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Performance testing the Sonnet Crescendo/PCI G4/800MHz PCI upgrade with comparisons to the PowerLogix G4/450 and other systems. Since MacWorld New York this July, customers have been eagerly awaiting the fastest G4 processor upgrade ever created for the PCI Macintosh system - the Sonnet Crescendo/PCI G4/800MHz. Rarely have we seen a processor upgrade that offered nearly DOUBLE the clock speed of the nearest competitor - but in this case, it's a definite reality. The Sonnet Crescendo/PCI G4/800 uses cutting edge technology and the most current PowerPC G4 processor, the 7455, to achieve an upgrade that no other company has to offer. When the Sonnet Crescendo/PCI G4/800 was announced, I talked with employees at Sonnet and they were just thrilled with the response they were receiving at their booth during MacWorld. Peruse any bulletin board and go back to before July - I guarantee you will see people that were constantly asking "Why are processor upgrades stuck at 500MHz?" Well, this card shattered that barrier. We can only hope we continue to see further use of the 7450 and 7455 processors to other systems, they are incredible chips! During my testing of this upgrade, I was highly impressed with the feel of Mac OS X 10.2 on it - the system was absolutely responsive and markedly improved over the G4/450, which was very nice to start with! I highly recommend either of these G4 upgrades for anyone and their PCI based Macintosh or Macintosh clone. One other very important factor with this upgrade card is that in addition to it being the very fastest PCI G4 accelerator on the market, it also adds compatibility with systems from Power Computing that were before this, unable to use a G4 processor. The full list of systems that can take advantage of the Sonnet Crescendo/PCI G4/800:
Check out Sonnet's press release on their site for some more information about the Sonnet Crescendo/PCI G4/800.
The Sonnet Crescendo/PCI G4/800 is not an inexpensive upgrade at $395, but it is a very good upgrade if you have a lot already invested in your system. As a counterpoint, you can definitely get a lot of bang for the buck with the second fastest processor upgrades for PCI machines on the market - any of the below listed G4/450 upgrades.
Also, we reviewed a large number of different processor upgrades for PCI based systems a few months ago, check out this review to see what kind of performance you can get out of your old system just from upgrading from the original 604 processor! System Specifications for all tests:
System Software:
Backside Cache Control:
Performance Testing Scores - Click to continue |