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The Godfather · Jul 21, 2000, 10:31 AM

They have got the product announced for more than a week on Newer's website, yet no review has been written for it. What's up with that? Can't ZNET, MacNN, MacWorld and the others make a deal to borrow that card?

Or is it that Newer hasn't showed up to the expo this year?

433 / 66 = 6.5
466 / 66 = 7.0

Why did they choose 433MHz for these cards, anybody?

[This message has been edited by The Godfather (edited 07-21-2000).]

Ca$h68 · Jul 22, 2000, 02:01 PM

The chips are rated at 450mhz, so instead of having possible heat problems with O/Cing them by 13mhz they chose to go down one step. Of course if I had one that would change.

What I find hilarious was how insanely PATHETIC that review on the 466mhz G3 chip was. The dude did photoshop tests, thats it. Not even mac bench. WTF?! My sister could have done that.

Ca$h

The Godfather · Jul 22, 2000, 05:06 PM

I am starting to think there is a conspiracy against iMac upgrades. The reviewers could be mostly owners of blue or graphite towers so they don't realize the importance of iMac upgrades.

There has been lame (incomplete) reviews for the iMaxPower and the iForce. This has to change for the iMaxPower G4.

Newer asks you for your old G3 system card to give your $150 back, but I still refuse to believe that this is a resoldered card. Anybody has info on this? Has Newer showed up to the expo, or was it bought by Apple?

Ca$h68 · Jul 23, 2000, 02:04 AM

true true...

WASSSUUUUPPPPPPP!!?!?!?!??!

Heh.

Ca$h

MacNZ · Jul 23, 2000, 04:12 AM

Covert ops time!
Apple has to be in on this.
I'm just worried that if i don't get in quickly they are going to can the product or something will happen to it like the Game Wizard and the Techworks CD-R.
Apple won't want a G4 iMac out if it ain't completely made by them! It'll make them look bad. I'm thinking Apple's paying Newer to hold the card off for a while!

The Godfather · Jul 23, 2000, 04:50 AM

Originally posted by MacNZ:
Apple won't want a G4 iMac out if it ain't completely made by them! It'll make them look bad.

Apple looks bad to me since a long time ago.

Though, I wanted to make a different point: there could be a conspiracy by MacNN reviewers against iMac owners. Probably they don't want to see an iMac/A like mine catching up with their $2500+ graphite towers. That would pi$$ them off.

Kozmik · Jul 23, 2000, 09:54 AM

It won't catch up. The first-gen iMac has a 66MHz bus speed.

[This message has been edited by Kozmik (edited 07-27-2000).]

Jul 24, 2000, 09:29 AM

It must be because I too am Canadian, but I must ask this again, and someone will finally put me in my place: why are we STUCK with the 66 Mhz bus speed. How is it implemented on the iMac(A-D) motherboard, isn't there ANYWAY to tamper with this setting?

Flipper

Just my canadian toonie...

Kozmik · Jul 24, 2000, 05:19 PM

Yeah, it's because you're Canadian.

Fux0ring with bus speed can lead to some mad problems.

[This message has been edited by Kozmik (edited 07-24-2000).]

Ca$h68 · Jul 24, 2000, 05:47 PM

yeah, my USA rev D has a 200mhz bus speed. Really.

Ca$h

PS: Hehe>

Jul 25, 2000, 08:10 AM

Yeh, but isn't 66 US MHZ(my iMac is the US version) worth like 100 canadian MHZ?

Flipper

P.S.: Eeeehhhh!

Kozmik · Jul 25, 2000, 06:30 PM

Ca$h68 · Jul 25, 2000, 07:37 PM

www.canadasucks.com

HEhhee.

Jul 26, 2000, 01:19 PM

Ca$h, I love you man, weep, weep.

And to make sure I DON'T set the record straight, I am no historian (or 500 years old for that matter), but the one and only time the US tried to invade Canada (ehhhh), in 1812, we won and you lost.
Why do I think that?
Well we still have a Governor

, we have the metric system

, and we have a lousy dollar. From what I understand, it is the FIRST war the US lost, and the last Canada won, since our musquet equipped army never goes to war alone anymore, makes them scared I guess.

But feel free to find some valid arguments to the contrary, and we shall drink one to another US victory.

Flipper

The Godfather · Jul 26, 2000, 01:33 PM

Hmm... The topic of this thread is G4 upgrades for iMacs. Would you get back in line?

Has anybody bought one of these buggers yet?

Ca$h68 · Jul 26, 2000, 07:09 PM

hehehe.

Yeah, I had a conversation about that once.... basically, it'd be stealth bombers and F22's against sharpened pine trees and ticked off grizzly bears.

Yeah, I wanna see a review on one of these chips soon as well.. anyone have some $ laying around?

Ca$h

Evinyatar · Jul 27, 2000, 01:16 AM

Wait for PowerLogix to make one. It would have a faster processor and it would be cheaper. And you wouldn't have to turn your old card in.

Jul 28, 2000, 07:15 AM

Do not underestimate the bears though...You never know when they are creeping up on you, and I don't believe the US army has gotten themselves a bear-dar yet...Fortunately, every canadian soldier has one on their horse.

Flipper

P.S.: Oh yeah! Godfather, I actually like to talk of Canada this way, so enjoy it! But doesn't anyone else find all these upgrades quite costly?

Jul 28, 2000, 07:21 AM

Oh! Oh! Oh! Me! Me! Me!

Evinyatar, think of this: could Bondi blue iMacs eventually be the MHZ kings? I mean, Apple now sticks 2 500 MHZ chips in the Pro G4s, cuz no one can make them faster; maybe Powerlogix can...

Flipper (waiting for his GHZ)

The Godfather · Jul 28, 2000, 10:12 AM

Flip,

...whatever

The Godfather · Jul 28, 2000, 10:26 AM

Maybe we will be seeing a G4-compatible chip from AMD soon.

Kozmik · Jul 28, 2000, 01:23 PM

It's possible. However, Godfather, you are the one who has some odd notion that the AMD Athlon is a RISC chip. Well, how is my friend's Athlon running Windows98, then? The Athlon is an x86 chip, believe it or not! x86 architecture is CISC. Sorry, I just don't see how a RISC chip can emulate CISC processor instructions and still be faster than a CISC chip! Do you know why Virtual PC is so slow? Because the Mac's RISC chip must emulate x86 instructions! Since the x86 is CISC, the RISC chip in the Mac does not have those processor instructions, or anything like them. RISC = reduced instruction set computing, meaning there are fewer processor instructions to deal with to slow down the system, but a RISC chip can not run software meant to run on CISC chips efficiently. Just put some 68k-Mac programs on an old PowerMac and see what I mean.

The Godfather · Jul 28, 2000, 02:52 PM

Yeah, the Athlon is a RISC CPU emulating the x86 complex instruction set. However, I've read something that it is a small fraction of the x86 instructions which are used 99% of the time, thus making it possible to natively support those frequently used functions and emulate all the rest, which are after all used only 1% of the time.
And that is how the Athlon MIGHT work.

It will be interesting to see AMD producing their own gigaflop chip. Though right now I am having a dillema what is the future of Apple Computer market, I am not sure if what they need is more GFLOPS or more MIPS (instructions per second), area in which all top x86 beat the G4 by a factor of 2.

$$$ · Jul 28, 2000, 05:33 PM

No, its not really possible that AMD would ever make a mac compatible chip. I read a 12 page comparison of the Athlon and the G4 once, and the G4 was a much more clean, efficient, NICE design... the Ahtlon was messy (due to having to include X86 architecture) and an ugly beast, but it held a small edge over the g4 in most tests. Anyway, you cant officially compare performance since they run programs so different.

Ca$h

The Godfather · Jul 28, 2000, 05:44 PM

I didn't say that the Athlon to be modified to emulate a G4. I said that AMD has the expertise to make one up from scratch, faster and neater (and hotter). I really doubt some company will want to get in the PowerPC game since Apple is always scaring away its customers and keeping the demand low.

Are you Ca$h68? What happened to you?

Kozmik · Jul 28, 2000, 09:33 PM

For some reason, people don't seem to make the connection between gigaflops and MIPS. A gigaflop = 1 BIPS (billion instructions per second). A megaflop = 1 MIPS (million instructions per second).

Just so you know, Godfather, the 600MHz Athlon delivers sustained performance over 1 gigaflop (or BIPS), and has a peak performance of 2.4 gigaflops.

Jul 29, 2000, 06:59 AM

Sorry guys, that's what fridays do to my brain.

Now, I'm with Godfather on this. AMD is the only company that could take Apple out of the MHZ basement. And at a much lower cost than the competition. If any of this happens, Apple won't have to rip features out of their machines at every revision to create a false order of importance among their product lines, since there could be more differences in the MHZ department.
Buy your cube now (if you intend to), it won't be great for long...

Flipper