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12" Powerbook G4 - Upgrade to Leopard?

ChrisDaMan

ChrisDaMan

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 15, 2011
17
0
Wouldn't you like to know?
So my Powerbook G4 can be upgraded to Leopard (It currently runs Tiger) and I'm thinking I could do that and get access to more up-to-date programs on my computer, but one major thing I would lose is Native Mac OS 9 capabilities, which I do enjoy a lot. Would you guys say upgrading to Leopard is really worth it? Or should I just stick to Tiger?
 
Thats pretty tough. I had a 12" Powerbook G4 running at 867MHz and it ran Leopard pretty slow even with a new HDD and 1.12GB of RAM installed. My TiBook actually ran it better which I would attribute to the 1MB of L3 cache. Anyways, I think that machine best fits Tiger. Its really a hard choice since support for Tiger is basically over. Thats the main reason I upgraded to the 1.5GHz 12" Powerbook. I loved the form factor, but really just needed more power to run Leopard well.
 
Laggy in your dual 1.42 PMG4? It could be that your gfx card does not have QE/CI support.

To run Leopard smoothly you need CI (Core Image) hardware support on your gfx card.
 
this may help

just picked up this ibook a couple days ago (1.33,1.5 max ram,40 gig hd)

made 2 partitions for both leopard and tiger

leopard-runs ok with mild lag...even after turning off dashboard and spotlight...the plus side being i can use more updated programs

tiger-runs good...have also turned off dashboard and spotlight....downside being programs like safari,itunes ect are dated

so what partition do i find myself working in more? tiger!
 
It depends on what processor, and how much ram you have. Some G4s run Leopard just fine, but with the older ones, your better off with Tiger.
 
Unless you really need leopard for something I would reccomend just sticking with tiger. You haven't said which powerbook you have but even on my 1.33ghz iBook G4 tiger was a bit faster.
 
nickn said:
Unless you really need leopard for something I would reccomend just sticking with tiger. You haven't said which powerbook you have but even on my 1.33ghz iBook G4 tiger was a bit faster.
Click to expand...
Look at his sig. Its an original 867MHz PowerBook G4 12" with 512MB of RAM.
 
Hrududu said:
Look at his sig. Its an original 867MHz PowerBook G4 12" with 512MB of RAM.
Click to expand...
Whoops. Sorry!!!!! Didn't see that somehow. In that case, I would definitely not upgrade. Like I said before I have a 1.33 ghz iBook G4 that has 1.25gb of ram and leopard was still slower then tiger. I doubt you would have a good experience on leopard with those specs.
 
I have a 12'' PowerBook G4 1.5GHz 1.25GB RAM and Leopard still seams heavy. The only thing that was better for me was that I could use the latest iTunes and sync my iPod touch but it's not worth it overall. I really hate how the dock acted choppy when moving the mouse over it.
 
1.33ghz 12" iBook, 1.5GB of RAM here and the stock 40GB drive.

Tiger does seem a bit faster, but the difference isn't very noticeable and I primarily run Leopard on it without issue. I say give it a shot, but don't wipe Tiger just yet.
 
I run Leopard on mine w/TenFourFox as a nice browsing machine, but had to dumb down the operating system a bit. Even with the 1.5Ghz, it's still a little laggy, but not to the point where I'd consider running Tiger. Effects are off, and I changed the dock to the simple style one. Kept dashboard bcuz I <3 my widgetz... otherwise I'm sure it would help to turn it off.
 
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