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Re: [ccp4bb]: Comments on G4 Ti



OSX PPC 1GHz, CCP4 distr. 5.11 (3 months)

Here's one more idea, scooped from today' Mac OS X hints:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030103064631426

This weekend I was installing CHUD (packaged with Developer Tools) on my brand new, just out of the box, 1Ghz PowerBook. When I went to use the CPU preference pane, I notice the 1mb L3 cache was not enabled. I tried to enable it but it wouldn't. I then downloaded SpeedRun and saw my benchmark numbers where lower than a 500Mhz G4. Something wasn't right.

http://www.danicsoft.com/index.php?content=utilities/speedrun/index.php

After doing some searching on the Apple Developer site (thinking CHUD had a bug), I realized what was going on. It appears that Apple disables the L3 cache as part of its Energy Saving process on PowerBooks (perhaps iBooks as well). The problem is that the default install on my computer (I assume, having never messed with these settings) was for reduced processor performance both when running on the battery and when plugged in. Battery life is cut one-third when the L3 cache is enabled, so perhaps it makes sense not to have it enabled when running from a battery -- but when you're plugged in, too? The fix:

1. Go to System Preferences -> Energy Saver
2. Click on "Show Details"
3. Select settings for "Power Adapter" from the the select menu
4. Click on the "Options" tab
5. Make sure the "Processor Performace" select menu has "Highest" selected

That's it. Benchmarks almost doubled after doing this. I hope this helps someone else.