It's been months since 1 gigahertz processors were introduced to the Dark Side. Intel says it's now shipping 1.13GHz Pentiums and arch-rival AMD says they're now shipping 1.1GHz versions of their Athlon to computer makers. But the G4 processor manufactured by IBM and Motorola seems stuck in the 500 megahertz zone. Size isn't everything As Apple is wont to remind us, comparing megahertz ratings doesn't provide a truly accurate indication of real computer performance.
Different processors perform at different speeds, even if the ratings match up.
The current versions of the Mac operating system include special Velocity Engine extensions that make the Finder, for example, seem speedier. Programs specifically designed to exploit these enhancements can also crunch numbers at a much faster rate. In addition, speedy hard drives, and fast graphic accelerators can also make your computer run faster. Right now, Apple is providing pretty fast hard drives in all their desktop models, and improved graphics performance is promised with new cards from ATI and 3dfx Interactive. Sharing two brains Another way to eke out more computing power is to use two or more processors.