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New Power Mac G4s Announced

Posted by pudge on from the i-want-a-dual-proc-powerbook dept.

benh57 writes "Apple today announced the new Power Mac G4 towers with new faces, running at dual-867MHz (US$1,699), dual-1GHz ($2,499), and dual-1.25GHz ($3,299). All are running DDR, the two higher end models at 166MHz FSB with Radeon 9000, the low end at 133 w/GF4MX." Check it out at The Apple Store, and keep your eyes peeled for an appearance on the Power Mac G4 site.

1 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. As a frame of reference... by shawnce · · Score: 4, Interesting

    About a year ago we had dual 800 MHz systems with 100MHz FSB, PC133 RAM (133 MHz), 2MB of L3 via a 200 MHz bus and single channel ATA/66. Just over one year later we have 1250 MHz systems with 166 MHz FSB, PC2700 RAM (166 MHz double pumped or 333 MHz data rate), 2MB of L3 via a 294 MHz[1] bus double pumped, and dual channel ATA (one ATA/100 and the other ATA/66).

    So in a year...
    1.56x increase in CPU clock speed (ignoring other CPU enhancements).
    2.5x increase in RAM throughput.
    1.66x increase in FSB throughput.
    2.94x increase in L3 throughput (possibly only 2.5x).
    over a doubling in internal disk storage support (not counting SCSI options).

    Looking over things on the Intel/AMD side...

    AMD had about a year ago 1.53GHz chips (1800+ Athlon XP) today 1.8Ghz (2200+ Athlon XP) (FSB speeds did not changed). Intel had about a year ago 2Ghz P4s with FSB of 266MHz (133Mhz dual pumped) and today 2.53GHz P4s with FSB of 533MHz (133MHz quad pumped, AFAIK).

    So in a year...
    AMD...
    1.18x increase in CPU clock speed.
    no change in FSB (from what I see).

    Intel...
    1.27x increase in CPU clock speed.
    2.01x increase in FSB throughput.

    AMD/Intel system have been using PC2100 for a while and are now starting to use PC2700 (some are starting to use DDR400 and/or going dual channel to RAM). This is side stepping the issue of RDRAM.

    Again just as a frame of reference...

    [1] Apple's current specs don't add up fully on this, one states that it stops at 500MHz DDR but the throughput numbers lead me to believe it is running faster then 500MHz DDR for the top end system.

    p.s. I am doing the above math with a fever of 102+ so I may have messed up someplace... just don't tell the pink elephant sitting next me.