Performance?

[mt12345]

Hi everyone!
I'm going to buy an old powermac g4 (400 mhz, 512 ram,radeon 9xxx) and give MorphOS a try.
What performance should I expect? Will I be able to watch divx movies at  fullscreen? And play 3D games ? Would you compare it to running gnome/linux on, let's say, 1ghz pentium3 box?

[Matt_H]

400MHz might be a little slow for video playback, but I'll let someone who owns a machine at that speed comment on their own.

All PowerMacs are very, very cheap, though, so I think you'll get the most bang for your buck by picking up one of the later models (1.25GHz or 1.42GHz).

[Fab]

Hi everyone!
I'm going to buy an old powermac g4 (400 mhz, 512 ram,radeon 9xxx) and give MorphOS a try.
What performance should I expect? Will I be able to watch divx movies at  fullscreen? And play 3D games ? Would you compare it to running gnome/linux on, let's say, 1ghz pentium3 box?

Fullscreen or not won't be the issue here, since the video player (mplayer) uses overlay and scaling/stretching is entirely done by gfx card hardware in this case.

As for the codecs & resolution, you can easily play 640x360 h264 on such a machine, and 640x480 divx/xvid as well.
On the other hand DVD playback will be a bit too much (except if done from hard disk), and obviously any more demanding stuff like 720p h264 files and co will be too slow.

As for 3d games, i guess quake3 shouldn't behave too bad. To be checked.

And compared to a gnome/1GHz PIII, well, the PC has a clear advantage about raw cpu power, but the linux UI (gnome in this case) is way less responsive, so i'd say MorphOS would win on the responsivity anyway, but you'll have to try and see for yourself.

[amigadave]

400MHz might be a little slow for video playback, but I'll let someone who owns a machine at that speed comment on their own.

All PowerMacs are very, very cheap, though, so I think you'll get the most bang for your buck by picking up one of the later models (1.25GHz or 1.42GHz).

I agree with Matt, don't buy that 400MHz G4 PowerMac, until you shop around, as you can probably find a faster G4 model for the same or less money.  I got a Dual 1.25GHz G4 model (the MDD model) for less than $40 and was able to pick it up locally, so I didn't have to pay any shipping either.

The 400MHz model will run MorphOS2.7 okay, but don't expect to playback any video content smoothly.

Shop around.

[mt12345]

And compared to a gnome/1GHz PIII, well, the PC has a clear advantage about raw cpu power, but the linux UI (gnome in this case) is way less responsive, so i'd say MorphOS would win on the responsivity anyway, but you'll have to try and see for yourself.

I should rather compare it to fluxbox/linux on 600-700Mhz PC I guess.

[Iggy]

I agree with Matt, don't buy that 400MHz G4 PowerMac, until you shop around, as you can probably find a faster G4 model for the same or less money.  I got a Dual 1.25GHz G4 model (the MDD model) for less than $40 and was able to pick it up locally, so I didn't have to pay any shipping either.

The 400MHz model will run MorphOS2.7 okay, but don't expect to playback any video content smoothly.

Shop around.

Yep, I'd agree with both Matt and David. Recently I saw a 733 Powermac sell for $20. That would be about the minimum I'd recommend.
I purchased a 733Mhz Quicksilver model that wasn't supposed to be functional on Ebay for about that much plus S&H. I reseated the processor card and its been working fine since (upgraded later to a 933Mhz processor and now to a 1.8Ghz processor).

You can do better.

[mt12345]

I agree with Matt, don't buy that 400MHz G4 PowerMac, until you shop around, as you can probably find a faster G4 model for the same or less money.

Few years ago I bought Pentium II 300Mhz 256 RAM  for £1 just to show my friends that we don't really  need 3GHz Pentium4 to do internet, office and even divx playback. I love old, slow and limited computers. There is always something to squeeze out of it. Besides it's challenge. New hardware is boring. :lol:

[nicholas]

I should rather compare it to fluxbox/linux on 600-700Mhz PC I guess.

Rather, compare it to AROS running on that 600 MHz PC and you will get a very good idea of how fast MorphOS will be on a 400 MHz G4.

[mt12345]

Recently I saw a 733 Powermac sell for $20.

Here, in the UK, for $20 you could get merely powermac G3 CASE. And  you're lucky if you find PSU inside.

[nicholas]

Here, in the UK, for $20 you could get merely powermac G3 CASE. And  you're lucky if you find PSU inside.

I bought a 1.25 GHz G4 eMac with 1GB RAM for £27 on ebay the day MOS was released for that model.

[mt12345]

eMac is bulky and  ugly. Not sexy at all.  

[smerf]

Hi everyone!
I'm going to buy an old powermac g4 (400 mhz, 512 ram,radeon 9xxx) and give MorphOS a try.
What performance should I expect? Will I be able to watch divx movies at  fullscreen? And play 3D games ? Would you compare it to running gnome/linux on, let's say, 1ghz pentium3 box?

Hi,

Seeing that it is a MAC, darn I hate MACS, don't listen to me.

but

I doubt it would play movies, a 400mhz cpu could barely get out of its way.

It might play some 3d games like doom, heretic, etc.

Didn't know anyone still used 1ghz pentium3 boxes???

smerf

[Fab]

I doubt it would play movies, a 400mhz cpu could barely get out of its way.
smerf

Depends what kind of movie you play. Even an efika could deal with 360p divx/xvid movies, on MorphOS (forget that on linux . And as i said earlier, A 400MHz G4 can deal with 360p H264 (which is typical youtube resolution), and 640*4x0 divx/xvid (typical tv rip stuff).

I could only suggest a 1.25/1.42GHz machine, but don't underestimate what a 400MHz machine can do anyway.

[kickstart]

If you dont use application that need a heavy usage of cpu maybe 400mhz are enough, the bad side of the powermac g4 400mhz is the ati rage.

[Iggy]

If you dont use application that need a heavy usage of cpu maybe 400mhz are enough, the bad side of the powermac g4 400mhz is the ati rage.

I think he mentioned that it had a Radeon 9XXX video card. An ATI Rage128 would be pretty painful (no 3D), but I understand the 2D driver works pretty good.
When compared to an Efika, a 400Mhz Powermac with 512MB of memory would definitely be superior.
And there's always the possibility of adding a CPU accelerator card.