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Mac Mini compared to Powerbook G4

lee.anderson

lee.anderson

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 28, 2006
158
0
UK
Hi,
I have a Powerbook G4 Titanium with 800MHz processor, 512mb. I'm getting a Mac Mini 1.6GHz for christmas. I was wondering how much of a speed boost will i be getting?
I can't afford to have 1 gig of ram in the mini so i will just have to do with 512mb in it. But how will the mac mini be for photoshop compared to the powerbook G4, and i've noticed on my browser (Powerbook) flash is seriously slow, on this computer at the moment ive got 32mb of graphics, will flash be sluggish on the mini.
I've recently been using a iMac G5 2.0GHz with 1 gig of ram at work, and was wondering how much slower will the mac mini be compared to it?
Also, how much of speed will i be missing with 512mb ram and will it be able to play HD without dropping frames?
Thanks:)
 
Eidorian

Eidorian

macrumors Penryn
Mar 23, 2005
29,190
386
Indianapolis
Get more then the 512 MB. PLEASE!

Yes it'll play HD. My 1.83 GHz Core Duo Mac mini is lightning fast with 1.25 GB of RAM. I use it for some light video encoding and just general browsing. 10.4.8 has made Office 2004 a lot faster too.
 
iBookG4user

iBookG4user

macrumors 604
Jun 27, 2006
6,595
2
Seattle, WA
512MB is NOT enough. My iBook (768MB RAM) felt faster than my intel iMac with 512MB of RAM. But processor intensive tasks will be faster than the iMac you use at work, although regular tasks will feel slow because of the lack of RAM. And it should play HD just fine.
 
lee.anderson

lee.anderson

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 28, 2006
158
0
UK
The thing is that i've just got enough to buy it with 512mb ram, and i wont be able to upgrade it myself because i will probably brake it:eek:
But how much of a speed boost will i get from a powerbook 800mhz to the mac mini. Will it be dramatically or slightly?
thanks
 
U

UNIVSOUTHFLA

macrumors newbie
Jun 13, 2006
4
0
Realize that, stock, your Mac mini will have a twice as powerful proccesor as a Powerbook. To add, the Intel chip will give it just that more oomph. 512 MB isn't as bad as you all are seeming it to be. I had 512MB on my Mac mini for a long time, and it worked adequaltey. Its just if your going to do heavy media editing/gaming will you need more RAM.
 
C

cherfizzle

macrumors regular
May 9, 2006
108
0
Waterford, New York
lee.anderson said:
Hi,
I have a Powerbook G4 Titanium with 800MHz processor, 512mb. I'm getting a Mac Mini 1.6GHz for christmas. I was wondering how much of a speed boost will i be getting?
I can't afford to have 1 gig of ram in the mini so i will just have to do with 512mb in it. But how will the mac mini be for photoshop compared to the powerbook G4, and i've noticed on my browser (Powerbook) flash is seriously slow, on this computer at the moment ive got 32mb of graphics, will flash be sluggish on the mini.
I've recently been using a iMac G5 2.0GHz with 1 gig of ram at work, and was wondering how much slower will the mac mini be compared to it?
Also, how much of speed will i be missing with 512mb ram and will it be able to play HD without dropping frames?
Thanks:)
Click to expand...

that is a pretty large performance boost seeing as its dual core.

since you cant afford the 1GB of ram
go to an apple authorized retailer (not an apple store), like compUSA, and get a gig of ram for way cheaper. i got a gig of ram at compUSA for only 70 bucks. which i have in my mini now
 
Killyp

Killyp

macrumors 68040
Jun 14, 2006
3,859
7
Yeh, you will notice a very big difference with 1 gig of RAM. A MacMini with 1 gb of RAM will feel snappier than a Core Duo iMac with maxed out CPU and half the ram...
 
lee.anderson

lee.anderson

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 28, 2006
158
0
UK
But would a stock 1.66ghz mini intel be alot or slightly slower than a stock imac intel. Would the difference between the two, like doing photoshop and other apps like that, be dramatic?

Is the 1.6 intel mini a fast, powerful computer, or, a low end, slow compared to all the other macs computer?
 
L

livingfortoday

macrumors 68030
Nov 17, 2004
2,903
4
The Msp
The Mini will blow your Powerbook away... for the most part. I have a 1.5Ghz Core Solo, and it can encode video slightly faster than my dad's 1.6Ghz G5, and it's more than twice as fast as my 1.25Ghz G4 Powerbook. Opening office on the G4 is a LOT faster than my Mini, though, even with 1.5GB of RAM. You're going to want LOTS of RAM for Rosetta apps, lemme tell ya.
 
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