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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  12 inch G4/867MHz PowerBook

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 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

Only those machines with CD burning capability could be tested. No surprise here. Machines with the SuperDrive burn CDs slower.

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.

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

Number Crunching & Rendering Tests

A Ripple Effect is applied to an iMovie. This function appears to respond well to the G4 processor

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 machine, and the G4 processor, when applications are tuned to take advantage of these features

Encoding/Decoding Tests

A Sorenson encode compresses a QuickTime movie for streaming on the Web. The version of Sorenson which is incorporated into QuickTime does not take advantage of dual processors

Converting QuickTime movies to DV allows you to import them into iMovie

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.

Multitasking

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. Size of L2 & L3 cache are factors in the scores above

QuickTime Sorenson encode and Fractal render are both carried out 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 12 inch PowerBook turned in 18.3 fps