CPU-upgrades: the 500Mhz Wall

[quote]Originally posted by fox congo:
<strong>I don`t know why there are no 3rd party upgrades faster than 500 Mhz. From what I`be read it`s due to the G4 hardware itself - be it a glitch or on purpose.

I hope that it`s a glitch and NOT on purpose because the lack of the option to later upgrade your Mac is a big con against buying an Apple in the first place.
Apart from that it`s simply an annoyance.</strong><hr></blockquote>
you are right fox congo, CPU upgrade in the Mac's world are a shame paying 700 bucks for an upgrade for a G4 500 is a pity comparing to the prize of an athlon XP 1800 + (300 $)

I have doubts it's caused by a glitch. If I had to guess it would be one thing: greed. the upgrade companies are greedy, even the ones that merely mimic Apple's card design. the cost of a 500MHz G4 is at the $100 range or lower.... the markup is ridiculous. They make so much money off the 7450 just by recycling old designs. Let me ask you one thing; If the upgrade companies couldn't produce cards with the 7450 or 7440, then how could Apple? What's the hurdle? How can Apple prevent the sale of 74X0 G4's to other companies? Wouldn't an executive of another company said something about it? If so Apple would be putting many companies out of business on purpose. in the US there are laws against it. Another reasonable explanation is simple. Maybe Apple and a select other companies are buying up all available CPUs and there isn't enough to be sold to upgraders. But I don't buy that.

What machine are you upgrading? Even for an early 350, the 500 Mhz just isn't worth it, not even at $100. 800-867 is the minimum I'd wait for. They'll probably come, just be patient.

How many G4 powermacs are out there? Is it in the millions? If there are two or three million G4 PowerMacs out there, someone will eventually make an upgrade. Supposedly, Apollo will clock in the 1-1.2 Ghz range, and scale on up to near 2Ghz. I'd at least wait for a 1Ghz card anyway.

The upgrade companies have probably just decided that they won't be able to sell a whole lot of upgrades when the Mhz difference is so little. I seem to recall a few different upgrade cards came out after the intro of the original powermacs and duals. However, at the time the jump for most people would have been from a G3 machne to a G4. A G4 to a G4? You'll have to wait untill the speed difference is greater.

There is one manufacturer who makes a dual 500Mhz chip for AGP G4's. But that is the fastest I've seen. I believe its Sonnet. Just a few weeks ago it went for $1000 but now its selling for $699.

500 is an evil number...much worse than 666

[quote]Originally posted by powerdoc:
<strong>
you are right fox congo, CPU upgrade in the Mac's world are a shame paying 700 bucks for an upgrade for a G4 500 is a pity comparing to the prize of an athlon XP 1800 + (300 $)</strong><hr></blockquote>

500 MHZ G4 upgrade cards can be bought for less than $400 nowadays..

[quote]Originally posted by ThinkingDifferent:
<strong>

500 MHZ G4 upgrade cards can be bought for less than $400 nowadays..</strong><hr></blockquote>
unfortunetaly, in france not, anyway it's still too expansive for a chip costing less than 100 $.

For those of us with early-model AGP G4's, we can't even install an upgrade it would seem. Witness Sonnet's Duet card (Dual 500Mhz G4), which because of some type of incompatibility with the early-rev Uni-North chipset thingy, won't work on said models.

The rep from Sonnet said they are working on designing new upgrade products for these machines (using 667 MHz chips if I had to guess, because they *are* greedy), but gave no indication as to when they'd be available. My hunch is that they're still on the drawing board. We won't get 800+ MHz G4 upgrades until the G5 rolls out probably.

I sure wouldn't mind popping a Dual 733 or something similar into my processor slot (which I guess was designed to allow for simple processor upgrades without having to use PCI and the like).

It probably has something to do with Motorola's main fab being housed in a moonshine shack somewhere in Alabama.

Also, a G4 upgrade for the G3 PBs might be nice. Then again, it would probably cost $3000.

I understand you fox...

But the major problem is the cost. It's just not worth spending 2/3 the cost of a new tower for an upgrade.

Maybe I am using my case too much but why not use it again
Back to August/September I used to have a single processor 450Mhz G4, which was 16 months old at that time. I sold it for $1700 CDN and got a 6 months old Dual 500 G4 for $2300 CDN. I swapped all RAM, video card, hard disk to the 'new' one. In other words I only paid $600CDN for a whole tower. On the other hand, the Dual 500 G4 upgrade from Sonnet at that time was still sold at $1400 CDN!!!!

If the cost of the upgrade (either dual or single high clock) is around the $300US range that would be okay....but now look at those upgrades....still stuck at 500 and the price is still so insanely high. It will be dumb to pay for this kind of underpower/overpriced item.

[quote]Originally posted by Moogs :
<strong>For those of us with early-model AGP G4's, we can't even install an upgrade it would seem. Witness Sonnet's Duet card (Dual 500Mhz G4), which because of some type of incompatibility with the early-rev Uni-North chipset thingy, won't work on said models.

The rep from Sonnet said they are working on designing new upgrade products for these machines (using 667 MHz chips if I had to guess, because they *are* greedy), but gave no indication as to when they'd be available. My hunch is that they're still on the drawing board. We won't get 800+ MHz G4 upgrades until the G5 rolls out probably.

I sure wouldn't mind popping a Dual 733 or something similar into my processor slot (which I guess was designed to allow for simple processor upgrades without having to use PCI and the like).</strong><hr></blockquote>

I have one of those early AGP Macs, and it's annoying that I can't get the Sonnet upgrade. However, there's no way I would have paid $1000 for it, as it cost when first introduced. I can't really see them selling a lot of these. The only Macs they're good for are the second generation AGPs. Of those models, there were 400 and 450 single processor models. Can someone really justify paying $1000 (or even $699) to jump from 400 to 500 dual? Might as well get a new Mac.

I hope the Sonnets of this world get their act together soon, and release a significant upgrade. Unfortunately, I think we'll be waiting a while before that happens.

~e

[quote]Originally posted by Scheisskopf:
<strong>Can someone really justify paying $1000 (or even $699) to jump from 400 to 500 dual? Might as well get a new Mac.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Again...look at my case <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />

I have an AGP G4/400 and I'll be atleast waitihng for a One Ghz upgrade card when it slips under $250. Yes, I know this will be a very long time.

Sorry but when 1GHz upgrades come out for less than $250 we'll all be flying around in jet powered cars and talking to robots and stuff.

Mac upgradabilty is just pathetic. The upgrade cards are lower clocked than what PC users would be upgrading in the first place!

Great, I can get my 400MHz G4 and Rage 128 up to a 500MHz G4 and Radeon 32MB.

You do realize this thread is TEN years old don't you?

It is a common tactic of spammers to revive dead threads with useless posts.