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Have questions? Comments? Give us your feedback on these performance numbers
Below you will find performance results for the currently shipping iMacs and eMacs and some from previous generations. This will, hopefully, give you an feel for the relative performances of these machines. 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 G4/1GHz and 800 MHz iMacs
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
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.
Desktop Tests
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
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
A Macro (series of complex actions) was run in Microsoft's Excel. Excel is part of Office X
This test takes place in a large AppleWorks document.
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
Encoding/Decoding Tests
CD-ROM drive speed and CPU processing power are the factors influencing the scores above.
Multitasking
QuickTime Encode, iMovie render 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.
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.
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