IBM Power PC 1GHz chip only runs properly at 933MHz

[KennyR]

Even without any workaround, a performance loss of 67 MHz clock for a modern RISC processor is in the order of negligable at best and trivial at worst. And with the workaround, you don't even need to change the clock.

But you can bet it will feed many "PPC sucks!" rants from the x86 crowd. Myself, I'll probably wait until PPC gets a bug as huge and embarassing as the Pentium float bug before going there.

[KennyR]

bhogget wrote:
Some vendors are complete morons. They go by the principle that if the CPU comes with a heatsink and fan, that should solve any overheating problems.

Not morons, just not following the times. Just a few years ago a heatsink and fan was enough for any tower system; just the flow of air caused by the PSU was enough to keep the insides of the case cool enough. And I can't say I blame them either: the heat of CPUs is fast reaching the point of the utterly ridiculous. In a few years more will vendors be morons because they don't supply the correct liquid freon coolant to shift 100+ watts of pure wasted heat energy out of the tower?

[KennyR]

Hammer wrote:
CPU vendors have to minimise the cause of heat generation by employing technologies such as Low-K Black Diamond i.e. heat is generated due to electron leakage.

But do you really believe they'll scale down CPUs for less heat when they dump silicon for diamond? The way markets work, they won't: they'll keep the current cooler/fan/tower cooling model and simply use the diamond semiconductor for improved performance.

Which is a pity...because I'm beginning to look for a new x86 machine to replace my ancient Cyrix P200, and so far none I've spotted have an acceptable performance/heat ratio.

[KennyR]

bhogget wrote:
I'll grant you heat generation has become silly these days, but the CPU is only one factor in this, as it is only one factor in the noise generation produced by cooling systems.

I won't compare it to your Cyrix because quite honestly none of my software would even run on that CPU any more.

I'd just be happy if I could find a x86 system with the same performance and heat output of this 750GX. The VIA CPUs aren't much more powerful than my Cyrix (even at 800MHz!), and all desktop CPUs are FAR too hot and noisy. I'll be using my Cyrix until one appears, or until the Cyrix dies. Which as you can imagine does rather limit my choice of software...

[KennyR]

Thanks -D-, I'll look into it. 1.8 GHz would do me fine, as long as I could get away with no tower fan. Now I need to research this CPU and see what boards and dealers support it.

[KennyR]

@Waccoon

Funny to hear all the PPC fanatics herald the cool performance, then throw a Radeon in the case.

Depends on your radeon. If you buy a gamer's radeon, then you're asking for it. But there are better ones. My 9000 has no fan at all: its passively cooled. Along with the fanless G3, and fanless case, it means my Pegasos is absolutely silent except for the PSU. Now, if only I could get a x86 system like that, even if it was seriously underpowered by modern standards! I'm not going to play Doom3 on it anyway. If its fast enough to play a divx it'll do for me.