Given its relatively low price and slightly better performance, we favor Newer Technology's Maxpowr G3-G3. The PowerLogix PowerForce G3 performs nearly as well but is a bit more expensive. The Sonnet Encore G3, although it's the easiest to install and the least expensive, is our last pick due to its slow speed and lack of software and hardware configuration options.
Installation is a simple affair with all four cards.
The Newer, PowerLogix, and XLR8 upgrades come with some kind of driver and control panel for configuring their backside-cache speed. The Sonnet upgrade doesn't require additional software, but you also can't configure it. After installing the software for those upgrades that require it, you simply swap the old processor for the new one. Newer's and Sonnet's manuals offer the clearest instructions for installing the card. There's very little real-world difference between these upgrades.