Processor Question

M

Mac Boy

Registered
Hello, I was just wondering which processor is better???

PowerPC G4 400Mhz or

PowerPC G3 600Mhz

Thanks in advance,

Mac Boy
 
Depends what you want to do with it.

The g4 has "Altivec" which is a vector processing unit that is used for things like image and video processing.. if it's purely for number crunching, or stuff that is not altivec aware (something like a server with apache/mysql/ftp) then the g3 is probably a better option.
 
Cool, thanks for your fast reply. I am going to use it for video editing, and I have the choice between an imac (PowerPC G3 600Mhz 256mb RAM) or a G4 (PowerPC G4 400Mhz 190Mb RAM) After your advice, I think i will go with the G4. The price was the same for both computers. Thanks again
 
The G4's are going to be faster than the G3 even in number crunching. The G4 sports some nifty ooptimizations in the FPU that allows it to shave off 1 cycle for each floating point operation, compared to the G3. This roughly translates to a 20% increase in efficiency.
 
Indeed, the G4 is by far the option to choose for Video Editing - However I must stress that with only 190mb RAM the G4 is still going to be struggling with Video Editing. I would suggest spending the small amount on increasing the ram with a 256 module, possibly even a 512 stick - Will not cost that much, however the change in performance will be very noticeable.

If I remember correctly I think the 400Mhz PM is the “Sawtooth” model that takes PC100 SDRAM – Nice and Cheap.
 
Where do you live that PC100 is cheap? over here it's so uncommon now that it costs MORE than DDR.
 
Viro said:
The G4's are going to be faster than the G3 even in number crunching. The G4 sports some nifty ooptimizations in the FPU that allows it to shave off 1 cycle for each floating point operation, compared to the G3. This roughly translates to a 20% increase in efficiency.
Click to expand...
That would make the G4 400 equivalent to a G3 480. But we got a G3 600 here. I would vote for the G3 600. My ibooks runs surprisingly fast when even compared to my G4 1ghz tibook.
 
Then again, the Sawtooth's processor can be upgraded, though unless the original price was quite cheap, it would not pay to do so.
 
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