgrade w/ same processor speed for normal tasks. No, she won't be running Photoshop.

[millhouse]

powerlogix is releasing in 2-3 weeks a g3 800mhz upgrade for that machine, it might be worth it to look into that, since itll keep the machine current and not be really expensive, since its a g3 i wouldnt count on it costing a fortune.

[barkmonster]

I'm seriously looking into one of those new G3 upgrades from powerlogix myself.

It's exactly the same price as they're 533/550Mhz G4 zif upgrades but more than worth it. The Beige G3s need cache enabling software to even use a G4 cpu in the first place, aswell as this there are issues preventing the more recent 745x series of G4s from working with the beige G3 models according to some of the upgrade card companies.

Here's a little comparison between the 2 G4 types and the Sahara G3s.

The Sahara G3 (800Mhz powerlogix cpu):

4 pipeline stages : very efficient.

512K on die L2 cache @ CPU speed : very fast cache. Infact it's 6 x faster than the cache on the 266Mhz cpu.

0.13 micron process : smaller process means less power consumption/heat

SiMD Unit : None


The 7410 G4 (550Mhz Powerlogix G4 zif)

4 pipeline stages : very efficient.

1Mb backside L2 cache @ 2.5:1 of CPU speed : slower, less efficient cache.

0.18 micron process : runs hotter

SiMD Unit : Altivec


The 745x G4 (Used in current G4 models)

7 pipeline stages : not very efficient.

256K on die L2 cache @ CPU speed : tiny but fast cache, hardly efficient.

2Mb backside L3 cache @ 4:1 ratio to CPU speed (DDR) : just there to make up for the lack of L2 mostly.

0.18 micron process : runs hotter

SiMD Unit : Altivec

Or in non technical terms, the G3 is a far better cpu than the G4 for anything where Altivec doesn't offer a huge performance boost. Seeing as it's a beige G3 you havn't got the choice of using 800Mhz or 1Ghz G4 upgrades either.

To back this up, barefeats (http://www.barefeats.com/) did a comparison of the 667MHz TiBook to the 700Mhz iBook, eMac and iMac models. The 700MHz sahara G3 in the iBook is 20-35% faster than the 667Mhz G4 when altivec isn't used. Infact that's made even more impressive by the fact the iBook is running on a slower system bus than the TiBook.

[Maxkraft]

I agree the g3 800 Mhz is the best zif upgrade out there at over 40% faster then any of the g4 upgrades . The page that has the actual bench marks at Barefeats is at http://www.barefeats.com/emac.html

[FelixDerKater]

Agreed. Go with the G3... It will be equal in price to what you can get on the G4 side (at a lower speed), but will far outperform the G4 in any non-altivec task. Test have even shown that a G3 of equal MHz rating will outperform the same speed G4 in non-altivec operations.

[MacBandit]

If you will be running OSX the G4 upgrade will be the way to go as OSX has a lot of Altivec optimization done to it. If you are going to stick to OS9 which I recommend for that machine then the G3 will be much much faster.

[me hate windows]

No point in starting another thread, so I will post here.

I have a G4 400 Mhz Sawtooth AGP with the 4 ram slots. Is it possible to add one of those dual processor G4 upgrade cards, or could I only put in a single processor? And no, I dont have enough money to buy a new mac, so dont tell me to.:)

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by me hate windows
No point in starting another thread, so I will post here.

I have a G4 400 Mhz Sawtooth AGP with the 4 ram slots. Is it possible to add one of those dual processor G4 upgrade cards, or could I only put in a single processor? And no, I dont have enough money to buy a new mac, so dont tell me to.:)

You can put in a dual processor upgrade but really for the price honestly I wouldn't. I would save the few hundred and get a new/use/refurbished mac. The benefit from additional hardware improvements are more worth the money.