Updates:

• 12/4/97 - Due to the size of the main review page (a lot of content!) I've separated out the Applications test results to a form this page.

A note about "real world" testing:
There is always the issue of repeatability in application test runs between products. Even using the same machine and cpu card, run to run variations as much as a few % of the score are common. Compound that variable with how repeatable you are at starting and stopping the stopwatch, along with the thermal issues of extended runs on the hard disk performance (drives do thermal calibration, esp. an issue in non-AV drives) as well.

After Effects, Bryce2 and Infini-D 4.0 do their own recording of render times, so no human error is present there. However in most of the tests human error is a consideration, especially when test results are less than one second apart. I go to great lengths to ensure consistent timing, but I'm only human.

All these factors can add variation to the run times. I personally do as much as possible to ensure consistent test results such as:

• Rebooting between each test/application
• Performing the identical series of steps for each test.
• Running the tests in the same order for each product.
• Use standard image files for timings (samples usually) when possible.
• Machine under test is not used for any recording of data
  (only the application under test is running)

One definate skew is that the MaxPowr Pro tests were run after the Photoshop disk was optimized (to determine if fragmentation was the reason for a low test score when installed in the PowerCenter machine) and the desktop files were rebuilt on all drives. As a result, I'll have to redo the tests with the PowerForce card to ensure equivalent scores are there for comparison.

Even though I had previously been running the fastest 604E CPU card available (at 263mhz), I immediately noticed an increase in perceived speed with the PowerForce card. Finder operations were very "snappy", and even opening the 4X cdrom icon was nearly instantaneous. I attribute this to the 1meg backside cache and its high speed mode of operation. Scrolling and program launching times also seemed improved. Find File searches across 4 disk volumes were so fast that at first I thought I was searching a single disk. In fact it seems the PowerForce card searched 4 volumes faster that the 604E cards did searching a single disk. I suspect database sorting and searching would be several times faster with the PowerForce card. I've just bought FileMaker Pro 4.0 for database testing - stay tuned for the results.

This section will be expanded to show as many comparisons as possible (Bryce2, Photoshop 4, Extreme 3D, etc.) in the future. I'll try to isolate which applications benefit most from the 750 processor. It's obvious from my initial first night (all night!) testing that Infini-D 4.0 really likes the card - it was 85% faster at a long animation rendering than even the 263mhz 604E card! However on Floating Point bound applications, the PPC750 seems only about 10-15% faster than a similar speed 604E. Keep in mind the PowerLogix Pro 233 scores were taken running at 263mhz, with a 1 meg L2 cache installed - not your Average Mac 604E to be sure.

To provide some concrete application test results, I used After Effects 3.1, Infini-D 4.0, and Quake to perform typical real world tasks to compare the speed of the PowerForce G3 card with the best of the 604E cards, the PowerLogix Pro 233 card (set to 52.67mhz bus/263.35mhz cpu speed). I've updated the page to show the results of the stock Apple 8500/120 cpu card as well (w/1 meg L2 cache), but I didn't have the patience to run the Infini-D 4.0 rendering test with the 120mhz cpu, as I expected it to take over two hours.

The After Effects rendering test involved a short movie with a explosion/fire filter effect. The Infini-D 4.0 test was to render a 150 frame animation, with ray tracing, shadows and medium anti-aliasing - using the Chapter 7 Tutorial file. This first series of tests was done with the PowerLogix 1meg RapidCache still installed on the motherboard (same cache used with both PL Pro 233 & 8500/120). Cache ratio was set to 1.0 (1:1), 603E emulation was off in the PowerForce control panel. The latest PowerForce scores were run at 292mhz, no motherboard cache (no L3), and 603E compat. on in the control panel, cache ratio still set to 1.0 (1:1). The results are shown below:

Launch After Effects test:

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3 = 7.31
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/no L3 = 7.01
• PowerForce G3 285mhz w/1meg L3 = 7.53
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = 7.44 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 7.75 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 7.87 (70ns memory setting)
• PowerLogix Pro 233 (604E@263mhz) = 9.66
• ( 37% improvement over 263mhz 604E)
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 11.06

After Effects Rendering test:

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3 = 4:51 (64megs ram)
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/no L3 = 4:49
• PowerForce 285mhz w/1meg L3 = 4:58
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = 5:14 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 5:37 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 5:38 (70ns memory setting)
• PowerLogix Pro 233 (604E@263mhz) = 5:34
• ( 16% improvement over 263mhz 604E ) (FPU bound)
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 12:18

Infini-D 4.0 Rendering test:

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3= 42:25 (64megs ram)
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/no L3 = 43:18
• PowerForce G3 285mhz w/1meg L3 = 45:18
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = 47:10 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 53:17 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 53:47 (70ns memory setting)
• PowerLogix Pro 233 (604E@263mhz) = 1:20:26
• ( 85% improvement over 604E@263mhz)
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = (I don't have the patience...)

RAVE Quake (RagePro) test:
(QD3D/Rave Quake is FPU dependent)

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3= N/A (no Rave Card installed)
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/no L3 = TBA
• PowerForce G3 285mhz w/1meg L3 = 26.3fps
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = TBA (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = TBA (70ns memory setting)
• PowerLogix Pro 233 (604E@220mhz) = 23.4fps
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 17.4 fps

3Dfx Quake (Power3D) test:

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3= N/A (No 3Dfx Card installed)
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/no L3 = TBA
• PowerForce G3 285mhz w/1meg L3 = 24.1fps
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = TBA (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = TBA (70ns memory setting)
• PowerLogix Pro 200 (604E@200mhz) = 23.8fps
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 21.8 fps

(As I've shown on the Power3D page, the 3Dfx Voodoo chipset used by the Power3d has relatively flat performance regardless of CPU speed, unlike most other graphics cards). I may test the Power3D and RagePro cards in the PowerCenter w/Powerforce if readers request it.

Update: 10/26/97

Bryce2 Rendering Tests

Test scenes are from the Sample Scenes folder, Kai subfolder (I used these std scenes to allow other Bryce2 owners to compare their results with mine). Default 16980k memory allocated to Bryce2.

Manipulating objects in Bryce2 was noticeably faster with the PowerForce card, and rendering scenes was consistently about 25% faster than the 263mhz 604E. (Surprising, as Bryce2 is supposedly FPU intensive, but obviously the backside cache works well here.)

Time to render the "Magical Night I" scene

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3 = 3:45
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/no L3 = 3:46
• PowerForce G3 285mhz w/1meg L3 = 3:52
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = 4:06 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 4:28 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 4:27 (70ns memory setting)
• PowerLogix Pro 233 (604E@263mhz) = 4:46
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 11:36

Time to render the "Alexandria II" scene

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3 = 5:12
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/no L3 = 5:10
• PowerForce G3 285mhz w/1meg L3 = 5:19
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = 5:39 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 6:08 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 6:08 (70ns memory setting)
• PowerLogix Pro 233 (604E@263mhz) = 6:33
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 15:32

Photoshop 4.0 Tests

** NOTE: MaxPowr Pro tests run after the PhotoShop Swap Disk was defragmented, therefore PowerForce tests will be repeated soon - Photoshop pages to the swap disk on most tests with larger images so this could have affected the test times **

Time to launch Photoshop 4.0
(50 megs ram allocated to Photoshop)

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3= 7.52 (64 megs ram)
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/no L3 = 6.37
• PowerForce G3 285mhz w/1meg L3 = 7.35
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = 7.90 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 8.31 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 8.38 (70ns memory setting)
• PowerLogix Pro 233 w/1meg L2 (604E@263mhz) = 7.85
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 13.04

Time to load/display 16.1MB (file size) image

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3 = 12.36 (64 megs ram)
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/no L3 = 9.51
• PowerForce G3 285mhz w/1meg L3 = 11.18
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = 9.90 (60ns memory setting)**
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 10.00 (60ns memory setting)**
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 10.41 (70ns memory setting)**
• PowerLogix Pro 233 (604E@263mhz) = 11.50
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 14.82

** tests run after desktop rebuilt.

Rotate 32MB image 45 degrees
(50meg PS memory allocated)

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3 = 53.71 (64 megs ram)
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/no L3 = 46.47 (retested 11/1/97)***
• PowerForce G3 285mhz w/1meg L3 = 49.57
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = 46.88 (60ns memory setting)***
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 48.22 (60ns memory setting)***
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 49.38 (70ns memory setting)***
• PowerLogix Pro 233 (604E@263mhz) = 57.31
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 1:30:00

*** tests used optimized swap file disk.

Rotate 32MB image 45 degrees (PS allocated 80MB ram)
To test if more Ram added to PS would increase the performance of the 60ns Pro Timing setting. PS still hits the disk swap file during this test, but the 60ns memory timing did show consistently better performance with the larger memory allocation.

• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 37.65 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 41.32 (70ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = 37.75 (60ns memory setting)
• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3 = TBA (64 megs ram)
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/no L3 = 36.49
• PowerForce G3 285mhz w/1meg L3 = TBA
• PowerLogix Pro 233 (604E@263mhz) = TBA
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = TBA

Above is new test 11/1/97. TBA = not tested yet

Resample (up 4X) 2MB image

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3 = 7.57 (64 megs ram)
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/no L3 = 6.57
• PowerForce G3 285mhz w/1meg L3 = 7.16
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = 7.20 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 8.03 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 7.89 (70ns memory setting)
• PowerLogix Pro 233 (604E@263mhz) = 10.34
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 15.06

Gaussian Blur 8MB image

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3 = 1.66 (repeatable!)
  (This score makes we want to verify the PowerForce/8500 scores again)
• PowerForce G3 292mhz w/no L3 = 1.71 (retested 11/1/97)
• PowerForce G3 285mhz w/1meg L3 = TBA (needs retest...)
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = 3.41 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 3.75 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 4.13 (70ns memory setting)
• PowerLogix Pro 233 (604E@263mhz) = 4.04
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 6.13

Premiere 4.2 Make Movie Tests:

Make movie test - Sample Proj. Quicktime 320x240

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3 = 44.35 (64 megs ram)
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/noL3 = 44.72
• PowerForce G3 285mhz = 44.75
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = 45.47 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 51.60 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 52.84 (70ns memory setting)
• PowerLogix Pro 233 (604E@263mhz) = 57.90
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 1:45:00

Norton Disk Doctor Tests:

Examine (less bad block test) 1 gig partition, 80% full

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3 = 1:24
• PowerForce G3 285mhz w/1meg L3= 1:23
• PowerLogix Pro 233 (604E@263mhz) = 1:32
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = TBA (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = TBA (70ns memory setting)
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 2:01

Note: Norton's SI test on the PowerForce shows "unknown CPU at 352mhz".

Update: 10/27/97 - Virtual PC 1.0 Test Results:

The following are the results of running Windows Magazine's "Wintune 97" benchmark with the PowerForce G3 250 (running 292 mhz, with no motherboard cache), PowerLogix Pro 233 (running 263mhz w/1meg cache) and the stock 8500/120mhz cpu (w/1meg cache). 62 megs of memory were allocated to VPC, and video mode was set to 640x480, 256 colors, not running full screen. (I found out later I broke a rule of best video performance by not running full screen, and there was a open Mac window underneath the VPC "screen".) For comparison, the once king of the P90 systems (1994) - the Zeos Pantera - is shown for reference.

Wintune Test	PowerForce 250 @292mhz (no MB cache)	PL Pro 233 @263mhz w/1meg L2	8500/120 w/1meg L2	Zeos P90
Clock Rate reported:	387 mhz	263 mhz	120mhz	90mhz
Dhrystone:	168 mips	170 mips	71 mips	165 mips
Whetstone:	56 MFLOPS	47 MFLOPS	20 MFLOPS	52 MFLOPS
Video Speed:	7.4 MP/Sec	4.3 MP/sec	2.5 MP/sec	16 MP/sec**
Cached Disk:	6.5 MB/Sec	2.7 MB/sec	1.2 MB/sec	11 MB/sec
UnCached Disk:	1.6 MB/Sec	1 MB/sec	0.61 MB/sec	2.9 MB/sec
RAM Read Avg:	263 MB/Sec	243 MB/sec	106 MB/sec	155 MB/sec
RAM Write Avg:	108 MB/Sec	108 MB/sec	53 MB/sec	32 MB/sec
RAM Copy Avg:	224 MB/Sec	108 MB/sec	73 MB/sec	28 MB/sec
** = denotes Zeos Pantera P90 was running 16-bit color mode.

PowerCenter 132/PowerForce Results:
(64megs ram/1 meg Vram/Mac set to 800x600, thousands colors,
VPC 1.0 run in full screen mode.)

• Load - 29.63 sec
• Reported Clock Rate: 394 Mhz
• Dhystone: 170 Mips
• Whetstone: 57 MFLOPS *
• Video Speed: 7 MP/sec
• Cached Disk: 6.2 MB/sec
• UnCached Disk: 0.98 MB/sec
• RAM Read Avg: 273 MB/sec *
• RAM Write Avg: 109 MB/sec *
• RAM Copy Avg: 216 MB/sec

MaxPowr PRO+ (45/266/266/60ns) VPC results:
Using 1.2b2 control panel - set to 1:1 cache, 60ns memory timing. (Full Screen mode)

• Load - 27.75 sec
• Reported Clock Rate: 359 Mhz
• Dhystone: 155 Mips
• Whetstone: 51 MFLOPS
• Video Speed: 6.2 MP/sec
• Cached Disk: 6.4 MB/sec
• UnCached Disk: 1.6 MB/sec
• RAM Read Avg: 255 MB/sec
• RAM Write Avg: 103 MB/sec
• RAM Copy Avg: 209 MB/sec

* = indicates highest score of all systems tested

PowerCenter test note: VPC was allocated 62 megs of ram on the 8500, which has 128 megs of ram installed. Since the PowerCenter only has 64megs installed, VPC cannot use the prev. 62 meg allocation used in the 8500 tests (Wintune reported 43 megs installed ram). This may have affected the results to some degree.

Note: Wintune warns that the CPU L1 cache is turned off w/Powerforce card, but not with the other CPU cards. (Further investigation leads me to believe this is due to the delta between the Read and Write times, which WinTune attributes to a disabled L1 cache. WinTune could be correct, or just pinpointing a VPC emulation issue). The disk was not defragmented, and Wintune suggested this. Full Screen mode resulted in 7.5 MP/Sec performance from the PowerForce card, btw.

VPC Results Summary: In general the PowerForce was a clear winner, with appx. a 70% better video score, 240% better cached disk score, 60% better un-cached disk score, and more than twice the Ram copy performance of the 263mhz 604E, and surpassing the real P90 in many tests. Odd that the Dhrystone score is slightly lower for the PPC750 than the 604E, which is the opposite of what I expected. Slight differences (+-3% or so) in some tests can be attributed to run-to-run variations, which I've seen before. I'm eager to report these results to Connectix.

With the PowerForce, performance in actual use seemed much faster than my P90 laptop for many operations, other times it seemed very slow (but since most of my Win95 work is done on a Pent.Pro 233, I'm probably not the best judge of this). I have not applied the update patch from Connectix due to the problems I've read regarding the patch. Note that overall Ram performance was far superior to the P90 systems - from 3X to 10X faster with the PowerForce. Not bad for a totally software based emulation.

---

Freehand 7.0 Tests:

AfterBurner compress "Associated Press.." document

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3 = 4.16 sec (64 megs ram)
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/no L3 = 3.05 sec
• PowerForce 250 @285mhz w/1meg L3 = 3.07 sec
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 4.12 (60ns memory setting)**
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 3.82 (70ns memory setting)**
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = 3.22 (60ns memory setting)
• PL Pro 233 604E @263mhz w/1meg L2 = 4.88 sec
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 7.74 sec
• (PowerForce 59% faster than 263mhz 604E)

** Test run 3 times (machine rebooted each time), but
each time the 70ns speed delivered the better performance

AfterBurner Compress "Hispanic.." document

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3 = 11.25 (64 megs ram)
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/no L3 = 9.75 sec
• PowerForce 250 @285mhz w/1meg L3 = 10.07 sec
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = 10.88 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 11.72 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 11.72 (70ns memory setting)
• PL Pro 233 604E @263mhz w/1meg L2 = 14.73 sec
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 26.68 sec
• (PowerForce 51% faster than 263mhz 604E)

Load & Display "Hispanic.." document

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3 = 6.20 sec (64 megs ram)
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/noL3 = 6.60 sec
• PowerForce 250 @285mhz w/1meg L3 = 6.97 sec
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = 6.90 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 7.56 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 8.19 (70ns memory setting)
• PL Pro 233 604E @263mhz w/1meg L2 = 9.81 sec
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 20.20 sec
• (PowerForce 48% faster than 263mhz 604E)

Launch Freehand 7.0 (96K disk cache setting)

• PwrCenter w/PF G3 65/292mhz no L3 = 13.96 sec (64 megs ram)
• PowerForce G3 292mhz/no L3 = 12.88 sec
• PowerForce 250 @285mhz w/1meg L3 = 15.37 sec
• MaxPowr Pro+ 45/266/266 w/no L3 = 15.44 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 15.93 (60ns memory setting)
• MaxPowr Pro 45/250/166 w/no L3 = 15.91 (70ns memory setting)
• PL Pro 233 604E @263mhz w/1meg L2 = 17.23 sec
• Stock 8500/120 w/1meg L2 = 20.35
• (PowerForce 33% faster than 263mhz 604E)

Note: Disk cache was 96K during this test, as I forgot to reset it to my normal 512k size after resetting the Cuda chip during previous CPU card swaps. So I tested all cards with 96k disk cache on this test.

Application Observations: In general, most 3D applications make heavy use of Floating Point instructions, which don't show a large increase in performance with the PPC750 (vs. a similar speed 604E), since it's optimized for integer operations. Databases and most other business applications primarily use integer math, which would show a much larger advantage in performance with the PPC 750 chip.

Even during my limited tests in Freehand 7, I was amazed at the responsiveness of the PowerForce card. Running the 8500 built-in video, zooms and redraws are instantaneous with sample 500k (disk file size) vector based images. It's application performance like this that makes me believe the MacBench CPU scores are indicative of actual performance. Going back to the 120mhz cpu card is literally an exercise in patience after using the PowerForce card. How quickly we get spoiled by speed.

I hope to do some database testing soon, in addition to testing with a Power Computing machine that can run 60+ mhz bus speeds (yes, I know that some "experts" say bus speed doesn't matter with the backside cache, but I want to prove it). Unfortunately 48mhz bus speed was the best I could run with this 8500 and no cache. The Power machines can run much faster PowerLogix says, and I intend to find out for myself - and you'll read about it here. Watch the main page for update notices, which should be on a near daily basis.

At $1899 (street), this is not the card for everyone. I still feel the PowerLogix Pro 233 is the best bang for the buck out there now, but for those of us that feel the constant need for speed, or spend a lot of time with CPU intensive applications - I highly recommend this card.

Compared to the Newer Tech Pro+ card (the only competition at this level), the PowerForce G3 250 is a superior performer at a slightly lower price. The additional speed settings that can be used show that the design has substantial performance "headroom" beyond the rated CPU speed - a welcome bonus.

PowerLogix deserves an award for technical excellence for such an outstanding design in their first 750 card. It seems they've won the triple crown this year - best cache, best 604E card and now best 750 card. No small feat from one company in less than six months.