It's difficult comparing disparate architectures.
As it happens, I have here two machines of similar vintage. One is a
Sawtooth. It has a 400 MHz G4 on its 100 MHz bus, 256MB SDRAM, and a
10GB HDD. ATI Rage 128 in the AGP socket.
The other is a late model Asus Socket 7 machine. It has a 500 MHz
AMD K6-2 on its 100 MHz bus, 512 MB SDRAM, and a 10 GB HDD. ATI Rage
128 in the AGP socket.
So the PC gets TWICE the RAM, but maybe has a slower disk interface.
Both of the cpus implement some form of vector architecture, though
I think Altivec is neater and more efficient. And there must be
differences in the cache configs (which might favour the G4).
What I notice is this:
With Tiger newly installed on the Sawtooth, it hums along nicely.
The machine just feels brisk, responsive, and useable. (I'm supposed
to sell it, but I'm strongly tempted not to.)
With XP SP2 on the PC, it feels like a dog. Everything is like
swimming through treacle. My sense is that it was okay with SP1, but
SP2 has overloaded everything (what with - background security
checks?) so I'm constantly waiting for the machine. This is not a
pleasant machine to use.
But I have other x86s of similar vintage running Linux and BSD,
which all hum along nicely.
I think there's a problem here. I think the problem is called Windows XP.
GWW
I couldn't agree more.
I'm loaning out used B&W G3/350s and G3/450s with 10.4.1, 384-512MB
RAM and 6GB HDs (Rev. As) to users temporarily without computers and
they like them, even when they're used to PCs from their previous
locations. Some have bought Minis or iBooks when their computer
budgets came in and others have stayed with the loaners without
complaint.
The PC side here has lent out PIII 450-650s, similarly outfitted,
usually with XP on them and we see them back in the shop pretty
quickly due to slowdowns (malware, etc.) or a quick upgrade to a
faster new PC because the old one is so slow. In fairness, two of
them are still chugging along. We don't even like lending out
anything less than 500 MHz and recently stripped and trashed a few
PIII 350s due to uselessness.
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