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Q
& A:
Power
Mac G4 Q & A:
Tech & Performance (3/3)
How
fast is the Power Macintosh G4 series compared to
Windows PCs?
According to Apple-published benchmarks, the original 450 MHz Power Macintosh G4/450 is 2.65 times as fast as a 600 MHz Pentium III, and 2.16 times as fast as a 733 MHz Pentium III. Unlike previous Apple speed comparisons, which utilized BYTEmark benchmarks, this comparison used Intel's own signal processing tests, established by Intel to demonstrate the speed of the Pentium III processor.
The discontinued Power Macintosh G4/450 DP and Power Macintosh G4/500 DP models clobbered the Pentium III in timed tests using applications fine-tuned for multiprocessing. According to Apple-published test results, the Power Macintosh G4/500 DP took 36 seconds to perform eight different tasks in Photoshop 5.0, while a Dell system equipped with a 1.0 GHz Pentium III took 60 seconds to perform the same tasks.
The more recent, but subsequently discontinued "Quicksilver" models continued to clobber similarly-priced Wintel systems (see question below).
How fast is the Power Macintosh G4 "Quicksilver" series compared to Windows PCs?
According to Apple-published benchmarks the original "Quicksilver" series smashes an IBM NetVista Alta system equipped with a 1.7 GHz Pentium 4 in a suite of Photoshop tests. The Power Macintosh G4/733 QS is 33% faster, the Power Macintosh G4/867 is 58% faster, and the Power Macintosh G4/800 DP QS is a whopping 83% faster.
Again, according to Apple-published benchmarks, the "Quicksilver" models introduced on January 28, 2002 and discontinued on August 13, 2002, continued to pummel Windows-based PCs in Photoshop tests. When compared to a Windows PC with a 2.0 GHz Pentium 4 processor, the Power Macintosh G4/800 QS is 26% faster, the Power Macintosh G4/933 QS is 51% faster, and the Power Macintosh G4/1.0 DP QS is 72% faster.
How fast is the Power Macintosh G4 "Mirrored Drive Doors" series compared to Windows PCs?
Apple reports that the original "Mirrored Drive Doors" Power Macintosh G4 models, introduced on August 13, 2002 and discontinued on January 28, 2003, continued the PC smashing trend. In a suite of tests using Adobe Photoshop 7.0, the Power Macintosh G4/1.25 DP "MDD" is as much as 90% faster than a PC equipped with a 2.53 GHz Pentium 4. The second, and final, series of "Mirrorred Drive Doors" Power Macintosh G4 models, introduced on January 28, 2003 and discontinued on June 23, 2003, show a fairly substantial performance lead over similarly priced PC systems. In the same suite of tests using Adobe Photoshop 7.0, the second revision of the Power Macintosh G4/1.25 DP "MDD" and the Power Macintosh G4/1.42 DP "MDD" are 23% and 32% faster, respectively, than a Dell Dimension 8250 equipped with a 3.0 GHz Pentium 4 processor.
Does the Power Macintosh G4 series support dual monitors?
Yes. The Power Macintosh G4 series can support dual monitors with the addition of a PCI video card for the second monitor. Models in the Power Macintosh G4 series shipped with a pre-installed 16 MB ATI Rage 128 video card from October 13, 1999 to December 1, 1999, and a 16 MB ATI Rage 128 Pro from December 2, 1999 to January 8, 2001.
The series of Power Macintosh G4 models announced on January 9, 2001 and discontinued on July 18, 2001 shipped with either a 16 MB ATI Rage 128 Pro or a 32 MB NVIDIA GeForce2 MX video card that can support one monitor.
The "Quicksilver" Power Macintosh G4 series announced on July 18, 2001 and discontinued on January 28, 2002 shipped with either a pre-installed 32 MB NVIDIA GeForce2 MX or 64 MB NVIDIA GeForce2 MX TwinView, or a build-to-order 64 MB NVIDIA GeForce3 (DDR RAM) video card. The GeForce2 MX TwinView supports two monitors, one Apple monitor with an ADC connector and one monitor with a VGA connector. If you wish to use two Apple monitors with ADC connectors or two monitors with analog connectors, you will need to purchase a second video card or an VGA-to-ADC adapter.
The second "Quicksilver" series, announced on January 28, 2002 and discontinued on August 13, 2002, shipped with either a pre-installed 32 MB ATI Radeon 7500, a 64 MB NVIDIA GeForce4 MX, or a build-to-order 128 MB NVIDIA GeForce4 Titanium video card. All three video cards support two monitors, one Apple monitor with an ADC connector and one monitor with a VGA connector. If you wish to use two Apple monitors with ADC connectors or two monitors with analog connectors, you will need to purchase a second video card or an VGA-to-ADC adapter.
The "Mirrored Drive Doors" series, announced on August 13, 2002, speedbumped on January 28, 2003, and discontinued on June 23, 2003, shipped with either a a 32 MB NVIDIA GeForce4 MX (AGP 4X) or a 64 MB ATI Radeon 9000 Pro (AGP 4X) video card. Both of these video cards include support for two Apple flat-panel displays with both an ADC connector and a DVI connector.
A second PCI video card can be added either at the time of purchase with a new system, or easily installed at a later date.
Does the Power Macintosh G4 series have a ROM?
Like the iMac, iBook, and Blue Power Macintosh G3, the Power Macintosh G4 does not have the traditional 4 MB ROM of earlier Macs, but it does have a Boot ROM that is around 1 MB. This is referred to as the ROM-in-RAM or "NewWorld" approach.
Apple describes the new method by saying that "a small ROM contains the code needed to initialize the hardware and load an operating system. The rest of the system code that formerly resided in the Mac OS ROM is loaded into RAM from disk or from the network. . . High-level software resides in an image called the Mac OS ROM that is read into RAM before the Mac OS begins operation. Once the Mac OS begins operation, the Mac OS ROM image in RAM behaves in the same way that the corresponding code in ROM formerly did." (Apple Developers Note, p. 64).
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