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One further tidbit for you, Cox orange - I believe that the rare GeForce4Ti (4600) OEM Mac edition video card will function with full hardware acceleration under OS 9. It is roughly equivalent to the Radeon 9800 in power, but was never offered as a retail card and is therefore rare and expensive, (though flashed PC examples are cheaper). It is probably the fastest OS 9-compatible card ever made.

It does not, however, support Core Image in OS X, so if you plan on running both OSs your best bet is still a combo of the Radeon 9800/Radeon 9200 PCI cards.

Better off with the Radeon 9800/Radeon 9200 suggestion if money isn't a problem. The Geforce4 Ti 4600 was the best card in its day (2002) but the 9800 pro offers about twice its power. Unless you want to build up the best OS 9 gaming rig ;)...
 
On the CPU upgrade, does it actually make sense to up an MDD 1,25GHz/1,42GHz to 1,6 or 1,8GHz? (noticable) I think an upgrade for a former G4 from lets say 500Mhz to 1,6GHz would make a better bargain (if you are not doing it as your hobby and are willing to spend much money anyway).

Those dual 1.6 and 1.8GHz upgrades Sonnet made for the MDD are 7447a CPU's so they would actually be about the same or a little lower performance than a dual 1.42 stock CPU. They would only benefit the single MDD's and the 2 slower duals (867MHz and 1GHz) but not the dual 1.25+.

The 7455B CPU's in MDD's are the 2nd fastest G4 chip ever made. The 7447a in many G4 upgrades is one of the slowest performance per MHz G4 chips ever. I call it the Celeron of the G4's

In my experience the G4 chips rank like this for best performance per MHz.

1. 7448 (fastest)
2. 7455
3. 7450
4. 7447
5. 7410
6. 7400 (slowest)
 
I have an OWC 7455 1.4Ghz CPU in my Digial Audio, and it compared favorably with all the 7447-based upgrades, even though some were 600Mhz faster.
 
I have an OWC 7455 1.4Ghz CPU in my Digial Audio, and it compared favorably with all the 7447-based upgrades, even though some were 600Mhz faster.

Your 1.4GHz 7455 would be equal to about a 2.2GHz 7447 if one existed. My single 1.8GHz 7448 outperforms any dual 7447 I have ever compared it to. The dual 7447 upgrades I compared it to range from 1.6-1.8GHz.
 
Your 1.4GHz 7455 would be equal to about a 2.2GHz 7447 if one existed. My single 1.8GHz 7448 outperforms any dual 7447 I have ever compared it to. The dual 7447 upgrades I compared it to range from 1.6-1.8GHz.

The 7455s are 180nm chips though, so they do technically run hotter. It's never been an issue for me though - my GeForce 6800GT is far more likely to overheat than the CPU.

As an aside, I think that the 7448 is the only G4 chip still in production (or at least available in large numbers from new stock), and is probably the last of the breed in terms of "G4" CPUs. The architecture lives on, but not on the Mac.
 
Your 1.4GHz 7455 would be equal to about a 2.2GHz 7447 if one existed. My single 1.8GHz 7448 outperforms any dual 7447 I have ever compared it to. The dual 7447 upgrades I compared it to range from 1.6-1.8GHz.

If I remember it well... I've read that a 7450 CPU with some SERIOUS overclocking would outperform even a 7448 processor. But unless you want to mod a lot with the fans and/or watercooling, I think the 7448 is a better choice.

Actually, the best G4 cpu, as far as I can tell, would be a G4 FW800's dual CPU overclocked @ 1.67 ghz. But thats at your own risks and people say that it heats hell of a lot.
 
The 7455s are 180nm chips though, so they do technically run hotter. It's never been an issue for me though - my GeForce 6800GT is far more likely to overheat than the CPU.

As an aside, I think that the 7448 is the only G4 chip still in production (or at least available in large numbers from new stock), and is probably the last of the breed in terms of "G4" CPUs. The architecture lives on, but not on the Mac.

The 7448 is only 90nm so half the size of a 7455. The 7447 are 130nm. The older 7400 is 200nm.

The 7447 is still made also.

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If I remember it well... I've read that a 7450 CPU with some SERIOUS overclocking would outperform even a 7448 processor. But unless you want to mod a lot with the fans and/or watercooling, I think the 7448 is a better choice.

Actually, the best G4 cpu, as far as I can tell, would be a G4 FW800's dual CPU overclocked @ 1.67 ghz. But thats at your own risks and people say that it heats hell of a lot.

I would gladly put my 7448 against any G4 out there dual or single. Name the time and place. :)
 
The 7448 is only 90nm so half the size of a 7455. The 7447 are 130nm. The older 7400 is 200nm.

The 7447 is still made also.

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I would gladly put my 7448 against any G4 out there dual or single. Name the time and place. :)

hehe... well I don't have a dual 1.67ghz, which is supposed to be the best. I do not plan to overclock mine until I can get my hands on spare CPU daughtercards...
 
hehe... well I don't have a dual 1.67ghz, which is supposed to be the best. I do not plan to overclock mine until I can get my hands on spare CPU daughtercards...

You are also forgetting about the dual 1.7 and 1.8GHz 7448 upgrades that were sold for 3-4 years. A dual 7448 would smoke any other dual and by a lot. I'm so sure about that I would state my life on it.

My single 1.8 7448 meets or exceeds the performance I got on the dual 1.42 MDD I used to have from 2007-08.

The 7448 trumps all. Period.
 
You are also forgetting about the dual 1.7 and 1.8GHz 7448 upgrades that were sold for 3-4 years. A dual 7448 would smoke any other dual and by a lot. I'm so sure about that I would state my life on it.

My single 1.8 7448 meets or exceeds the performance I got on the dual 1.42 MDD I used to have from 2007-08.

The 7448 trumps all. Period.

I was comparing dual 1.67 7455 CPUs vs 7448 CPUs. I've read the first one was better. Of course 1.42 is NOT enough.
 
I was comparing dual 1.67 7455 CPUs vs 7448 CPUs. I've read the first one was better. Of course 1.42 is NOT enough.

Must have been a single 7448 then because mine at least matches my old MDD. If a single 7448 can match a dual 1.42 then how could a dual 1.67 possibly be faster than a dual 7448?

Even a dual 1.67 7455 would only be slightly faster (if at all) than my single 1.8 7448. No way on earth it would ever compete with a dual 7448.

My single 1.8 vs a dual 1.67 MDD
http://db.xbench.com/merge.xhtml?doc1=359219&doc2=442130

The overall score is faster on the MDD but look at the CPU score in particular. . Single 1.8GHz 7448 = 96.13 CPU score vs. 89.58 for the MDD. I can run other benchmarks also. The higher overall score is due to a 67% faster bus and RAM.

End result is that a single 7448 has more raw CPU power than any dual G4 other than a dual 7448. The 180nm 7455 or any of the larger G4's simply can't compete with a 90nm 7448.
 
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iMac G4, I love mine, I use it for school work and website work, along with programming and forum checking.
 
I love my MDD, but man is that thing annoyingly loud. I has sort of a higher pitched sound than my eMac's low hum. I had it on my desk at first because it looked so good but now its far under my desk haha.

iMac G4, I love mine, I use it for school work and website work, along with programming and forum checking.

The iMac g4s are great but they aren't the best G4's you can get on a budget since some of the higher end models can still fetch a fair lump of cash. The eMac 1.25 or 1.42 or the dual processor MDD's are the best bet on a budget IMO.
 
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