How Much Faster a 12" PowerBook g4 Over a 500MHz g3 iceBook?

[pimentoLoaf]

Am thinking of upgrading my nearly two y/o slab with something more powerful.

Have Photoshop 7, GoLive 6, LiveMotion 2, and VirtualPC w/Windows XP Home as the main applications, though I'd like to get into video editing with Avid dvXpress.

 

[jelloshotsrule]

are you saying that you have a 500 mhz and you want to upgrade to 12" pb? or that you want to get either a 500 mhz ibook or the 12" pb?

if it's the latter, why not get a higher speed ibook?

i think the main thing you'd lose out on is video card if you got a comparable speed g3...

i think that with the relatively powerful stuff you plan to do (multimedia/video), the powerbook would be better, speedwise... that siad, the 14" ibook screen might be better...


after more clarity, i might have some more thoughts... my bro just got the 12" and seems to like it so far.

 

[pimentoLoaf]

Am writing this on a 500mhz iBook and wish to know about the g4 pb.

My other alternative is to get a desktop 970 system, or hope for the best that laptop 970 is released.

 

[jelloshotsrule]

well i can't say i'm terribly familiar with the specs of your 500 ibook... but let's look at the more obvious things... if all you care about is speed...

867 g4
32 mb graphics card
ddr sdram
133 mhz bus speed

the proc speed alone probably isn't a massive boost... but assuming the graphics card in your ibook isn't 32mb, that's a pretty important jump. the ddr ram is a step up (maybe?)... and probably the biggest would be the bus speed... you're doubling it between those two models (if my research is right)

also keep in mind you'll get bluetooth built in, and airport extreme capability..


from what i have seen of the 12" pb, it's a good solid machine... it *might* get an upgrade soon, but i wouldn't necessarily count on it... and if you can wait, maybe wait til the rev b version so the kinks are worked out a bit more...

 

[QCassidy352]

just wait and see what WWDC brings before you do anything. But as to your question, the 12" PB would be much much faster than your 500 mhz ibook on most tasks and on overall system performance. It's almost an 80% clockspeed jump, plus altivec and quartz extreme support. The difference would be huge.

It seems to me that the apps you list would crawl on your old ibook. They would do much better on the 12" PB, but as I said, WWDC is coming, and updates may bring something even better.

 

[iJon]

take a look at final cut instead of avid, the final cut pro is awesome from what ive used so far, live type is so much fun.

iJon

 

[NavyIntel007]

I just made this upgrade. I can tell you first hand the 12" powerbook smokes the ibook 500. I don't know how I dealt with it. It's worth the upgrade...

 

[mstecker]

I just did the same upgrade too...

I just did the same upgrade. Totally worth every cent. The 12" feels better, is much more responsive, and I use the Airport Extreme at full speed.

Also, the video card is so much better. I find that I can play most games at full resolution/ max settings, whereas I was always having to find "special" games that would actually work on my iBook.

 

[mstecker]

Actually, if you're interested, I have a very lightly used one on sale at eBay right now. Reserve is $1400. That's for Combo/640M/60G/Airport Extreme. As new:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2736392116

 

[5300cs]

I have a 500MHz iBook & an 800Mhz iBook. The difference between 8M VRAM & 32M VRAM is astonishing, I can't even imagine how much faster a 12" PB is