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Hands-On Review: PowerLogix G4 350 MHz CPU Upgrades
--PowerForce G4, G4 ZIF and Z-Force Adapter
By Bill Fox
January 3, 2000
PowerLogix. Price: $599 list, $555 Expo Special; Z-Force $149 list
Pros: Performance as good as PowerMac G4, easy installation and clear set up, speed optimizable, excellent design and quality workmanship, comprehensive manual, excellent warranty
Cons: Dual G3/G4 manual potentially confusing.
Rating: Outstanding, 5 out of 5 Exclamation Points: 
Brought to you by Macs Only! Copyright 2000 by Bill Fox
The G4 is the latest PowerPC central processor (CPU) from Motorola. This CPU is distinguished by its new superfast AltiVec engine called the "Velocity Engine" by Apple Computer which uses it in Apple's new "supercomputer," the Power Macintosh G4. PowerLogix now brings G4 supercomputing power to owners of earlier Macs and most clones.
PowerLogix currently offers its PowerForce G4 CPU upgrades in two a speeds, 350 and 400 MHz, and in two types, daughter card and ZIF. PowerLogix also recently released the Z-Force, an adapter card that allows the use of ZIF CPU cards in computers with a daughter card slot.
The PowerForce G4 ZIF cards are made primarily for Apple Blue & White (B&W), Beige and All-in-One G3's. PowerLogix has a software fix for B&W G3s that have been blocked from using G4 CPUs by Apple's firmware update. The PowerForce G4 daughter card is compatible with most older PowerMacs and clones that have a CPU daughter card slot. As noted above, with PowerLogix's Z-Force the G4 ZIF can also be used in most older PCI Macs and clones. The G4 CPU upgrades are not compatible with those Macs or clones that use the L2 slot for CPU upgrades nor the Umax series with a proprietary ZIF slot. G4 CPUs are also not compatible with computers based on the Catalyst motherboard design. See PowerLogix's web site for compatibility details.
PowerLogix, a site sponsor, loaned Macs Only! a PowerForce G4 350 MHz daughter card, a 350 MHz G4 ZIF and a Z-Force for evaluation. Each was used almost continuously for the past month in a B&W G3 (rev.1) and a PowerComputing PowerBase 180. They are compared with an Apple PowerMac G4/400 (Sawtooth). See the configuration details in the Appendix. Each was a final preproduction model. Other World Computing provided the 350 MHz G3 ZIF running at 400 MHz in the PowerBase.
What You Get
The PowerForce G4 CPU daughter card comes with a CD, a G4 Boot Diskette and a printed manual. PowerLogix's new small design is about 2/3 the size of their first G3 card (see top photo at right) and not too much larger than a ZIF CPU card. It has a small round heat sink and a fan that connects to an extra power connector or to the CD or hard drive for power instead of a large heat sink. There is an 8-switch bank on the card (upper right corner) that allows for adjusting the bus speed and the ratio of CPU to bus speed with the first 7 switches. The eighth switch turns the special PowerComputing PowerBase circuitry on or off.
The CD contains PowerLogix's G4 Installer which installs the latest version of the G3/G4 Cache Profiler application and extension. They allow the setting of various parameters including the ratio of CPU speed to backside cache speed and provide a wealth of information about the CPU and cache. The installer also places the AltiVec Enabler extension in the System Folder. The Enabler is needed for software to take advantage of the G4's AltiVec engine. The CD also contains a free version of the Linux operating system, LinuxPPC. My CD had the July 4, 1999, edition.
The G4 Boot Disk is included in case a flashing "?" is encountered at startup after installing the G4 CPU and software. If this happens, which it may for some older PowerMacs, then inserting the diskette allows booting and a patch is applied. Any time that the motherboard battery dies or is removed or if the motherboard CUDA reset switch is pressed, then the G4 Boot Diskette may have to be run again.
The 37-page manual contains detailed instructions for installation of the card and software, use of the software, some troubleshooting tips, speed settings chart and guarantee/warranty. PowerLogix offers a 30-day money back satisfaction guarantee and a 3-year hardware warranty.
The PowerForce G4 ZIF comes with the CD and manual but not the G4 Boot Diskette. The PowerForce G4 ZIF is a little larger than Apple's G3 ZIF cards (see second photo at right). As can be seen, the Motorola G4 CPU is also larger than the Motorola G3 CPU. The PowerForce has a rotary switch at the lower right corner for changing the ratio of the CPU to bus speed. The bus speed, either 66 MHz on the Beige G3s or 100 MHz on the B&W G3s, is not adjustable with the ZIF card.
The CD includes the G4 Installer and LinuxPPC as described above and software to patch the B&W firmware so that they can run G4 CPUs, the G4 Firmware Updater.
The 31-page manual also contains detailed instructions for installation of the card and software, use of the software, some troubleshooting tips, speed settings chart and guarantee/warranty. PowerLogix offers a 30-day money back satisfaction guarantee and a 3-year hardware warranty.
The Z-Force comes with the G3/G4 Cache Profiler software and a manual. It does not include a CPU which must be purchased separately or as a bundle. It, too, uses PowerLogix's new smaller
card design (third photo at right) and includes a "swiss cheese" heat sink plate and a clip to hold it on top of a G3 or G4 ZIF CPU (fourth photo at right).
Installation and Setup
I installed the PowerForce G4 in my PowerBase and the PowerForce G4 ZIF in my B&W G3. After running the short term and long term tests on both computers I installed the G4 ZIF on the Z-Force and both in the PowerBase to complete the use tests.
PowerForce G4/PowerBase -- The installation was straight forward. First, I set up the PowerForce G4 card by setting the switches to give a 45 MHz system bus and a 360 MHz CPU (8:1) and set the PowerBase switch on. I know from past experience that my PowerBase will run at 45 MHz but someone else may wish to start at 40 MHz, the system bus' normal speed. 
Then I removed the existing G3 CPU card (previously the L2 cache card was removed), pressed the PowerForce G4 into the daughter card slot being careful to not rock it, attached the power cable to the CD drive and its power connector (bottom photo at right) and started up. I did not get the flashing "?" so boot up proceeded normally. I ran the G4 Installer software and set the cache to 2:1. Finally, I installed the four AltiVec extensions from Mac OS 9 and shut down.
One of the best things about PowerLogix cards is that they can be optimized during setup to wring the last ounce of speed out of a CPU. I have done this with each PowerLogix card I have tested or owned and the two that I own are performing as well as the day I got them, over 2 years now. If one does this, it's at one's own risk as YMMV. 
I upped the system bus speed and restarted successively at 46.7, 50 and 52.5 MHz and found that 50 MHz was stable. With an 8:1 ratio, the 350 MHz CPU was running at 400 MHz and the cache at 200 MHz (2:1). The G4 will run at 9:1 so I turned off the cache, shut down and set the CPU at 9:1 (450 MHz) but it wouldn't boot. I backed the system bus to 46.7 and tried again. This time it booted and the CPU was running at 420 MHz. The cache ran fine at 210 MHz (2:1) when enabled but froze at 280 MHz (3:2). I rebooted with the optimized system, i.e. the CPU running at 420 MHz, cache at 210 MHz and system bus at 46.7 MHz.
PowerForce G4 ZIF/B&W G3 -- To use a G4 CPU on a B&W G3, one first has to apply a patch to Apple's G3 Firmware Update which among other things blocks the use of G4 CPUs. Apple's G3 Firmware Update is needed to run Mac OS 9. The patch is applied by copying the G3 Firmware file from the Update to a folder with PowerLogix's G4 Firmware Updater. Running the G4 Firmware Updater then applies the patch and reapplies the G3 Firmware update. The B&W has to be restarted and the programmers switch held down until a long tone finishes sounding. When the system finished booting, then I ran the G4 Installer which installed the G3/G4 Cache Profiler and extension and the AltiVec Enabler extension. Finally, I installed the four Altivec extensions from Mac OS 9 and shut down.
The G4 ZIF CPU card has a rotary switch to set the CPU to bus speed ratio. The B&W has a 100 MHz system bus so I first set the G4's switch to "E" which provides a 350 MHz CPU clock speed (3.5:1), the G4's rated speed. I booted and used the Cache Profiler to enable cache at 175 MHz (2:1). Everything checked out and ran fine so I disabled cache with the Cache Profiler and shut down to begin the speed optimization process.
Optimization is a little easier with the ZIF since there are only two adjustment to make. The system bus speed is fixed on the motherboard. Since CPU speed is the most important performance factor, I tried it first and then addressed the cache speed. I change the rotary swith to "F" (4:1) for a CPU speed of 400 MHz and booted. It checked out as stable at least in the very short run so I shut down again and tried "G" (4.5:1) or 450 MHz--no boot. So I went back to 400 MHz, booted and set cache to 200 MHz (2:1) with Cache Profiler. No freeze after working with some applications so I tried the cache at 267 MHz (3:2) but got an immediate freeze. Apparently, the fastest that the PowerForce G4 ZIF will run in my B&W is 400 MHz with cache at 200 MHz.
PowerForce G4 ZIF/Z-Force/PowerBase -- The Z-Force is designed to install G3 and G4 ZIF CPUs in computers with daughter card slots. I set the rotary dial to "8" or 9:1 on the G4 ZIF and installed it on the Z-Force which I set for a system bus of 46.7, a CPU to bus ratio of 9:1 and the PowerBase computer. This had given a CPU speed of 420 MHz on the PowerBase with the PowerForce G4 daughter card as noted above. I disabled cache, shut down, eased out the PowerForce G4 card, pressed the Z-Force in and started up. No freeze so I enabled cache at 2:1 (210 MHz) with no problem. Like the PowerForce G4 daughter card, the Z-Force wouldn't run the G4 ZIF any faster.
Use
The three configurations were tested using MacBench 5.0 and some application benchmarks to illustrate their relative performance and to see if the optimized setups were stable in the short run. Then each was run over night with Newer Technologies' RAMometer set in continuous test mode. All passed these relatively short term tests without a single freeze. The each configuration, except the Z-Force, was used in normal work for 30 days. The G4 ZIF had to be returned so there wasn't enough time to complete more than a few days of normal use with the Z-Force in the PowerBase. During the few days, the Z-Force with the G4 ZIF performed perfectly.
The results of the performance tests are given below:
Computer:
PowerBase
PowerBase
PowerBase
B&W G3
B&W G3
CPU:
Clock Speeds:
---------------------------------
------------------
------------------
------------------
-----------------
-----------------
--------------------
Tests
.
.
.
.
.
.
MacBench 5 - CPU
MacBench 5 - FPU
MacBench 5 - Disk
MacBench 5 - Graphics
Walker Spin (min fps)
Quake FTM (fps)
G4TimeDemo (fps)
*Mac OS 9, Virtual Memory off, no Libmoto extension, D.C. = daughter card, clock speeds are CPU/cache/bus
The G4 CPU upgrade cards perform as well or better than Apple's PowerMac G4 given the same graphics or hard drive hardware. For integer calculations used in most applications, a G4 and G3 of the same clock speed have about the same performance. However, for floating point calculations used in scientific applications, CAD and 3D games, the G4 excels. This is clear in the MacBench 5.0 FPU and G4TimeDemo tests. G4TimeDemo uses the AltiVec engine in a 3D game environment and the G4 beats the G3 by 40-80 percent.
Conclusions
The PowerPC G4 CPU is a terrific CPU for those applications that use floating point calculations, especially if they are optimized to use the AltiVec engine. PowerLogix's PowerForce G4 and G4 ZIF will transform your older Mac into a performer equivalent to the new Apple supercomputers. My 3-year old PowerComputing PowerBase with a $555 PowerForce G4 CPU, a $99 3dfx Voodoo3 3D/2D graphics accelerator and a $100 10 GB 7200 RPM ATA 66 drive will run alongside the new Apple PowerMac G4. As for my B&W G3, well for $555 I can turn it into a blue "Yikes" G4. The design, workmanship and claimed compatibility are outstanding.
Installation is very easy. Setup is not too difficult. The software is outstanding. The manual has all the information needed to walk one through all the steps. The only drawback is that the manual is a combined G3/G4 manual. With the extra steps required for the G4, there would be less of an opportunity for confusion with a separate G4-specific manual.
The principal feature of PowerLogix CPU upgrade cards has been their ability to be optimized for the greatest speed in any computer. The PowerForce G4 and G4 ZIF are certainly not disappointing in that department. I can even get 420 MHz out of the 350 MHz G4s in my PowerBase.
All told, the PowerForce G4's are outstanding. The Z-Force is too and I rate it higher than its competitor, the XLR8 CarrierZIF, because of its lower cost and broader compatibility. I also like the small size of these new PowerLogix offerings.
Appendix I -- Test Computer Configurations
PowerComputing PowerBase 180
Apple Blue & White G3 (rev. 1)
Apple Power Macintosh G4 (rev. 1 Sawtooth)
Copyright © 2000 by Bill Fox
All rights reserved--no use permitted without attribution.
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