Review of Giga Designs Fanless 1GHz Cube CPU Upgrade

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Review: Giga Designs 7455A G4 1GHz Cube CPU Upgrade
(2MB L3 SDR Cache)
Tested: 12/5/2003

Real World Performance Tests

Intro | Benchmarks | Apps Tests | Game Tests | Installation | Specs/Design

Applications Performance Tests

This page lists comparison test results with common Mac applications like iMovie3, iTunes4, Photoshop 7.0 and time to convert a very large (1.92GB) Quicktime movie to MPEG4.

Quicktime to MPEG4 Conversion

I used a very large 1.92GB (GigaByte) Quicktime movie and timed how long it took to export (convert) to MPEG4 using the default settings in latest version of Quicktime (6.4 Pro). Shorter bars are faster of course.

QT to MPEG4 Export Test Results

iMovie 3 Tests

I used the same test I have since iMovie was first released - stacking the 6 tutorial file clips end-to-end (no transitions) and timed how long it took to export the movie using the standard "CDROM" settings. (By using the tutorial with no variables like transitions, it's something everyone can easily test with their own systems.) I used the latest version of iMovie 3 with OS X 10.3.1 (Shorter bars/lower times are faster.)

iMovie3 QT Export Test Results
I suspect the (slow) OEM 20GB drive may be the reason why the 1GHz and 1.2GHz scores were so close.

iTunes 4 MP3 Conversion

Time to convert an Audio CD outer track (4 min, 20 second) song to MP3 (192Kbs rate quality setting) in iTunes 4 using a Lite-on 40x12x48x Firewire drive (oxford911 bridge case). The outermost song track used to try to minimize the effect of the CD drive's speed. (Shorter bars/lower times are faster.)

iTunes MP3 convert
The small difference in the 1.2GHz vs 1GHz results make me think the one of the drives (either HD or CD) rather than the CPU is affecting results with the faster CPUs. (There's also a consistent delay when importing before the drive really starts to spin up to high speed.)

PhotoShop 7.0 (OS X) Tests

I used the OWC 21 filter/action script (50MB image file) I used a History setting of 1 (minimum). PhotoShop's "maximum" memory prefs setting was set to 50% of available ram (appx 450MB of ram on this 1GB system). Unlike PSBench which uses photoshop's timing for each of the filters, this script runs all 21 in series w/o any disk saves or restores so a stopwatch had to be used for timing.

PhotoShop 7 comparisons

Preview PDF Document Scroll Tests

Rather than using Appleworks document scroll tests, for this review I decided to use OS X's Preview apps with the same 99 page PDF document that Bensch used in his review of the iBook G4/800. A stopwatch was used for timing how long it took to scroll from top to bottom of the document. (avg. of 3 runs shown.)
Preview PDF scroll test

The next page covers performance tests with several popular 3d Mac games.

Giga Designs 1GHz Cube CPU Upgrade Review Pages
Intro | Benchmarks | Apps Tests | Game Tests | Installation | Specs/Design

- or -
Back to WWW.XLR8YOURMAC.COM

Copyright © 2003.

No part of this sites content or images are to be reproduced or distributed in any form without written permission.
All brand or product names mentioned here are properties of their respective companies.

Users of the web site must read and are bound by the terms and conditions of use.

The Source for Mac Performance News and Reviews
Review: Giga Designs 7455A G4 1GHz Cube CPU Upgrade (2MB L3 SDR Cache) Tested: 12/5/2003
Real World Performance Tests
Intro \| Benchmarks \| Apps Tests \| Game Tests \| Installation \| Specs/Design
Applications Performance Tests
This page lists comparison test results with common Mac applications like iMovie3, iTunes4, Photoshop 7.0 and time to convert a very large (1.92GB) Quicktime movie to MPEG4.
Quicktime to MPEG4 Conversion
I used a very large 1.92GB (GigaByte) Quicktime movie and timed how long it took to export (convert) to MPEG4 using the default settings in latest version of Quicktime (6.4 Pro). Shorter bars are faster of course.
iMovie 3 Tests
I used the same test I have since iMovie was first released - stacking the 6 tutorial file clips end-to-end (no transitions) and timed how long it took to export the movie using the standard "CDROM" settings. (By using the tutorial with no variables like transitions, it's something everyone can easily test with their own systems.) I used the latest version of iMovie 3 with OS X 10.3.1 (Shorter bars/lower times are faster.) I suspect the (slow) OEM 20GB drive may be the reason why the 1GHz and 1.2GHz scores were so close.
iTunes 4 MP3 Conversion
Time to convert an Audio CD outer track (4 min, 20 second) song to MP3 (192Kbs rate quality setting) in iTunes 4 using a Lite-on 40x12x48x Firewire drive (oxford911 bridge case). The outermost song track used to try to minimize the effect of the CD drive's speed. (Shorter bars/lower times are faster.) The small difference in the 1.2GHz vs 1GHz results make me think the one of the drives (either HD or CD) rather than the CPU is affecting results with the faster CPUs. (There's also a consistent delay when importing before the drive really starts to spin up to high speed.)
PhotoShop 7.0 (OS X) Tests
I used the OWC 21 filter/action script (50MB image file) I used a History setting of 1 (minimum). PhotoShop's "maximum" memory prefs setting was set to 50% of available ram (appx 450MB of ram on this 1GB system). Unlike PSBench which uses photoshop's timing for each of the filters, this script runs all 21 in series w/o any disk saves or restores so a stopwatch had to be used for timing.
Preview PDF Document Scroll Tests
Rather than using Appleworks document scroll tests, for this review I decided to use OS X's Preview apps with the same 99 page PDF document that Bensch used in his review of the iBook G4/800. A stopwatch was used for timing how long it took to scroll from top to bottom of the document. (avg. of 3 runs shown.)
The next page covers performance tests with several popular 3d Mac games.

Giga Designs 1GHz Cube CPU Upgrade Review Pages Intro \| Benchmarks \| Apps Tests \| Game Tests \| Installation \| Specs/Design - or - Back to WWW.XLR8YOURMAC.COM
Copyright © 2003. No part of this sites content or images are to be reproduced or distributed in any form without written permission. All brand or product names mentioned here are properties of their respective companies. Users of the web site must read and are bound by the terms and conditions of use.