Benchmarking the new Macs.
Jan. 12th, 2005 01:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselkingSo what can be expected of xMac performance? That depends on whether you are asking real people or propeller heads at Slashdot. To that end I surreptitiously ran everybody's random favorite for Mac benchmarking, Xbench, on an xMac.
Methodology
All Mac results were gathered from machines running OS X/Panther and having 256MB RAM, with the exception of the dual processor G5. However, screening posted Xbench results, as well as conferring with a Magic 8-Ball, indicates that dual processors and memory in excess of 256 MB RAM have negligible impact (though pulling RAM from my wife's PowerBook for the purposes of testing raised the tension score in the Jade household by 10 percent). Representative data from the Xbench results website was used for additional comparison, as well as relevant other sources.
1. Even an overclocked iBook G3 (1GHz/256MB RAM/32MB VRAM) might suffer from the missing Altivec instruction set used in the G4 to make up for the pathetic 133MHz Front Side Bus Apple was stuck at for, like, a million years, until the G5 showed up
2. The xMac (I made the name and I like it better than Mac Mini) (1.25GHz/256MB RAM/32MB VRAM) scoring in proximity to a PowerBook of similar specifications may be the result of getting a few more cycles out of the latest revision of that beaten dead horse of a CPU, the G4, or possibly that the GPU is kind of old. Maybe Apple should have just included a piece of brown cardboard cut out in the shape of a video card instead.
3. The inclusion of a 5400RPM fixed disk and the ATI RADEON 9600 Mobility in the PowerBook (1.25GHz/256MB RAM/64MB VRAM) could very well account for the difference in scores to the similarly specified xMac, though I would not count on it.
4. An average male (six inches/circumcised) will ejaculate approximately three minutes after penetration (much to the disappointment of the average female). The commonly held belief (among average males) of 15 minutes or more is a result of benchmark cheating (self-delusion).
5. More interesting than the much higher test scores of the PowerMac G5 (2x2.0 GHz/1536MB RAM/64MB VRAM) posted in the Xbench database, is the fact that Steve Jobs doesn't know how to use the possessive in relation to his own name; it's Steve Jobs' PowerMac G5. As written, 'Jobs' appears to be a verb of some kind, which makes for a rather unsettling statement and graphic image.
6. Timothy McVeigh (Male/33 years old/psychopath) was executed by lethal injection, the combination of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride killing him in four minutes, though it must be noted this benchmark does not include a reading of Invictus.
Conclusion
It's clear that the xMac performs considerably faster than both my iBook, which cost me $200 more than an xMac, and nearly as fast as my wife's PowerBook, which cost four times as much and is less than a year-old (and that makes me want to cry). Beyond that, it appears that Timothy McVeigh would have enough time for an orgasm before dying, if someone who likes doing "jobs" could help him out, and, as always, benchmarks really only matter to people who argue about computers.
-----------------------------------
Excerpted from the longer article by Charles Jade, linked above.
Methodology
All Mac results were gathered from machines running OS X/Panther and having 256MB RAM, with the exception of the dual processor G5. However, screening posted Xbench results, as well as conferring with a Magic 8-Ball, indicates that dual processors and memory in excess of 256 MB RAM have negligible impact (though pulling RAM from my wife's PowerBook for the purposes of testing raised the tension score in the Jade household by 10 percent). Representative data from the Xbench results website was used for additional comparison, as well as relevant other sources.
1. Even an overclocked iBook G3 (1GHz/256MB RAM/32MB VRAM) might suffer from the missing Altivec instruction set used in the G4 to make up for the pathetic 133MHz Front Side Bus Apple was stuck at for, like, a million years, until the G5 showed up
2. The xMac (I made the name and I like it better than Mac Mini) (1.25GHz/256MB RAM/32MB VRAM) scoring in proximity to a PowerBook of similar specifications may be the result of getting a few more cycles out of the latest revision of that beaten dead horse of a CPU, the G4, or possibly that the GPU is kind of old. Maybe Apple should have just included a piece of brown cardboard cut out in the shape of a video card instead.
3. The inclusion of a 5400RPM fixed disk and the ATI RADEON 9600 Mobility in the PowerBook (1.25GHz/256MB RAM/64MB VRAM) could very well account for the difference in scores to the similarly specified xMac, though I would not count on it.
4. An average male (six inches/circumcised) will ejaculate approximately three minutes after penetration (much to the disappointment of the average female). The commonly held belief (among average males) of 15 minutes or more is a result of benchmark cheating (self-delusion).
5. More interesting than the much higher test scores of the PowerMac G5 (2x2.0 GHz/1536MB RAM/64MB VRAM) posted in the Xbench database, is the fact that Steve Jobs doesn't know how to use the possessive in relation to his own name; it's Steve Jobs' PowerMac G5. As written, 'Jobs' appears to be a verb of some kind, which makes for a rather unsettling statement and graphic image.
6. Timothy McVeigh (Male/33 years old/psychopath) was executed by lethal injection, the combination of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride killing him in four minutes, though it must be noted this benchmark does not include a reading of Invictus.
Conclusion
It's clear that the xMac performs considerably faster than both my iBook, which cost me $200 more than an xMac, and nearly as fast as my wife's PowerBook, which cost four times as much and is less than a year-old (and that makes me want to cry). Beyond that, it appears that Timothy McVeigh would have enough time for an orgasm before dying, if someone who likes doing "jobs" could help him out, and, as always, benchmarks really only matter to people who argue about computers.
-----------------------------------
Excerpted from the longer article by Charles Jade, linked above.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-12 07:24 pm (UTC)