PowerBook G4 vs. AMD laptop?

[imisch]

I recently became the owner of a PowerBook g4 1.33ghz with 2gigs of ram and a 80gb HDD. I got it so I could replace my AMD E450 laptop. But I'm curious which would be better in terms of CPUs not GPUs considering the e450 is a apu.

Thanks in Advanced, and do G4s use sata ,cause I plan to replace the 80gig HDD with a 500gig hdd (5400rpm).

 

[jrsx]

PowerBook G4 and all PPC Laptops use IDE/PATA.

 

[imisch]

Do they have USB 2.0 ?

 

[Intell]

All models with a silver keyboard (all but one model that's 1Ghz or faster) have USB 2 and WiFi G networking.

 

[imisch]

So would a external drive be better then using ide since ide is about 130mbs? and usb 2.0 is 480?

 

[Intell]

No, the internal drive maxes out at about 60 or 90 megabytes per second, depending on which model Powerbook. USB 2 drives have a maximum speed of about 34 megabytes per second. FireWire 400 is about 38 megabytes per second and FireWire 800 is about 75 megabytes per second.

 

[eyoungren]

So would a external drive be better then using ide since ide is about 130mbs? and usb 2.0 is 480?

Also keep in mind that booting from USB is rather an arcane art with PowerBooks and PowerMacs.

*Sorry, Intell, that's just been my experience. I know, I know, all PMs and PBs past a certain year are capable of USB booting, but I've always had issues requiring me to use Open Firmware to make it work.*

 

[imisch]

Also is my dual core 1.65 GHz and e450 better or worse then the g4 1.33ghz

 

[eyoungren]

Also is my dual core 1.65 GHz and e450 better or worse then the g4 1.33ghz

Straight up, it's better than the G4.

However, you are comparing Apples to Oranges. The G4 is an entirely different chip.

Is this your first experience with a Mac? If so, are you aware of the differences between the PowerPC based Macs and the newer Intel Macs?

I ask, because if you are not aware you may be in for a rude shock. PowerPC based machines are not the modern Macs and there are certain things they cannot do or do poorly compared to PCs or Intel Macs.

 

[imisch]

First time and its pretty nice to have this.Also I am aware of it but many say the G4 destroyed Pentium 4s and some amd processors. Well how would my amd stand up per core 1.65ghZ vs the g4 (if they were both single)

Also can the g4 run PS cs4 or 5 I plan to do a lot of editing

 

[eyoungren]

First time and its pretty nice to have this.Also I am aware of it but many say the G4 destroyed Pentium 4s and some amd processors. Well how would my amd stand up per core 1.65ghZ vs the g4 (if they were both single)

Also can the g4 run PS cs4 or 5 I plan to do a lot of editing

I can't answer the first question as I've never followed the numbers.

But as to Photoshop, the G4 can run the CS4 suite. Keep in mind that the Suite installer will refuse to install because it looks for an Intel processor. But if you use the individual installers you'll be fine. Some of the apps in the Suite require an Intel processor (most do not) so the Suite installer is set to fail if it doesn't find an Intel chip. But the rest of the apps are universal.

CS5 and above are Intel only.

 

[imisch]

Thanks for the help, one more thing I heard the pb g4s have a backlit keyboard,is it true?

 

[Zotaccian]

You could find out how much faster that AMD chip is by running some test which are available for both operating systems, like Geekbench 2 and Handbrake, I'm sure there is more.

G4 was hyped chip, but when others tested it the results were not always quite what Apple advertised, I did compare Celeron M against a G4 chip while ago and G4 was slower in everything. I know that Celeron M is not based on P4 architecture, but still. Apple won lots of users because of OS X and beatiful design of the machines, but G4 just didn't evolve quick enough and G5 couldn't be used....

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1550534/

 

[gavinstubbs09]

Thanks for the help, one more thing I heard the pb g4s have a backlit keyboard,is it true?

15" and 17" models have them, 12" and TiBooks didn't.

 

[hamis92]

15" and 17" models have them, 12" and TiBooks didn't.

In addition to that, it used to be optional in the 15" model.

 

[2984839]

The E450 should be quite a bit faster.

Also keep in mind that all the versions of OS X that can run on the PowerPC and many of the applications are full of security holes because they have not received updates in years.

 

[Altemose]

Thanks for the help, one more thing I heard the pb g4s have a backlit keyboard,is it true?

15" and 17" models have them, 12" and TiBooks didn't.

The Titanium 15" PowerBooks and 12" Aluminum PowerBooks did not have the backlit keyboard. The 17" model always had one and up until the 1.5/1.67 GHz model 15" models the backlit keyboard was an option. Remember that not all 1.5 GHz 15" have it but only the later revision had it standard.

 

[goMac]

Also I am aware of it but many say the G4 destroyed Pentium 4s and some amd processors. Well how would my amd stand up per core 1.65ghZ vs the g4 (if they were both single)

To be honest, the single processor G4s were never faster than the Pentium 4s. "Destroyed" is way to strong a word. The G4 was better than the Pentium 3, but I never saw a G4 "destroy" a P4. At best, a dual core G4 could be a little faster than some Pentium 4s, but the G5 was really the competitor to the Pentium 4, not the G4.

The G4 was really a Pentium 3 equivalent.

 

[Intell]

To be honest, the single processor G4s were never faster than the Pentium 4s. "Destroyed" is way to strong a word. The G4 was better than the Pentium 3, but I never saw a G4 "destroy" a P4. At best, a dual core G4 could be a little faster than some Pentium 4s, but the G5 was really the competitor to the Pentium 4, not the G4.

The G4 was really a Pentium 3 equivalent.

The later G4s were well matched with the earlier Pentium 4s. In some cases the G4 was faster, but only with the faster single G4s and the slower Pentium 4s.

 

[goMac]

The later G4s were well matched with the earlier Pentium 4s. In some cases the G4 was faster, but only with the faster single G4s and the slower Pentium 4s.

Yeah, but that's not very impressive. The P4 was a pretty long lasting line spanning several significant architecture changes. The P4 also included good vector processing, which erased any lead the G4 had from Altivec. The P4 run hot, but that's not relevant here (and it ran cooler than the G5, at that.) In desktops, the G4 only stayed competitive with Intel for a while because of the dual CPUs. On laptops, the G4 always had a lot of trouble against the Pentium M. When the Intel laptops were on the Pentium 3, the G4 had an advantage, but the Pentium M was a great chip.

The Pentium 4's weakness in laptops wasn't as much it's speed, it was the heat and power consumption.

On the original topic, the AMD processor is many years newer than the G4. I'd expect the e450 would run circles around the G4, especially in since it includes the same vector processing that you'd get from Altivec. I'd even expect the GPU to be faster than whats in the Powerbook.