[Fink-Nottle]

Check out this chart from the 'Architecture' page on the Apple Power Mac pages:

http://www.apple.com/powermac/images...cp01282003.gif

Is there a mistake here? I can see how the G4 ayt 1 GHz is 54% faster than the G4 at 500 MHz but then the next one up jumps to 176% faster. Either the chart is wrong or the numbers are wrong. If the chart is right then the new top of the line dual processor G4 is only twice as fast as a single processor G4/500... which isn't that much.

Anyone know where these stats are from?

[Superchicken]

Mhz is not a liniar relationship. Hence to get two times as fast as a 500Mhz chip it would be rather reasonable that you have to go well beyond a Ghz, and perhaps Final Cut Pro does not take full advantage of dual processors.

And apple always fugs up their charts anyway.

[spiznet]

Oww, that chart is really bad. What is the difference between 100% faster and 200%?

Look at the lines on the chart. I think they mean 150% for the 1Ghz G4, then 175% for the DP1.25, and then 200% for the DP1.42...

If this is the case, they are not getting much, if anything out of those Dual Processors...

Originally posted by Fink-Nottle:
Check out this chart from the 'Architecture' page on the Apple Power Mac pages:

http://www.apple.com/powermac/images...cp01282003.gif

Is there a mistake here? I can see how the G4 ayt 1 GHz is 54% faster than the G4 at 500 MHz but then the next one up jumps to 176% faster. Either the chart is wrong or the numbers are wrong. If the chart is right then the new top of the line dual processor G4 is only twice as fast as a single processor G4/500... which isn't that much.

Anyone know where these stats are from?

[dfiler]

I interpret '200% faster' as meaning 3 times as fast. '200% the speed of' and '100% faster' would both mean 2 times as fast.

This looks to be a test composed almost entirely of a single threaded task. The 1.42G is roughly 3 times the clock speed of a 500Mhz. While performance gains don't tend to match gains in clock speed, the G4 has bucked this trend. Perhaps because it really didn't increase in clock speed that much. However, the newer G4s also have an L3 cache, faster caches, a faster bus, and improved altivec units, etc.

Today's G4 chip at roughly 1.5G is about 3 times as fast as the original 500Mhz. Apple calls this '204% faster'. Add in another chip and we should see the new powermacs look much better.

Tasks running efficiently on dual processors portray the new powermacs as much faster than indicated in apple's graph. On the other hand, disk based tests would show even less difference between the machines.

I predict that the ambiguously titled 'Final Cut Pro 3' graph will soon disappear, replaced by a new one fresh from the marketing deparment.

[Fink-Nottle]

Yeah... I think the chart will be replaced soon. I'm trying to scrape together enough cash for one of the new Power Macs but that chart actually pushes me more toward a second hand unit.

The new base model is nicely priced though... sigh.