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Millimeter1 Apple Dual-1GHz Power Mac G4
May 1, 2002 12:00 PM, BY FRANK McMAHON
Apple is on a roll with a new OS and a spankin' new machine, the dual-1GHz Power Mac G4. With features such as DVD recording and GeForce graphics, the unit is primed and ready for heavy-duty production work. How ready? We'll see.
There is no denying the unit is drop-dead sexy. That should not mean much, but we all know it does. Unboxing the machine as well as the 17in. Apple Studio display, I was taken by not only how slick and smooth it looked but also how neatly everything fit together. Setup took just a few minutes and required only a few obvious snap connections. A side latch causes the entire side of the machine to fold out, providing access to the motherboard and everything else inside. It is a marvel of design. If you are like most producers who periodically add a board, install an additional drive, or add more RAM, this is about as perfect a tech solution as can be imagined.
Boot-up proved to be slightly annoying, as you are forced to submit personal information the first time the system is launched. There are options for registration and for Internet service, but these can be bypassed. Once in, OS X is all bright and shiny and easy to navigate. There may be a learning curve for PC users, and the new OS may take a little getting used to. For example, the buttons that close and expand the windows are on the left side rather than the right. Also, the mouse, while impressive-looking, is still missing a scroll wheel.
The biggest news about the new machine is the dual processor. I could don a black turtleneck and trot out Photoshop benchmarks, but that has already been done about a hundred times. (We'll get to some speed checks in a bit.) Apple's dual-processor setup crunches along at 15 gigaflops, compared to the 3.7 gigaflops of the original 500MHz Power Mac G4. It does this by processing data in 128bit segments, as opposed to other processors that move stuff around in 32- or 64bit groups. It can also do multiple floating-point calculations in a single cycle — up to eight, depending on the application and its optimization. Added to that equation is preemptive multitasking, so you can engage several applications concurrently and plow through data work in the background as you focus on your main program.
What's great about Apple's implementation of the dual processor is that all Mac OS X applications are optimized to take advantage of dual processors. This is on a system level, so it's worth it to upgrade legacy Classic Mac applications to OS X versions. At the time of this writing, a complete OS X version of Photoshop 7.0 was being readied, which will indeed burn through a day's imaging work in half the time. OK, maybe not, but it will be fast. (For a review of Photoshop 7.0, see the April 2002 issue of Video Systems or visit our website at www.videosystems.com.)
Apple has long contended that comparing its raw megahertz count to that of other platforms is like comparing, well, Apples and PCs. However, Apple continues to benchmark against processors such as Intel. As Windows processors are moving past the 2GHz mark, Apple is lined up with a sort-of 2GHz: two 1GHz processors that all OS X applications take advantage of. It's not as even a race as you would think, however, because Apple has a few extra data-processing tricks up its sleeve at the component level.
The first was to increase the size of the computer's cache while keeping it humming at a faster data rate. The unit's L3 cache uses 2MB of high-speed DDR SDRAM running at 500MHz. The L3 has a beeline hook direct to the G4 chips, allowing 4GBps transfer back and forth. This keeps a lot of your often-used application data — the currently “running” program, for example — right in the cache so it can be fetched in milliseconds.
Another way Apple sped things up was to move the high-speed connections, such as FireWire and Ethernet, away from the PCI bus and over to the system controller. This allows for fewer data traffic jams on the PCI bus, which also has been updated with a sustained throughput of 215MBps.
Also improved is the graphics system, with options available from ATI and Nvidia. Having used these cards on the PC platform, I know they are solid and extremely speedy. So it is great to finally have these options on the new Mac. I tested the Nvidia GeForce MX with 64MB and a dual-display option. While some video producers might want to incorporate a higher-end video subsystem, the MX board certainly gets the job done. Combined with Apple's digital flat-panel display, the results were stunning. Graphics moved around effortlessly and DVD playback was sharp and clear. Dark, contrasty areas in video were especially detailed, with blacks ringing very true and whites spot-on accurate. The MX board can run more than 100fps at a 1024×768, 32bit resolution.
Another draw for the dual-processor Mac G4 is the inclusion of the SuperDrive, which allows DVD burning with the supplied iDVD 2. It also creates CD-Rs and CD-RWs. Thanks to the extra processor, the machine can now encode video at double the rate of the previous single-processor G4. If you have ever burned a DVD, you know this can be a lengthy experience. So those working with DVD, especially producers using Apple's DVD Studio Pro, will be happy to get those one-off DVDs out the door much faster.
I decided to do at least one benchmark for this review (turtleneck ready?). I just had to see how the new dual processors performed and, more importantly, how the machine stacked up to my 1.7GHz Pentium 4 Windows XP Pro system, which I bought about six months ago. The RAM was the same amount, 512MB, so I figured it was a fairly even scenario, taking into account the XP system's smaller amount of processor power compared to the Apple's 2GHz.
I chose Bryce 5 as the application for a few reasons: I had just reviewed it for this magazine (see the January 2002 Video Systems or www.videosystems.com), it's a hard-core number-crunching program, it produces a benchmark render-result report, and the new version is made for Mac OS X. Also, it was the first program listed on Apple's website under the section on graphics within the spread on the dual-processor machine. I chose the same scene on both machines: “Calypso Space Base” on the second data disc that ships with the program. I chose the IMAX ratio preset and set anti-aliasing to regular. I let them both rip and within a few minutes had the results: The PC finished at 3 minutes, 35 seconds and the Mac clocked in at 3 minutes, 37 seconds. I was expecting more of a barn-burner from the dual-processor Mac as opposed to a two-second photo finish. I verified the program was running in OS X mode and not Classic.
Then I swapped out the scene and loaded a new one on both machines, the “Techno City” scene on the same disc. I set the ratio to 70mm resolution and let it rip on the PC. Bryce is a great ray-tracer, and the scene reported a total of 1.27 billion calculated light rays. There is no need to create a scene of mirrored spheres for testing, as every scene is ray-traced. The result on the PC came in at 5 minutes, 3 seconds. I went over to the Mac and made sure the settings were exactly the same, and it had finished at 4 minutes, 57 seconds. Not much of a sledgehammer finish against nemesis PC; it was more of a gentle towel snap.
In real-world use the Mac hummed right along. It kept up with everything I was doing; the processing power let me swap among apps and play video without a hiccup. For existing Mac users the upgrade might be worth it, as your speed can double on most OS X applications. For the PC crowd, the setup is a bit pricier than a similarly priced PC system, and the benchmarks don't show a dramatic ramp up from what the current PC processors can do. And even though XP and OS X are getting closer and closer in terms of style and usability, a beige box is nowhere near as cool as this setup.
Frank McMahon is a media artist specializing in directing, editing, animation, and graphic design. He can be reached via his media company at www.fmstudio.com or via Portland Media Artists at www.mediaartist.com.
QUICK FACTS
Company: Apple
Cupertino, Calif.; 408-996-1010
Product: Dual-1GHz Power
Mac G4
Features: Two 1GHz processors with 4GBps transfer back and forth to the L3 cache; optimizes all applications native for OS X, often doubling the speed; offers Nvidia and ATI graphics systems options; includes a SuperDrive for DVD-R burning.
Price: $2,999 as tested
Website: www.apple.com
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