Because the Motorola PPC processor uses only 7 pipeline stages and the P4 uses 20 stages. The pipeline in the PPC has a much shorter path to travel to complete the processing stage. Because the P4 has to travel so much further before processing is complete Intel had to increase the clock frequency to make it run close to or as fast as the PPC G4 that clocked at a much lower frequency.
So when you render a photo in Photoshop using both the P4 and G4 they may render a complex file nearly the same time and in many cases the G4 will beat the P4. Due to cache misses at times the G4 can easily beat the P4 because of the shorter path. The 20 stage pipeline in the P4 has a greater chance of having more cache misses henceforth creating the infamous hourglass.
This is the main reason why you should not buy on clock speed alone unless both CPU's are the same such as 2.2 Ghz Core 2 duo and the 2.8 in the new iMac.
But in terms of AMD where their processors are clocked way different and their cache is much smaller they can appear slower than the Intel when that's not the case.
So Apple really hyped up these G4's?
Whatever, I'd rather use a Mac anyways.
you got that a little backwards .. intel introduced the much longer pipeline to increase the clock frequency
and "travel much further" ? if a pipeline is filled each CPU can complete one instruction per clock which means the P4 is going to win because of the higher clockrate
the disadvantage of the net burst architecture with it's long pipeline is the pipeline crashing when a branch is miss-predicted which means intel needed a very sophisticated branch prediction and a lot of fancy other stuff which simply costed too much die space and thus wasn't that energy efficient
that said my AMD Athlon Xp 2000+ with 1.66 GHz is faster than my G4 1.42 GHz in cinebench 10 so i suspect the P4 with 2.8 is faster than a G4 1.6
if we are talking about a P4 with hyperthreading the G4 is getting spanked no matter what
No, the G4 Dual 1.8GHz and Single 2.0GHz will kill the Intel in AltiVec Tasks. Some of the slowest and oldest G5's used to be better than any other processor in it's time, and it was barely faster than the fastest Sonnet
G4's.
No, the G4 Dual 1.8GHz and Single 2.0GHz will kill the Intel in AltiVec Tasks. Some of the slowest and oldest G5's used to be better than any other processor in it's time, and it was barely faster than the fastest Sonnet
G4's.
So if you know all the answers, why did you ask this in the first place. I had a Sonnet, what everyone is saying here is that the G4 isn't faster than the P4 no matter how much you want it to be. Yes, the G5's were faster but thats because they had ridiculous enhancements over the G4. You can't possibly make me believe that Sonnet somehow made an incredibly superior processor than Motorola ever achieved.
P4 = 1
G4 = 0
Just wanted to point out that, although speed comparisons will vary drastically depending on what, in particular, you're testing based on (for example the fastest computer to encode video may suck at something), and accurate benchmarks past really general things are impossible, it's not like it's hard to find numbers for these things, especially for older processors.
For example, BareFeats has a test from 2003 that includes cinebench results for a 1.6GHz G4 and a 3.0 P4.
If you do the math it works out to that G4 being about the speed of a theoretical P4 1.9GHz. Faster per-clock, but not that much, and significantly slower than a 2.8 P4.
Or, you can check out the distributed.net numbers; that's a fairly accurate benchmark for one VERY specific type of entirely CPU-bound number crunching (it's such that disk activity and graphics have no involvement);
A P4 2.8 scores a bit over 5M keys per second on RC5-72, and somewhere in the range of 13M keys/s in OGR; there aren't any 1.6 G4s in the database, but a 1.66 shows 17M keys/s in RC5-72 and about 38M keys/s in OGR. So for these VERY specialized types of calculations, the G4 obviously has a huge performance advantage, and actually the P4 has a huge performance disadvantage, both of which add up to a G4 at half the clock running rings around a P4.
If memory serves, the altivec unit was very effective at the RC5 calculations, which is most of the reason why it scored so well.
This doesn't mean that a G4 is three times as fast as a P4 at a way higher clock in most things, it just means that the G4 is/was really good at particular kinds of number crunching.
Anyway, the point I'm getting at is that the P4 is faster in a lot of, if not most, real-world tasks, but you can compare the two, and in some cases the G4's architecture has an advantage.
(Incidentally, a 1.66 Core 2 Duo, using both cores, is roughly twice as fast as a solo G4 at the same clock on RC5 and maybe 30% faster on OGR. Which also illustrates how poorly the P4 does with this particular type of calculation.)
From my experience with the OSX on x86, my Dell GX270 running Mac OS X Tiger is about 75% faster at most tasks than my Dual 1 GHz G4 Quicksilver.
Both have 1.5 GB of RAM, 80GB 7200RPM Maxtor HDDs.
The G4 has a 9000 Pro, the GX270 a FX5200 Ultra.
The GX270 is a 2.8 GHz Northwood Pentium4 HT.
I doubt the 1.6 GHz G4 is that much of an increase, due to the lack of losing that nice chunk of L3 cache.
Ok, this wraps up the thread. The G4 is better at what it does from my experience.
And my friends this is why apple does not use PPC, dont beleive that more watt per preformance right they swtched because the current macbooska are abotu 10 times faster than any g4 notebook. There you have it!
You say don't believe that performance per watt thing yet you specifically sight an example to support performance per watt.
if wattage wasn't an issue apple would have not switched to intel, sorry.
imagine a power6-based processor in a notebook![]()
So Apple really hyped up these G4's?
Whatever, I'd rather use a Mac anyways.
I would say that the 2.8GHz Pentium 4 would be faster, but the 1.6GHz PowerPC G4 would still perform well for most tasks.![]()
I would say that the 2.8GHz Pentium 4 would be faster, but the 1.6GHz PowerPC G4 would still perform well for most tasks.![]()
Yeah, but like I stated, the P4 rapes the G4, even with the huge L3 cache and all.
No, the G4 Dual 1.8GHz and Single 2.0GHz will kill the Intel in AltiVec Tasks. Some of the slowest and oldest G5's used to be better than any other processor in it's time, and it was barely faster than the fastest Sonnet
G4's.
hahaha sometimes you mac fans get me. PC World "Apple Power Macs did well on Photoshop, but the 64-bit AMD-based systems won handily on most tests." http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,112749-page,8-c,athlon/article.html Now please stop with these funny comments. Ohh also, "The debate between PC and Macintosh partisans over which platform performs better reached an interesting impasse this week when longtime Apple Computer partner Adobe Systems published a document on its Web site that supports claims that the PC is indeed faster." Now can we stop because everytime i find stuff on the internet i really cant stop laughing.
Wow, didn't Apple claim they had the Fastest Computer in the World?
Everything Apple says appears to be bull-****.
I sound like an apple-fan-boy but I always ignored the speed of these computers. Even if a PC is faster, I'd rather use a Mac because of the OS behind it.
Apple realized that PowerPC couldn't keep up so they ditched it.
Yeah, but like I stated, the P4 rapes the G4, even with the huge L3 cache and all.
And my Core 2 Duo rapes the Pentium 4.![]()
There is always something "bigger and better" coming out. While I enjoy a fast processor like the rest of you folks, it is all about the OS to me. So if I had to decide between a PowerPC G4 based computer running Mac OS X and a Pentium 4 based computer running Windows- the G4 would win in a heartbeat.![]()
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