The Power Macintosh G3 was a series of personal computers made by Apple. It used the PowerPC G3 (PPC750) microprocessor. A major leap forward was made in this model through the introduction of a large level 2 backside cache which reduced data bottlenecks and allowed very efficient use by the computer of its bus speed. Because of this, at the time Power Mac G3 machines were widely considered to be faster than Intel PCs of similar CPU speed. The Power Mac G3 was originally intended to be a midrange series, between the low-end Performa/LC models and the high-end Power Mac 8600 and 9600. During development, it quickly became evident that the G3 was a much faster machine than the 604-based Macs, so the Power Mac G3 became the flagship instead.