Disk Cache

GeoMoon5

GeoMoon5

I'm Spartacus!
Hello everyone!


QUESTION:
Does Mac OS X 10.3.9 perform disk caching?


INFORMATION:
I would like to max out the RAM I have in my machine and would be much more happy to know that if I exceed what is needed, the extra RAM will be getting put to good use.

MORE INFORMATION:
I'm using a highly modified G3 Beige Tower. The processor has been upgraded from a G3 PPC CPU to a Daystar Technology G4 ZIF PPC CPU running at 533 MHz. The ROM has been updated and the RAM is currently at 640 MB. I'm using a Radeon 7000 video card that is outputting to a 24" screen, so web browsing is excessively slow, if not a bit painful. Strangely, reducing the screen resolution to the lowest setting didn't seem to help.

It looks like the most RAM a Beige G3 can support is 768 MB, so I'm already almost maxed out. Will my comp support more then 768 MB of RAM since I have a G4 generation CPU in there, or is the RAM size a restriction of the motherboard?

Thanks in advance for any help! =D
 
Your processor upgrade is plug-compatible with the stock processor. The G4 turned your Beige G3 into a faster G3. The beige G3 uses the Toolbox ROM, aka Old World ROM. It was not updated per se. A patch was added to the System folder to enable some of the features on the G4. The 768 MB RAM restriction was not a limit imposed by the G3. It will not be lifted by the G4.

BTW, the maximum OS supported by the beige G3 is MacOS X 10.2.8. If you want to install a more recent version of MacOS X, then you will need XPostFacto.
 
Oh wow, that's some interesting information about the processor. I had no idea the G4 upgrade wasn't giving me full G4-ness! (Look out oxford dictionary!).

Yah I'm currently using XPostFacto to allow me to run OS X 10.3.9 on a six GB partition while the rest of the HD is used for OS 9. (I set everything up before the revision that lifts the six GB restriction came out).

So what do you think, would upping the RAM make a difference in my web browsing? I took a look at my RAM usage and it's not being used all the way, but there's also a huge amount set aside for Virtual RAM. FireFox uses 60% of my processor and 186 MB of RAM when running 13 tabs. Is the slow chunky monkey scrolling happening because of my PCI video card? (Radeon 7000). The VRAM for that video card is 64 MB, maybe that's the problem. Not enough video RAM. Would you happen to know if a better card will be accepted by the computer? I did all the modding to this comp a while ago and don't remember all the limitations. I think the video card could only be upgraded to a 7000 series and then the OS wouldn't accept anything higher. Maybe I'm not remembering correctly. Hmmm, or was it, that the 7000 series was the best PCI video card one could get for a Mac before having to get an AGP card.... I think this is some ghetto Radeon card with the ROM flashed by who ever sold it to me.

Here is a readout of my memory usage if it helps:

Wired:64.1 MB
Active: 184.9 MB
Inactive: 335.5 MB
Used:584.7 MB
Free: 55.0 MB
VM Size: 3.9 GB
Page ins/outs: 31906/0

Total Memory: 640.00 MB

It will probably be off by about 10 MB if you add it all up as it was continuously changing as I was writing down the numbers.


Any suggestions?
 
GeoMoon5 said:
Oh wow, that's some interesting information about the processor. I had no idea the G4 upgrade wasn't giving me full G4-ness! (Look out oxford dictionary!).

Yah I'm currently using XPostFacto to allow me to run OS X 10.3.9 on a six GB partition while the rest of the HD is used for OS 9. (I set everything up before the revision that lifts the six GB restriction came out).

...
Click to expand...
You are thinking of MacOS X as though it were MacOS 9. MacOS X automatically allocates the memory that it needs. It tries to allocate all of the physical RAM available and as much virtual memory as is required. If all of your physical RAM is not allocated, then it is because the 768 MB physical RAM limit has not been raised. However, your 768 MB physical RAM is more than adequate for your system.

Your G4 processor upgrade is a significant improvement over your stock G3. However, it is not a miracle. You still have all of the other chips that were designed for your significantly slower G3. Your G4 upgrade did not speed-up the support chips.
 
Ah I see, what a pitty. I guess the computer is bottle necking at the support chips then. No hope in upgrading those. I guess, for this computer, it's pointless to upgrade my RAM from 640 MB to 768 MB, or trying to get a video card with more video RAM. Okay, thanks for the info!
 
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