Second Class Macs & Road Apples

Performa 600 and Macintosh IIvx

three

Dan Knight - 1998.01.10 - Tip Jar

Road Apples are Apple's most compromised hardware designs. For the most part, they're not completely bad - simply designs that couldn't meet their potential. (On our rating scale, the more brown apples, the worse the hardware.)

The Performa is more deserving of the Road Apple title than any Mac before it, as is it's nearly identical twin, the Mac IIvx. While the "compromised" Macs based on the LC motherboard achieved 70-75% of their potential while running a 32-bit CPU on a 16-bit bus, the IIvx achieved as little as 55% of its potential by running a 32 MHz CPU on a 16 MHz bus. Ouch! And the P600 was even worse, since it didn't include a level 2 cache or support adding one.

One way to make a cheaper computer is to use slower components. Apple designed the IIvx with a 32 MHz 68030 CPU - and a 16 MHz motherboard. A stock IIci with it's 25 MHz 68030 outperformed the IIvx by 30%; adding a level 2 cache (usually 32 KB in those days) made it even faster. In fact, the old 16 MHz Mac IIx outperformed the IIvx on some benchmarks!

The IIvx benchmarked at 2.7. Compare this with 2.9 for the 16 MHz IIx, 3.5 for the 25 MHz IIci (4.3 with cache), and 6.8 for the 40 MHz IIfx. Had the IIvx used a 32 MHz RAM bus, it would have benchmarked at about 5.0. Sigh.

With a few too many compromises, the IIvx was less than expected and a hard sell against the more powerful IIci, at least for those who understood the differences. This is the oldest Mac to earn more than two apples and merit the Road Apple designation.

The best thing about the IIvx/Performa 600 and their 16 MHz sibling, the IIvi, is that they can be upgraded to a Quadra 650 or Power Mac 7100 by swapping the motherboard.

Details

introduced September 1992
requires System 7.1 to 7.6.1
CPU: 32 MHz 68030
FPU: 68882 (optional on Performa 600)
performance, P600: 5.8, Speedometer 3; 0.44, Speedometer 4; 6.5 MIPS
performance, IIvx: 2.7 (relative to SE; 16 MHz IIx rated 2.9, 25 MHz IIci at 3.5)
RAM: 4 MB on motherboard, expandable to 68 MB using lone 4-SIMM bank of 80ns 30-pin memory; can use 256 KB, 1 MB, 2 MB, 4 MB, and 16 MB SIMMs
built-in 8-bit video with 512 KB VRAM, supports 512 x 384 at 16-bits, 640 x 480 at 8-bits, and portrait monitor (640 x 870) at 4-bits
L2 cache: 32 KB on IIvx (not supported on Performa 600)
PDS slot supports L2 cache only in IIvx, accelerator card in both models
ADB: 2 ports for keyboard and mouse
serial: 2 DIN-8 RS-422 ports on back of computer
SCSI: DB-25 connector on back of computer
three NuBus slots

Other Resources

The 10 worst Macs ever built, Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac, 2001.08.06

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