Speed Difference?

[tedrjr03]

hello i was wondering if there is that big of a speed difference between a powermac g3 400mhz and a g4 400mhz?

 

[rdowns]

Depends on what you will be doing. For basic tasks like surfing, email and word processing, the difference is negligible. For more intensive thinks like mp3 encoding, image manipulation, the G4 will be considerable faster. While both are quite old, go for the G4 if these are your only choices.

 

[apfhex]

Anything that's Altivec optimized will give you noticeably better performance but probably nothing dramatic.

 

[Lollypop]

I believe some of the iLife apps wont work on a G3, so G4 would be the better bet.

 

[illegalprelude]

I think besides speed differences, you will have much better compatibility with the G4 vs going with a G3

 

[Scarlet Fever]

I think besides speed differences, you will have much better compatibility with the G4 vs going with a G3

i thought the G4 and G3 chips were pretty much the same chip, only one had Altivec and the other didn't...
I can understand how power consumption and heat given would vary, but would a program not run on a 900MHz G3 and run on an 800MHz G4?

 

[robbieduncan]

i thought the G4 and G3 chips were pretty much the same chip, only one had Altivec and the other didn't...
I can understand how power consumption and heat given would vary, but would a program not run on a 900MHz G3 and run on an 800MHz G4?

If it requires AltiVec then yes, this is possible. A lot of Apple software is very heavily AltiVec optimised so a G4 is recommended over a G3, even a marginally slower (clockspeed) one.

 

[dmw007]

hello i was wondering if there is that big of a speed difference between a powermac g3 400mhz and a g4 400mhz?

A 400MHz Power Mac G4 will be faster then a 400MHz Power Mac G3, but how fast depends on what you are doing with it.