|
400 MHz G4 Upgrade Shoot Out |
|
| Reviewed by: Michael Flaminio Review Date 5.1.00 |
Manufacturers: Newer Technology Powerlogix Sonnet Technologies XLR8 |
In Insanely Great Mac's latest upgrade review, I test four G4/400 MHz products. This review includes four daughtercard slot-style upgrades from Newer Technology, Powerlogix, Sonnet Technologies and XLR8. These processors will enable older Mac systems to operate at faster processor speeds and take advantage of the latest AltiVec multimedia acceleration.
To G4 or not to G4
Upgrading is a bit of give
and take. Apple now offers high-powered, feature-rich computers
at fairly affordable prices. For as much as twice the price of one of these upgrades,
you could pick up a new machine with better overall performance. The catch is not
everyone has a spare $900, nor is willing to abandon their previous investments.
To make things more complicated, you're upgrade choices aren't limited to a single processor. If by some grasp of the imagination you're still running a 601 or 604-based upgradable Mac, you have two available technologies. You can upgrade to either a G3 or G4 processor. While G4 offers current processing power, G3 processors still offer good values for performance and price.
Simply put, a G4 processor is very similar to a G3 processor, except when performing specialized instructions. These AltiVec or Velocity Engine instructions allow the Mac to greatly accelerate applications. With the acceleration, the G4 can more than double an application's performance over a G3. Without the acceleration, there is no discernible difference.
I split the upgrade decision into three options. First you can buy a new computer; second, upgrade to a G3; and third, upgrade to a G4. A PowerMac G4 or iMac DV offer many new technologies, such as USB, FireWire, 100 MHz system buses and Rage 128 graphics accelerators. On the other hand, a G4 upgrade can jump-start a machine into performing very similarly to a current Power Mac G4 system. On raw processor power, the differences will likely be insignificant to most users. The third option, a G3 upgrade, offers the same performance of a G4 processor, except for AltiVec-enhanced applications.
The Contenders
- Newer Technology
MAXpowr G4 400/200 (44.4 MHz bus)
ESP: $669
Newer offers a pretty solid product 
at a good price. It has an ample heat sink that keeps things
at near room temperature and offers some unique hardware designs. The company uses
its engineering techniques as a marketing tool, emphasizing built in speculative
addressing support. The other upgrades offer a software-based speculative addressing
solution that potentially could fail, leaving the user to rely on a floppy boot disk.
The upgrade does not provide equipment to modify the cards CPU/bus speeds, which
can work both ways, depending on the customer.
The company's 400 MHz G4 upgrade currently can be found for an ESP of $669. It has
a MSRP of $799, which is currently the price at the company's online store. Newer's
upgrades ship with its MAXpowr control software and Gauge Pro diagnostics software.
- Powerlogix
PowerForce G4 400/200 (50 MHz bus)
ESP - $850
The Powerlogix upgrade 
is uniquely small. I still maintain that Powerlogix should
place a metal grip bar on the processor similar to most upgrades, but this comes
from someone who handles upgrades often. It's difficult to handle this upgrade without
touching any electronics. Likely, however, this isn't a concern for end users other
than the fact that it's not a good idea to be touching any circuitry. Just make extra
sure that you're grounded when installing this card. Another oddity is the Powerlogix
heat sink. It's a screw-on unit that includes a powered fan. Interesting through
I found the upgrade to run the hottest of all four upgrades. Lastly, the Powerlogix
upgrades offer processor control to modify the CPU/bus speeds. I found this to be
especially useful as I had difficulty running the processor at a 50 MHz bus setting.
The PowerForce G4 400 has a MSRP of $850. The upgrade uses the company's G4 Cache
Profiler to control the board's settings. Powerlogix also include a specialized AltiVec
Enabler extension, designed to assist in G4 accelerated code.
- Sonnet Technologies
Crescendo G4 400/200 (50 MHz Bus)
$649
Sonnet's upgrades may be best recognized by their funky colored heat sinks. Like
the Newer upgrade, Sonnet offers no configuration controls. Some customers prefer
to tweak their upgrades for best performance or reliability. On the other hand, for
those who don't want to think about dip switches, the Sonnet upgrade keeps installation
simple. The Sonnet upgrade worked well and included ample documentation.
Sonnet's G4 upgrades have a MSRP of $649. The upgrade ships with the company's Crescendo
software, G4 enabler and Metronome utility software.
- XLR8
MAChCarrier G4 400/200 (50 MHz Bus)
$729
XLR8 continues to 
ship its PCI upgrades on its ZIF adapter card. The XLR8 package is made
up of a daughter-type upgrade that has a removable ZIF socket and a 400 MHz ZIF processor.
Assembled, the upgrade operates identically to the other upgrades. The difference
is that the ZIF processor can be replaced by another ZIF upgrade or placed into a
Power Mac G3 system. The advantage is that the upgrade can give you versatility if
you own multiple types of systems. Additionally, ZIF upgrades at times can be cheaper
than the daughtercard upgrades, so if you plan to upgrade this system again, you
could buy a ZIF upgrade instead of another daughtercard upgrade. The downside is
that this option tends to be more expensive. Like the Powerlogix upgrade, XLR8 offers
control of the board's CPU/bus settings. Also like the Powerlogix upgrade this was
useful while dealing with instability problems.
The MACh Carrier G4 has a MSRP of $729. It ships with the company's MACh Speed Control
with PowerPack and the company's Velocity Extensions for AltiVec support.
Benchmarks
I performed two types of tests with these four upgrades. First were the standard
MacBench 5.0 CPU/FPU (longer = better) tests and second
were timed tests with QuickTime and Photoshop. The QuickTime tests utilized Sorenson
Video 2.1, which featured enhanced AltiVec support. Photoshop involved a set of 
complex actions
designed to exercise the G4's acceleration. The QuickTime
and Photoshop tests (shorter = better) provided a more real-world example of
performance in addition to demonstrating G4 acceleration. All tests were performed
in a Power Mac 8500/160, VM disabled, Mac OS 9 installed and the L2 cache removed.
As almost expected, all four upgrade performed similarly. They all share the same
basic hardware, the G4 processor, and differ only in hardware and software implementation.
Interestingly, the upgraded 8500 actually performed similarly to a stock PowerMac
G4/400 system. Additionally, the G4 upgrade performed very well in G4 tasks against
a 400 MHz G3 upgrade in the same machine.
As always I post benchmarks as only a relative comparison between products. The four
400 MHz G4 upgrade and 400 MHz G3 upgrade results offer a good comparison of products
against each other. Obviously the Apple PowerMac G4 tests introduces numerous variables
and is only provided to give a general comparison.
Conclusions
The first decision to make is whether or not it's practical to upgrade. If upgrading
your system is what you want, you can choose between the bleeding edge G4 processor
for the value-based G3 processor. If you have never upgraded your daughtercard-based
Mac, a 400 G4 upgrade will jump you into the CPU power of Apple's current PowerMac
lineup at a reasonable price. If you recently upgraded to a G3 processor and you're
just looking for more MHz, a pricey G4 upgrade may not give you the performance/price
you're looking for, but will provide the AltiVec boost.
Product Grid
|
Upgrade |
MHz/$$$ |
Pros |
Cons |
Rating |
| Newer | $1.67 | Competitive pricing, easy installation, built in hardware fix for speculative addressing | Lacks hardware configuration |  |
| Powerlogix | $2.13 | Offers controllable CPU/FPU settings | Expensive |  |
| Sonnet | $1.62 | Lowest price currently available. Easy installation. | Lacks hardware configuration | |
| XLR8 | $1.82 | Ships with ZIF adapter, offers controllable CPU/FPU settings. | Expensive, ZIF adapter option may not interest everyone. | |
|