As expected, the 400mhz G3 applications tests showed record breaking performance in all categories. All operations were noticably faster, windows snap open in the Finder, and 3D applications were very responsive as was Photoshop.

I'm listing test results in Bryce 2, Infini-D 4.01, After Effects 3.1, Premiere 4.2 and also results of the PSBench tests in Photoshop 5.

I used the same Infini-D 4.0 tutorial file rendering test as I've done in past reviews using the 'chapter 7 completed' scene. Rendering quality was set to Ray Trace, medium anti-aliasing, shadows on, patch detail low. The table below shows the results of the XLR8 400MHz card and several other CPU cards at various speeds for comparison. Infini-D was allocated 40MB of RAM for the tests.

As the graph above shows, Infini-D performance was excellent with the fastest rendering times I've seen. I'll have results with NewTek's Lightwave 3D and Inspire 3D listed here when I test the card in the Lightwave 3D workstation. What is a major bonus to me was that the Radius Thunder 3D card worked with the XLR8 400, unlike previous G3 CPU cards tested in the past. Since Lightwave performance with the OpenGL patch and the Thunder 3D was good on the 9500/350 (shaded objects moved smoothly), I can't wait to see how it runs with this barn-burner CPU card installed. Stay tuned for results as soon as I can catch up a bit.

I also ran tests in Bryce 2, using the samples scenes in the KAI folder called "Magical Knight I" and "Alexandria II". Again I show the times other G3 CPU cards took for those same scenes. Bryce 2 was left at the default memory allocation of 16980k, antialiasing was on. As shown below the 400MHz XLR8 card was almost twice as fast as a 250/166/512K card and significantly faster than even a 300/300/1MB G3 upgrade or a overclocked Apple G3 333/222/66 1MB system.

After Effects 3.1 Tests:

The following is a chart showing the time to render a special effects movie in AE with the Genesis/XLR8 400 card combo, an Apple 9600/400 (overclocked 350Mhz card) and an Apple G3 333/222/1MB system (overclocked CPU and Cache G3/300):

Photoshop Tests: I've also run a complete PS5Bench (21 filter test) series. The results have been added to my PS5Bench Results page which lists Mach 5, Apple G3 and other systems as well.

Since applications performance posted record scores in every test, I rated this category a 9. (Revised since the PowerForce ZIF 400MHz was even faster)

The next page describes the software cache control supplied with the card. Or you may use the links below to jump to a specific page.