I recall reading in one of the computer magazines that the fpu performance of the
G3 processor was in fact somewhat less than that of the 'normal' PowerPC. Most
journals pay little attention to this sort of detail (and manufacturers don't
exactly encourage them to!), but it is obviously important when running Csound;
so it would be useful to have some proper f/p benchmarks. The G3 sounds like good
value (relatively...), but if it is sluggish on f/p it is rather less attractive!

Richard Dobson

Piche Jean wrote:

> I dont really want to get into this potentially endless cost/performance
> analysis but do keep in mind that that Stephen's figures are hmmm alittle
> optimistic.. Once you have factored in the monitor (a good 17" monitor
> ~500-600$), all this beautiful software (that comes free on the sgi) for
> another $1000... it certainly not a 50% difference and you are stuck
> (personal bias, here) with the MacOS. At this point however, a G3 probably
> outperforms an r5k O2 but the r5k is on its way out, the r10k will soon be
> the entry level chip on SGIs. Its a question of taste of course but I am
> willing to pay much $ for the convenience of a good solid unix OS.
>
> _____________________________________________________________________________
>                                                                    Jean Piche
>                                                                 Musique - UdM
>                                                       pichej@ERE.Umontreal.ca