G3 vs. G4 benchmarks?

[G4Grover]

How big of a jump in speed can I expect going from a G3 700 to a G4 1.33? Double? Triple?

Are there any benchmark tests to run on Mac's to see where its running compared to similiar systems?

 

[trpnmonkey41]

They dont have benchmarks comparing them but you will probably get more than double the performance.......you are getting almost twice the mhz and a much better system bus

 

[G4Grover]

I found XBench, and according to it's benchmarking, I should find closer to 4 - 5 times the performance!!!

http://ladd.dyndns.org/xbench/merge.xhtml?doc1=69886&doc2=63983

Now I am even MORE excited about it getting here...

 

[MoltenLava]

What I have found so far, as a newbie Mac user, that G4 processors are surprisingly snappy. I found my new 350MHz G4 Sawtooth with 256MB of RAM is much more snappier and quicker than my 1GHz Pentium III with 382MHz of RAM running Windows 2000.

Now comparing Apples with Apples, the biggest visible improvement that I saw was from the Quartz Extreme enabled videocard. My G4 Sawtooth and G4 cube are similarly equipped, but the cube has Radeon videocard vs the original Rage 128 from Sawtooth. The difference is quite amazing. Panther is much more enjoyable with Quartz Extreme enabled.

That said, I just took the delivery of my G4 Powerbook with 1.2GHz processor today, and it's funny that I don't feel that the Powerbook is that much quicker than my cube. But then, my use of these computers are 90% internet surfing and browing. If I try video processing or program development on these machine I could probably feel the difference easily.

A side note: If you are getting 15" Powerbook with Combo drive, be sure to order illuminated keyboard. It's a $60 option that will turn your everyday use of the laptop experience priceless. I think this should be a standard equipment!

 

[G4Grover]

Thanks for sharing the real world experience! I was wondering how much of the imac's sluggish behaviors were because of the graphic intensive OS.

OSX is really very good loooking, however that usually comes with a higher demand on the system.
With that in mind, I wonder if there are things I can turn off on Panther to speed up its performance on the iMac.

For some reason, I did opt in for the illuminated keyboard. I didn't know if I would have any practical use, however I just think it would look cool and ****.

Thanks again.

Jason

 

[MoltenLava]

How much memory does your iMac have? For some reason Mac OS and apps are very memory intensive. On a PC, 512MB memory will go a long way. On a Mac it's not unusual to find machines with 1GB of memory or more.

On what occasion have you found your iMac to be sluggish? That's quite contrary to my first impression with Mac. What's the spec of your iMac?

 

[G4Grover]

Hardware Overview:

Machine Model: iMac
CPU Type: PowerPC 750 (33.11)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 700 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
Memory: 512 MB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.1.7f4
Serial Number: RN145141LFD

It's things like there is about a 1 second delay from the time I click on the minimize or restore button on a window until it actually minimizes or restores. Or the time it takes to launch Mozilla or the slight delay in changing window focus between applications.

It's a minor neusance, but it just sluggish enough to notice. Especially since my other machines are so much more responsive. (Usually use 2.4 Ghz P4 at work and 2400+ at home)

I wonder if the difference between the G3 and G4?

 

[witeshark]

have you been deleting cache/history/cookies from the browser and running crons and occasional repair permissions?

 

[MoltenLava]

One thing I can assure you is that your new Powerbook will not have any of those delays that you mentioned. All my Macs are quite snappy in application launch/minimize/switching, etc. In fact, changing application became quite an enjoyment with Panther Exposé!

I don't have a first hand experience with G3 Mac, so I don't know if the delay you mentioned is normal. Like you said maybe it's the difference between G3 and G4. Maybe it's the OS. Are you running Panther? On the apple web site it has a graph that shows the speed in UI between different OS versions and whether Quartz Extreme is enabled or not. Panther with Quartz Extreme enabled is quite a bit faster.

 

[G4Grover]

Hi there Witeshark...

I did install Mac Janitor as recommended and have been running the clean up \ repair jobs.

I ran xBench and it scored a 33. That seems to fit with the other G3 Imacs on the site. (http://www.xbench.com) (edit: Actually, it seems low for a G3 700, more inline with the G3 400's)

The other time it seems to bog is playing videos. Not so much bog, but delivers choppy performance. Playing the same video on a PC is much smoother.

My powerbook is supposed to be here on Monday, so I will get to compare first hand then. But I was wondering if there were things I could enable \ disable to improve the iMac's performance...

 

[G4Grover]

Ok, so after posting I rebooted and it hung on the reboot. I had to hard power it down and it booted OK the 2nd try.

First thing I did was run XBench. My score jumped drastically to 46.

it's still sluggish as I described at first, but at least now i know there isn't something 'wrong' with the iMac.


Results 46.07
System Info
Xbench Version 1.1.3
System Version 10.3.4 (7H63)
Physical RAM 512 MB
Model PowerMac4,1
Processor PowerPC G3 @ 700 MHz
Version Goldfinger v3.1
L1 Cache 32K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 256K @ 700 MHz
Bus Frequency 100 MHz
Video Card ATY,Rage128Pro2

 

[Osiris22x]

You asked what the difference was between a G3 and G4. The only difference is the "Altivec" processing unit, which makes almost no visible speed boost. So basically the only thing you gain from a G4 is a faster bus and clock speed.

Just for the record, I've got a 1.33 GHz G4 and my XBench score was 96.

 

[sirlan]

I just tried xbench also. Pretty cool but I wish they had pc comparisons also. I went from a P2 266 MHz with 128 MB ram to a 1GHz iBook with 640 MB ram and all I know is that the speed difference is simply drastic. Oh, my xbench score was a 96.21.

 

[G4Grover]

I just flattened and rebuit the iMac in preparation of selling it. Previously it had OS 9 and then upgraded to 10.2 the upgraded to 10.3. This fresh install is just 10.3 and it feels a lot snappier! I am going to rerun xBench and see if it has any impact on the overall performance.

1 more day until my PB arrives!!!

 

[G4Grover]

50 this time, so there is a bit of a difference between and upgraded OS and a 10.3 only...