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Giga Designs Offers First 2GHz G4 Upgrade

Giga Designs Offers First 2GHz G4 Upgrade

by , 6:00 AM EDT, April 5th, 2005

Giga Designs recently introduced a 2GHz version of its PowerPC G4 7447A processor upgrade for AGP equipped Power Mac G4 systems.

The upgrade card is technically rated by Freescale at 1.6GHz, but Giga Designs each one to ensure they run reliably at 2GHz. The upgrade also features 512K of L2 cache running at the same speed as the processor.

The upgrade, model number 7A-1620U, is available now for $499 and requires Mac OS X 9.2.2 or Mac OS X 10.3.5 and later. The card is compatible with the following Power Mac G4 models: AGP Graphics (Sawtooth), Gigabit Ethernet, Digital Audio, Quicksilver, and Quicksilver 2002.

Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:Tiger Posts: 1018 Joined: 17 Jun 2003
Subject: Let's hope for more

The G4 could have a much longer life than anyone expected. Let's see if other developers follow suit. The prices should come down. My tower may live for years to come.

Close Name:madgunde Posts: 66 Joined: 02 Dec 2004
Subject: Andy C.

Wow, now a 2GHz Mac mini would be nice. Or how about a 2GHz PowerBook while we wait for a G5 P'Book?

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Sounds like the 1.67GHz 7447A in PBs

This sounds like the latest revision of the 7447A that is clocked at 1.67GHz in this year's PowetBooks. I'm not surprised that it can run at 2GHz in a desktop configuration. I don't think you'll see a G4 at these speeds offered by Apple until the 90nm 7447 variant is released though.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: DP

I have a DP PowerMac G4 ... could I cram two of these in there?

Close Name:Guest
Subject: diminishing returns?

The 7447A does not support Level 3 cache. It seems to me that, at some point, there is a serious law of diminishing returns for this variant of the G4. Without the L3 cache won't this processor be spending some serious time in idle waiting for the slow 100 - 133MHz bus to get data to it? The 7447A, unlike the other variants, sacrifices all L3 in return for a higher clock speed. There is a reason that barefeats did a comparison of different G4 variants in a G4 cube vs the mac mini and came up with L3 cache being absolutely critical for overall performance (http://www.barefeats.com/cubeup.html). Are we falling victim to our own MegaHertz Myth?

Close Name:Guest
Subject: 2 Ghz means nothing without the large L3 cache

A 2.0 ghz processor means nothing without the large 2MB L3 cache on the 1.4 processors. Take a look on XBench, and you won't see any 1.7 ghz processors at the top. It's all the 1.4 ghz Dual processors that lead the way. If Giga Designs could somehow design a 2.0 ghz processor with a 2MB cache -- now THAT would be something to rave about.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: could a powerbook be upgraded to 2gHz?

Curious if this is possible with a G4 powerbook. Thanks.

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