New I Book slower than old Power Book.
Ok, I have a 933 14' 768 RAM I Book, a coworker of mine has a 500 15' 512 RAM Power Book. I keep my system very clean. His older power book blows mine out of the watter. What gives? This guy is not a techie ither. Only thing i can think of is he is running 10.2 i am running 10.3
Comments
Keep the iBook plugged in, or set processor speed to max while unplugged. Your iBook hardware is much faster than his old powerbook. Did he upgrade the HD to a 7200rpm model?
10.3 is a much more responsive OS.
Also, does your co-worker have a PB G3 or a PB G4. It makes a big difference.
Anyway, some theories:
The 1MB of cache of the 500MHz processor is running at half the processor speed while the 256K cache on the 933MHz processor is run at full processor speed. Although the PB may have 1/4 the cache, it runs almost double the speed so the performance differences are not as dramatic as you might suspect.
Your 933 MHz CPU also has deeper pipelines. Newer and faster CPUs increase pipeline length for higher clockspeed. But that reduces the amount of work per clock cycle so 1GHz is not double the speed of 500MHz.
If your 500MHz chip is a G4 and the 933MHz chip is a G3, then the lack of Altivec instructions on the 933MHz chip will noticeably slow it down. Most Apple apps use Altivec to some extent.
Which apps run faster on the 500MHz processor? Are they Panther compatible? (e.g. VPC 5 is extremely slow and unstable on Panther. VPC 6.1 or higher is required.)
The combination of the above reasons can theoretically make the 500MHz CPU run faster than the 933MHz CPU in Altivec enhanced apps. But it is hard to conclude unless there is further details.
Originally posted by BeigeUser
When did the ibook have a 933MHz processor? It seems that the ibook jumped from a 900MHz G3 to a 1GHz G4 in the last transition. Do you have a Powerbook instead?
Also, does your co-worker have a PB G3 or a PB G4. It makes a big difference.
Anyway, some theories:
The 1MB of cache of the 500MHz processor is running at half the processor speed while the 256K cache on the 933MHz processor is run at full processor speed. Although the PB may have 1/4 the cache, it runs almost double the speed so the performance differences are not as dramatic as you might suspect.
Your 933 MHz CPU also has deeper pipelines. Newer and faster CPUs increase pipeline length for higher clockspeed. But that reduces the amount of work per clock cycle so 1GHz is not double the speed of 500MHz.
If your 500MHz chip is a G4 and the 933MHz chip is a G3, then the lack of Altivec instructions on the 933MHz chip will noticeably slow it down. Most Apple apps use Altivec to some extent.
Which apps run faster on the 500MHz processor? Are they Panther compatible? (e.g. VPC 5 is extremely slow and unstable on Panther. VPC 6.1 or higher is required.)
The combination of the above reasons can theoretically make the 500MHz CPU run faster than the 933MHz CPU in Altivec enhanced apps. But it is hard to conclude unless there is further details.
The first G4 iBooks were 800MHz and 933MHz.
Hardware Overview:
Machine Model
CPU Type
Number Of CPUs
CPU Speed
L2 Cache (per CPU)
Memory
Bus Speed
Boot ROM Version
Serial Number
Originally posted by agallant
From my system settings.
Hardware Overview:
Machine Model
CPU Type
Number Of CPUs
CPU Speed
L2 Cache (per CPU)
Memory
Bus Speed
Boot ROM Version
Serial Number
Ok, the only thing I notice is you claim 768MB RAM in your first post and 256MB now. If your machine is only seeing 256MB then that would be a definite problem.
Originally posted by agallant
You know, i cought that this morning when i was reading the thred, My mistake, My desktop has 768 and my i book (the computer in question) has 256
Bump up the memory in the iBook and it should fairly stomp the Powerbook in most every way (performance-wise)
Originally posted by agallant ...my i book (the computer in question) has 256
Running OS X on only 256 megs is most definately why the iBook is slower.
More RAM will not only make the iBook dramatically quicker, it will also do wonders for your battery life. With only 256 megabytes, OS X will constantly access the hard drive, slowing the system to a crawl and draining the battery.
Despite the I book being a bit slow it is nothing compaired to my 2.4P4 that is in my other office, i am waiting for ever on that computer.
It will at least double in speed if you stick another 512MB in it. Or... more specifically, things that already perform quickly will stay the same but the additional ram will eliminate multi-second slow downs when opening windows, loading files, and switching applications.
Originally posted by agallant
Well i put the thing on ebay last night. It was my first apple. No more PCs for me i want a nice power book. I am eyeing the 1.5GHZ 15' with 2gig ram, 128 video card. Only thing i don't know is can i get an after marked hd for it. I would really like a 80Gig 7200 RPM.
Despite the I book being a bit slow it is nothing compaired to my 2.4P4 that is in my other office, i am waiting for ever on that computer.
Put more ram in the iBook. Run the "uptime" command in the terminal on both machines after using them for similar tasks for a few minutes. You'll notice that the iBook was under significantly LOWER load (meaning it could handle a lot more) than the Powerbook. The bottleneck is your ram situation.