Review of Giga Designs 1.25GHz CPU Upgrade

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Review: Giga Designs G4 1.25GHz CPU Upgrade
(7455B CPU, 2MB L3 SDR Cache)
Published: 10/10/2003

Real World Performance Tests

Intro | Benchmarks | Apps Tests | Game Tests | Installation | Specs/Design

Applications Performance Tests

This page lists comparison test results with common Mac applications like iMovie3, iTunes4, Photoshop 7.0 and time to convert a very large (1.92GB) Quicktime movie to MPEG4. It also includes a multitasking test - Cinebench 2003 rendering score with iTunes3 playback from a FW drive Audio CD with visuals running in the background (The system is doing Audio, Video and Firewire simultaneously while rendering the image.)
Remember the red and orange bars are the Giga Designs 1.25GHz upgrade review sample, run at 1.33GHz and 1.467GHz respectively. It uses SDR L3 cache vs. DDR L3 for most of the other upgrades compared, which is why in some tests it may score a bit lower than a DDR L3 upgrade at the same speed. Also as mentioned originally in its review earlier this year, the OWC G4 1.33GHz (DDR L3) has a faster cache bus speed (lower ratio) than the Giga Designs upgrades, which helps a little bit in some tests. Neither DDR L3 (vs SDR) or a 5:1 vs 6:1 CPU/L3 bus ratio is really a significant performance factor however (not nearly enough to be noticed in actual use). The lower L3 cache bus speeds have proven to be a plus when overclocking however (i.e. avoiding wake from sleep issues when overclocking the CPU for instance).

Quicktime to MPEG4 Conversion

I used a very large 1.92GB (GigaByte) Quicktime movie and timed how long it took to export (convert) to MPEG4 using the default settings in Quicktime 6 (Pro). (Shorter bars are faster of course.)

QT to MPEG4 Export Test Results
Notice this QT6 Pro (v6.2) export shows no real benefit from dual CPUs. High end apps like Final Cut Pro do however, although I can't afford them for benchmarking. (Speaking of Final Cut Pro - see the comments from Giga Designs regarding certain jumper settings/speeds and FCP Real-Time Effects enabling that's noted on the Specs page of this review.)

iMovie 3 Tests

I used the same test I have since iMovie was first released - stacking the 6 tutorial file clips end-to-end (no transitions) and timed how long it took to export the movie using the standard "CDROM" settings. (By using the tutorial with no variables like transitions, it's something everyone can easily test with their own systems.) I used the latest version of iMovie 3 with OS X 10.2.6. (Shorter bars/lower times are faster.)

iMovie3 QT Export Test Results
As you can see from the results, iMovie3 doesn't really take advantage of dual CPUs. (1.33GHz and faster G4 upgrades usually outperform even a MDD Dual 1GHz in this iMovie export test.)

iTunes 4 MP3 Conversion

Time to convert an Audio CD outer track (4 min, 20 second) song to MP3 (192Kbs rate quality setting) in iTunes 4.01 using a Lite-on 40x12x48x Firewire drive (oxford911 bridge case). The outermost song track used to try to minimize the effect of the drive's speed. (Shorter bars/lower times are faster.)

iTunes MP3 convert

MultiTasking Tests:

To test how each CPU performed while multitasking, I ran CineBench 2003's rendering test while playing a song in iTunes 4 from a Firewire CD drive with the visuals running in the background. Higher scores are better.

CineBench2003 is Dual CPU aware, which is why the Dual G4/533 (DP533) scored very well in this test.

PhotoShop 7.0 (OS X) Tests

I used the 50MB image file (advanced) version of the PSBench 21 filter action script. (PSBench was created as a cross-platform test years ago for Photoshop. Not an unknown/unspecified mix of filters as often seen in some reviews/marketing, which could be chosen to include filters that performed better on a specific processor or platform. PSBench is something you can actually download and try yourself.) Each filter is run 3 times, the avg. is displayed in the table below. PhotoShop's timing function is used, not a stopwatch. For all PSbench tests, I used a History setting of 1 (minimum) and unchecked create first snapshot. PhotoShop's "maximum" memory prefs setting was set to 50% of available ram (appx 450MB of ram on this 1GB system).
I've included results from several other upgrades reviewed in the past as well as a MDD dual 1GHz system.
PS 7 comparison
Due to my work backlog, I did not include a table of times for each filter.

The next page covers performance tests with several popular 3d Mac games.

Index of Giga Designs 1.25GHz Review Pages
Intro | Benchmarks | Apps Tests | Game Tests | Installation | Specs/Design

- or -
Back to WWW.XLR8YOURMAC.COM

Copyright © 2003.

No part of this sites content or images are to be reproduced or distributed in any form without written permission.
All brand or product names mentioned here are properties of their respective companies.

Users of the web site must read and are bound by the terms and conditions of use.

The Source for Mac Performance News and Reviews
Review: Giga Designs G4 1.25GHz CPU Upgrade (7455B CPU, 2MB L3 SDR Cache) Published: 10/10/2003
Real World Performance Tests
Intro \| Benchmarks \| Apps Tests \| Game Tests \| Installation \| Specs/Design
Applications Performance Tests
This page lists comparison test results with common Mac applications like iMovie3, iTunes4, Photoshop 7.0 and time to convert a very large (1.92GB) Quicktime movie to MPEG4. It also includes a multitasking test - Cinebench 2003 rendering score with iTunes3 playback from a FW drive Audio CD with visuals running in the background (The system is doing Audio, Video and Firewire simultaneously while rendering the image.) Remember the red and orange bars are the Giga Designs 1.25GHz upgrade review sample, run at 1.33GHz and 1.467GHz respectively. It uses SDR L3 cache vs. DDR L3 for most of the other upgrades compared, which is why in some tests it may score a bit lower than a DDR L3 upgrade at the same speed. Also as mentioned originally in its review earlier this year, the OWC G4 1.33GHz (DDR L3) has a faster cache bus speed (lower ratio) than the Giga Designs upgrades, which helps a little bit in some tests. Neither DDR L3 (vs SDR) or a 5:1 vs 6:1 CPU/L3 bus ratio is really a significant performance factor however (not nearly enough to be noticed in actual use). The lower L3 cache bus speeds have proven to be a plus when overclocking however (i.e. avoiding wake from sleep issues when overclocking the CPU for instance).
Quicktime to MPEG4 Conversion
I used a very large 1.92GB (GigaByte) Quicktime movie and timed how long it took to export (convert) to MPEG4 using the default settings in Quicktime 6 (Pro). (Shorter bars are faster of course.) Notice this QT6 Pro (v6.2) export shows no real benefit from dual CPUs. High end apps like Final Cut Pro do however, although I can't afford them for benchmarking. (Speaking of Final Cut Pro - see the comments from Giga Designs regarding certain jumper settings/speeds and FCP Real-Time Effects enabling that's noted on the Specs page of this review.)
iMovie 3 Tests
I used the same test I have since iMovie was first released - stacking the 6 tutorial file clips end-to-end (no transitions) and timed how long it took to export the movie using the standard "CDROM" settings. (By using the tutorial with no variables like transitions, it's something everyone can easily test with their own systems.) I used the latest version of iMovie 3 with OS X 10.2.6. (Shorter bars/lower times are faster.) As you can see from the results, iMovie3 doesn't really take advantage of dual CPUs. (1.33GHz and faster G4 upgrades usually outperform even a MDD Dual 1GHz in this iMovie export test.)
iTunes 4 MP3 Conversion
Time to convert an Audio CD outer track (4 min, 20 second) song to MP3 (192Kbs rate quality setting) in iTunes 4.01 using a Lite-on 40x12x48x Firewire drive (oxford911 bridge case). The outermost song track used to try to minimize the effect of the drive's speed. (Shorter bars/lower times are faster.)
MultiTasking Tests:
To test how each CPU performed while multitasking, I ran CineBench 2003's rendering test while playing a song in iTunes 4 from a Firewire CD drive with the visuals running in the background. Higher scores are better. CineBench2003 is Dual CPU aware, which is why the Dual G4/533 (DP533) scored very well in this test.
PhotoShop 7.0 (OS X) Tests
I used the 50MB image file (advanced) version of the PSBench 21 filter action script. (PSBench was created as a cross-platform test years ago for Photoshop. Not an unknown/unspecified mix of filters as often seen in some reviews/marketing, which could be chosen to include filters that performed better on a specific processor or platform. PSBench is something you can actually download and try yourself.) Each filter is run 3 times, the avg. is displayed in the table below. PhotoShop's timing function is used, not a stopwatch. For all PSbench tests, I used a History setting of 1 (minimum) and unchecked create first snapshot. PhotoShop's "maximum" memory prefs setting was set to 50% of available ram (appx 450MB of ram on this 1GB system). I've included results from several other upgrades reviewed in the past as well as a MDD dual 1GHz system. Due to my work backlog, I did not include a table of times for each filter.

The next page covers performance tests with several popular 3d Mac games.

Index of Giga Designs 1.25GHz Review Pages Intro \| Benchmarks \| Apps Tests \| Game Tests \| Installation \| Specs/Design - or - Back to WWW.XLR8YOURMAC.COM
Copyright © 2003. No part of this sites content or images are to be reproduced or distributed in any form without written permission. All brand or product names mentioned here are properties of their respective companies. Users of the web site must read and are bound by the terms and conditions of use.