We have a HP Color LaserJet 4650 running a JetDirect model J3113A JD33, ROM G.07.19, Revision G.08.49, connected at 100Mbps. The memory has been maxed out at 544MB
However, this particular printer seems to have more than it's fair share of slowdowns. No more errors than any other printer in the office, just sometimes it'll take 30 seconds to output a page. This is especially an issue when, once a year or so, we need to print several dozen copies of 40 to 60 page documents for conferences.
The entire office network runs at gigabit, and runs well.
In considering all the various ways we can coax more power out of this machine, I'd like to know, is upgrading this printer to a JetDirect that can run gigabit likely to increase the performance of the machine? Are there internal bottlenecks that will make this a non-solution?
Are the jobs spooled on a server or on the local PC? That can have an impact. We had a B&W HP 5035X that we changed to gbit and noticed no difference. Tweaking the print processor and how the job was processed made a difference although not huge.
I ended up asking our contracted printer support person this question when he was next in the office. He informed me that it is unlikely that upgrading the network speed of the jetdirect will significantly improve the speed of the printer. Upgrading the JetDirect to a newer version will make a slight improvement whether or not the new card works at 100Mbps or 1000Mbps simply for it being newer and more capable hardware. However, the printer itself is an older printer that is being asked to handle more and more complex documents, and there are just limits to how well it will do.