They were the slowest SGI boxes, but a MIPS R3000 at 12.5 to 36Mhz would have been faster than the 33Mhz 386DX in a high end PC in 1998.
Edit: Things were moving pretty fast at the time, so I suppose if you bought one in 1998, it would have looked anemic when the 486 came out. Basically, if you bought anything and held it for 3-5 years, it was much further behind than the same situation today.
Edit: Things were moving pretty fast at the time, so I suppose if you bought one in 1998, it would have looked anemic when the 486 came out. Basically, if you bought anything and held it for 3-5 years, it was much further behind than the same situation today.