Keep in mind that computers were tested with the operating system they shipped with and then related to the Dual GHz PowerMac. As the OS has evolved, the amount and type of code that loads during the boot process has changed

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 45 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 55.63 seconds

A desktop machine is still king where top drive performance is required. This test copies a folder with thousands of items. The test result is highly dependent on hard drive prowess and to a lesser extent on the processing and caching schemes of the computer

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 11 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 13.25 seconds

In the single file test the the processor & caching capability of the machine are less of a factor. It is clear that more needs to be done before the gap between portable drive performance and desktop performance is narrowed. In this test only 12% of the processor was being used by the 17 Inch PowerBook.

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 8.56 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 14.96 seconds

Highly dependent on the burn speed of the drive. CD burning only uses a fraction of the processor to get the work done. Processor usage on the 17 Inch PowerBook was ...only 15%. The maximum burn speed of the PowerBook is 8X. The 900 MHz iBook burns at a max 24X.

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 112.09 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 113.22 seconds

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. The extra processing power pushes the Gigahertz machines ahead. You can download the small program to run on your machine, and compare your scores to the ones here.

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 33.77 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 33.73 seconds

Processing power and drive performance are factors

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 23.81 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 21.78 seconds

We used a 21 MB files to open Photoshop 7 by dropping it on the Photoshop icon. A trial version of Photoshop 7 can be downloaded if you want to run your own test.

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 14.89 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 17.13 seconds

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Large Document & Database Type Tests

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

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 72 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 79.66 seconds

A Macro (series of complex actions) was run in Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet program on a 8 MB file. Excel is part of Office X

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 44 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 48.02 seconds

This test takes place in a 3 MB AppleWorks document. Machines with larger chip caches usually do better in this test.The 17 Inch PowerBook as both a L2 cache and a L3 Cache. However the L2 cache is half the size of the one on the 900 MHz iBook

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 20.01 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 22 seconds

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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. You can download the Fractal program and run it on your own machine to compare scores. You will need to set the fractal to maximum count of 65536, to be consistent with our testing.

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 26.53 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 53.19 seconds

In this test, an Aged Effect is run on the 175 MB DV file mentioned above, with the Effect left at its default setting This is a processor intensive task

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 201.53 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 291.52 seconds

A 5MB movie is converted to a QuickTime movie

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 28.02 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 33.13 seconds

The 5 MB Movie is converted to a DV Stream ready for import into iMovie

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 124.81 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 150.06 seconds

BareFeats Photoshop Test Suite - mimics a production type workflow in Photoshop. If you would like to run this test on your machine, and you don't have a copy of Photoshop, download it from Adobe. Then download the action file and drop it on the Photoshop icon

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 40 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 51.54 seconds

Certain of the functions of Photoshop can take special performance advantage of the G4 processor. This suite of filters was run on a 21 MB file.

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 15.43 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 24.07 seconds

The test above consists of Photoshop filters and functions that do not take any particular advantage of the G4. Again we used the 21 MB file

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 103.65 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 111.93 seconds

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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 performance is the bottleneck in all the portables listed above. We could not get our CD recognized by the 17 Inch PowerBook ... hence no score for this machine.

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 76.20 seconds

As you can see by the consistency of the numbers, this is straight processing work. Dual processors are not a factor, as Stuffit only makes use of one

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 9.21 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 9.80 seconds

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Multitasking

MP3 Encode, AppleWorks search & replace and folder copy are all carried out at the same time.

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 52 seconds

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 352.52 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 602.03 seconds

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

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 160.74 seconds

Another heavy duty processing test that takes full advantage of the G4 .. hence the low score of the G3 iBook

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 44 seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 84.53 seconds

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Gaming

Our testing with the Giants game has shown that it responds well to faster processors. To obtain frame rates we take the character out for a jog around a predetermined route and measure the frame rates at the same intervals within the circuit.

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 45 frames per seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 26 frames per seconds

4x4 EVO2 is a demanding racing game.

Power Mac Dual G4/1 GHz Actual Score: 18 frames per seconds
PowerBook G4/1 GHz 17 Inch Actual Score: 18 frames per seconds