Understanding CPU Cache....?

gcarswellgcarswell
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I was hoping someone could explain the different levels of cache on the G4 and G5....I understand what it does, but it seems from the specs of the ibook (what i'm currently thinking of buying) that the G4 only has 512k of L2 cache...no L3?



The reason i'm curious about it is that i need to run multiple simlutaneous Vitrual PCs to finish my MCSE, (i.e. i need to run VPC server 2003 and a couple of VPC XP Clients)...I understand that i need as much ram as possible, but does CPU cache also affect performance in an application like this?



Thanks for your thoughts....

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    randycat99randycat99 Posts: 1,919member
    My guess is that L2/L3 cache makes a big difference with VPC- size, not so much speed. I think you will find that running any of the modern Windows OS's on an iBook (and possibly any laptop model) will be utter torture. I highly recommend NOT doing that, unless you get a chance to demo the setup first for your own observation. Stick with a PowerMac with the largest CPU cache you can get (even an old one will run like a champ compared to an iBook). It will be much faster (though I have no concrete explanation why it would be to that degree). If you can get one that will dual boot into OS9.x, that will be a double speed bonus for you. Mark my words...
  • Reply 2 of 3
    regreg Posts: 832member
    I was running VPC XP and VPC win 2000 for about a week for a project at work (VPC 6). They were shifting over to XP and wanted to see how our specialty apps would run. First let me say that anything except word and Excel are dog slow. Having both systems running was painful. I was surprised that the my pb 17 with 1 GB and 1MB of level 3 cache didn't crash. I have not heard of anyone running server software thru VPC. Scanning the VPC web site does not show any server software being supported. You might go thru their support to see if you can do what you want.



    reg
  • Reply 3 of 3
    randycat99randycat99 Posts: 1,919member
    I guess I should add that I do know that Win2k3 Server will run in VPC. I just wouldn't do it on a laptop. The virtual switch does not seem to work on my iBook- that feature could become a deal breaker if you want to do some virtual networking with Win2k3 Server. It does appear to work on my PowerMac- go figure.
Sign In or Register to comment.