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genecyst · Dec 13, 2006, 01:30 PM

Currently i am running a G3 iMac 400mhz and was wondering if i would see a big speed boost in upgrading to a powermac g4 500mz or a 500mhz dual as the one i'm using now is too slow to even view sites with flash and such. Any advice would help!

imitchellg5 · Dec 13, 2006, 02:46 PM

Yeah a Power Mac G4 would be more faster.

genecyst · Dec 13, 2006, 04:34 PM

but how much faster? 2%? 200%? And will i be able to view sites that have flash without lag?

Sherman Homan · Dec 13, 2006, 04:45 PM

More than just the processor is involved here! There is the amount of ram, hard drive speed, bus speed and other factors.
Here's one:
Macintosh Performance Comparison: eMac G4, iBook G4, iMac G5, Mac Mini, PowerBook G4

genecyst · Dec 13, 2006, 05:18 PM

Originally Posted by Sherman Homan

More than just the processor is involved here! There is the amount of ram, hard drive speed, bus speed and other factors.
Here's one:
Macintosh Performance Comparison: eMac G4, iBook G4, iMac G5, Mac Mini, PowerBook G4

Looked at that site and didnt really see anything comparing the speed of a G3 against a G4. That site focused on G4 and G5 systems. I have 384 PC100 SDRAM in the iMac currently along with a 7200 rpm 80gb drive with 8mb cache that i intend to reuse if i decide to upgrade to the G4. I didnt want to spend alot of money (the G4 i'm looking at is a 500mhz with 512mb ram for 129 on ebay) on a new mac. I'd just like for itunes to be faster and I'd like to go to flash sites without bringing my computer to a screeching halt, thats why i'm asking how much faster a g4 powermac would be over the imac i'm currently using.

Xyrrus · Dec 13, 2006, 06:42 PM

Originally Posted by genecyst

Looked at that site and didnt really see anything comparing the speed of a G3 against a G4. That site focused on G4 and G5 systems. I have 384 PC100 SDRAM in the iMac currently along with a 7200 rpm 80gb drive with 8mb cache that i intend to reuse if i decide to upgrade to the G4. I didnt want to spend alot of money (the G4 i'm looking at is a 500mhz with 512mb ram for 129 on ebay) on a new mac. I'd just like for itunes to be faster and I'd like to go to flash sites without bringing my computer to a screeching halt, thats why i'm asking how much faster a g4 powermac would be over the imac i'm currently using.

Speaking to the flash issue in particular, I don't think you're going to see a huge speed boost. The sad truth is that the way web pages are written these days, many are sluggish even on my 1Ghz G4 laptop. I wouldn't describe it as "screeching halt" or anything that drastic, but while you'll see a noticable improvement with the G4, I doubt you'll end up being all that happy with the results. The G4 will start to feel slow pretty fast.

Obviously you're working under a very tight budget, but it might be better to limp along for a bit and try toi find a "quicksilver" or "mirrored drive" G4. I did a very quick ebay search and found a 1.25Ghz MDD G4 for around $350.

-Xy

imitchellg5 · Dec 13, 2006, 07:07 PM

Originally Posted by genecyst

but how much faster? 2%? 200%? And will i be able to view sites that have flash without lag?

Depends on RAM and things like that, but a Power Mac G4 will do fine with the internets, believe me. A G4 processor in anything+ a decent amount of RAM can handle flash. There will be a lag... but there is on my G5 too.

genecyst · Dec 13, 2006, 07:29 PM

Ok thanks for all the replies, i believe i'll either just wait out on my imac for a while longer and save up to get a MDD G4 (One that still boots os9) or just deal with it and avoid flash sites.

Sherman Homan · Dec 13, 2006, 07:30 PM

Originally Posted by genecyst

Looked at that site and didnt really see anything comparing the speed of a G3 against a G4. That site focused on G4 and G5 systems. I have 384 PC100 SDRAM in the iMac currently along with a 7200 rpm 80gb drive with 8mb cache that i intend to reuse if i decide to upgrade to the G4. I didnt want to spend alot of money (the G4 i'm looking at is a 500mhz with 512mb ram for 129 on ebay) on a new mac. I'd just like for itunes to be faster and I'd like to go to flash sites without bringing my computer to a screeching halt, thats why i'm asking how much faster a g4 powermac would be over the imac i'm currently using.

In a word: ram.
A slow processor with plenty of ram will beat a fast processor hobbled by lack of ram for basic internet services every time. Your problem with iTunes is all about how much of the song can be cached for "read-ahead" access. Spend your money on ram. It won't solve everything, but that is what the bang-for-the-buck is all about.

That said, 129 dollars for a G4 500 with 512 Megs of ram needs to be bought immediately.

bowwowman · Dec 15, 2006, 05:41 AM

rambamthankyamaam........mAx it regardless of which machine you buy

As for raw speed, my example:

I had a Sawtooth 400mhz w/2GB ram + SATA drives. I upgraded it to a DUAL 500mhz and the difference was like quite remarkable. Boot times, app launching, surfing, file manipulation and shutdown were all considerably faster. I initially did a few timings in Photoshop that showed a 73% reduction in the time required to apply a complex set of effects and filters to several large image files. Opening massive excel spreadsheets was also considerably faster, although I did not time them, but I immediately saw the difference there too.

As for FLash sites, they were never a problem for me, even with the single G4/400 cpu. So yea, jumping from G3/400 to a DP G4/500 (or better) would yield you a much better experience 4 sure!

But with a limited budget, I would save up a bit more & get a QS or MDD, prefereably a dual cpu unit. Those models are way faster overall, with faster FSB, AGP video etc etc, so they will give you more upgrade options down the road too.......

And finally, I recently aquired a QS 867, installed my SATA drives & Radeon9800, and max'd da ram to 1.5GB. It is WAY, WAY, WAY faster than my Sawtooth ever was!!!!

P · Dec 15, 2006, 09:19 AM

There are two different G4s, the 7400 and 7410 series, and the 7440 and 7450 series. The former is approximately 15% faster on integer code, clock for clock, than a G3, and more on floating point. The lattter is probably slightly slower, clock for clock, but the much higher clockspeed more than makes up for it.

I'd rather get a refurb Mac mini than that Powermac G4, unless you need the expandability.

Xyrrus · Dec 15, 2006, 01:55 PM

Originally Posted by bowwowman

rAs for FLash sites, they were never a problem for me, even with the single G4/400 cpu. So yea, jumping from G3/400 to a DP G4/500 (or better) would yield you a much better experience 4 sure!

My big problem with flash is flash ads - and these can be turned off with ad blockes. The worst culprits were those damn "Next generation IM smiley" ads with bouncing yellow 128x128px faces, all animated. There's a certain rumors site that I used to visit that that has 3-4 flash ads at a time. If I had the flash quality set to high it would really bog down safari.

In general flash sites run "ok" on my 1Ghz powerbook but its still night in terms of responsiveness between the powerbook and a 2.0 G5.

-Xy