hopefully give you an impression of relative
performances. We will be adding new machines on an on-going
basis ... so check back once in a while. We are gradually
moving to a testing program based on OS X, however the results
below were done under either OS 9.1 or OS 9.2.1. The 500 and
600 MHz iMacs and the 500 MHz iBook are the previous incarnations
of these machines. However the current models of these three
machines differ little from their predecessors ... especially
in the performance arena. So you can safely assume that the
performance numbers below will be pretty much in-line with
the current generation, running at the same clock speed. There
might be some variation in drive performance but only slightly.
We have done testing on most of the current
machines below, when running Mac OS X, and will be posting
that information soon. In the meantime there is a lot of additional
information on all these machines both here at MacSpeedZone,
and over at our sister site, MacReviewZone.
The best way to find all the information that is available,
is to click on the search
button above (which appears on every page at this site) and
use our (pretty good), search engine. You can search both
sites from one interface ... so it is very efficient.
Note: In some of the scores you will
see what may appear as an abnormally low score for the Quicksilver
Power Mac G4/733. For example the Power Mac G4/533 beats it
in some test. This is due, in most cases, to the fact that
it lacks a L3 backside cache.
"Real World" Tests
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 (with the exception of the Quake III & CineBench
2000 tests) were timed with a stopwatch. The times are then
converted to percentages relative to the Blue & White
G3/350 MHz Power Mac which is set to 100%. For all scores
(except the "Burn CD), higher numbers are better.
Finder Tests
The test above copies a folder containing thousands of
files. Although the drive is the main factor here processing
power plays significant part as well
Processor performance is less of a factor
here and the drive performance is more important. One caveat:
Apple has been known to change drive vendors mid-stream
AppleWorks 6 Tests
The graphics sub-system and processor influence
the scores above. The drive is not a factor
The machines without a L3 backside cache
are really hurt in this test (all the machines with low
scores). This will be true in any processor intensive tasks
in large documents or databases. If you work in mainly smaller
documents you will note see this kind of performance difference
Quake III Tests
These scores are relative.
At 'fastest' setting the processor plays a
bigger role (the 867 achieved 112 fps)
Most, if not all, the processing is being done by the graphics
card in this test. The speed difference more or less disappears
in machines that have the same graphics card. (the 867 achieved
54 fps)
Photoshop 6 & Other Data Crunching
Tests
Drive and processing power are both important
OK, this is why graphics professionals need
a G4 machine
The performance advantage of the G4 is erased
when the software is not written (or cannot be written) to
utilize the chip's unique performance abilities
This is pure, raw data crunching. Program
does not utilize dual processors, nor does it take advantage
of the G4
But this one does. If adjusted for clock speed
the dual processor machine would be almost twice as fast.
This is a combination of both processor and
graphics card performance ... no advantage to dual processors
here.
Encoding/Decoding Tests
Again another Multimedia program that really
takes full advantage of the G4 - probably the best example
we have come across
Another App tuned to the G4's capabilities.
However CD drive speed is also a factor
Kind of a mixed bag since some machines were
running OS 9.1 and others 9.2.1 ... don't take this result
too seriously
As stated previously, for these results a
lower number is better. Main factor here is the burn rate
of the CD drive
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Computer. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPod, iBook, iMac, eMac, and
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