Power Macintosh
Guide to G4 Accelerators for NuBus Power Macs
Updated 2002.05.17
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- Benchmark: G4 worth
extra cost?, MacSpeedZone, 2/7. Real advantage comes only if
you're using AltiVec enabled applications.
- Bare Feats
studies cache size, cache speed, and motherboard cache
This
page covers currently shipping G4 upgrades for the Power Macintosh
6100, 7100, and
8100.
Each accelerator will provide several times the performance of
the 60-110 MHz 601 processor installed in these older Macs. Be sure
to read That extra 10% to
help you decide which upgrade provides the best value for you.
IBM, Motorola, and Apple have done a phenomenal job in creating
the Power PC 750 CPU (aka G3) and computers to use it. An entire
industry has sprung up selling G3 cards to owners of second
generation Power Macs with processor cards.
The information is as accurate as I can find, but specifications
and availability are subject to change; I suggest you check with
the manufacturer to verify current models. Prices keep dropping, so
these prices may be outdated. (Prices are in $US.)
In fact, models are added and discontinued so often, it's
impossible to keep track of which models are current.
Note that computers upgraded with these cards may not support
Mac OS X. (Apple has emphatically stated it will run on all Macs
designed with a G3 or G4 processor, but has never promised any
support for upgraded models.)
Further, models with AV cards may require special adapters or
versions of the card at additional cost.
Discontinued accelerators are listed for historical reasons.
|
Manufacturer
|
CPU
Speed
|
Cache
Size
|
Cache
Speed
|
MacBench
5.0 rating*
|
Estimated
Street Price
|
Estimated
Value**
|
Sonnet
Technologies
Crescendo G4/NuBus
|
360 MHz
|
1 MB
|
180 MHz
|
|
disc.
|
|
* Processor score from MacWeek or Macworld when
possible, but many MacBench ratings are from manufacturers. End
user results will vary based on a number of factors including bus
speed and OS used.
** Estimated value is MacBench rating divided by
price. Figure is based on estimated MacBench score for untested
cards. Higher numbers represent more bang for the buck.
Reviews & Overviews
This page created March 3, 1999
and updated occasionally.
