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Any benchmarks for a G5, any questions about speeding up PPC Macs, COME AT ME

Jethryn Freyman

Jethryn Freyman

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Aug 9, 2007
2,329
3
Australia
So, I'm currently feeling very warm and fuzzy, and so forth, and I figured since I have a Power Mac G5 that is nearly absolutely maxed out on performance, but with the near-slowest clock speed on a G5 tower [dual 1.8GHz], I figured that I may be able to contribute something here...

I know that I have been cash-strapped for quite a while, which is what led to me buying this G5 for $160 and then upgrading it over the following year. The level of performance is honestly amazing, when you combine simple upgrades with a few software tweaks, it's absolutely as capable as my SSD, 6GB RAM Macbook, and as far as far as graphics power goes it still pushes past a current Core i7 Macbook Air [OK, when overclocked.]

Basically I remember researching G5 graphics performance a lot before I upgraded the GPU, but there was a horrible lack of benchmarks between mid-range GPUs and high end stuff, *for low CPU clock G5s*.

If anybody has any benchmarks they want me to run and post results, do it here.

If anybody wants to know how to speed up Leopard to make it feel snappier than even a current Macbook Air with 10.8, do it here. [Seriously. There are a few software tweaks that truly do make an immense difference.] I plan to make a nice detailed thread on that soon though, I really feel I can help anybody cash-strapped make their PPC Mac soldier on for the foreseeable future.

<3<3<3
 
Why don't you just write a How-to or guide so that we can discuss it and talk about it, here?

Benchmark-wise there is an OpenMark-thread here, started by Zen.state, were many posted their cards. Also visit http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Blog/8923D90A-7AD8-41F1-BD1A-FEA5E1780B95.html and barefeats for further benchmarks. If you have the time, it would be nice you search google and collect all benchmarks you can find and present them in a nice sheet, were one can compare them. :D ;)

For HDD benchmarks, I have to say that Xbench really sucks (you get vastly differing marks for the same HDD), so if you would write a script that sends real life tasks, that would be handy (e.g. creates a junk-file in different sizes and tests not only transfer rate, but seek time) :) ;)
 
Cox Orange said:
Why don't you just write a How-to or guide so that we can discuss it and talk about it, here?

Benchmark-wise there is an OpenMark-thread here, started by Zen.state, were many posted their cards. Also visit http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/Blog/8923D90A-7AD8-41F1-BD1A-FEA5E1780B95.html and barefeats for further benchmarks. If you have the time, it would be nice you search google and collect all benchmarks you can find and present them in a nice sheet, were one can compare them. :D ;)

For HDD benchmarks, I have to say that Xbench really sucks (you get vastly differing marks for the same HDD), so if you would write a script that sends real life tasks, that would be handy (e.g. creates a junk-file in different sizes and tests not only transfer rate, but seek time) :) ;)
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Nice feedback mate :)

Yeah, I agree Xbench is terrible, and AJA System Test seems to choke and fail to work on some SSDs, I ended up paying for QuickBench which is honestly awesome if you're a geek like me :) . Always worked, plenty of detail.

I will write a short but direct thread on tips to speed up PPC Macs a hell of a lot, probably this week sometime since I'm partying most nights and shall be able to spend the days writing copiously ;P

As far as Zen's OpenMark thread goes, I currently have the highest score of around 22,000 using a flashed PC ATI Fire GL X3 with some overclocking. Beat's current's Intel HD 4000 GPUs in OpenGL performance.

PS: I shall work on something over this week; this community has given a lot back to be, a lot of good advice, and I love typing, so I'm totally happy to lend a helping hand for make benefit of mankind.
 
There is another thing coming to my mind. I remember that mac.majorgeeks.com in the section "benchmarking" has several applications. I once thought of just testing them all and compare, just our of curiosity. Maybe you are willing to do this. Of course, you would have to run like 3-5 test cycles for each HDD and application, to have a more telling sum of results and comparison.
 
Specs: Power Mac G5 "PowerMac7,3", June 2004 model.
Dual 1.8GHz G5 CPUs, 4GB memory, 256MB ATI FireGL X3 flashed to a Radeon X800 XT, OS X 10.5.8. 240GB OWC Mercury Electra 3G SSD for a boot drive, 180GB free, 1TB, 7,200rpm Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 storage drive with 490GB free.

--

OK, first up I ran Xbench. Xbench is a terrible benchmark but I figured I'd throw this in for kicks.

zUH5E.png


Geekbench score is 1568, results are consistently around that number each time. If I go into Energy Saver preferences and set the CPU to "reduced" power mode, however, Geekbench drops to around 900. No difference between "automatic" and "highest".

Vazl7.png


I've found the best hard disk test to be Quickbench, I think they use it quite a bit over at Anandtech, but it does cost $15. This should give a good idea of SSD vs Mechanical HD performance though:

d0CPH.png


Next up, OpenMark benchmark. This is an excellent test of raw GPU power. My score: 14709

coESv.png


And OpenMark run with the GPU overclocked scored 22902, a number which I've yet to see beaten by any other PPC Mac :)

sze9h.png


If I remember correctly (I have a screenshot somewhere, can't find it at the moment though) it was running a core clock of 160% and memory of about 110%.
 
Thank you for the work. Did you have a look into mac.majorgeeks.com and the benchmarking applications they list?

Though Geekbench is often used, I find bare numbers instead of actual MB/s unuseful.
 
Cox Orange said:
Thank you for the work. Did you have a look into mac.majorgeeks.com and the benchmarking applications they list?

Though Geekbench is often used, I find bare numbers instead of actual MB/s unuseful.
Click to expand...
Yup, I had a look... a few like Cinebench I do plan to add. And yes I share your fondness for bare numbers, they can look damn sexy at the right times :)

I'll post the detailed HD performance benchmarks within the hour.
 
For quick comparison, your SSD certainly does the business on the standard test...

This is with a WD Black :-

Geekbench.jpg


QB%20Standard.jpg


QB%20Large.jpg


QB%20Extended.jpg
 
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