Mac processing power

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rmonizrmoniz
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I'm sorry for putting this up again because I am sure it's been gone over too much but I must ask.



How does the processing power of a Mac compare to that of the PC? I've searched the net for comparisions but I've never really seen anything that explains how the two systems compare. Sure one beats the other in Photoshop and several other that most people don't use but what about real world applications? Anyone have experience?



Thanks.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 48
    kecksykecksy Posts: 1,002member
    Unless we're talking about dual processor machines, Macs are slower than PCs in almost every benchmark.
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  • Reply 2 of 48
    xoolxool Posts: 2,460member
    Anyone got a link to some XServe mysql stats?
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  • Reply 3 of 48
    bioflavonoidbioflavonoid Posts: 723member
    meh...nvm



    [ 02-08-2003: Message edited by: Bioflavonoid ]</p>
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  • Reply 4 of 48
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    If it talks like a troll...
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  • Reply 5 of 48
    bioflavonoidbioflavonoid Posts: 723member
    [quote]Originally posted by serrano:

    <strong>If it talks like a troll...</strong><hr></blockquote>

    Me?
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  • Reply 6 of 48
    algolalgol Posts: 833member
    Macs may be a little slower in the single CPU versions, but its not like they are "slow." a 1Ghz G4 is about = to a 2Ghz P4 when using the Altivec ingine. So the Apple laptops would be faster than PC laptops, cause they don't have the regular P4 in PC laptops. The Mobile P4 is a lot slower than the desktop version. The iMacs would be slower than a new PC at the same price. However, with the iMac you get a SuperDrive, a really cool design, wireless built in, and the iApps. I don't think I have ever heard of someone buying a new mac and complaining that it was slow.
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  • Reply 7 of 48
    bioflavonoidbioflavonoid Posts: 723member
    [quote]Originally posted by Algol:

    <strong>Macs may be a little slower in the single CPU versions, but its not like they are "slow." a 1Ghz G4 is about = to a 2Ghz P4 when using the Altivec ingine. So the Apple laptops would be faster than PC laptops, cause they don't have the regular P4 in PC laptops. The Mobile P4 is a lot slower than the desktop version. The iMacs would be slower than a new PC at the same price. However, with the iMac you get a SuperDrive, a really cool design, wireless built in, and the iApps. I don't think I have ever heard of someone buying a new mac and complaining that it was slow.</strong><hr></blockquote>

    Thank you! Someone with his head on his shoulders!
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  • Reply 8 of 48
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    1. Bio, I was not referring to you, but rather to the topic starter.

    2. Don't fool yourself kids, the P4 runs circles around the G4 thanks to its ghz advantage.

    3. If you're seriously looking for a technical G4/P4 comparison look no further than <a href="http://www.arstechnica.com"; target="_blank">ars</a> and <a href="http://www.arstechnica.com/cpu/01q2/p4andg4e/p4andg4e-1.html"; target="_blank">this article</a>.
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  • Reply 9 of 48
    algolalgol Posts: 833member
    I don't care if the P4 runs at 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000Ghz and the G4 runs at 1Ghz! I am still going to by a Mac! And actually Mac desktops may be slower but they are fast enough to preform their job. The PowerMacs with the Duals etc are much closer to the top end P4. The iMacs are behind. The PowerBooks are ahead. Its not all bad. Plus things may change soon...
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  • Reply 10 of 48
    poopoodoctorpoopoodoctor Posts: 143member
    [quote]Originally posted by serrano:

    <strong>Don't fool yourself kids, the P4 runs circles around the G4 thanks to its ghz advantage.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Spec wise maybe, but for most people using everyday applications a G4 is just as fast as a P4 with a BIG disadvantage to the P4 because of the Windows OS. You have to have used both to really grasp this misconception that the P4 is soooooooooooo much faster than a G4. <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[oyvey]" />



    Bahhhhh.



    [ 02-08-2003: Message edited by: PooPooDoctor ]</p>
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  • Reply 11 of 48
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    Some of you are really beyond help. Yes I realize the inherent advantages of OS X, that is why I put my money down for Apple hardware. Did you read the title of the topic?



    [quote]

    Mac processing power

    <hr></blockquote>



    How does what you posted in any way relate to that?



    [quote]Spec wise maybe, but for most people using everyday applications a G4 is just as fast as a P4 with a BIG disadvantage to the P4 because of the Windows OS. You have to have used both to really grasp this misconception that the P4 is soooooooooooo much faster than a G4. <hr></blockquote>



    Get ahold of yourself. I pointed the topic starter to a technical comparison of the different processors, their computing power, and their respective design philosophies.



    [quote]

    a G4 is just as fast as a P4 with a BIG disadvantage to the P4 because of the Windows OS.

    <hr></blockquote>



    What would you say to the linux folks?



    There's no need for the fanboy reflex, before you post, take a deep breath. We're all mac users here, OS X has garnered us a lot of respect in the computing world, there's no need to be so defensive. It's not 1997 anymore folks.



    [ 02-08-2003: Message edited by: serrano ]</p>
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  • Reply 12 of 48
    poopoodoctorpoopoodoctor Posts: 143member
    [quote]Originally posted by serrano:

    <strong>There's no need for the fanboy reflex...</strong><hr></blockquote>



    <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" /> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />



    Typical. Slander to drill a mute point. The original poster was asking about real world applications, not about die hard geek specs. He just wants to know if the Mac is fast enough for everyday applications. The answer is, YES it is. Only high end applications see a speed difference, for the rest of us the Mac is just as fast as a PC.
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  • Reply 13 of 48
    rmonizrmoniz Posts: 5member
    That's about spot on. I've always heard that the G4 does more with it's clock cycles than the pentium. I just want to know how they stack up in the real world with regard to processing power. I'm a bit tired of content creation and photoshop benchmarks and I really don't know why anyone needs 130 fps to play a game.



    Thanks for all your input.
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  • Reply 14 of 48
    anonanon Posts: 1member
    i second serrano...

    at my studio, our dual gigs get toasted by 1.8 gig PCs that cost a third of the price, 2 years ago even...

    i do think people would see a difference in everyday applications, email, internet browser... until safari came along, the browsers on the PC side were much faster than Macs...

    i say wait for the 970 to come, and we'll be back on top...
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  • Reply 15 of 48
    nshirkeynshirkey Posts: 70member
    [quote]Originally posted by anon:

    <strong>i second serrano...

    at my studio, our dual gigs get toasted by 1.8 gig PCs that cost a third of the price, 2 years ago even...

    i do think people would see a difference in everyday applications, email, internet browser... until safari came along, the browsers on the PC side were much faster than Macs...

    i say wait for the 970 to come, and we'll be back on top...</strong><hr></blockquote>What difference would people see in e-mail and Internet browsers? First of all, Apple did come out with Safari. Second, what is faster on a PC for sending e-mail? Does a PC have the ability to send or receive e-mails faster than your ISP connection? Does a PC display text instantly on your screen as you type a message as opposed to waiting 30 seconds for each character to appear on the screen as you type with the oh-so-slow Mac Internet appliance?



    It would be interesting to see the benchmarks showing that a PC screams sending e-mails compared to a Mac.
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  • Reply 16 of 48
    spookyspooky Posts: 504member
    In virtually all respects, pcs are faster. Although the OSX experience is far better than xp ultimately that is being worm away by the frustratingly poor performance of macs.



    Browsing - PCs win hands down. OK apple released Safari but its still a beta and there is no guarantee as to how or when it will dvelop. many banks and other institutions (including my ISP) don't take any notice of mac users.



    Imaging / video etc - until Imovie 3/iPhoto 2 the mac ruled. now that iMovie 3 is out and turns a respectable imac 800 into an apple II the pc stuff smokes the apple - if you can get it to work.



    wp/spreadsheets etc - apps launch MUCH faster on a PC and moving files between versions of word are far less painful.



    The Pro end - much as I love my duals they are CR*P in terms of raw performance compared to PCs. we run 3dsmax on PII500s and are looking to update. we did some tests with Maya on a dual 1.25 and to our horror the PII we already had kept pace with and even outran our Maya test machine (rendering). If we run poser on our duals and a student comes in and puts a short animation together the lesson has ended before the rendering has finished. we can't even tell how after effects effects are working because the playback is so poor.



    Video - Quicktime rules. there is nothing that comes close on the pc side



    the 970 had better be a killer chip
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  • Reply 17 of 48
    ericj551ericj551 Posts: 89member
    [quote]Originally posted by Algol:

    <strong>I don't care if the P4 runs at 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000Ghz and the G4 runs at 1Ghz! I am still going to by a Mac! And actually Mac desktops may be slower but they are fast enough to preform their job. The PowerMacs with the Duals etc are much closer to the top end P4. The iMacs are behind. The PowerBooks are ahead. Its not all bad. Plus things may change soon...</strong><hr></blockquote>





    I''m thinking if a P4 ever gets that fast, Apple might just move over to intel...
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  • Reply 18 of 48
    mcqmcq Posts: 1,543member
    Following Moore's Law, I think that's about a little over 200 years away, so we have some time before that'll happen
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  • Reply 19 of 48
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    A friend of mine had a dual 867 for a while and then replaced it with an Athlon XP2200+. 320 kilobit MP3s went from encoding at 20x-25x to encoding at 44x-47x.



    Now, the combo drive on his dual 867 had a max read speed of 32x, but it still got quite a ways below that. His Athlon has a CD read speed of 48x.



    I'm not saying Windows machines are better, but they certainly are faster. Assuming iTunes makes full use of dual processors, that's 1734 MHz on the Mac and 1800 MHz on the Athlon. I suppose iTunes doesn't take full advantage of duals.
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  • Reply 20 of 48
    paulpaul Posts: 5,278member
    different encoders... different ballgame...



    get the same (heavily optimized of course) encoder for both machines and then go to town...



    iTunes encoder is adequate, but not nearly the best out there in terms of speed OR audio quality...
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