Moved: Bare Feats Speed Tests: G4 not so bad after all?
From here: <a href="http://www.barefeats.com/pentium4.html"; target="_blank">Bare Feats speed tests</a>
Summary: G4 didn't win, but neither did it get smoked in a variety of real-world tests concocted by author. His methodology, while not "scientific" or comprehensive, seems reasonable (others can probably judge it better) at least. Even when running non-Altivec code, the 1 GHz DP Mac was very close to the 2 GHz SP P4. I, for one, was impressed.
Given all the whining and bleating about how Apple is SO incredibly slow compared to Wintel hardware around here, I was surprised at the results. I think we should all congratulate Apple Engineering for extracting so much performance out of such dated hardware. They've obviously worked very hard to remove bottlenecks and balance their systems so that every subsystem runs at close to its peak efficiency. Current Macs may not be the fastest stuff on the planet, but they certainly appear competitive.
What's this got to do with Future Hardware? Well, as I said earlier, if Apple can coax this much performance out of 3-4 year old technology, it ought to be unbelievable what things will be like when they finally make the jump to DDR, HT, RIO, the "G5" (whatever it ends up being) and the rest of the new-tech buzzwords. Whether the new stuff comes out later this month or next spring, it's going to be worth the wait, IMHO.
Any insights/opinions about this guy's testing and its implications for Apple's future? Or am I letting myself get carried away here? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
[ 08-02-2002: Message edited by: Fran441 ]</p>
Summary: G4 didn't win, but neither did it get smoked in a variety of real-world tests concocted by author. His methodology, while not "scientific" or comprehensive, seems reasonable (others can probably judge it better) at least. Even when running non-Altivec code, the 1 GHz DP Mac was very close to the 2 GHz SP P4. I, for one, was impressed.
Given all the whining and bleating about how Apple is SO incredibly slow compared to Wintel hardware around here, I was surprised at the results. I think we should all congratulate Apple Engineering for extracting so much performance out of such dated hardware. They've obviously worked very hard to remove bottlenecks and balance their systems so that every subsystem runs at close to its peak efficiency. Current Macs may not be the fastest stuff on the planet, but they certainly appear competitive.
What's this got to do with Future Hardware? Well, as I said earlier, if Apple can coax this much performance out of 3-4 year old technology, it ought to be unbelievable what things will be like when they finally make the jump to DDR, HT, RIO, the "G5" (whatever it ends up being) and the rest of the new-tech buzzwords. Whether the new stuff comes out later this month or next spring, it's going to be worth the wait, IMHO.
Any insights/opinions about this guy's testing and its implications for Apple's future? Or am I letting myself get carried away here? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
[ 08-02-2002: Message edited by: Fran441 ]</p>
Comments
I ADVISE ANYONE READING THIS NOT TO BUY A NEW POWERMAC untill those machines depicted in spy pics around the net are offered for sale. They are being produced as we speak, DON'T be the IDIOT that buys a slow silver now. Apple deserves to lose at least a few million in landfilled Powermacs for the way they've treated their customers. Fvck'em!