Time to rip a 7:27 192kbps MP3 file using iTunes3. Shorter bars are better.

Well, the Sonnet G4/800 and it's PowerPC 7455 processor certainly work well with an AltiVec enabled application like iTunes 3. Cutting a full 30 seconds off of ripping this MP3 track over the PowerLogix G4/450 is no small feat - the processor really shines in this test! All this with the stock 12x SCSI CD-ROM installed - VERY impressive!

Time to manipulate a 100MB test image using Adobe Photoshop 7.0. Shorter bars are better.

Although not reflected in this test, if you have a G3 processor in your existing PCI system, you would definitely see a HUGE gain in performance. Photoshop felt great with both processor cards, but it was definitely more responsive with the Sonnet card. Raw processor speed triumphs over larger L2 cache in this case. For more tests using Mac OS 9 and G3 processors vs. G4 processors, see this test I performed earlier this year.

Test was performed as follows -

• Automatic script set up to open a 1600x1200 72 dpi image and perform the following functions-
• Increase resolution to 600 dpi.
• Convert from RGB to CMYK.
• Rotate canvas 180 Degrees.
• Apply a Gaussian Blur filter at 3.0 pixels.

This yeilds an approximately 100 MB test file.

Quake 3 testing - Frames Per Second. Longer bars are better.

If you are a game player, and want to expand your PCI Macintosh, either one of the above listed cards will suit your needs very well as long as you purchase the ATI RADEON 7000 card. Notice the scores are linear - no deviation for the most part. It's bus speed limiting further performance here, and there is nothing you can do about that.

To reproduce these scores:

Set Quake's settings to HIGH QUALITY and only adjust the resolution - nothing fancy, but repeatable honest scores. :>) If you want to tweak your config file for even more performance, you can tweak your config file to get faster framerates (at the loss of some detail).

Note - some scores are blank because either it is not the video display's native resolution (iMac scores) or the video card could not drive the monitor at the specified resolution (RAGE 128 in the Power Macintosh G4 systems)