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iSilver · Feb 3, 2001, 03:56 AM

I am just about to order a G4/533 with the Nvidia card. I would assume that quite a few of the forum readers have taken delivery of this machine and I was just wondering if any of those folks who have one could offer their opinions on these machines please.

duanegossett · Feb 3, 2001, 12:25 PM

Just got mine about a week ago (Dual 533), and it's great. Much faster than my older G4/450, and a lot quieter, too. Go for it - You won't be sorry.

Scribble · Feb 3, 2001, 02:11 PM

How should I put it --- The dual 533 box rocks!!!

I added a 30 gig. 7200rpm drive and an extra 512 megs of RAM from <A HREF = http://www.coastmemory.com targert = "_top">coastmemory.com</A> and the machine abosultely flies.

Well worth it...

NeoMac · Feb 3, 2001, 02:33 PM

I don't know about the dual-533, but I have used a dual-500 running OS X Beta, and it is way too fast. The sheer speed of it is uncomfortable to use.

Feb 3, 2001, 02:44 PM

I just got my dual 533 two days ago, and this thing SCREAMS. It's the coolest computer I've even been in the same room with, let alone owned. :-) I also bought the 15" flat panel (*very* highly recommended), which makes my best 15" CRT monitors look small, dim, and blurry by comparison. I also upped the RAM to 512 MB and swapped out the CD-RW for a DVD-ROM drive (I already have a SCSI CD-RW anyway). The only minor drawback is that I had to buy the DVD drive and put it in myself, but that was easy. (The G4's CD-RW is going to go into another computer.)

It's a fantastic system! I can't recommend the dual 533 enough. And get a 7200 rpm hard drive with it! I got the 60 GB IBM drive, and it's great.

Blake

nicholasbs · Feb 3, 2001, 03:27 PM

blaked,

So the NVIDIA cards have ADC? I just want to make sure they do before I order a 533 with a Cinema Display. (I know it'd be stupid to ship computers standard with a graphics card that didn't work with your own monitors, but I'm just making sure here

).

Thanks,
-Nicholas

nonjo · Feb 3, 2001, 03:34 PM

Yep, both ADC and VGA are present.

daydreamer · Feb 3, 2001, 04:09 PM

okay, i was first planning to "wait" for a g5 but since no one can tell me when it is going to be released (plz tell me about it )i really would like to get a dual 533 also.Should i buy one now or should i wait for a g5.
For the moment i have a pc 166mhz 32mbram and its been working really wel(except the windows98)the last 5 years.i'm switching to mac because i go to a graphical school that does only use macs, and i started to love em.(Work with an imac).i luv working with photoshop and i use it heavly

sorry for the spelling
im 16 and im really starting to luv the whole macworld.

NeoMac · Feb 3, 2001, 06:07 PM

The G5 won't be available until 2003 at best.

daydreamer · Feb 3, 2001, 06:29 PM

why do u think that
i dont think apple is going to wait that long

why do u think that

Castor · Feb 3, 2001, 08:55 PM

Because Apple will bring the G4 to greater heights first! Negative people would say that they are going to squeeze out the G4. Look at the G3, even that processor is still around.

iSilver · Feb 3, 2001, 09:53 PM

Is the speed boost afforded by a Dual 533 Processor (or DP 500) over a Uni Processor documented anywhere?

NeoMac · Feb 3, 2001, 10:22 PM

The closest thing to "official" statistics on these Macs can be found here: http://www.barefeats.com/

There is one interesting thing about his tests. Macs running OS X are significantly faster than systems running OS 9. It's remarkable.

ShortcutToMoncton · Feb 4, 2001, 01:17 AM

iSilver - check out the MacOS X forum, or any of the thrreads on the DP Macs in this forum.

Basically, under OS X, you'll get minor (guesstimate: 5-15 %) speed boosts in single applications that don't take advantage of the second processor (like most games, or rendering movies in Final Cut Pro, I think. I think FCP, anyway).

In DP-aware apps under OS X, you'll see anywhere from 80-95 % increse in speed, from what I hear people saying.

However, the biggest gain might be when running multiple apps. Instead of just, say, a 733 MHz processor launcing Classic AND running Lightwave, you could have the 533 MHz processors each doing a task...resulting in a far more responsive system.....

greg

------------------
Though the day's been
really long
I still feel I'm close to
nowhere....

Feb 4, 2001, 01:29 AM

i've had my single 533MHz G4 as long as anyone and I love it... 384 MB of ram, 7200 rpm drive, cdrw, installed a second drive... It is stable as all heck and fast as a tarpon.. or a mako.. yeah, a mako...

highly recommended by moi..

drew

oscar · Feb 4, 2001, 03:55 AM

Note, according to Gauge pro this 533 is riunning a 7400, anyone have different results?

daydreamer · Feb 4, 2001, 05:17 AM

the g3 won't be here for long anymore, apple has only to release the imac g4 wich i hope they release in july with the pomwermacs dual 733s. And then they are releasing a quad powermac G4 right. After that they wont be releasing newer g4s i think...
Is there another macworld expo after july?

Fred CHOTTIN · Feb 4, 2001, 06:05 AM

After MacWorld Expo New York, there is Apple Expo in Paris in September which is now the only Apple show in Europe.

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Fight against the Dark Force (Microsoft)

daydreamer · Feb 4, 2001, 10:00 AM

i wonder what they will be releasing then in september

brundleOS · Feb 4, 2001, 10:35 AM

I am sitting tight waiting for a Dual 667. If anyone here is using a Dual 533 for Final Cut Pro, can you email me some render results for some basic stuff. My beige 466 is starting to feel a little dated.

[email protected]

zverushka · Feb 4, 2001, 10:42 AM

OS X is a UNIX based OS and it has more efficent resource handling and memory handling.
Unix can run on a 486 no problem just you can't run any apps then

I plan to get a dual 533 mhz soon.

Scribble · Feb 4, 2001, 05:04 PM

Gauge Pro is telling me that I have 2 of the 7410 G4s.

The majority of new G4 owners seem to be getting the 7400s. I wonder why???

olePigeon · Feb 4, 2001, 05:09 PM

Mine says: PowerPC G4 (7410) x 2

Who reported a 7400?

Scribble · Feb 4, 2001, 05:20 PM

Oscar mentioned that above...

--
Note, according to Gauge pro this 533 is riunning a 7400, anyone have different results?
--

olePigeon · Feb 4, 2001, 05:31 PM

What's the difference between the 7400 and 7410?

Just power consumption?

Feb 5, 2001, 08:24 AM

the only difference is the reduced power consumption found in the 7410. The power consumption went down since they had to be able to put one in a powerbook. I doubt there would be any performance differences at all, just power and temperature (maybe) differences.

Feb 7, 2001, 06:49 AM

looks like the singles are mostly 7400's and the duals are 7410

right?

my single reports with gauge pro, 7400

Riddler · Feb 7, 2001, 05:43 PM

Yo guys, good discussion going on here....

Here's something I've been thinking about: I've ordered a G4 733 and am now sat here wondering if I should have gone for the dual 533?

I'm starting to see people saying "OS X rocks with DP!" and thinking is my 733 really gonna be the "Ultimate" config as Apple call it?

What has made me a bit happier is the fact that the 733 (and 667) use the G4 7450 processor - now that baby has 4 Altivec units and I'm hoping that these combined with the high clock speed and other 7450 enhancements will push it past the dual 533 it the performance race!

So what do you guys think - what's gonna be quicker in say the soon to be released Altivec optimised Quake 3 update, the dual 533 or 733?

NeoMac · Feb 7, 2001, 07:13 PM

FOR PETE"S SAKE! The 733 has ONE Altivec unit segmented into four distinct units aligned in parallel.

The dual-533 will be faster than the 733 for Quake just because an Altivec-MP version of Quake will throw around a hell of a lot more Gigaflops than the single 733. It's 7 gigaflops vs 5.5 gigaflops.

Now, a DUAl-733 will burn some serious rubber. 11 gigaflops!

RDJL27 · Feb 7, 2001, 09:48 PM

They are amazingly better, but if I can think for the future. Get Duals, they are worth the price for nearly double speed in OS X. The Nvidia card is a vast improvement over ATI offerings, in speed and driver support. But some games don't support it (Rune).

Norm1985 · Feb 7, 2001, 10:33 PM

Actually RDJL27, I remember you telling me that the nVidia GeForce2 and RADEON are about on a apar.

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Mac OS for productivity.
UNIX for stability.
Palm OS for mobility.
Windows for solitaire.

iSilver · Feb 8, 2001, 12:09 AM

Well I got an excellent price from a Apple Reseller - almost A$800 off the top of the G4/533 with a Zip & SCSI card, so I thought I'd go for the DP but here in Australia I can only get it from the Apple Store and it would have had to pay full price plus the extra for the DP and well, I couldn't justify another A$1500. I am sure I'll be happy with the single processor - for a while!!

iSilver · Feb 8, 2001, 12:10 AM

Oh yeah, and thankyou all for you comments

Feb 8, 2001, 02:18 AM

Got my dual 533 last Friday.

I'm practicaly drooling over it. I have honestly NEVER had a machine this fast before. It screams!! I took advantage of the cheap RAM prices and knocked it up to 384MB. Geez... What speed.

I'd recommend the dual 533 to anyone unless you just HAVE to have the latest and greatest.

Riddler · Feb 8, 2001, 03:45 PM

Right, thats it, I'm changing my order to a Dual 533! (will they let me do that????)

tdominey · Feb 8, 2001, 06:18 PM

Just wanted to jump in here and say that I also got a DP 533 and it's an amazing machine. Tight as a drum. I didn't realize how truly fast it was (or is) until I gave Quake 3 Arena (and Team Arena) a spin. I was using a Voodoo3 on a blue and white G3 and getting 30-50fps tops.

With the new G4, I was cranking somewhere between 80 and 120. The FPS counter kept jumping up over 100 when I was playing. I even tossed my .cfg file and played with High Quality set. It practically knocked me out of my Aeron.

Gorgeous. The nVidia card is truly something to behold.

Anyway, I also have a friend who works at Apple and he advised the DP 533 as "the way to go." Now I'm just sitting and waiting for OS X to get here... yeeee haw!

Feb 8, 2001, 06:33 PM

Riddler,

If your order is still in the "Being Reviewed" stage than you should still be able to change it. I'd strongly recommend it personally...

On a different note...

tdominey,

How did you pull 80 to 100 fps on Q3A? On my timedemos I could only get 70ish fps and that was with everything off. Just wondering if there is something that I'm missing...

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Feb 8, 2001, 06:35 PM

Ah wait... I just reread your post... You have the Nvidia card. That is probably the difference. I got the Radeon card so that is probably the reason for it...

ShortcutToMoncton · Feb 8, 2001, 07:17 PM

NeoMac: Actually, the 733 will be faster for QuakeIII.

It doesn't matter what the theoretical (note that word as well!!!) output of the CPU(s) are. The 733 is one fast CPU, while the dual 533s are faster when both processors are used.

However, QuakeIII is not optimized for dual processors, and I don't know of ANY games that are, at this point and time. Granted, id has been known to push the envelope with this type of stuff, and they MAY perhaps offer a DP version later....but that's pure speculation. As well, note that multiprocessor Quake (II, I believe?) under NT only resulted in something like a 20% increase in FPS, since graphics and sound cards are already offloading processor tasks.

At this point and time under OS X, one 533 MHz processor will run QuakeIII, while the other will run any additional programs, like the OS itself. This probably won't mean any big increase in FPS.

The single 733 run the game AND the OS, but should still pump out much better framerates. If games are your bag, get the 733........

greg

------------------
Though the day's been
really long
I still feel I'm close to
nowhere....

NeoMac · Feb 8, 2001, 08:10 PM

Originally posted by ShortcutToMoncton:
QuakeIII is not optimized for dual processors

Yes, it is. The OS X version of Quake is MP aware.

See here & here: http://www.barefeats.com/quakeX.htm http://www.omnigroup.com/community/freeware/quake3/

Riddler · Feb 9, 2001, 03:10 PM

Well they let me cancel my 733 order and order a 533 DP :-)

Also ordered and extra 512Mb RAM (not from Apple) at about a cost of $200 :-)))

15 days delivery time (in the UK remember)

Shame I couldn't get the DVD-ROM as I already have a PlexWriter 12/10/32A which will be replacing the built in Sony CDRW, will probably just pick up a Toshiba DVD-ROM seperately.

Thanx for the advice guys, your right, DP is the future for Apple and the best way to go at the moment!

ShortcutToMoncton · Feb 9, 2001, 05:32 PM

You're right, Neo. My apologies.

The funny thing is, I'm almost positive that Omni's port of QuakeIII ran FASTER with a single-proc machine, didn't it???? On my friend's DP 500, it definitely did under OS X beta........

greg

------------------
Though the day's been
really long
I still feel I'm close to
nowhere....

ShortcutToMoncton · Feb 9, 2001, 07:18 PM

My earlier post on how the speed of QuakeII runs on DP Macs stands, though. As far as I can understand, the FPS are only bumped up slightly (I've heard 15 - 25 % quoted on PC sites, though I'm not sure off the bat....anyone have some solid numbers?) due to the fact that lots of the processor-intensive work is already handled by the video (and sound) card(s).

How this will affect the performance of QuakeIII in OS X remains to be seen, but I'd still, personally, bet on the 733 to beat the DP 533.

That's my personal opinion, though....feel free to kill me if you know otherwise.....

One more thing: I'd get the dual anyway. I'm only a "semi-hardcore" gamer, so for me the duals would provide enough speed. I'm really interested in the aspect of OS responsiveness, in which the DP kills the single......

greg

------------------
Though the day's been
really long
I still feel I'm close to
nowhere....

NeoMac · Feb 9, 2001, 07:29 PM

The following image (barefeats.com) has results of Quake 3 performance on OS X. The DP machines easily double their FPS performance on OS X.

On exactly the same hardware, the OS X version of Quake 3 delivers 117% more FPS than the OS 9 version. Mind you, this is OS X Beta running a Quake beta! And it is not even the Altivec enhanced version!!!

It's flipping impressive.