I was wondering if its possible to tweak MorphOS for maximum performance and responsiveness speed. I have an 12" iBook G4 @1,2GHz and would like to squeeze the max out of it. I am already using the AmigaOS 3.x skin.
Does deactivating enhanced 3D speed up stuff or slow it down? Are there any other options?

Well, with the right tools and some information about what has to be modified, you can use older versions of Apple's Chud Tools to overclock the processors in Apple iBook G4s.
But I doubt the 1.2 would go much higher than 1.4 GHz.
And the 1.42 GHz model probably has less headroom, I wouldn't try for more than 1.5 GHz.

Combine that with the difficulty in obtaining a version of Chud Tools that supports the iBook, I believe that would be version 4.6.1, the easiest upgrade is a replacement.

Your iBook uses an R200 gpu I believe, my 1.42 GHz iBook uses an R300 (I believe a Radeon 9550).
That's one upgrade path, about 200 MHz faster cpu, and a better gpu.

Then there are the Powerbooks, which use an R300 gpu (a Radeon 9800 this time), and they are available in speeds up the 1.67 GHz (with a processor that has a larger cache), in addition to those features the gpu has access to VRAM up to 128MB (four times the vram in my iBook, I'm unsure about yours).

This is completely from a hardware perspective though. That's something I'm comfortable with.

As to software tweaks, you're going to need the advice of a MorphOS guru (which I definitely am not).

However, my slightly faster iBook with its more capable gpu is completely adequate for my uses without any "tweaks".

And I've used two hi-res 1.67 GHz PowerBooks that were later shipped to friends in Europe and they were remarkable.
Considering my G4 desktop at the time was a 1.42 (and my current is equipped with a 1.33 Xserve processor), both with Radeon 9800 video cards, the hi-res Powerbooks actually out performed those desktops.

In fact, until the adoption of the G5, outside of G4 PowerMacs equipped with third party accelerators. The 1.67 GHz PowerBook was our fastest system.

Honestly, since Peg2s generally run slower than your iBook, and often utilize R200 based video cards, is your system that unresponsive?

My first MorphOS system was a 733 MHz QuickSilver PowerMac that I quickly upgraded to 933 MHz (an overclock), then to a dual 1 GHz cpu card (where only one cpu was used naturally, which basically gave it parity with a Peg2).
And that system flew, with a clock 1/6th slower than your iBook.

Its only until we adopted the G5 that I really became jaded.
But honestly, MorphOS is not a particularly demanding OS.

It originally ran on PPC equipped Amigas that ran at about a 1/6 of your system speed (or less).

It runs on Genesi Efika systems that clock at less than half the speed of your iBook and the primary limitation there is the limited amount of memory soldered to the Efika mainboard.

What titles does your system struggle with, maybe I'm just not using my iBook as strenuously.

[ Edited by Jim 18.05.2018 - 18:33 ]

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More like 9700, I think.

@thread:
I'd go for a SSD. I know that changing a harddive in an iBook requires "blood, sweat and tears", but there's a plain 4200 rpm drive inside. SSD would give it some advantages.

DdiqkaLVMAILzc1.jpg in pb58. The one in my pb56 is clocked a bit lower, but no difference when on desktop obviously. As for "tweaks", you can use a 8bit IFF wallpaper to save some vram. Configure it to your liking, "tweaks" can help a bit, but PPC is just old. SSD will help for sure. I only have a newer HDD and that alone is a big difference compared to the stock HDD.

> Powerbooks [...] use [...] a Radeon 9800

They use a Radeon 9700M, which is based on RV350/RV360, so basically a Radeon 9600 variant.

> with a processor that has a larger cache

It's 7447A in both cases, so cache sizes should be the same.

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Sorry, yes 9700, but that's still an improvement over the 9550 or an R200 based gpu.
The SSD idea is intriguing, I have a spare OWC 240GB SSD, but replacing the hardrive in an iBook is a toal PITA.

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Sorry, since the 1 GHz and slower iBook models used a 7455, and the top speed of the best iBooks is the same as the fastest PowerMac G4, I'd just assumed that they'd kept using the 7455 in the models from the 1.07 GHz up as well.
I stand corrected.
Although without the MDD's L3 cache (early Powerbooks also featuring an L3 cache), a feature dropped on later Powerbooks based on the 7447 (those at 1 GHz or above) and never implement in the iBooks, a 1.42 GHz ibook would no doubt perform worse than a 1.42 GHz PowerMac (without consideration of the second processor) 7447 or not. The swap appears to be related to power draw and heat production.

Has anyone considered asking him how much memory he has installed? 1.2 GHz iBooks only have 256MB of memory on the motherboard (my 1.42 GHz model has 512MB), and since the iBooks only have one memory slot, its best to populate that with a 1GB strip (I cannibalized mine from a Powerbook)

[ Edited by Jim 19.05.2018 - 15:05 ]

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https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=6770&post_id=69291&viewmode=flat&sortorder=0&showonepost=1

;)

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Odd, that quote reads:

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I never really paid attention to Motorola's change from "A" suffix 7447 parts to 'B" suffix parts.
I wonder what changes were made?
Most Apple hardware and the parts used in third party accelerators are "A" suffix components.

Although, if Apple had chosen the 7457 instead of the 7447, and higher scaling versions of the 7457 had been created, it would have outperformed the 7447 since it could be equipped with up to a 4MB L3 cache. Unfortunately, was development focused on the 7447, the 7457 was only produced in variants up to 1.3 GHz.

When making a comparison between the 7455, 7457, and the 7447, I don't see any clear advantages to the later except that Apple's support promoted the development of higher clocking variants of the 7447.

Of course all of this is a moot point if you compare any of these closely related processors with the more advanced 7448 (which I don't think Apple ever utilized), The MPC7448 had an L2 cache twice as large as the previous 74XX cpus, so the lack of an L3 cache had less impact.

Still, a PowerMac or PowerBook with an MPC 7457 (that could clock higher than 1.3 GHz) and a full 4MB L3 cache would have had much better performance than the direction Apple went.

For that matter, an MPC7448 equipped with an L3 cache would have been awesome.

And if Apple had truly been concerned over the lack of a higher performing PPC PowerBook while G5 desktops were in production, I'm sure they could have coerced Motorola into building a 2.0 GHz (or higher) variant of the 7448 with an L3 cache.

>> It's 7447A in both cases, so cache sizes should be the same.

> https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=6770&post_id=69291&viewmode=flat&sortorder=0&showonepost=1
> ;)

Luckily, the cache sizes for 7447A, 7447B and 7447C are the same :-)

> later Powerbooks based on the 7447 (those at 1 GHz or above)

There're 3 generations of 1.0 GHz PowerBooks, two (Ti/Al) with 7455 and one (Al) with 7447.

> a 1.42 GHz ibook would no doubt perform worse than a 1.42 GHz PowerMac

There may be specific use cases where the iBook's double-size L2 cache gives it an advantage over the PowerMac, though.

> Motorola's change from "A" suffix 7447 parts to 'B" suffix parts.

This happened during Freescale days.

> I wonder what changes were made?

The document I linked in https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=6560&forum=11&start=7 has some information.

> Most Apple hardware and the parts used in third party accelerators are
> "A" suffix components.

For whatever reason, Apple and third parties named it "7447A" in their product specs, no matter if they used a 7447A or a 7447B part. To really know what's inside you'd have to read the imprint of the part.

> an MPC7448 equipped with an L3 cache would have been awesome. [...]
> Apple [...] could have coerced Motorola into building a 2.0 GHz (or higher)
> variant of the 7448 with an L3 cache.

An MPC7458, so to speak (and of course, just as previous 745x chips, not really equipped with L3 cache but with the required pinout to connect external L3 cache) :-) But remember, this was Freescale, not Motorola anymore, and relationship between Apple and Freescale had become frosty at that point in time.

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There's more than that. Look at this picture. It' the 7447 CPU from A1138 (1,67 GHz) PowerBook G4. The core is signed as "7447B", while the imprint says "7447A".

Interesting perspectives and information gentleman.
And Andreas has given a designation for an L3 cache equipped 7448, MPC7458, I like that.