Anyone have a dual processor 1 GHz machine?

karavite

karavite

Registered
I'm thinking of biting the bullet and getting a new Mac to replace my G4 450. I am really thinking about a DP 1 GHz, Is there anyone out there who has one or has used one? I guess I want to know - will its speed increase over my current machine blow me away, or will it REALLY blow me away? :)

I need speed primarily for video editing (the super drive will come in handy of course). I know this machine will use Final Cut Pro's real time effects, but I don't have FCP yet (not sure I can afford both!) and am a little tired of waiting for iMovie to render pluugins and effects, transitions...

I thought about upgrading the processor of this 450 to a 1 Ghz and buying a superdrive, but that adds up to about $1100 and it even though the DP 1 Ghz costs 2x that, I think it is a smarter move in the long term. I've had quite a few macs in my life, but none as long as this G4 450 - I will really hate to let it go, but I think it is time.
 
well just to give you reference...

my g4-800 is much quicker than a dual 500 i use, so im sure a dual 1ghz is going to be quicker than my 800, so i think it'll be noticable ;)
 
my g4-800 is much quicker than a dual 500
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This is what confuses me - what does the second processor add in terms of performance and what kind of performance? I guess I'm not completely ignortant on this (almost though) and wouldn't expect a DP 500 to be 2x as fast as a 500. I should probably do a search on this one. I'm just owndering if finding a close out deal on a single proccesor 1 Ghx machine with a super drive would be a better move for me.
 
I have noticed my machine at work (dual 500 G4) runs really intense operations like photoshop filters/rendering faster than my iMAC G4/700 at home. It is quite a large difference, relatively speaking.

I have read that the dual processors help you in certain situations where the software is programmed and set up to use the dual processors. If the software doesn't utilize the dual processor, you may not see any change. More and more programs are dual-processor aware these days since it's more prevalent.

If you G4 is still upgradable, add some more ram and get the dual 1GHz chip instead of spending twice as much for the same effect. The G4 is highly upgradable--I still use one at work.

Hope some of this helps
 
Natobasso - thanks. Yes, I think you are right - rendering or any other CPU intensive operation is where a DP would make the difference and many apps are built to take advanyage of a DP. My G4 450 AGP already has 1 GB of RAM, a nice video card but sadly it is not upgradable to the new DP upgrade cards - only a single processor upgrade will work with this machine (I checked the PowerLogix site - they have a tool you can download that will check your machine for its upgrade-ability).

It's too bad, because it is only the video rendering stuff that makes this machine seem slow. Like I said I have kept this machine longer than any other Mac I have owned. When I got it it was the 2nd fastest Mac made and blew away any Intel machine at the time. I think that is the way to go - the middle G4 is always the best buy and seems to last the longest, so I think I am going to take the plunge and get the DP 1 GHz. Also, my G4 450 may be worth something now as a used machine, but that will change soon.
 
> I have read that the dual processors help you in certain situations where the software is programmed and set up to use the dual processors.

Software which falls into this category includes Mac OS X itself, so the effect of dual processors is noticeable much more of the time than one might think. No, it is not 100% faster than a single processor, but it is significant.
 
my DP 867 blows my G4 400 away. there's no other way to put it. i can do practically everything i want without slow down. i can rip a DVD, download a bunch of songs, serve a web page and play warcraft 3 with virtually no lag. it's absolutely incredible. photoshop blazes through the stuff i do. i never have to wait on it (but i don't really do crazy intensive stuff... just web pages and the like). opening files and programs are pretty much instant. i feel like the only thing slowing this computer down is my inability to click on stuff fast enough.
 
btw- a friend of mine and i decided that my DP 867 is much quicker than his G4 800 imac. it could be the crazy architecture or the video card (we tried not to do only video card-y stuff, though) and the DP just responded much much much quicker. OS X is definitely DP responsive. there are hardly any programs that require the speed of multiple processors anyway. it's nice to run a lot of programs at once because once one processor is at its max, the second one kicks in and there's no slowdown. a multitasking dream.

i'm gonna shut up now, i promise.
 
If i'm wrong correct me, but I think this is the most common way for a DP machine to take advantage of the capability. When apps are multi threaded (meaning they run more than one task at a single time), performance with a DP machine is increased. With a single threaded app, the machine can only maximize one processor because data is only being sent to the processor from one task. If its sent from two, one application can use both processors.

For instance, when I run setiathome from commandline, and do a ps aux it shows that setiathome is using like 97% of the system resources, but when i run two instances, the BOTH use 97% of the resources on each processor.
 
Originally posted by X Rocks
If i'm wrong correct me, but I think this is the most common way for a DP machine to take advantage of the capability. When apps are multi threaded (meaning they run more than one task at a single time), performance with a DP machine is increased. With a single threaded app, the machine can only maximize one processor because data is only being sent to the processor from one task. If its sent from two, one application can use both processors.

For instance, when I run setiathome from commandline, and do a ps aux it shows that setiathome is using like 97% of the system resources, but when i run two instances, the BOTH use 97% of the resources on each processor.
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Yep.. what he said
 
Originally posted by boi
btw- a friend of mine and i decided that my DP 867 is much quicker than his G4 800 imac. it could be the crazy architecture or the video card (we tried not to do only video card-y stuff, though) and the DP just responded much much much quicker. OS X is definitely DP responsive. there are hardly any programs that require the speed of multiple processors anyway. it's nice to run a lot of programs at once because once one processor is at its max, the second one kicks in and there's no slowdown. a multitasking dream.

i'm gonna shut up now, i promise.
Click to expand...

Boi, please don't shut up! I am now seriously considering a DP 867 and to just buy a superdrive for it. Since I am only doing home video stuff with FCP (titles, transitions, effects) the DP will come in handy, but I don't think I need the 1 GIG. One more post from you on how great your DP 867 is, and I am off to the Apple store! Tell me about window resizing speed for Mail and IE and I'm out the door!!!

P.S. How is the video card for that machine. I have a ATI Radeon 8500 in my G4 450 that I am 99.999% sure I will put in the new machine, and the other card will go in the G4 450 for whoever buys it from me.

P.P.S. Boi - did you have Apple put in the superdrive or did you put it in yourself?
 
i had apple put the superdrive in my machine. i didn't need it, though. i wish i got the combo drive instead. it's painfully slow at reading cds and writing them. it's also kinda slow at reading DVDs. i don't write to DVDs much, so a combo drive should have been my route.
also, if you buy the DP 867, PUT AN ATI 9000 in it. it's a bazillion times better than the Geforce 4 MX and it's a pretty good deal from apple ($70 for me with the educational discount).
i honestly think the DP 867 is the best deal from Apple (the most speed for your money), and the upgradability is priceless. the speed is perfect for me. any faster and i won't really notice it at all. and FCP 3 is optimized for DP, so is iMovie and iDVD. there's very little render time for iMovie (i love live rendering!).
anyway, i love this computer to death. i definitely got my money's worth ^_^.
 
Dual 1G machine of mine is running both FCP3.0 and After Effects and the difference is quite significant as compared to the Dual 450 I was previously using. The Dual 450 has been with me for a long time now, and I hate to let it go, so it is sitting beside the Dual 1G to prepare the graphics elements in Photoshop to be transferred into FCP.

The combo works great, because in Jaguar, PS7 just runs really smooth, and I have had no problems at all. I do not own the Dual 867, so I cannot tell you the difference. The single 867, however, is used purely for audio (ProTools) and it only runs on OS9 because ProTools has no OS X support. :(

Go for the new Dualies if you have the spare $$$, it is worth it.

Even log and capture feels faster! The rendering time almost sped up more than double the speed on the Dual 1G. I am very glad I chose to upgrade the video machine, as it helped to move things faster and lesser time wasted on waiting for rendering to end.
 
FYI, I went to the Apple Store in White Plains NY yesterday and picked up a DP 1 GHz - oh man, I am in love again... :p

FYI, Apple charges a boat load for the DDR Ram used in these machines - something like $200 for each 256 MB chip! I actually pulled up MacMall's website on the floor model, showed the sales person the deal they had (DP 1 GHz with "free" extra 512 RAM for $2533.99) and they matched the price and installed the extra RAM! The manager wasn't too happy about it, but he did do it (I think I was nice enough about it - not too pushy, plus I had the "evidence"). Of course I had to pay sales tax and I'm not sure I would have to from MacMall, though shipping would have probably been about $50. Close enough for me, plus I was able to experience "instant gratification"!

Any way, if you have an Apple store near you, go check it out. It was really nice to go to a computer store that actually had machines that ran software and had internet connections! Imagine that? It was NOT Compusa! (much cleaner too).

Seeing all those new Apple machines in one place was awesome. 10.2 ran very well on every machine, even iBooks - the EMac is really cool and pretty darn fast too! I think I played with every machine they had. Now that I think about it, if you find the right woman or man (your prefernece of course), going to an Apple Store might be the perfect first date!:D
 
Originally posted by paracord
How's the noise level?
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Huh? What did you say? What's a "poised bevel"? :D

It is a little on the loud side - I read a personal review where someone gave all the new DPs the code name "Hoover" - it kind of fits.

I guess I am used to it already - it kind of drones, but I will be using this thing for some direct audio recording with a mic, so this could be a problem. As far as bothering me, its hard to say - I don't mind noise as long as it is consistent.

I wonder if this thing will serve as a space heater when winter comes?
 
Yeah i just checked one out at a local mac store and i don't really see what the problem is. Sure it's a bit louder than the previous models and there's a little high pitched "whine" under the fan noise but it's not really loud. Obviousley "loud" is subjective but in a common way i think we all can agree if something is too loud and these models just sound like computers with fans to me.
 
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