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Something has been bugging me.....

Cybergypsy

Cybergypsy

macrumors 68040
Original poster
May 16, 2006
3,094
0
Central Florida!
I had a macbook, one of the very first out, upgraded the ram.....
I Bought a old imac G4 800/512/60.... it uses the original Airport card...

This imac is sooooo much faster then my old macbook,,, and it just gets me to wonder why????

Nothing has changed at all.... Anyone?????
 
Faster at doing what exactly... ?

In general, it should be slower - but it might be quicker doing certain things that haven't been optimized for Intel processors.
 
if you're running powerpc-native applications, i could see the g4 outperforming a macbook using rosetta. if they're universal binary applications, then i'm not sure. bad/loose ram?
 
Just everyday internet things,,,,,mail, iphotos,,,,Its sooo much faster, no problem with Ram on my macbook....Its just has me wondering,,,,
 
There is no way an 800MHz G4 w/512MB will outperform an upgraded MacBook unless something is seriously wrong with the MB (severely limited disk space, perhaps?, or background process running?).

You didn't install a skinning hack on the MB, did you?
 
jsw said:
There is no way an 800MHz G4 w/512MB will outperform an upgraded MacBook unless something is seriously wrong with the MB (severely limited disk space, perhaps?, or background process running?).

You didn't install a skinning hack on the MB, did you?
Click to expand...


yea I thought that too......the Macbook had 38G of space available ....I did not believe it either.... But it does....and I am using the original Airport card....go figure???
 
There you go then.

Older mac's perform MUCH faster with lower resolutions, try running it on an external monitor at 1280x1024 or something and you'll see it DIE!
 
Sam0r said:
There you go then.

Older mac's perform MUCH faster with lower resolutions, try running it on an external monitor at 1280x1024 or something and you'll see it DIE!
Click to expand...

Monitor resolution shouldn't make a difference at all. Actually, the speed difference isn't even noticeable on my mini, and I switch between 800x600 and 1280x1024.
 
I guess I'll say it since no one else is going to.

Open your Applications folder and there should another folder within it named "Utilities". In that folder is an app called Activity Monitor. Use this program to determine if there is an app running which is using extraordarily high amounts of CPU power or RAM.


@ Sam0r:

Resolution makes little or no difference at all in this scenario. Even if it did, the difference should not be so significant that an iMac G4 with 512MB of RAM is noticably quicker than any MacBook. Something is wrong, period.
 
someguy said:
Resolution makes little or no difference at all in this scenario. Even if it did, the difference should not be so significant that an iMac G4 with 512MB of RAM is noticably quicker than any MacBook. Something is wrong, period.
Click to expand...

Exactly, if the macbook was running universal binaries (which it sounds like) then it should greatly outperform the 800Mhz G4.
 
I agree completely that the macbook should be whipping the iMac's arse, and that something is obviosly going on with the macbook.

But I'm confident that display resolution does affect speed, especially on older ppc macs. Although I don't expect anyone to believe me, its just something I've noticed from personal experience.
 
The macbook was fine like that from day one,,really dont think anything was wrong with it but when i bought the imac and started it up.....Dang what a big difference.

It was bugging me since i bought the imac....and always wanted to post....but knew how Dumb it would sound.....but its True,,,,,
 
Cybergypsy said:
The macbook was fine like that from day one,,really dont think anything was wrong with it but when i bought the imac and started it up.....Dang what a big difference.

It was bugging me since i bought the imac....and always wanted to post....but knew how Dumb it would sound.....but its True,,,,,
Click to expand...

At any CPU based task the Macbook will win out, even running programs under Rosetta.

But the iMac has a "proper" desktop hard-drive ,rather than a laptop drive, which will make disk-bound tasks faster.
 
Carniphage said:
But the iMac has a "proper" desktop hard-drive ,rather than a laptop drive, which will make disk-bound tasks faster.
Click to expand...
:confused:

I doubt the iMac G4 has a faster HD than the MacBook. Either way, this isn't going to cause the difference the OP is seeing.

You need to look at what is running on your MacBook. No need to stretch the imagination to come up with excuses to justify this difference in performance. There is something going on with the MacBook.

Have you looked in Activity Monitor at all? I mean, that's step one here...
 
someguy said:
:confused:

I doubt the iMac G4 has a faster HD than the MacBook. Either way, this isn't going to cause the difference the OP is seeing.

You need to look at what is running on your MacBook. No need to stretch the imagination to come up with excuses to justify this difference in performance. There is something going on with the MacBook.

Have you looked in Activity Monitor at all? I mean, that's step one here...
Click to expand...

My Macbook was sold, it was a average book, my best friend brought hers over and the speed was the same.....I am not complaining just its in the back of my mind,,,and it bugs me....
 
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