Disk Cache and Mac OS 9 - The
Performance Equation
Every time Apple comes out with a new release
of the Mac OS we like to test performance at various disk
cache settings. The disk cache is set in the Memory control
panel. Testing was done using MacBench
5.0 on a PowerBook G3/266 with 128MB of RAM and Mac OS
9 installed. MacBench profiles popular software programs such
as Adobe Photoshop, Word 6.0 and QuarkXpress among a variety
of others and applies these profiles to the various subsystems
being tested. Click Here for
more information on MacBench. We set the 128k disk cache scores
at 100% to provide you with a base for comparison. Higher
scores indicate better performance.
MacBench 5.0 Scores
Note: The results above would seem to indicate that 2MB
and not Apple's default of 4MB provides the best balance
between performance and RAM usage. MacSpeedZone welcomes
your comments
on these results.
Stopwatch Tests
The results below measure the percentage of time taken
to relaunch the specified application. During a relaunch
certain information is taken from the Disk Cache rather
from the drive accelerating relaunch time. Results represent
the performance improvement over a base 128K disk cache
which receives a 100% score. In this case, Shorter bars
indicate better performance.
The following two tests used a 60MB folder
containing over 1,100 items
The results above closely parallel our
findings with OS 8.6. It is interesting to note that
in both cases, disk cache sizes above 1MB tend to slow the
"Empty Trash" function. If you have an explanation
we would be interested in hearing from you. Visit our Discussion
Board and post your thoughts.
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