Retired Friday, May 2, 2003
Current Page

Have questions? Comments? Give us your feedback on these performance numbers
Below you will find performance results for most of the currently shipping machines, and some from previous generations. This will, hopefully, give you an feel for the relative performances of these machines when running OS X. We will be adding new machines on an on-going basis ... so check back once in a while.

New machines added to the list below include the new  Power Mac Dual G4/1.42 GHz Tower.

It should be noted that, although all the machines below were running a version of OS X, not all were running 10.2, or Jaguar. However the scores below are relative ones, so we are fairly confident that most of the performance relationships should hold up despite the change in OS system version. There may be some variations that we have not completely considered ... so travel with care. See our testing philosophy for more info

Additional Resources Power Mac Performance iMac Performance PowerBook Performance iBook Performance eMac Performance In-depth Performance Power Macs Buyer's Guide iMacs Buyer's Guide G4 PowerBooks Buyer's Guide iBooks Buyer's Guide Power Mac InfoZone iMac InfoZone eMac InfoZone PowerBook InfoZone iBook InfoZone G4 iMac Information Page Power Mac Specifications and Reviews Page iMac Specifications and Reviews Page PowerBook Specifications and Reviews Page iBook Specifications and Reviews Page Resutls for previous machines Check prices at: .... Clubmac MacConnection MacMall Macwarehouse MacZone Small Dog

The tests below are from our suite of real world application tests. These tests feature a diverse selection of applications commonly used by the Mac community. The test suite was designed to render an accurate and well rounded picture of a machine's performance. All of the tests below, except for the game tests, were timed with a stopwatch. The times were then converted to percentages, relative to the Power Mac Dual G4/1GHz, which is set to 100%. For all scores, higher numbers are better.

The copy folder test not only stresses drive performance but also takes advantage of faster processing capability & caching schemes.

In the single file test the the processor & caching capability of the machine is less of a factor

Drive performance appears to be the prime mover here

Let 1K Windows Bloom is a simple carbon application that opens and closes 1,000 windows. This gauges how fast screen redraws are taking place

Large Document & Database Type Tests

A Macro (series of complex actions) was run in Microsoft's Word. Word is part of Office X

This test takes place in a large AppleWorks document. The top two machines have 1 MB more of cache memory than their nearest rival

OS X's new File Search function relies on both processor and drive performance

Number Crunching & Rendering Tests

The Fractal program has been highly tuned to take advantage of the G4 and is precisely the type of work that the G4 was made for. It will also gobble up whatever processing capability is present. This is a good test for assessing the fundamental processing potential of each machine. Really highlights the processing advantage of a dual processor machines, and the G4 processor, when applications are tuned to take advantage of these features

BareFeats Photoshop Test Suite - mimics a production type workflow in Photoshop

Encoding/Decoding Tests

CD-ROM drive speed and CPU processing power are the factors influencing the scores above. Our assumption is that the CD drive speed is the bottleneck in the top of the line Power Macs above.

Straight on processing work

Multitasking

[Note: the results the test above, for the iBook G3/700 Spring 2002, and the iMac G/3 700, we consider to be innaccurate]

MP3 Encode, AppleWorks search & replace and folder copy are all carried out at the same time. If you need to have your computer carry out multiple activities at the same time, a dual processor machine will definitely get you there faster. The old 1.25 GHz Tower has faster drive performance and double the L3 cache of its current counterpart.

The MP3 Encode, Photoshop Normal and Word Macro tests are all run at the same time

Gaming

Giants is tuned to take advantage of the processor(s). Indeed, when run on a dual processor machine, you will see Giants fly ahead of the same game running on a single processor machine. It  also helps to have a better graphics card. The Top machine turned in 57.5 fps.

4x4 EVO2 is a demanding racing game. The top machine turned in 29 fps

Resutls for previous machines