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My PowerMac G4 2001 running at 667 Mhz has arrived.
It's the stock configuration and came with PC133 CAS 2 memory and a 60
GB IBM DeskStar 7200 RPM, 2 MB cache EIDE disk drive. I added an
additional 256 MB DIMM of PC 133 CAS 2 memory. Memory speeds agree with
the ASP output.
The out of box experience was flawless. It came up and ran. Initial
impressions were that it is *MUCH* faster than my PowerMac G4 running at
450 Mhz with 512 MB of PC 100 CAS 2 memory.
I really wish they left the microphone input on the machine. Guess I
have to get one of those "newfangled" USB devices or a AppleTalk
microphone to USB converter.
I haven't had too much run time on it yet since I had to get all my
"stuff" over to it (12+ GB worth) but I did get to do a few comparisons.
I ran the Altivec Fractal program and got 1556.5 [MegaFlops] on my G4 450 and
2505.7 [MegaFlops] on the G4 667. That's much better than you would expect
from
the nieve clock rate differences.
I reran the Altivec Fractal program with Altivec disabled and got 396.4
[MegaFlops] on my G4 450 and 441.4 [MegaFlops] on my G4 667. This isn't what I
would hopeful at all. I have to think about this...
Next, I ran a visualization application that allows walking through 3D
figures. My G4 450 came up with 140 FPS whereas the G4 667 came up with
308 FPS. That's a very impressive improvement.
Finally, I ran my memory system analysis program. The asymptotic memory
throughput for the PowerMac 450 is 207 read, 431 write and 111 copy
(units are MB/sec). The asymptotic memory throughput of the G4 667 is
261 read, 548 write and 126 copy.
The support for write posting is obvious in both machines and the PC 133
vs. PC 100 throughput difference is also present. Interesting, a G3 B&W
doesn't show the read vs. write differnce, indicating no support for
write posting.
I'll try to run some more stuff but I need some pointers for game
procedures. I don't have Quake 3. Whatever happened to that program by
the company that did Nightfall that could be used as a graphical
benchmark? Know where the program is?
I did eventually run into one difficulty that spoiled the overall
experience. I burned a CD/R and all went well. I then tried a CD/RW and
this failed with a -7932 error. After several attempts I called Apple
and was pointed to article 58785 which clearly
documents that the CD/RW drive cannot handle 10X CD/RW media. However,
this article claims the CD/RW media must be in the 1-4X range and the
technical
specifications pointed from the article simply document 10X as not
working. I'm
going to get a 4X and 8X and see what's going on.
I haven't seen much on this issue yet so I thought it would be nice to
report it and get the news distributed more widely to prevent
fustration.
mark
If you read the comments on the label of most high-speed CDRW discs (>4x) they clearly state that the discs are only compatible in high-speed CDRW drives. This is no fault of the CDRW drive in the new G4s. CDRW drives with R/W speeds over 4x use a different media, and the higher speed CDRW discs have never been compatible with any 4x or lower speed CDRW drive.-Mike
