Guide to G4 Accelerators for NuBus Power Macs

Updated 2002.05.17

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Benchmark: G4 worth extra cost?, MacSpeedZone, 2/7. Real advantage comes only if you're using AltiVec enabled applications.
Bare Feats studies cache size, cache speed, and motherboard cache

This page covers currently shipping G4 upgrades for the Power Macintosh 6100, 7100, and 8100.

Each accelerator will provide several times the performance of the 60-110 MHz 601 processor installed in these older Macs. Be sure to read That extra 10% to help you decide which upgrade provides the best value for you.

IBM, Motorola, and Apple have done a phenomenal job in creating the Power PC 750 CPU (aka G3) and computers to use it. An entire industry has sprung up selling G3 cards to owners of second generation Power Macs with processor cards.

The information is as accurate as I can find, but specifications and availability are subject to change; I suggest you check with the manufacturer to verify current models. Prices keep dropping, so these prices may be outdated. (Prices are in $US.)

In fact, models are added and discontinued so often, it's impossible to keep track of which models are current.

Accelerate Your Mac has user reports on various upgrades.

Note that computers upgraded with these cards may not support Mac OS X. (Apple has emphatically stated it will run on all Macs designed with a G3 or G4 processor, but has never promised any support for upgraded models.)

Further, models with AV cards may require special adapters or versions of the card at additional cost.

Discontinued accelerators are listed for historical reasons.

Manufacturer	CPU Speed	Cache Size	Cache Speed	MacBench 5.0 rating*	Estimated Street Price	Estimated Value**
Sonnet Technologies Crescendo G4/NuBus	360 MHz	1 MB	180 MHz		disc.

* Processor score from MacWeek or Macworld when possible, but many MacBench ratings are from manufacturers. End user results will vary based on a number of factors including bus speed and OS used.

** Estimated value is MacBench rating divided by price. Figure is based on estimated MacBench score for untested cards. Higher numbers represent more bang for the buck.

Reviews & Overviews

MacWeek and Macworld (use search to find reviews)
Mac Speed Zone
Accelerate Your Mac

This page created March 3, 1999 and updated occasionally.

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