First some CPU & FPU tests...

Next some 2D tests...

Now some 3D Game tests...

Finally some Disk tests...

 

Conclusion
I was impressed with the new iMac G3/400's speed. It's a big improvement over the iMac "C" with 333MHz G3, but it's still not quite a match for the Blue and White G3/400, especially when it comes to 2D and 3D. And as you might expect, it gets smoked big time when trying to compete with a G4 running Photoshop.

Hmmm...

• I tested two different Yikes G4/400's. One had a Western Data drive and the other had a Quantum drive. Notice the WDC drive was much faster. Better hope you get that one.
• Anyone who says the RAGE 128 in the new iMac is the same as the ATI RAGE 128 PCI boards is mistaken on two counts. One, ATI says they are different. Two, my tests show it to be slower.

Test Configurations & Procedures

Chart Name	CPU and Graphics	Hard Drives
Graphite G4/400	Graphite "Yikes" G4/400 with RAGE 128 card from factory	Tested with three drives: WDC Caviar 10g, Quantum CX 10 g & WDC Expert 18g
B&W G3/400 rev 2	Blue and White G3/400 with Orion RAGE 128*	(12 gig -- not tested)
iMac G3/400 DVD	Orange iMac G3/400 DVD with soldered VR RAGE 128	WDC Caviar 10g
iMac G3/333	Blueberry iMac G3/333 with soldered RAGE Pro	WDC 6g

*Since the Blue & White was actually a Rev 1, I "upgraded" it to a Rev 2 by replacing the graphics board with an Orion RAGE 128, which is essentially the same as the board shipped in Rev 2 Blue & Whites sans DVD decorder socket.

• Mac OS 8.6 was used on all machines. Each had at least 64MB of RAM.
• Due to limited RAM on the CPU's, Photoshop 5.5 was given 28MB of application size. The test file was a 7.5 MB Photoshop document. The THREE Photoshop effects were timed with a stopwatch. They included:
  1. ROTATE Clock Wise at 30 degrees.
  2. GAUSSIAN BLUR at 30 pixels
  3. FLASHLIGHT LIGHTING EFFECT at default settings
  The G4 obviously benefited from the AltiVec code and Velocity Engine.
  Also, the PHOTOSHOP SCROLL test was performed at 400% zoom.
• For the WordPerfect 3.5.3 scrolling test, I use a 120 page document containing the sentence "The Quick Brown Fox Jumped Over The Lazy Dogs" repeated over and over in paragraphs of 8 sentences each in 14 point Times font. Using a stopwatch, I time how long it takes to scroll from the beginning to the end of the document while holding the mouse button down with cursor over the scrolling arrow. (Font smoothing is turned off. If it's on, it will take you 50% longer to scroll through a document!)
• Quake 2 TimeDemo 1 was run. Press "~" and enter "timedemo 1" and "~" again. Then press "~" as soon as you "die." Frames per second are displayed at the bottom of the screen .
• Unreal 3D test used the Castle Flyby that comes up at startup. To get the average and minimum frames per second with version 2.x.x of Unreal, you press "~" and enter "timedemo 1." Then press "~" to open up the full screen again. It begins the fly sequence at the castle entrance. After one trip around it displays an average, along with minimum and maximum. My charts post the average and minimum. (Get the latest latest UNREAL Beta from Westlake's Site.)
• The ATTO disk benchmark was run using Express-Pro Tools 2.2 benchmark test with 8MB maximum file size and system disk cache disabled. Sustained Rate is displayed in the charts. Peak rates can be expressive but do not reflect overall drive performance.
• Although I am repelled by most benchmarking programs, MacBench 5.0 is one of the few that closely simulates "real world" usage. You need the CD-ROM to run the Graphics tests. It only costs $5 to order.

   

  BIG MAHALO TO...

  ...ATI Technology for the use of the Orion RAGE 12

  ...CompUSA for the use of the iMac G3/400 and B&W G3/400

  ...My daughter, Stephanie, for the use of her iMac G3/333