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Performance testing the PowerLogix PowerForce G4 Series 100 1GHz and 800MHz Processor Upgrades & comparison against iMac G4 systems I would like to start off by saying that without a doubt, this has to be one of the most highly anticipated processor upgrades we've ever had here at Other World Computing. Since the PowerLogix Series 100 was announced, I have been waiting for the day that we received them so I could see if I truly wanted to add one to my own Sawtooth G4/400 machine at home. I think that these PowerLogix upgrades most definitely exceeded my expectations in all aspects!! I was seriously going to purchase a brand new Power Macintosh G4 867MHz Dual - but I think I just extended the life of my system by another year at least! With that said, there are a few things you should know about this round of testing. First, the Sawtooth G4 system used in the majority of the tests is a factory stock Power Macintosh G4/350 "Sawtooth". We have a number of these workhorses here at OWC, and they are a very solid machine. The only addition this system has from the way it was received from the factory is that an additional 128MB of RAM was added, bringing it up to 256MB. Other than that, it's still in original condition, with the stock 10GB 5400RPM drive still in it. I believe that with the addition of a fast IDE drive and ATA controller card the Photoshop scores (and perhaps the iTunes scores) would have even been higher. I plan on adding those exact items and retesting in the near future. The other systems tested for comparison are stock iMac G4 systems - literally fresh out of the boxes. No upgrades needed whatsoever, they both were configured with 256MB of RAM from the factory. Second, as with any upgrade, we like giving our customers a number of different options while deciding how they want to go about upgrading their system. In this case, we focus on the processor, and also the fastest (and the only) available AGP Video upgrade card on the market - the ATI Radeon 8500. My own system at home already has been upgraded with this very video card, and I can attest to it's performance, it's a great card in it's own respect, even with the stock processor! Lastly, this system has all Mac OS 9.2.2 and Mac OS X 10.2, all current updates installed as of 8/31/02. Some of the scores were performed (iMac systems) using Mac OS X 10.1.5 but in my testing recently I have discovered that there is little difference in performance so I do feel these are still fair numbers to compare. Onto the performance testing! |