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Exclusive First Look: PowerForce G3 ZIF CPU upgrade!
Published: August 20, 1998

PowerForce ZIF sans Heatsink

I've been eagerly awaiting the PowerForce G3 ZIF upgrades since they were announced last month. Yesterday PowerLogix provided a prototype unit for testing and needless to say I did not get any sleep last night between testing the upgrade at various speeds in both benchmarks and applications and creating this page. It was time well spent however. Based on what I've seen, this upgrade will be just the ticket for Apple G3/233 and 266 system owners looking for a speed boost without buying a new system. This card in my G3 made it the fastest Mac I've ever tested.

Although the CPU on the ZIF card was an IBM 333 MHz version, I ran experimental tests at 366 MHz and finally 400 MHz to obtain an idea of what to expect in performance when these speeds are available. Since I had already run tests on a 333 MHz G3, I thought it was pointless to repeat them again with this processor upgrade. The graphs and tables below show the results of the tests and comparisons to other G3 speeds and also a 400 MHz 604e (Mach 5) 9600.

The PowerForce G3 ZIF has an small rotary switch for speed adjustment and 1 MB of fast IBM 5ns backside cache. The card easily did 267 MHz backside cache speeds. The PowerForce ZIF ran the applications tests fine at 400 MHz, but I saw errors at times in MacBench (type 1/quits after some tests, when trying to save results), so the 400 MHz scores are shown here for reference only, as an indication of how a 400 MHz PowerPC 750 would compare to other processors.

Installation:
More good news - installing the upgrade is a snap and speeds are adjustable without messing with the stock jumper block (which voids the Apple warranty). Open the case, remove the CPU heatsink retaining strap, lift the ZIF socket lever (on the left side of the CPU socket) and lift out the Apple ZIF CPU card. Place the PowerForce ZIF in the socket, reattach the heatsink and lower the ZIF socket release lever back down and you're done!

Cache speeds are controlled by a new version of PowerLogix's G3 Cache control. You simply select your PowerForce model from the list in the control panel.

Lone Star - Fast and Cool:
The 2.0 Volt 'Lone Star' 333 MHz CPU runs very cool compared to the 300 MHz and earlier 3.3 Volt devices. Powerlogix's Speedmeter was used as both proof of the 400 MHz speed setting and to indicate temperatures. Note the very low temperature after running for over an hour at 400 MHz speeds. That temperature is 20 degrees C lower than my G3/300 stock CPU runs at 333 MHz (52C).

400 MHz SpeedMeter Readings

Applications Tests:
I ran a sample of Bryce 2, Premiere 4.2 and After Effects 3.1 tests on the PowerForce G3/ZIF card at 366 and 400 MHz. Times for the Apple G3/300 (at 333/222/66) and a 9600/350 (Mach 5 604e) overclocked to 400 MHz are also shown for comparison. Although I saw occasional type 1 errors in MacBench at 400 MHz, there were no errors of any kind in these limited applications tests at that speed. File copies to the hard disk and ZIP drive were reliable at 400 MHz as well.

Application Test

PF ZIF
@400MHz
(400/267/66)

PF ZIF
@366Mhz
(367/245/66)

Apple G3/300
(Stock 300/150/66)

Apple G3/333
(333/222/66)

9600/400
(400/100/50)

Bryce 2 Alexandria II render

3:44

4:04

5:00

4:35

4:39

Bryce 2 Magical Knights I

2:45

3:00

3:41

3:23

3:30

After Effects 3.1 Movie

3:33

3:56

4:42

4:14

3:48

Adobe Premiere 4.2 Make Movie

34.50

41.50

42.90

39.96

47.66

Totals:

10:36.50

11:41.50

14:14.90

12:51.96

12:46.34

Note: Premiere tests were re-run on the Apple G3/333, for some reason it was still faster than the PF ZIF at 366Mhz. The 9600/400 Premiere test was also redone, with slightly better times than previously posted (those pages have been updated).

MacBench 4.0 Tests:
The chart below shows the results of tests of the PowerForce ZIF at both 366 and 400MHz. I saw errors in Macbench after running the tests (it quit with a type 1 error after running several tests). The >400 MHz results are shown simply as an indication of what to expect from a 400 MHz PowerPC 750, not that you should expect that speed from a 333 MHz processor.

Libmoto was active for all tests except those noted as "noLM". The PF337/225/45 score was from a PowerForce 300/300 in a 9600 Mach 5 system.

ByteMark Tests:
Bytemark DR/3 (latest version) was run with the following results (400MHz to be run tonight) . (Note: Earlier versions of Bytemark used in my G3 CPU card reviews returns about a 15% lower Integer score so scores cannot be compared to DR/3 scores.)

ByteMark DR/3

PF ZIF
@400MHz
(400/267/66)

PF ZIF
@366MHz
(367.5/245/66)

Apple G3/333
(333/222/66)

9600/400
(400/100/50)

Integer

13.38

12.23

11.10

11.65

Floating Point

8.76

8.09

7.31

8.53

Summary:
Although others have announced G3 ZIF upgrades, this is the first model I've actually seen. With the combination of faster, cooler CPU, larger, faster cache and easy installation this will just the ticket to bring existing 233 and 266 MHz Apple G3 systems to the front of the performance pack.

Thanks to PowerLogix for delivering on the ZIF promise of faster and easier upgrades.

Availability:
PowerLogix says they have a run of 300s scheduled for next week. 333s and 366 chips are supposed to be available somewhere between the 1st of Sept. and mid-Sept but that is not a firm date. IBM says the 333 and 366 MHz chips will be constrained until the end of the year. PowerLogix replied that they placed their order early and will have them as soon as they are available.

Estimated pricing (8/98 -not firm at this time):

300/1MB: est. $999
333/1MB est. $1099
366/1MB est. $1399

These prices are estimates only and subject to change due to final CPU costs and availability.

Update: This is a 1998 article, for later reviews of CPU upgrades see the main site CPU Upgrades page which has pages of G4 and G3 CPU upgrade reviews and related articles.

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