The Power Macintosh G3/266 was part of the first generation
of machines from Apple based on the new 750 PowerPC or G3
processor. It came in two flavors, the desktop and the minitower.
For an additional $600 the tower configuration offered better
storage capacity with a larger hard drive (6GB vs. 4GB) and
an internal Zip drive for hauling those weighty graphics files
around. Both machines came with a propriatary "Personality
Card" which added functionality to the machine. The personality
card in the desktop model provides 16 bit stereo sound in
and out as well as a connector for an internal modem. The
tower personality card offered these features as well as 24
bit video in and out.
When
the G3/266 was first released MacAddict pitted it against
an 8600/300, a machine with a 604e processor running at 300MHz.
They found the G3/266 completed a suite of Photoshop functions
78% faster than the 8600. NortonUtilities gave the G3 a score
roughly 30% higher than the 8600. These scores reflect the
advantages of the G3 over the 604e chip. The G3 chip found
in the 266Mhz desktop model was a faster version of the PowerPC
processor. It's speed was enhanced because the L2 cache resides
on a dedicated backside bus running at 133Mhz between processor
and cache. Previously L2 cache performance was limited by
the speed of the main logic board bus which runs at a much
slower speed.
The processor and cache reside in on a removable card that
fits into a PC type Zif socket making it easy to replace with
a faster processor. The main system bus of these G3 machines
runs at 66Mhz (the previous Macs ran at 50Mhz). The G3/266
comes with 32MB SDRAM, expandable to 768 MB using the 3 DIMM
sockets (standard profile 128MB DIMMs will not fit in the
desktop machine). The graphics controller is the ATI 3D Rage
II+ and the machine came standard with 2MB SGRAM graphics
memory which allows for millions of colors (32-bit) at up
to 832 x 624 resolution. Graphics memory is expandable to
6MB which will allow millions of colors at higher resolutions
and faster 3D performance. There are 3 PCI slots for add on
cards and a proprietary slot for the included personality
card. The hard drive is a 4GB EIDE on the Desktop and 6 GB
on the Tower, and the CD ROM is 24x. The Tower machine has
one free 5.23" drive bay (the other is filled with the
internal Zip drive) and both machines have external SCSI connectors
(5Mbytes per second). The machine case is easy to get into
and the simplicity of the new logic-board design make upgrades
a snap.
For Great Prices On Upgrades
Check The Vendors Below
Index
of all online Macintosh hardware and software reviews
Below you will find the MacBench 5.0 results
for most of the processor upgrades available for this machine.
** Note that MacBench does not take advantage
of the Velocity Engine (AltiVec instructions) of the G4. For
AltiVec accelerated applications
you can see a 1.4 to 4 times performance improvement over
the G3, depending on the application and the functions you
are trying to perform.
"But I thought that the G4 was so much faster than
the G3?" In some cases it is! For G4 Application specific
scores - Click
Here
Copyright 1996-2007 by Cider Press Publishing LLC all rights reserved.
MacSpeedZone is not authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple
Computer. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPod, iBook, iMac, eMac, and
PowerBook are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Additional
company
and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby
acknowledged.
5/24/01
When
the G3/266 was first released MacAddict pitted it against
an 8600/300, a machine with a 604e processor running at 300MHz.
They found the G3/266 completed a suite of Photoshop functions
78% faster than the 8600. NortonUtilities gave the G3 a score
roughly 30% higher than the 8600. These scores reflect the
advantages of the G3 over the 604e chip. The G3 chip found
in the 266Mhz desktop model was a faster version of the PowerPC
processor. It's speed was enhanced because the L2 cache resides
on a dedicated backside bus running at 133Mhz between processor
and cache. Previously L2 cache performance was limited by
the speed of the main logic board bus which runs at a much
slower speed. 
For Great Prices On Upgrades 