G4 Minis are limited to 1GB of ram and they do have the slowest GPU of the entire G4 lineup. That along with their stock 4200rpm drive makes them one of the slowest G4 product lines made.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Mac Mini (Which One Do I Need?)
- Thread starter tiyoo
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
G4 Minis are limited to 1GB of ram and they do have the slowest GPU of the entire G4 lineup. That along with their stock 4200rpm drive makes them one of the slowest G4 product lines made.
BUT, those Mac minis can run MorphOS right out of the box. Morph makes a "slow" PPC feel fast again.
That's wholly subjective and their limitations become apparent when doing anything that is resource intensive.
Ahhh. But my 1.5 PPC came stock with a speedy 5400 rpm hard drive!
But only a ATI 9200, while a same or less priced iBook G4 from mid 2005 comes with an ATI 9550 and 1,5GB RAM max..
Still doesn't make up for its lowly Radeon 9200 and not every Mini had 64MB, most only had 32MB.
Edit: I was wrong, here is the correct version.
I thought that more RAM makes a difference in iMovie, but it does not seem so, after I have done a third run. Strange, though, that 1 and 3 differ.
43min DV clip -> h.264, set to best quality and bitrate to automatic, result was 18,82Mbit btw.
ibook G4 1,2GHz, 265GB SSD
1. 782MB: 14hours 28min.
2. 1,25GB: 13:55
3. 782MB: 13:56
CPU does make a difference, though.
21min DV clip -> h.264 bitrate 2500kbit/s.
ibook 1,2GHz, 782MB, 265GB SSD took 1hour longer than ibook 1,33GHz, 1,5GB, 320GB HDD.
I thought that more RAM makes a difference in iMovie, but it does not seem so, after I have done a third run. Strange, though, that 1 and 3 differ.
43min DV clip -> h.264, set to best quality and bitrate to automatic, result was 18,82Mbit btw.
ibook G4 1,2GHz, 265GB SSD
1. 782MB: 14hours 28min.
2. 1,25GB: 13:55
3. 782MB: 13:56
CPU does make a difference, though.
21min DV clip -> h.264 bitrate 2500kbit/s.
ibook 1,2GHz, 782MB, 265GB SSD took 1hour longer than ibook 1,33GHz, 1,5GB, 320GB HDD.
Last edited:
The last generation G4 Mac Mini was 1.33Ghz with 32MB VRAM and 1.5Ghz with 64MB VRAM. Both with a machine identifier of PowerMac10,2 and EMC of 2026 and model number of A1103. They're the same generation.
I own a last gen mac mini 1.5GHz with the 64mb vid,(leopard 10.5.8...which I find about the same speed as Tiger) and a newer 5400 120 gig drive....for most of the programs I use (xpaint,seashore for photos) it's still pretty fast,and for watching DVD's it's great. However when it come's to the internet it really shows it's age! I find safari still the fastest browser (as a note,when I use tenfourfox the mini's fan really kicks in and is rather annoying),for flash content don't waste your time with adobe flash! (as leopard installs by default,I use program provided by adobe to uninstall...this also really helps with safari web page views,as it doesn't bog down when flash content is part of page). To watch utubes I find it's best to download them using Mactubes and use option to download them as mpeg (not 720p ect). Then rather then using quicktime to watch (which btw you will need to download after leopard install and update, as latest itunes for leopard won't work without) I use VLC to watch the downloaded tubes (Where quicktime will show some lag at fullscreen,VLC will run them smooth)...