Does More MHz Equal More Speed?

Of course it does but this Detroit Free Press article discusses CPU MHz from a practical standpoint for the average user. More MHz seems to get you much less per MHz on Wintel's than with the PowerPC CPU on Macs. The author recommends Macs because of their ease of use, not speed. [Dana Baggett] [Professionals in many graphics businesses need all the speed a computer can produce but many of us can live without having the latest/fastest and avoid the premium cost. Still, a real CPU speed boost makes a big difference in almost every task and a faster computer is more satisfying. My PowerLogix PowerBoost Pro with a 250 MHz 604e CPU is substantially faster in my 8500 than the original Apple CPU at 120 MHz. My 250 MHz PowerLogix G3 card makes my 2-1/2 year old PowerBase's original 180 MHz 603e CPU look pathetic, as does XLR8's 366 MHz CarrierZIF G3 recently reviewed here. However, these differences are not due just to CPU MHz. They include a CPU redesign. A closer just-MHz comparison is PowerLogix's 466 MHz G3 ZIF clocked to 500 MHz that Macs Only! recently reviewed. It was noticeably faster than my B&W's original 300 MHz G3 at all tasks but that speed increase was also assisted by an increase in backside cache size from 512K to 1 MB. For my tasks, a MHz increase of 50 percent or more seems to provide an all-around noticeable and satisfying task speed increase.--Bill]