What's The Minimum 'Book For Acceptable Performance With Tiger?
by Charles W. Moore
How much of a 'Book do you need to run OS X 10.4 Tiger with acceptable performance? The specification threshold separating front-line workhorse performance from low-end compromise is a moving target, and somewhat variable depending on the type of use and user-tolerance for sluggish response. OS X 10.4 Tiger has redefined the equation again with its higher video processing demands, and I'm becoming increasingly convinced that my nearly three-year-old 700 MHz iBook with 640 megabytes of RAM and 16 megabytes of video RAM is now well short of the mark.
Don't get me wrong. I've had great service from this machine, and it's never missed a beat in 35 months plus, which is the longest I've ever gone without upgrading to a new system since I started using Macs, and which consequently speaks very well of it. The little 12.1-inch display is still bright and crisp and sharp, and a pleasure to work with. The 20 gigabyte IBM hard drive is too small, but it remains almost silent in operation, and I still find the iBook's styling attractive.
However, the sluggish Finder response with Tiger is wearing thin. Dozens of times a day I find myself waiting for the processor and video support to catch up. Often it's just a moment's hesitation, but that can even be more frustrating then a short wait you're expecting. It's not too bad after a fresh restart, but once the virtual memory pageout parade starts, usually around day two, things bog down significantly. I generally have about 20 programs and often dozens of documents open, two or three browsers running, and use dictation software, whose responsiveness goes downhill progressively between restarts, and is often the straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back and causes me to shut everything down and reboot -- usually about a 20 minute to half hour process to restore the workplace as it was.
In my estimation, the minimum Mac laptop hardware required for really satisfactory performance for the sort of stuff I do with computers would be a 1 GHz G4 with a gigabyte of RAM and 32 megabytes of VRAM. That's an arbitrary judgment, and I thought about setting the bar at 867 MHz G4 in order to include the early 12-inch PowerBooks, but I think 1 GHz is more realistic. Now, someone will probably write in saying that they're perfectly happy with an XPostFacto install of Tiger on their old 233 MHz G3 WallStreet, and as I said, tolerance for sluggishness is subjective. If you're satisfied with OS X's performance on low end hardware, that's great. I'm not.
I thought performance with Max OS 10.2 Jaguar was not really acceptable on my PowerBook 2000 Pismo with its original 500 MHz G3 processor. OS 10.3 Panther provided a welcome speed boost (perhaps 20 percent better by my seat-of-the-pants estimate), and made the stock Pismo acceptable for production work with no excuses, which is to say the performance hit compared with OS 9 was finally compensated by OS X's efficiency and advanced features. When I got the 550 MHz G4 processor upgrade and a 5400 RPM hard drive, you old PowerBook became quite lively, and I would say that OS 10.3.9 is the optimum operating system for that machine and configuration, at least for my purposes.
Tiger was a definite step backward in performance, attributable, I'm pretty sure, to the Pismmo's RAGE 128 Mobility graphics processor and paltry 8 megabytes of video RAM struggling to meet Tiger's graphics demands. The G4 processor still has an edge over the 700 MHz G3 CPU in the iBook for tasks that require a lot of processor muscle, especially in applications optimized for Altivec, but Finder response is livelier (so to speak) with the iBook. Neither is lively enough to really suit me running Apple's latest operating system.
Consequently, I'm happy that the rumors of new iBooks and perhaps even new PowerBooks powered by Intel chips debuting as early as MacWorld Expo in just over a month's time prove accurate (but maybe not, alas: http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20051206A7033.html ). Philosophically, I'm not an early adopter, but the sooner the MacIntel show gets on the road, the sooner my system upgrade roadmap options will be clarified.
I'm still not ruling out getting one more Power PC 'Book, but I really want to see what the Intel machines are going to offer before committing.
Another possibility would be to buy a used or refurbished G4 'Book as an interim upgrade, which his partly what got me thinking along the lines I'm discussing this column. I'm a fan of the little 12-inch PowerBook, and a 1 GHz or 1.33 GHz unit might be just the ticket.
Which brings us back to our main topic. If you're in the market for a secondhand/refurbished 'Book that can run OS 10.4 Tiger in reasonably sprightly fashion, the 1.33 Ghz models, which have included all sizes of aluminum PowerBooks as well as the current 12 inch iBook, could just represent the sweet spot with regard to the price-performance value equation.
In a 12-inch PowerBook, I would be inclined to lean toward the 1.33 GHz version by preference over the 1.5 GHz unit that immediately replaced if last January, since the early iterations of the scrolling trackpad on that later model had some issues. Apple is selling Certified Refurbished 1.33 Ghz 12-inch PowerBooks this week for $1,149.00.
I would want at least 768 megabytes of RAM with one of these. Wegener Media also has some refurbished 1 GHz 12-inch PowerBooks for $799, which is the best price I've seen. The 1.33 GHz 12 inch iBook is of course available for $999, and supports a full gigabyte of RAM with a reasonably priced 512 MB upgrade module, and may well be the best value of all. Versions of the 15 inch and 17-inch PowerBooks with the 1.33 GHz G4 processor are also available in the $1400-$1800 range.
I would be interested in hearing others' take on what's the minimum Mac laptop hardware they're satisfied running Tiger on.
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