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 The Source for Mac Performance News and Reviews |
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The "Upgradeable Upgrade" Published: 6/11/99 |
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| Applications/General use comments | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This page lists test results in common Mac applications like Bryce 2, Infini-D 4.01, After Effects 3.1, Premiere 4.2 and also results of the PSBench tests in Photoshop 5. I've included comparisons to some stock systems and an Apple B&W G3/400. To see additional scores with other systems and G3 Upgrades, visit my G3 Apps Tests page. As expected, overall performance was the highest I've seen with a CPU slot card (understandable since the CarrierZIF ran at higher CPU speeds). You might have to open your browser width a bit due to the Photoshop 5 results table below. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Infini-D Tests | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 CarrierZIF (with XLR8 400Mhz ZIF module) in several systems along with other systems/similar upgrades for comparison. Infini-D was allocated 40MB of RAM for the tests. Unless otherwise indicated, all tests used OS 8.1. The PowerCenter Pro does not support interleaved RAM.
As shown above, Infini-D performance was excellent with the faster times than even a B&W G3/400 running OS 8.6.
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| Bryce 2 Tests | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I also ran tests in Bryce 2, using the samples scenes in the KAI folder called "Magical Knight I" and "Alexandria II". Bryce 2 was left at the default memory allocation of 16980k, antialiasing was on, screen resolution was set to 1024x768, thousands colors. Unless noted otherwise, test systems used OS 8.1, RAM was interleaved and Speculative Processing was on. The PowerCenter Pro does not support interleaved RAM. Note the many similar scores and that all CarrierZIF scores were faster in this test than a B&W G3/400 with OS 8.6.
If I can make time, I'd like to graph these results to make them clearer. |
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| After Effects 3.1 Tests | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The following is a chart showing the time to render a special effects movie (10MB file size) in AE with the CarrierZIF and other systems. Resolution was set to 1024x768, thousands colors as was common on all but the Photoshop 5 tests.
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| Photoshop Tests: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I also ran a complete PS5Bench (21 filter test) series. Only the total time to complete the tests are shown, but for more details on PSBench and the name of every filter used see my Photoshop 5 Performance page which lists other systems including PCs (Pentium III/Dual Pentium II). PSBench settings are 1024x768, millions colors, VM off, Interpolation set to bicubic (better) and Photoshop should be allocated enough RAM (I use 70MB min., 108MB for this review) to avoid any swap file activity from the 10MB test image filter actions. PSBench tests are not shown for the PowerCenter Pro since it had only 2MB of VRAM on the onboard video riser and only 80MB RAM installed.
Note that disabling "Speculative Processing" (often called Branch Prediction) actually improved Photoshop performance (I repeated the tests to verify this). Also note the improvements with interleaved RAM in the 9600/350 tests with and w/o interleaving. |
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| Genesis w/CarrierZIF 440MHz CPU Speed (Overclocked) 1MB Cache at 220MHz 55MHz Bus 512MB RAM (Interleaved) Spec Proc ON Ultimate Rez OS 8.1 VM OFF |
9600/350 w/CarrierZIF 450MHz CPU Speed (Overclocked) 1MB Cache at 225MHz 60MHz Bus 320MB RAM (NOT Interleaved) Spec Proc ON Thunder3D OS 8.1 VM OFF |
9600/350 w/CarrierZIF 450MHz CPU Speed (Overclocked) 1MB Cache at 225MHz 60MHz Bus 320MB RAM (NOT Interleaved) Spec Proc OFF Thunder3D OS 8.1 VM OFF |
9600/350 w/CarrierZIF 412MHz CPU Speed (Overclocked) 1MB Cache at 206MHz 55MHz Bus 320MB RAM (Interleaved) Spec Proc ON Thunder3D OS 8.1 VM OFF |
9600/350 w/CarrierZIF 412MHz CPU Speed (Overclocked) 1MB Cache at 206MHz 55MHz Bus 320MB RAM (Interleaved) Spec Proc OFF Thunder3D OS 8.1 VM OFF |
9600/350 w/CarrierZIF 412MHz CPU Speed (Overclocked) 1MB Cache at 206MHz 55MHz Bus 320MB RAM (NOT Interleaved) Spec Proc OFF Thunder3D OS 8.1 VM OFF |
Genesis w/XLR8 G3/400 400MHz G3 1MB Cache at 200MHz 50MHz Bus 512MB RAM (Interleaved) Spec Proc ON Ultimate Rez OS 8.1 VM OFF |
9600/400 (Overclocked) 400MHz 604E 1MB Cache at 100MHz 50MHz Bus 192MB RAM (Interleaved) ATI RagePro 3D v3.1 OS 8.1 VM OFF |
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(PowerCenter Pro results not shown as the 2MB VRAM onboard video
cannot run 1024x768, millions colors required by the test.)
Interesting Note: a Pentium III 500Mhz (500/250/100) Windows 98 system with 256MB SDRAM took 165.7 seconds to complete this test. Adobe's Pentium III Photoshop update was applied prior to the test.
| Game Performance Tests: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tests were done in Rave Quake and Unreal. 3D (Rave and 3Dfx) Games are one area where performance seems to show little gain after you reach a 300Mhz G3 CPU speed. Software mode would benefit, but if you're looking for a 400Mhz G3 card upgrade, you're not likely to be running the often ugly and slow software modes of games like Quake and Unreal. The first gamer's purchase should be a 3Dfx Voodoo card (see my video cards page for reviews) or perhaps a Rage128 (when they are released), then plenty of RAM (Unreal and Quake 3 both need 90MB+ now). After about 300Mhz, throwing more CPU speed into your machine will shown little gain. If you're well equipped with RAM (128MB or more) and have a G3 CPU already, a faster video card is a far better investment for improved game performance and visuals as well.
As shown in the above table of results (and based on reader comments), the beta Opengl drivers cost the B&W G3 a few FPS in Rave Quake compared to the previous Rage128 1.0 driver update. I've not had time to try the final 1.0 OpenGL beta or the just released Unreal 2.24 beta. One interesting note to gamers if you missed my Interleaved RAM article last week. Unreal showed up to a 22% gain from interleaving RAM, based on tests with the same CPU card/speed.
B&W G3 scores are from my B&W G3 Game Performance page. |
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Since applications performance was better than any other CPU slot card (older Mac) I've tested, I rated this category a 9. |
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| 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. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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