Accelerate Your Mac! - Railgun 466/233/1MB ZIF Review

Throughout this review I used the convention of showing CPU, Cache and Bus speeds (in MHz) in the format of CPU Speed/Cache speed/Bus speed, so 440/220/55 would mean a CPU speed of 440 MHz, a backside cache speed of 220 MHz and a Bus speed of 55MHz. Due to the current G3 CPU limit of 8X Bus/CPU speed ratio the maximum CPU speed possible with the CarrierZIF's 60MHz max bus speed is 480MHz (60MHz bus times 8X ratio = 480MHz CPU speed). This summer a 10X bus ratio G3 CPU is said to be released which will raise this limit to 10 times the bus speed. And remember, your Mac may not be able to run 60MHz bus speeds reliably, most can't(exceptions are often the PowerCenter Pro and Mach 5 Apple systems). So remember max CPU speed with be 8 times your reliable bus speed, at least until the new 10X G3 CPUs are available.

MacBench 5.0 was run on all 3 systems used for the review - a rev 2 Beige G3, rev 2 B&W G3 and a PowerCenter Pro (using a CarrierZIF card to hold the ZIF).

Remember that Macbench Graphics scores will vary depending on graphics mode and the installed video card. Since all these Macs have graphics cards of widely differing performance capability, this is not a reflection on the CPU card under review. All tests were done at 1024x768, thousands colors, 75Hz (the PowerCenter Pro has only 2MB VRAM onboard so the Publishing test could not be run on that system since it can't support the required millions colors, 1152x870 mode). The 1000 normalized score in Macbench 5 is from an Apple Beige G3/300 running millions colors, 1152x870, so consider this when evaluating the scores at lower resolutions and color depths. I did not include disk scores since again the systems varied widely in disk performance and in most cases a CPU upgrade has little benefit on Macbench disk scores (Disk Cache settings in the Memory Control Panel boost scores as well up to a point (about 6MB or so) - see the Disk Cache Study from last year for details).

Be aware that each card and system has some tolerance variation, so these speeds may not be attainable with every card/system/hardware combination. The specific CPU chip on each ZIF, your motherboard components/installed hardware and RAM mix can all affect maximum reliable speeds.

RaveBench Tests:

As I've mentioned and shown in previous reviews, I see little Rave 3D or 3DFx/Glide game performance increases from faster CPUs after about 300MHz CPU speeds are reached. I wanted another way to test why there was so little gain from faster CPU speeds. As the graph below shows, the onboard RagePro chip is saturated (it becomes the bottleneck) long before 466MHz CPU speeds are reached. I'll be testing Ravebench on the Rage128 to see what that shows as well, but since it has a fast CPU, the deltas will likely be small. The graph below shows why I recommend a new video card for gamers who want increased 3d/game performance. Focused upgrades that address specific areas make the most sense. Start with RAM of course, and and then put your money where it will do the most good (for gamers a 3dfx card or Rage128 would be the best return on investment, improving speed and image quality for between $100 and $200).

Notice that doubling the CPU speed, cache speed and cache size resulted in only 7% to 54% gain in these tests, at least with the onboard RagePro chip.

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Review: BottomLine's Railgun G3/466/233/1MB ZIF Published: 6/28/99
Benchmark Test Results
Intro \| Benchmarks \| Appl. Tests \| Software Controls \| Docs/Installation \| Specs/Design \| Summary
Benchmark Tests
Benchmark tests were run with MacBench 5.0 as it is the accepted Mac standard. I also included a test with RaveBench to see what benefit a faster CPU speed had with the Beige G3's onboard RagePro chip. Throughout this review I used the convention of showing CPU, Cache and Bus speeds (in MHz) in the format of CPU Speed/Cache speed/Bus speed, so 440/220/55 would mean a CPU speed of 440 MHz, a backside cache speed of 220 MHz and a Bus speed of 55MHz. Due to the current G3 CPU limit of 8X Bus/CPU speed ratio the maximum CPU speed possible with the CarrierZIF's 60MHz max bus speed is 480MHz (60MHz bus times 8X ratio = 480MHz CPU speed). This summer a 10X bus ratio G3 CPU is said to be released which will raise this limit to 10 times the bus speed. And remember, your Mac may not be able to run 60MHz bus speeds reliably, most can't(exceptions are often the PowerCenter Pro and Mach 5 Apple systems). So remember max CPU speed with be 8 times your reliable bus speed, at least until the new 10X G3 CPUs are available. MacBench 5.0 was run on all 3 systems used for the review - a rev 2 Beige G3, rev 2 B&W G3 and a PowerCenter Pro (using a CarrierZIF card to hold the ZIF). Remember that Macbench Graphics scores will vary depending on graphics mode and the installed video card. Since all these Macs have graphics cards of widely differing performance capability, this is not a reflection on the CPU card under review. All tests were done at 1024x768, thousands colors, 75Hz (the PowerCenter Pro has only 2MB VRAM onboard so the Publishing test could not be run on that system since it can't support the required millions colors, 1152x870 mode). The 1000 normalized score in Macbench 5 is from an Apple Beige G3/300 running millions colors, 1152x870, so consider this when evaluating the scores at lower resolutions and color depths. I did not include disk scores since again the systems varied widely in disk performance and in most cases a CPU upgrade has little benefit on Macbench disk scores (Disk Cache settings in the Memory Control Panel boost scores as well up to a point (about 6MB or so) - see the Disk Cache Study from last year for details). Be aware that each card and system has some tolerance variation, so these speeds may not be attainable with every card/system/hardware combination. The specific CPU chip on each ZIF, your motherboard components/installed hardware and RAM mix can all affect maximum reliable speeds. MacBench 5.0 Tests: MacBench 5.0 Performance Beige G3 Tests MacBench 5.0 Performance Blue and White G3 Tests MacBench 5.0 Performance PowerCenter Pro Tests (w/CarrierZIF base card) RaveBench Tests: As I've mentioned and shown in previous reviews, I see little Rave 3D or 3DFx/Glide game performance increases from faster CPUs after about 300MHz CPU speeds are reached. I wanted another way to test why there was so little gain from faster CPU speeds. As the graph below shows, the onboard RagePro chip is saturated (it becomes the bottleneck) long before 466MHz CPU speeds are reached. I'll be testing Ravebench on the Rage128 to see what that shows as well, but since it has a fast CPU, the deltas will likely be small. The graph below shows why I recommend a new video card for gamers who want increased 3d/game performance. Focused upgrades that address specific areas make the most sense. Start with RAM of course, and and then put your money where it will do the most good (for gamers a 3dfx card or Rage128 would be the best return on investment, improving speed and image quality for between $100 and $200). Notice that doubling the CPU speed, cache speed and cache size resulted in only 7% to 54% gain in these tests, at least with the onboard RagePro chip. RaveBench 1.11 Performance Beige G3 Tests
For comparisons to other CPU Card upgrades and systems see my site list of CPU Card Reviews.
The Railgun 466 ZIF scored well in the MacBench tests and I rated Benchmark performance a 9. The next page has comments and some results from real world applications. Or you may use the links below to jump to a specific page.

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