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Review: MetaBox's JoeCardTM Z G4/450 2MB Cache First Shipping 2MB G4 CPU Upgrade By Mike Published: 9/15/2000

Review Summary and Final Comments

Intro | Benchmarks | Appl. Tests | Software Controls | Installation | Specs/Design | Summary

The Final Word

At the current suggested list price of $789, this CPU upgrade is not cheap, nearly half the cost of a new G4/400 system from Apple and costing as much or more as some non-adjustable 1MB cache G4/500 upgrades. However with this upgrade installed, my B&W G3 would outperform a G4/400 system at most any task. It often compared well to my single CPU G4/500 system. If you make your living from outputting Sorensen codec movies, the gain I saw over a G3/450 would be enough to pay for the upgrade I suspect. Prices on upgrades often drop quickly, so my comments on pricing are usually obsolete within weeks or months of the publish date of the review. (Check the MetaBox price list or their authorized dealers.) G4 CPU upgrades have always been a mixed bag - since most current applications don't take advantage of the 'Velocity Engine' (Altivec instruction set). However I was impressed with the nearly twice as far iMovie performance in the Tutorial movie export test. For non-Altivec enabled applications, a lower cost G3/450 CPU upgrade performs about as well and costs as little as 1/3 the price of a G4 upgrade. For a list of applications that support the G4, see the FAQ's Apple G4 section. (That may not be a complete list however, but lists the major applications that I am aware of to date.) During the review testing I saw no crashes or problems in any applications I used with the MetaBox G4. The Voodoo5 lockups in Unreal Tournament OpenGL mode noted on the games performance page were due to too little RAM allocated to the game. This was not related to the upgrade and as noted, increasing RAM allocated to the game solved the problem. OS X Compatibility: Another potential concern for upgraded Macs is OS X compatibility.Apple has said OS X does not support CPU upgrades, although I have had reports the beta does work with some models, however G4 upgrades in the B&W G3 is an unknown at this time. The fact the JoeCard requires cache enabling software means MetaBox will have to release an OS X version, which they tell me is in the works now. Personally until OS X is released in final form next spring and the support for 3rd party hardware and devices is far better than it is with the beta, I don't plan on upgrading any machines here other than perhaps one as a experiment. With no current support in the OS X Beta for retail SCSI cards, slave drives, 3dfx or other non-OEM video cards, etc. and very little native software, I just don't see the carrot to switch productive, reliable working machines. As noted in today's news, even if you own an older Mac that is not supported in OS X, don't panic. Current MacOS versions will be supported for many years (it will take a long time for OS X to have the market share of current versions and it may never reach the installed base of Mac OS 7/8/9. Mac OS 8 and 9 users will have lots of software to chose from for many years to come, with none of the teething pains that will surely be seen with OS X for the first year or so. MetaBox G4/450 2MB Review Summary Pros: ZIF has switches for setting speeds, avoiding the need to mess with motherboard jumpers. iMovie 1.02 performance was almost twice as fast as a G3/450 CPU upgrade in the same Blue and White G3 system. If you make your living from rendering movies in Sorensen codec, then this upgrade would have paid for itself quickly compared to the G3/450 CPU. Applications supporting Altivec can see major gains with a G4 upgrade compared to a G3 of the same speed, but only certain Photoshop filters benefit from Altivec (see apps test results). Cons: Expensive. Requires software to enable the backside cache, meaning OS X compatibility may require updated software from MetaBox. (They tell me they are working on OS X enablers now.) Performance gain from extra 1MB cache is small overall. Most current MacOS applications don't use the G4's Altivec (Velocity Engine) instructions. Without Altivec support, most applications perform similar to a G3 of the same clock speed, which are available at much lower prices.

Availability/Pricing: Since CPU upgrade prices change often, always check with MetaBox and their dealers for the latest pricing. As of September 15, 2000, the suggested list for the JoeCard G4+ 450MHz 2MB cache model was $789. Thanks to MetaBox for the review loaner.

I hope this review has provided you with sufficient information on all aspects of the product, but if you have any further questions or comments you may contact me by email at: news@xlr8yourmac.com. For reviews of other CPU cards at this site, see my CPU Upgrades page. The home page (www.xlr8yourmac.com) has links to reviews of Systems, SCSI controllers, Video cards (incl. 3Dfx), Game related articles, a 700+ Questions Answered FAQ and some of the most useful daily news on the net (updated 6-7 days a week). Also check out my unique searchable databases of reader's CPU Upgrade Reports (4500+ reports as of Sept. 2000), Game Reviews and Video card/Game Performance. No other site has these features. Thanks for stopping by!

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