How does a Dual 500 G4 compare with a single 867 G4?

tspencer83tspencer83
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Hi, I'm just curious as to the real benefits of a dual processor machine. I'm not too well versed in computer architecture and whatnot so what would really impress upon me is if a Dual 500 G4 matched or surpassed a single 867 G4 in overall speed and performance. Is this so? Also, the type of computing I'm referring to is just general computing, not necessarily only Photoshop or Excel spreadsheets or Gaming, but just normal everyday home and school use. Anyway, if anyone has an answer, I'd much appreciate it. Thanks

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    x704x704 Posts: 276member
    [quote]Originally posted by tspencer83:

    <strong>Hi, I'm just curious as to the real benefits of a dual processor machine. I'm not too well versed in computer architecture and whatnot so what would really impress upon me is if a Dual 500 G4 matched or surpassed a single 867 G4 in overall speed and performance. Is this so? Also, the type of computing I'm referring to is just general computing, not necessarily only Photoshop or Excel spreadsheets or Gaming, but just normal everyday home and school use. Anyway, if anyone has an answer, I'd much appreciate it. Thanks</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Well here's some thoughts.



    Assuming that Mhz for Mhz the two G4 chips are equal then you'd get about the same amount of processing power out of them becuase of the overhead of DP (ie, never get 100% performance increase because it has to do extra work figuring out which processor handles what & when). That said the G4 867 has a 133 Mhz system bus & a faster graphics card. Considering this I'd say that even in environments that support DP (like photoshop) most likley the SP 867 will edge out the DP 500. In situations where the application isn't specifically made for DP (like most applicaitons & games) then the SP 867 will probably have a significant perfomance advantage.



    One thing to consider two is also the Hard Drives on each of these sytems. The DP 500 may have a faster one which would increase disk access time. This would effect application launch time, saving & opening files, Virtual memory performance.



    Overall I'd have to recommend the 867.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    airslufairsluf Posts: 1,861member
  • Reply 3 of 3
    cdhostagecdhostage Posts: 1,038member
    I believe that the G4 is a slightly newere model. I have no idea of its bearing on the new G4s performance.



    I bet the dual 500 would do better on RC5.
Sign In or Register to comment.