Everything I've seen with respect to Centrino performance has been pretty good, but I think it is a stretch to say that a 2.5GHz G4 is need to compete agaist current gen Centrino/Pentium M machines.
Generally though I'm more concerned about being competitive in the laptop arena. That is good value for the money. If the performance equation becomes to large then eventually a Centrino running Linux becomes a reasonable alternative to a PowerBook.
Thanks
Dave
Quote:
Originally posted by Existence
Apple needs at least a 2.5GHz G4 to compete. Centrino is much faster than the G4 clock-for-clock and some say even faster than the G5 on a clock-normalized basis. Dothan, Centrino's sucessor will come this summer and have more L2 cache (2MB) and faster clockspeeds (2GHz+). The PowerBooks right now are simply pathetic.
The G4's primary disadvantage is processor bus bandwidth and poor compilers. Even so, the G4 should be as good as the Centrino clock-for-clock. The Centrino is mostly a P6 microarchitecture (PPro, PII, PIII) with better processor bus bandwidth, better branch prediction, and excellent power usage features. Based on architecture alone, the G4 and PM should be able the same clock-for-clock.
Of course we all know what the problems are, G4s above 1.5 GHz won't be available for awhile, while PMs are available at 1.7 GHz now.
I like the form factor. But yes, in terms of performance, either Apple has to get the G4 processor bus fixed or use a G5 to play in the benchmark wars.
yes the bus is the weakest point of the G4.
We should notice also that the centrino is deeper pipelined thant the P3 and support SSE2.
Comments
Generally though I'm more concerned about being competitive in the laptop arena. That is good value for the money. If the performance equation becomes to large then eventually a Centrino running Linux becomes a reasonable alternative to a PowerBook.
Thanks
Dave
Originally posted by Existence
Apple needs at least a 2.5GHz G4 to compete. Centrino is much faster than the G4 clock-for-clock and some say even faster than the G5 on a clock-normalized basis. Dothan, Centrino's sucessor will come this summer and have more L2 cache (2MB) and faster clockspeeds (2GHz+). The PowerBooks right now are simply pathetic.
we see it all the time where i work, as well as at college. people's only reactions are that, 'well looks like i need a faster computer.'
idiots 2x, you bought a virus-prone OS, and you don't know how to control it, nor do you want to know.
-walloo.
hmm...is there more ways they could be idiots?
Originally posted by THT
Centrino microarchitecture
Motorola 745x microarchitecture
The G4's primary disadvantage is processor bus bandwidth and poor compilers. Even so, the G4 should be as good as the Centrino clock-for-clock. The Centrino is mostly a P6 microarchitecture (PPro, PII, PIII) with better processor bus bandwidth, better branch prediction, and excellent power usage features. Based on architecture alone, the G4 and PM should be able the same clock-for-clock.
Of course we all know what the problems are, G4s above 1.5 GHz won't be available for awhile, while PMs are available at 1.7 GHz now.
I like the form factor.
yes the bus is the weakest point of the G4.
We should notice also that the centrino is deeper pipelined thant the P3 and support SSE2.