The IIci has been a workhorse for years. To keep them going a couple
years longer, we installed Sonnet Presto 040 cards. These have a 40 MHz
68040 processor and 128 KB level 2 cache.
The tested machine had 20 MB of RAM and a 540 MB Apple-branded
Quantum 540S hard drive, which was formatted with Apple HD SC Setup
7.3.5. This is the same configuration as the base
IIci benchmarks; the only difference is the Sonnet card.
Remember that benchmarks are arbitrary. They measure certain types
of performance that may or may not reflect the way you work.
Speedometer 3.06
Speedometer 3 was not run on this system.
Speedometer 4.02
The system was tested on 12 May 1999 under System 7.5.5. Computer
attached to a 14" Apple color monitor with 8-bit video. Results are
relative to a Quadra 605, which rates 1.0. Numbers rounded off to two
decimal places.
The first set of numbers compares performance at different disk
cache settings without the level 2 cache card installed.
cache video CPU graphics disk math
32KB 8-bit 1.47 1.27 1.71 10.04
64KB 8-bit 1.30 1.27 1.71 10.02
128KB 8-bit 1.32 1.29 1.71 10.02
256KB 8-bit 1.49 1.28 1.57 10.04
512KB 8-bit 1.47 1.29 1.36 10.06
The cache setting should have little influence on non-disk tests,
but that isn't the case here. For some reason, possibly an interaction
between the size of the disk cache and L2 cache, benchmark scores are
significantly depressed at 64-192KB cache sizes (not all tests are
reported above). The 10-13% performance drop was completely unexpected
and indicates these disk cache settings should probably be avoided.
The following results were obtained with the disk cache set at
128KB. The variable is the presence of a cache or accelerator:
config video CPU graphics disk math
no cache 8-bit 0.38 0.39 1.62 1.25
32KB L2 8-bit 0.40 0.46 1.68 1.37
Sonnet 8-bit 1.32 1.29 1.71 10.02
These results show the 40 MHz 68040 accelerator is about 3.5 times
faster than the 25 MHz 68030 built into the IIci. Graphics are over 3x
faster, while disk scores are only a few points higher. But the biggest
improvement is the math scores, due the the fact that the FPU is part
of the 68040 processor. For math, the accelerator makes the IIci eight
times faster than with no cache, over seven times faster than with
Apple's 32 KB cache card.
As a final test, the system was run with the Daystar FastCache
control panel installed (in addition to the Sonnet software) and the
PowerMath option enabled with a Portrait monitor hooked to internal
video. This boosted scores across the board.
cache video CPU graphics disk math
stock 4-bit 1.32 1.29 1.61 10.03
Power 4-bit 1.44 1.59 1.77 12.05
Based on this, running the IIci with both the Sonnet Presto card and
the FastCache control panel (and PowerMath enabled) will produce the
best performance - at least as measured by Speedometer 4.
What about Mac OS 8.1?
On 30 August 2000, I tested an IIci with Mac OS 8.1 (installed on
an external drive using Born Again),
a 256 KB disk cache, Sonnet v3.1 drivers, Speedometer 4.0.2, an
internal 1 GB Seagate ST11200N drive, and an external Quantum 2 GB hard
drive. This system was also tested with Mac OS 7.5.5.
setup CPU graphics disk math
IIci/Seagate/7.5.5* 1.48 1.30 1.47 10.07
IIci/Quantum/7.5.5 1.48 1.30 1.63 10.07
IIci/Seagate/8.1* 1.32 1.30 1.49 10.06
IIci/Quantum/8.1 1.32 1.29 1.81 10.07
* Apple-branded hard drive
Mac OS 8.1 provides some improvement in the disk department, but
not nearly as much as on the unaccelerated LC
III. This is probably because these drives provider throughput
closer to the capability of the IIci's SCSI bus, whereas the LC III
used older, slower internal hard drives.
The disappointment was a 12% drop in CPU performance under OS
8.1. This is not a big drop; it would be barely perceptible to a user.
At the same time, there was no significant improvement in performance
with the Seagate drive, although the Quantum benchmarked 11%
faster.
In the end, unless the IIci is being used as a file server, where
it would benefit from faster disk performance and an improved version
of OpenTransport, Mac OS 8.1 doesn't make sense on this accelerated
IIci.
Conclusion
Overall results show the accelerated IIci is roughly comparable
to the Quadra 650 in performance. Although the
Quadra has an even higher math score, others are right in the
ballpark.
Whether putting a $300 accelerator in a IIci is a wise decision
is another question entirely, especially with used Quadras selling for
less than that.
Go to the Mac
IIci profile.
