Mac Specs: G4 eMac 1.25 2 Gb RAM OS 10.4.11; G3 iMac 600 OS 10.3.9; G3 350, 80 Gb OS 10.3.9 & 40 Gb OS 9.2.2
CPU Usage
Whilst this thread has been covered to some extent in Notebooks, and this is a mix of OS and hardware, I thought I'd mention an extraordinary event in terms of CPU usage.
Using Camino, with the link MySpace Music: Bands, Music Videos, Concerts, Tour Dates, Musicians, Artists I loaded the Swingle Singers page and listened to some of the tracks listed there. The eMac began to get slower and slower. I quit the two other (lightweight) apps to see if that would help, but the eMac was struggling.
Investigation with Activity Monitor showed that Camino was pulling from 83 - 89% of CPU capacity. Is it highly unusual for a web page to require so much processing power? The web page has high-graphic content, using what looks to me like layers, or CSS, whatever the technical description is.
I tried the same link using FFox. It managed the task better, drawing 50 - 60%, but there were issues with cookies and ads.
This eMac has 2 Gb memory, so that was not a factor at all.
Mac Specs: 13 inch alMacBook 2GHz 2GB, 1.25GHz G4 eMac
Seems fairly normal. Tons of flash content on that page, and the eMac only has a 1.25GHz processor. Unfortunately, that seems to be the way things are going. My eMac (also 1.25GHz but only 512MB of RAM) can't even stream hulu videos without it chopping. It's sad. At least youtube still works on it.
Mac Specs: G4 eMac 1.25 2 Gb RAM OS 10.4.11; G3 iMac 600 OS 10.3.9; G3 350, 80 Gb OS 10.3.9 & 40 Gb OS 9.2.2
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkestRitual
Seems fairly normal. Tons of flash content on that page, and the eMac only has a 1.25GHz processor .... My eMac (also 1.25GHz but only 512MB of RAM)
Thanks DR. I sort-of figured it was the flash content, intended for high-end processors, but I don't know much about flash to be honest. I note the MySpace web page is maintained by Sw Singers themselves, which means some high-paid technical guru employed by them. Older Macs probably don't figure in the thought processes.
[Slightly o-t, but have you considered upgrading that RAM? It's made a serious difference to the performance of my eMac. No faster, but otherwise it runs more smoothly, less hesitation on heavyweight tasks. Even though I'm in New Zealand, I bought the RAM from OWC, the price is good. The brand is Hynix.]
Mac Specs: 13 inch alMacBook 2GHz 2GB, 1.25GHz G4 eMac
Yea, I've thought about it, but it's my fiancee's machine. It serves her well for what she does with it. I figure we'll probably get an iMac within the next year or so anyway, so no use in dropping the cash into that machine. Plus if I screwed up the install (which I very well might, eMac's internal components and I don't get along well... my old 800MHz gave me a hard time) she would kill me. As it is, I'm in the doghouse right now for getting annoyed when she kept yelling at me from the other room and I couldn't hear her haha.
Older Macs probably don't figure in the thought processes.
Even newer Macs are feeling the pressure exerted by Flash on the CPU. My early 2008 MB doesn't slow down when I view Flash content but CPU usage jumps to 50 - 60% for Firefox. When not viewing Flash content, it's between 1% and 10%. I can't imagine what it's like on an older Mac.
