Fastest G4 Ever

[TyleRomeo]

Ok I've looked around the net and the fastest dual G4 I see is a 1.8 GHZ upgrade to the 7447 chip that has 512KB of L2. I've seen a single 2.0GHZ g4 updrade but will we ever see a dual 2 GHZ g4? More importantly is freescale or whoever owns the chips now are going to make faster G4s for those still not willing to let go of their g4s (myself included going strong after 4 years) I would like to hold on to my dual 1.25GHZ longer but a 2HZ+ dual G4 seems promising for Final Cut Pro and Photoshop. If anyone has any info on this please respond.

Tyler

 

[Warbrain]

Ok I've looked around the net and the fastest dual G4 I see is a 1.8 GHZ upgrade to the 7447 chip that has 512KB of L2. I've seen a single 2.0GHZ g4 updrade but will we ever see a dual 2 GHZ g4? More importantly is freescale or whoever owns the chips now are going to make faster G4s for those still not willing to let go of their g4s (myself included going strong after 4 years) I would like to hold on to my dual 1.25GHZ longer but a 2HZ+ dual G4 seems promising for Final Cut Pro and Photoshop. If anyone has any info on this please respond.

Tyler

I doubt it. I don't know if the G4 chips are even in production anymore and if they're being made for use in consumer computers.

 

[FF_productions]

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/encore_mdx_duet.html

 

[Fearless Leader]

Ok I've looked around the net and the fastest dual G4 I see is a 1.8 GHZ upgrade to the 7447 chip that has 512KB of L2. I've seen a single 2.0GHZ g4 updrade but will we ever see a dual 2 GHZ g4? More importantly is freescale or whoever owns the chips now are going to make faster G4s for those still not willing to let go of their g4s (myself included going strong after 4 years) I would like to hold on to my dual 1.25GHZ longer but a 2HZ+ dual G4 seems promising for Final Cut Pro and Photoshop. If anyone has any info on this please respond.

Tyler

i dont think so. I believe they couldn't get the g4 that fast as a dual (heat/power issues) and then they took the g4 technology and birthed the g5.
anyways, a dual 1.8 is only .4ghz behind and should pack some power.

 

[TyleRomeo]

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/encore_mdx_duet.html

Yeah im looking forward to seeing some benchmarks, $600 for 550MHZ (from my dual 1.25) updrade is very very pricey and only good for those fools not willing to part with their g4s. (dammit) I thought these chips are .13 and give off less heat. So two of these bad boys should push 2.0GHZ without melting the insides of the MDD.

 

[Fearless Leader]

what is it about the g4 you love, and why isn't it good enough to make you want to upgrade?

sorry to hijack your thread but is their a way to upgrade g5 a dual 1.8 g5 to say dual 2, 2.5, or even 2.7. dang that would be sweet.

 

[RichP]

Yeah im looking forward to seeing some benchmarks, $600 for 550MHZ (from my dual 1.25) updrade is very very pricey and only good for those fools not willing to part with their g4s. (dammit) I thought these chips are .13 and give off less heat. So two of these bad boys should push 2.0GHZ without melting the insides of the MDD.

For a little more, you could probably pick up a dual 1.8G5 on ebay.I understand the G4 love, but there has to be a limit.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

For a little more, you could probably pick up a dual 1.8G5 on ebay.I understand the G4 love, but there has to be a limit.

I have to say I'd go for a G5 if I were considering spending that much on upgrading a G4. I'm a big fan of the G4 myself and think they're simply beautiful machines but spending $600 on a machine worth at best the same doesn't seem right to me. You could get a dual 2.0Ghz G5 if you sold the G4 and didn't get the upgrade. I know the G4 is faster than a G5 clock for clock but personally I'd prefer to have the newer machine.
I know this might not be as much of an option if you're coming from the freedom of a PowerMac but you're already at the 17" iMac level in terms of cost and not far off the 20" iMac if you sell the G4 and put the $600 towards it. It might be worth considering although I could easily understand it if you have a particular desire to stay with the Powermac sized enclosure.

 

[TyleRomeo]

I have to say I'd go for a G5 if I were considering spending that much on upgrading a G4. I'm a big fan of the G4 myself and think they're simply beautiful machines but spending $600 on a machine worth at best the same doesn't seem right to me. You could get a dual 2.0Ghz G5 if you sold the G4 and didn't get the upgrade. I know the G4 is faster than a G5 clock for clock but personally I'd prefer to have the newer machine.
I know this might not be as much of an option if you're coming from the freedom of a PowerMac but you're already at the 17" iMac level in terms of cost and not far off the 20" iMac if you sell the G4 and put the $600 towards it. It might be worth considering although I could easily understand it if you have a particular desire to stay with the Powermac sized enclosure.

I understand why getting an old G5 off ebay would be a great deal. But when I bought my dual g4, I planned to skip over the entire line of g5s and with intel coming out with dual core, quad core and so on, its probably the time time ever to wait for a new machine. I also do not want to just sell off my tower since it has 2GB of RAM, nearly 2TB of PATA Hard drives inside, a ATI 9700 Pro card, airport, and a few PCI cards also. So I've invested a lot into this tower. If I can wait out another year, I can be in an 8 processor or even 16 processor Mac Pro. That would be huge and then the dual 1.8 G4 can be used as a media server of some sort. I would just like to wait and see the fastest g4 and Im hoping that something better than a dual 1.8 comes along.

Tyler

 

[Makosuke]

I doubt it. I don't know if the G4 chips are even in production anymore and if they're being made for use in consumer computers.

Oh, they're in production all right, in a wide variety of flavors:

http://www.freescale.com/

...but you're right that they're not going into the same sort of devices or the subject of the same sort of development anymore. They're largely intended for embedded use these days, so things like multiprocessing and large clockspeeds aren't where the development is heading.

I have my doubts that you'll see a 2GHz dual in the foreseeable future, but like everybody is saying, at some point getting a cheap G5 is a WHOLE lot cheaper and easier than upgrading a G4 tower.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I understand why getting an old G5 off ebay would be a great deal. But when I bought my dual g4, I planned to skip over the entire line of g5s and with intel coming out with dual core, quad core and so on, its probably the time time ever to wait for a new machine. I also do not want to just sell off my tower since it has 2GB of RAM, nearly 2TB of PATA Hard drives inside, a ATI 9700 Pro card, airport, and a few PCI cards also. So I've invested a lot into this tower. If I can wait out another year, I can be in an 8 processor or even 16 processor Mac Pro. That would be huge and then the dual 1.8 G4 can be used as a media server of some sort. I would just like to wait and see the fastest g4 and Im hoping that something better than a dual 1.8 comes along.

Tyler

Ahh, I see your problem then. That many hard drives wouldn't fit in a G5 for one and with those upgrades an iMac just wouldn't do. Do you feel like you really need a faster processor right now? Dual 1.25Ghz isn't too bad and could maybe last you for a bit longer. I just see these $600 upgrades as being incredibly bad value for money.

 

[TyleRomeo]

Ahh, I see your problem then. That many hard drives wouldn't fit in a G5 for one and with those upgrades an iMac just wouldn't do. Do you feel like you really need a faster processor right now? Dual 1.25Ghz isn't too bad and could maybe last you for a bit longer. I just see these $600 upgrades as being incredibly bad value for money.

yeah not to mention that the G5 uses serial ATA and the g4 has PATA. The G4 has lasted me this long but Im worried about the next full upgrade of the final cut pro suite and if my 1.25 will be fast enough to run it smoothly. I made sure my video card is full core video ready and has 128MB of video ram. Im going to hold out until at least NAB next year when FCP 6 comes out and if im too slow, then i might jump on the sonnet upgrade if it has gone down in price by then. I won't get a Mac Pro until it has at least 8 cores, that will future proof it for at least 4-5 years again.

 

[disconap]

yeah not to mention that the G5 uses serial ATA and the g4 has PATA. The G4 has lasted me this long but Im worried about the next full upgrade of the final cut pro suite and if my 1.25 will be fast enough to run it smoothly. I made sure my video card is full core video ready and has 128MB of video ram. Im going to hold out until at least NAB next year when FCP 6 comes out and if im too slow, then i might jump on the sonnet upgrade if it has gone down in price by then. I won't get a Mac Pro until it has at least 8 cores, that will future proof it for at least 4-5 years again.

My opinion mirrors yours, with the exception of the Final Cut necessity.

 

[knome]

i would have kept my g4 if it had agp 8x. The agp 4x was killing me in games. But i had that thing pimped out with extra cooling, overclocking, 9800 pro and extra hard drives. It even managed to kick the crap out of the first gen g5's. I'm not sure what to do with it now, i think i'll leave it at home so when i go home to do laundry i can do some graphics work, or turn it into an ftp server...

 

[generik]

Ok I've looked around the net and the fastest dual G4 I see is a 1.8 GHZ upgrade to the 7447 chip that has 512KB of L2. I've seen a single 2.0GHZ g4 updrade but will we ever see a dual 2 GHZ g4? More importantly is freescale or whoever owns the chips now are going to make faster G4s for those still not willing to let go of their g4s (myself included going strong after 4 years) I would like to hold on to my dual 1.25GHZ longer but a 2HZ+ dual G4 seems promising for Final Cut Pro and Photoshop. If anyone has any info on this please respond.

Tyler

Even my casio wristwatch has more processing power than a 2HZ+ dual G4, so I don't get what you mean by it being promising for those pro apps

 

[ReanimationLP]

Sonnet = Overpriced s***.

I had one of their 1GHz G4 upgrades. Thing caught on fire inside of my Gigabit Ethernet G4 tower and killed it. They refuse to do anything about it even though it is under warranty. Stay as far away from them as you can. Try Powerlogix, or Giga Designs. Sonnets customer support is lousy.

 

[disconap]

I've decided to completely stop at my dual 1.3. The thing is that a faster G4 processor would be cool, but realistically there is only so much you can improve on a box with a 100mHz bus (mine is a Sawtooth). And really, a dual 2.3 (which is what the current aim is in those still working with the G4 chipsets) would end up costing as much as a used G5 dual 2.3 by the time it comes out, so screw it.

 

[Killyp]

Stick with your dual G4 for the time being. It's still very fast, and if you might be able to get a MacPro later, then wait until you have that to upgrade Final Cut.

 

[TyleRomeo]

I've decided to completely stop at my dual 1.3. The thing is that a faster G4 processor would be cool, but realistically there is only so much you can improve on a box with a 100mHz bus (mine is a Sawtooth). And really, a dual 2.3 (which is what the current aim is in those still working with the G4 chipsets) would end up costing as much as a used G5 dual 2.3 by the time it comes out, so screw it.

yes but the MDD have a 167MHZ bus, yes that's not exactly lightning but its a step up from the 100/133MHZ buses in most other G4s. I also think with the 7447 1.8GHZ G4 chips, they should run a little cooler than the 1.25G4s i have now. So hopefully no fire. I would look for a non Sonnet brand of CPU upgrade but they are the only ones to support the 167MHZ bus of the MDD.

 

[Keebler]

you know Tyler..I've been thinking of upgrading my G4 too (sounds like the same model - mdd 1.25 dual), but unless i'm wrong in what i think/know about computers, it's the bus speed that really helps pipe data through. therefore, upgrading the processor really isn't going to do much imho b/c the bus on our G4s is so low. if we could bump that up, it might be worth it.

this has me thinking i'll keep my g4 for itunes/photos and the occasional transfer job and buy a G5 (dual 2.7 or quad) or get a new macpro to really see a difference in speed. i have dual 2.0 g5 and it's great so if i can get another one, i'll be laughing.

just a thought for you.

cheers,
keebler

 

[TyleRomeo]

you know Tyler..I've been thinking of upgrading my G4 too (sounds like the same model - mdd 1.25 dual), but unless i'm wrong in what i think/know about computers, it's the bus speed that really helps pipe data through. therefore, upgrading the processor really isn't going to do much imho b/c the bus on our G4s is so low. if we could bump that up, it might be worth it.

this has me thinking i'll keep my g4 for itunes/photos and the occasional transfer job and buy a G5 (dual 2.7 or quad) or get a new macpro to really see a difference in speed. i have dual 2.0 g5 and it's great so if i can get another one, i'll be laughing.

just a thought for you.

cheers,
keebler

yes you are right the FSB at 167MHZ is a big burden. but apple launched 167MHZ bus only on the 1GHZ or higher macs. So you can definately see a much bigger increase in speed on a 167MHZ FSB and a 1.8GHZ g4 than a 100MHZ FSB and a 1.8GHZ g4. So if we update our macs were adding on 1.1GHZ of extra power that will make the MDD last for a long long time for itunes and iphoto. What I would like to know is if anyone knows how much cooler 1.8GHZ 7447s G4s run compared to the apollo chips in the MDD with 2MB L3s?

 

[disconap]

I don't know about cooler for fact, but the L3 cache is really what makes putting a processor over 1ghz into a 100mHz bus machine worth it, as it prevent a ton of bottleknecking. That's why I went with the dual 1.3gHz, as it's the fastest dual I could find that still had the L3 cache...

It runs hot as hell, though. The later processors run cooler from what I've heard.

 

[TyleRomeo]

I don't know about cooler for fact, but the L3 cache is really what makes putting a processor over 1ghz into a 100mHz bus machine worth it, as it prevent a ton of bottleknecking. That's why I went with the dual 1.3gHz, as it's the fastest dual I could find that still had the L3 cache...

It runs hot as hell, though. The later processors run cooler from what I've heard.

I will be sad to lose my L3 if i upgrade to a dual 1.8 but isn't getting double the L2 help. MDD have 256KB of L2 and the later chips have 512KB of L2. L2 runs at full CPU speed while L3 runs at 1/6th the speed. This is the same argument apple had when their powerbooks went from having 1MB of L3 to losing it all together and then getting 512KB of L2. I guess I'll have to wait for the new benchmarks to really say what you gain. I hope they compare the dual 1.25 and not just a single 1.0GHZ to a dual 1.8 G4 which i can understand being quite faster.

 

[dpaanlka]

I don't know where you people got your information from, but the "G4" aka the 7xxx series of PowerPC chips is still actively developed, manufactured, and sold by Freescale.

Personal computers are not the only applications that use PowerPC chips.

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/homepage.jsp?nodeId=0162468rH3bTdG

 

[TyleRomeo]

I don't know where you people got your information from, but the "G4" aka the 7xxx series of PowerPC chips is still actively developed, manufactured, and sold by Freescale.

Personal computers are not the only applications that use PowerPC chips.

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/homepage.jsp?nodeId=0162468rH3bTdG

yes, but to 99% of mac users, no one cares if freescale is using PPC chips in anything other than a mac. I don't feel proud that the G4 or G5 lives on in high tech microwave. If it doesn't involve a new g4 chip that i can put inside my tower than its useless to my mac. So if there is some info of freescale still making chips that will work in a g4 or g5 then please attach a link.