The Obsolete G4/400 Yikes Challenges The
G4/400 Sawtooth Rev B.

12/17/99
© 1999 Rob Art Morgan, editor of BARE FEATS
rob-art@barefeats.com

 

Okay, you're feeling used right about now. You bought the Yikes and now Apple is selling a Sawtooth for the same price.

Or you're ready to buy a G4 system and you saw a closeout special on the Yikes G4/400. You are wondering if it's a better deal than paying $500 more for a comparably equipped Sawtooth G4/400 from the Apple Online Store.

Never fear, Bare Feats is here with some test numbers to ponder:

CPU (& FPU) crunching...


Winner: Sawtooth (22% faster)

 


Winner: Sawtooth (19% faster)

 

Hard Disk speed comparison


Winner: Sawtooth (11% faster)


Winner: Sawtooth (5% faster)

 

2D Scrolling


Winner: Sawtooth with Rage Pro 128 AGP (27% faster RAGE 128 PCI)
and with Voodoo3 3000 AGP (20% faster than Voodoo3 PCI)

(A Photoshop scrolling test is usually included
but there was no significant difference in speed between the 5 graphics boards.)

 

3D Game Frame Rates


Winner: Sawtooth with Rage Pro 128 AGP (52% faster RAGE 128 PCI)
and with Voodoo3 3000 AGP (3% faster than Voodoo3 PCI)

 


Winner: Sawtooth with Rage Pro 128 AGP (34% faster RAGE 128 PCI)
and with Voodoo3 3000 AGP (2% faster than Voodoo3 PCI)

 

Conclusion: Okay. I'll say it. "The King is wearing a bikini." The Sawtooth was 24% faster on average but costs 33% more (both models stripped*). The Sawtooth costs 25% more if you compare both machines with 20 Gig drive, 256MB of RAM, and a Voodoo3 board. All things considered, you should probably buy a Sawtooth.

If you already bought the Yikes, like me, take heart. At least you can fiddle with the jumpers or replace the ZIF cpu with something meaner and faster some day soon. Keep reading...

Other Analysis & Opinion: One thing disturbed me as I compared the two machines. When the same components were used in both machines, the speed difference dropped dramatically.

For example, the Sawtooth is supposed to have an Ultra-ATA/66 interface versus ATA/33 on the Yikes. Ooo, I'm impressed.... until I put the same hard drive on both systems and saw only a 5 to 11% difference in speed. Hmmm.

And the AGP Voodoo3 3000 in the Sawtooth was only 3% faster than the PCI Voodoo3 3000 in the Yikes. Hmmm.

It seems that the components (disk drives, graphics cards) are the limiting factor these days, not the interface speeds.

Reader Feedback:
"How does the G4/400 Yikes compare to a G4/350 Sawtooth?" Funny you should ask. I'll be testing the 350MHz Sawtooth in a few days. If I was guessing, I'd say they would about the same speed in most areas.

 
Test Configurations & Procedures

Yikes!

Sawtooth

CPU

G4/400

G4/400

Bus Speed

100Mhz

100Mhz

Cache

1 MB at 2:1 (200MHz)

1MB at 2:1 (200MHz)

RAM

256 MB (8ns)

256 MB (8ns)

Graphics

66MHz PCI slot with either RAGE 128 or 3Dfx Voodoo3 3000

133MHz AGP 2X slot with either RAGE Pro 128 or 3Dfx Voodoo3 3000

Hard Drive

Seagate Barracuda 20 Gig 7200rpm ATA/66 drive connected to a ATA/33 interface
Seagate Barracuda 20 Gig 7200rpm ATA/66 drive connected to a ATA/66 interface

Base Cost with 64MB RAM,10 Gig Drive, RAGE card

$1499
$1949

Cost with 256MB RAM, 20 Gig Drive, Voodoo3 card (cheapest sources)

$2039
$2489

 

 

BIG MAHALO TO....

...3Dfx for the use of the Voodoo3 3000 PCI & AGP cards

...Metacreations for the use of Bryce 3D

...and my new, best friend, Gregory Rand, for the use of his G4/400 Sawtooth Rev B

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© 1999 Rob Art Morgan, editor of BARE FEATS
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