G4 vs. G3

[Bill Fink]

On Sun Apr 14 2002, Michael J Flaherty wrote:

> I'm curious about the usefulness of AltiVec in Linux.  I'm about to buy 
> another G3 (or G4) card for this 7300 (w/Nexus 128 and ATA100 card already).  
> Looks like a G4/450 will cost about $100 more than a G3/500.  
> 
> Is it worth the extra money ?  I've noticed that AltiVec support is an option 
> that can be compiled into the kernel, so I'd like to know exactly how much 
> difference it makes in reality.  When and how is it useful in Linux ?  Does 
> it make as much difference as it supposedly does with OS X ?  
> 
> I'm leaning towards just getting a G3, although the G4 would, I suppose, be 
> better if I want to play with OS X on this machine.  If Linux also runs 
> significantly better on G4's, then I'll swallow hard and go for it.  Sorry if 
> this has been covered before.

Hi Michael,

If you're watching DVDs, using an application like xine which is optimized
for altivec can make a huge performance difference (xine is my personal
recommendation for playing DVDs although there are others).  Also MOL
(Mac-On-Linux) has altivec support.

It is is my understanding that when gcc 3.1 is released, it will have
altivec support so at that point more applications may be built to take
advantage of the altivec speed boost.  Finally, it is my experience that
for the same MHz rating, a G4 is significantly faster than a G3, although
my experience is only with the native processors (there may be other factors
with upgrade cards that may narrow the performance difference).

						-Bill