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Pismo 400MHz: 10.3 or 10.4 ?
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: München, Deutschland
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A little retro project, at the moment I got everything installed and tuned in 10.3.9... 
Problem: Sluggish video playback in Avi movies (VLC, couldn't get QT updated to 6.5+codecs so far), can't remember to be the case when using it as a main machine with 10.2... but then the video codecs and file resolutions might have been less demanding.
Will 10.4 be faster on a G3/400 [generally / in regard to video playback]?
Regards
Powerbook
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Last edited by Powerbook; Nov 1, 2008 at 09:27 PM.
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Aut Caesar aut nihil.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Nov 2008
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On my old Pismo, I had 10.4.11 Tiger on it, and it played videos on VLC just fine. However, if you upgrade, it would be a good idea to increase to 1GB RAM, if you haven't already. In my experience, Tiger runs a little faster on the Pismo than Panther.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: München, Deutschland
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Originally Posted by Quantum_of_Macs 
On my old Pismo, I had 10.4.11 Tiger on it, and it played videos on VLC just fine. However, if you upgrade, it would be a good idea to increase to 1GB RAM, if you haven't already. In my experience, Tiger runs a little faster on the Pismo than Panther.
Thanks for the info! I know 10.3 runs a little faster than 10.2, I wasn't sure about 10.4 withc all its gimmicks, though.
The machine has 640 MB Ram, which I don't plan to upgrade.
But I boosted the video card ~15% and switched the G3's L2cache to 200 MHz. 
PB.
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Aut Caesar aut nihil.
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Banned
Join Date: Mar 2005
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PowerBook:
How did you switch the L2 cache to 200 MHz? Is this a processor upgrade?
Also, by boosting the video car, I assume you hacked the ATI driver plist file, by adding the Pismo ATI identifier.
As for what best to run on the Pismo, go with 10.4 and don't look back. You must get the 1 GB RAM as well, I wouldn't use it unless it had this.
With only 640, you will see more sputtering.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Colorado
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I have a 466 MHz Wally that runs 10.3 very smoothly with 384 MB of RAM.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: München, Deutschland
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Originally Posted by freudling
PowerBook:
How did you switch the L2 cache to 200 MHz? Is this a processor upgrade?
No, that's been done with Powerlogix' CPU director. I have been doing this since I got the machine back in 1999 (w/ a nice OS9 control strip item back then). Apple - for distinction reasons (  ) - set the L2 cache speed to 166MHz on the 400 MHz model and to 200MHz on the 500MHz model. It's a little tricky to install though, cost me some time under 10.3.
Also, by boosting the video car, I assume you hacked the ATI driver plist file, by adding the Pismo ATI identifier.
No, just use the ATICellerator prefpane. The ATI Rage 128 is good for another + 15-20 %...
As for what best to run on the Pismo, go with 10.4 and don't look back. You must get the 1 GB RAM as well, I wouldn't use it unless it had this.
With only 640, you will see more sputtering.
That's really crazy considering Apple sold these machines stock with 64MB 
PB.
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Aut Caesar aut nihil.
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Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2003
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Hey, those are some good tips. I have a pismo 400 mhz also, 512 mb ram. Mac os 10.4 runs like a champ for me. I installed aticellerator and cpu director today. They added a nice modest speed boost. Best part, for free! I had to downgrade from 10.4.11 to 10.4.9 to do it though.
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Banned
Join Date: Mar 2005
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Originally Posted by Powerbook
That's really crazy considering Apple sold these machines stock with 64MB
PB.
And you are pretty crazy for using a 10 year old laptop with a later version of OS X.
Kidding aside, 10 years ago 64 mb of ram was a lot in a portable. It came with OS 9, not OS X, so they did not need to ramp up the RAM. If you put more RAM in, you will significantly increase performance, which, I assume, is a goal of yours: to make your Pismo faster.
If you don't want the RAM, then stick with the 640 MB and enjoy it, but 1 GB will be quicker, and allow you to run more applications at one time smoothly. Many benchmark testers state that 1 GB RAM is the minimum amount of RAM for Tiger.
Doing my own tests, using a system monitor widget, going from 512 to 1 GB RAM resulted in OS X mapping more RAM (about 256 MB) by default to the OS. There was a noticeable speed improvement as well: applications opened faster, fewer slowdowns with more than 5 applications open, etc.
The same thing happened when I went from 1 GB to 2 GB RAM in my MBP 2.16 running Leopard: in this case, a significant speed boost was the result. I presume 4 GB would be equally impressive.
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