How Will Virtual PC run on a dual 3 GHZ Power Mac G5?
I've been saving for the next powermac update. I'm a little worried. It will be my only computer, so I will need the new VPC to run XP at at least around 1.1ghz PC. I'm probably going to use VPC fairly often for certain programs. I was wondering if anyone had a reasonable guesstimate of how fast VPC would work on a dual 3 ghz G5 from their previous experiences with VPC.
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Originally posted by SwitchingSoon
I've been saving for the next powermac update. I'm a little worried. It will be my only computer, so I will need the new VPC to run XP at at least around 1.1ghz PC. I'm probably going to use VPC fairly often for certain programs. I was wondering if anyone had a reasonable guesstimate of how fast VPC would work on a dual 3 ghz G5 from their previous experiences with VPC.
umm, no one knows since none of them are even out yet.
Maybe something equivalent to a 800 MHZ PIII?
Originally posted by msantti
I think VPC will still run like ass.
Ass can run pretty damned fast, especially when ass is trying to save itself.
Originally posted by shetline
Ass can run pretty damned fast, especially when ass is trying to save itself.
Originally posted by SwitchingSoon
I was wondering if anyone had a reasonable guesstimate of how fast VPC would work on a dual 3 ghz G5 from their previous experiences with VPC.
Well, considering a Dual 3Ghz would be faster than any other consumer processor out there (including Intel), I should hope it would run fairly fast. Use some common sense.
Edit: I take back my last comment: Microsoft has shitty programmers.
How Will Virtual PC run on a dual 3 GHZ Power Mac G5?
Slow compared to a 500MHz PC.
What do you expect from an emulator?
Originally posted by SwitchingSoon
I've been saving for the next powermac update. I'm a little worried. It will be my only computer, so I will need the new VPC to run XP at at least around 1.1ghz PC.
Surely you'd be better with a single processer G5 and use the saving to buy a $500 PC? It will run faster than Virtual PC by far...
Damnit. I really wanted top-o-the-line....... IT will have to last me the next 2-4 years.
The G3/G4 was able to automatically make that conversion in hardware which accelerated VPC. The G5 no longer has that feature which is why it's incompatible with the current version. VPC 7 will have to do those calculations in software. Which will make it run much slower when compared to the G4.
My dual 1.25 G4 runs equivalent to a 650MHz processor (I'm not sure if it's referring to Celeron or P4) according Windows benchmarks. Although it feels a lot more slower because the screen redraws are done by the G4, not the GPU.
Now let me try to estimate the dual 3 gig G5 VPC performance.
Judging from other Mac apps, the G5s seems to scale fairly linearly from the G4s. The only difference being that the G5s can reach higher clockspeeds due to its wide-bandwidth. So if a dual 1.25 G4 runs like a 650MHz CPU with no graphics acceleration(To be on the safe side, let's say Celeron), the dual 3.0 G5 should run like a 1.5GHz Celeron. But since the big/little endian thing is gone, let's say the G5 will be about a 1.1-1.2 GHz Celeron with no graphics acceleration.
If that's not fast enough, you will have to keep praying. There is some hope. Currently, the velocity engine and dual-processor setup are underutilized. The GPU of the mac is completely unused. If Microsoft was to make any improvements in these areas, you will see at least some performance increases.
Personally, I would do what Aquatic says. I tried using VPC to do some homework recently, but VPC wasn't compatible with my USB Flash device. So I had to use e-mail to transfer my files from school to my home. It was a major annoyance. The USB Flash device is Windows compatible and Mac compatible but it didn't work in VPC because Mac would unmount the device everytime VPC boots up.