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Intel Equipped Macs Shine

lardiop   on 14 July 2005 - 23:44 · 81 comments & 2643 views

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AppleInsider is reporting that Intel powered Macintosh computers, recently deployed to a select few developers, are noticeably faster than the current Motorola/IBM powered variety. The developers received an interesting set of hardware over what one would expect to see in a future Macintel. Kits included a single core Pentium 4 3.6 GHz processor mated to 1GB of DDR2 RAM and a proprietary Intel 900 series graphics chipset.

"It's fast," said one developer source of Mac OS X running on Intel's Pentium processors. "Faster than [Mac OS X] on my Dual 2GHz Power Mac G5." In addition to booting Windows XP at blazing speeds, the included version of Mac OS X for Intel takes "as little as 10 seconds" to boot to the Desktop from when the Apple logo first displays on screen.

Developers have also commented that web page rendering and browser load times are significantly improved. Macintels are expected to hit store shelves sometime around the middle of next year.

View: AppleInsider


Thanks to Radish™ for his Back Page News Submission

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(3 replies) #1 WishX on 14 Jul 2005 - 23:50
I'll take two. To go. Thanks.
#1.1 shao on 15 Jul 2005 - 08:02
QUOTE
as little as 10 seconds" to boot to the Desktop from when the Apple logo first displays on screen


just a shame it takes 2 minites for the apple logo to appear. :-)
#1.2 chimera963 on 15 Jul 2005 - 12:10
hm, i take it from that strange comment you are NOT a mac user, as i find my imac g5 get to the apple logo in no more than 5 seconds.
#1.3 nic on 15 Jul 2005 - 15:52
boot time isn't really that good of a system performance gage, as I believe it has more to do with how fast data can flow from your hard drive to your memory then the overall performance of your system.

Something like, how fast it was able to encode MPEG4 or something would be more informative for me.
(13 replies) #2 VikingStorm on 14 Jul 2005 - 23:50
Makes you wonder about Apple's previous comments in the past (G5's) of how they blow out Intel-based systems.
Of course, I also noticed this is still based on "appearance", so it may be just pseudo-speed.
#2.1 joekr on 14 Jul 2005 - 23:54
Apple lies.
#2.2 excalpius on 14 Jul 2005 - 23:55
Those aren't lies - that's just "marketing".
#2.3 MrCobra on 14 Jul 2005 - 23:56
At the time that was said, the PPC chips were faster.
#2.4 VikingStorm on 15 Jul 2005 - 00:50
Interesting, I also just noticed the benchmarks Apple currently has up, shows the G5 smoking the almost same spec Intel systems, P4 3.6ghz, and Dual 3.6ghz Xeons.
#2.5 djesteban on 15 Jul 2005 - 03:27
QUOTE
Interesting, I also just noticed the benchmarks Apple currently has up, shows the G5 smoking the almost same spec Intel systems, P4 3.6ghz, and Dual 3.6ghz Xeons.


yeah.. exactly... apple loves to bull**** with people... heh
i'll never believe then again
#2.6 machorro on 15 Jul 2005 - 03:48
QUOTE
yeah.. exactly... apple loves to bull**** with people... heh
i'll never believe then again


and MS, and Intel, and Nvidia doesn't lie either?

ppl that believes, when a company says that their product is better than the one the competition has are really stupid or really young
#2.7 threedaysdwn on 15 Jul 2005 - 04:07
QUOTE
At the time that was said, the PPC chips were faster.


There has never been a time when the top-of-the-line PowerPC Mac was faster than a comparably priced PC. Ever.
#2.8 AnimaL on 15 Jul 2005 - 05:47
When did anyone say anything about price? I remember the day when the rumors were rife that the next big thing for PCs were PPC chips. They were a lot faster than x86 chips back then - and they still are!
#2.9 aristotle-dude on 15 Jul 2005 - 05:58
How fast was the FSB in the previous Apple benchmarks? What chipset did it have? Did it have DDR2 like these machines have?

The apps in the benchmarks were very much memory and FSB bound.

@threedaysdown: You are wrong. In the G3/PII era, the Intel chips were behind on performance "and" clockspeed.
#2.10 SFalcon on 15 Jul 2005 - 06:48
G3/PII? Man, stuck back in the glory days, eh?
#2.11 bucko on 15 Jul 2005 - 12:19
QUOTE

ppl that believes, when a company says that their product is better than the one the competition has are really stupid or really young


I agree, anyone can say there product is better than any body elses, just like the Tesco's supermarket online price check against asda and the likes
#2.12 threedaysdwn on 16 Jul 2005 - 00:31
QUOTE
I remember the day when the rumors were rife that the next big thing for PCs were PPC chips. They were a lot faster than x86 chips back then - and they still are!


You're kidding, right? The PowerPC 970 is no match for even the P4/Xeon, let alone the Athlon 64/Opteron.
#2.13 threedaysdwn on 16 Jul 2005 - 00:41
QUOTE
@threedaysdown: You are wrong. In the G3/PII era, the Intel chips were behind on performance "and" clockspeed.


According to Apple? Sure.
According to anyone else? No.

For example: http://macspeedzone.com/archive/4.0/WinvsMacSPECint.html
The G3 and P2 were about neck-and-neck in SPEC benches, given an equal clock speed. However, P2 chips were available at higher clockspeeds than G3's of the same time period, and for a significantly lower price.
(2 replies) #3 Yvo on 14 Jul 2005 - 23:52
QUOTE
, are noticeably faster than the current Motorola powered variety.


Can an editor change that to IBM. Yes Motorala (Freescale) does develop PowerPC chips but the current fastest PowerPC chips are made by IBM and that is what they are comparing to.
#3.1 vetlardiop on 15 Jul 2005 - 01:20
Yuppers, Motorola/IBM.

Thanks
#3.2 mr_da3m0n on 15 Jul 2005 - 13:39
Testiing my history knowledge... IBM does the G3, Motorola does the G4, which is basically an overglorified G3 with Altivec -- take altivec out the G3 bitchslaps the G4 in terms of performance, IBM makes the G5.

Right?
(3 replies) #4 Amsterdam on 14 Jul 2005 - 23:53
The best thing about this is that Macs will now be more affordable.
#4.1 MrCobra on 14 Jul 2005 - 23:55
Just because they changed to a different processor doesn't mean they will lower prices.
#4.2 xp1ode on 14 Jul 2005 - 23:58
i sure wish they do, this way i can buy one to try out with, not that the mini is expensive but i think it would do them good if they lowered the prices, maybe they can get more sales out of them... We'll just have to wait and see i guess...
#4.3 kaffra on 15 Jul 2005 - 03:34
i doubt it, this will only mean bigger profits.
#5 liykh001 on 15 Jul 2005 - 00:01
didnt this get posted before? I'm sure I read this yesterday
(7 replies) #6 RobertH on 15 Jul 2005 - 00:02
As someone pointed out in another forum on this news, the speed of these systems are subjective. I mean how do you measure “its fast”.

I mean boot time was the only thing really specific there, oh and displaying a browser window. I mean “web page rendering and browser load times are significantly improved.” OMFG ditch those PowerPC’s right now cos your webpages load faster with the Mactel!!! Just maybe as Apple went from PPC > x86 they have been improving the code too? i.e. not all speed increases/like boot times are down to the single miricle Intel P4 CPU ..

No I just think that ill wait for some proper comparisons, with stuff to back it up.
#6.1 liykh001 on 15 Jul 2005 - 00:07
hmm, if I looked more closely it says ... thanks to Radish who posted it in Back Page News


BPN link
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=343930&st=0
#6.2 breadfan on 15 Jul 2005 - 00:10
You’re worried about code improvements being the real culprit? How long has OSX been running on PowerPC? How long has it been running on Intel Chips? Which do you think would then benefit more from better coding (which takes oodles of time).
#6.3 RobertH on 15 Jul 2005 - 00:10
They didnt have to re-do the OS for a different platform though.

What im saying is that i would prefer to see some actual comparisons, with benchmarks included. Not just "its faster" before i jump on the "OMFG MacTels are going to 0wn j00 bandwaggon"
#6.4 breadfan on 15 Jul 2005 - 00:15
You’re missing the point. They have had years to tweak OSX to perfection on the PowerPC. There is no way that a few code optimizations now will explain away Intel chips being faster than the former. If anything, its going to be the opposite effect, PowerPC chips should be running much more efficient code at this point.
#6.5 RobertH on 15 Jul 2005 - 00:17
Maybe i am but so are you

QUOTE
And I think if anything can be made from these reports, it's that when OSX is running intel optimized graphics drivers, the visible impression of speed - "Teh Snappy" - is more evident. This is because the majority of the work that goes into producing graphics drivers is to get optimal speed out of the Intel architecture, not PowerPC.

Otherwise it would be extremely hard to believe that somehow code running on OSX, compiled in GCC 4.0 for Intel has suddenly opened up a lead where a single Pentium 4 is running quicker than a Dual G5. Every single benchmark in the last few years has indicated you need a Dual Opteron or Xeon to get close to the G5 PowerMacs. And that's usually in benchmark wars with Windows where the MS and Intel compiler is a lot more efficient than GCC.


Not my quote, from macrumours.com but i agree with this. I dont believe in Magic. ^_^
#6.6 roadwarrior on 15 Jul 2005 - 00:47
QUOTE
You’re missing the point. They have had years to tweak OSX to perfection on the PowerPC.


I guess you missed the part of Steve Jobs' keynote where he mentioned that OS X has always (from the start!) been running on both platforms. OS X is really an updated version of NeXTStep/OpenStep, which was running on X86 LONG before it was running on PowerPC.
#6.7 breadfan on 15 Jul 2005 - 02:13
let's distinguish between an operating system running on a particular processor, and being specifically optimized for it. There is no way that apple would waste the money on optimizing both processors for the os throughout the development cycle of OSX. To run on a processor says very little. I doubt very seriously that apple had a strongly optimized version of OSX at the same time they were developing for the PowerPC.
#7 liykh001 on 15 Jul 2005 - 00:04
snip
(5 replies) #8 Joshie on 15 Jul 2005 - 00:09
So is this just a round-about way of saying G5 is slower than x86?

I'm just askin', cuz, you know. Indignation is always fun.
#8.1 mugwhump on 15 Jul 2005 - 00:51
It would seem so.

QUOTE
"Faster than (Mac OS X) on my Dual 2GHz Power Mac G5."


Humble pie, anyone?
#8.2 yudi_lks on 15 Jul 2005 - 02:12
Hmm... I think comparison with dual 2Ghz is not valid... Dual 2 GHz not equal to 4 GHz... So that's why it feels "slower"
#8.3 mugwhump on 15 Jul 2005 - 03:07
Which is contrary to every single piece of Apple propaganda for the past 2+ years. A dual-processor G5 system should have whomped on a single proc P4 system...if you dwell in the RDF.
#8.4 kaffra on 15 Jul 2005 - 03:57
lol, the war is over
#8.5 Ironman273 on 15 Jul 2005 - 12:21
It's amazing to me the resistance that people are putting up. I guess the Apple propaganda machine was that effective.

Here's an Apple developer, who I'm sure is used to working with Apples day in and day out, saying that the latest Apple out there feels slower than the Intel machine.

Someone on this thread is arguing that "feeling" doesn't count. They should have benchmarks and so forth. Actually, if this same experience is shared by users, that it feels faster, it'll mean more than any benchmark. In fact, Apple fanatics have argued that Aqua just "feels" better than Windows, even if they both get the same result.

The comparison between machines is not equal clockrates between machines or equeal memory speeds, etc. It's simply Hte bst Apple has to offer vs. the best Intel has to offer for Macs. Are they evenly matched? Of course not! That's why Apple "switched".

That reminds me. Someone should make one of those "Switched" commercial with Jobs.
#9 Hills420 on 15 Jul 2005 - 00:59
wow, I'll believe it when I see it for my self.
(2 replies) #10 Lasker on 15 Jul 2005 - 01:04
I can't wait to see how affordable will be this "mactel" machine
#10.1 AminoSC on 15 Jul 2005 - 01:35
They'll be 199.99 and sold at Wal-Mart.
#10.2 mugwhump on 15 Jul 2005 - 01:59
Why not? They sell iPods there already.
#11 - diego - on 15 Jul 2005 - 01:24
obviously
(3 replies) #12 RDX on 15 Jul 2005 - 01:59
So, they were able to run XP from the mac?
#12.1 laz45 on 15 Jul 2005 - 02:50
It is possible even Steve said he wont stop people from running windows xp on the Mactels
#12.2 CaKeY on 15 Jul 2005 - 02:55
Yeeah. It'll take some hax to run OSX on a non Mac though.
#12.3 bucko on 15 Jul 2005 - 12:22
yer so there is no point, driver issues and the like...

but you spend all the £££ to buy a Mac and then you put XP on it, discusting.
(3 replies) #13 MustNotSleep on 15 Jul 2005 - 03:26
who cares? when x86 OSX hits final, you will be able to run it on your own PC.. not that i would want to, but why would i need to buy a Mactel then?

very poor move by Apple. hardware's all they have. not that it's good hardware, but they sure have one hell of a marketing team. first convincing the masses that a single-button mouse is all you need, and then convincing them 64-bit is what makes their CPU DOUBLE the speed of the competition and also the fastest personal computer on Earth (and probably the Solar System, unless the folks on Pluto are running 128-bit CPUs). didn't they claim they invented 64-bit computing, or is their marketing campaign poisoning my brain?

i. hate. apple.
#13.1 yudi_lks on 15 Jul 2005 - 05:36
I think they are running 32 bit P4 overclocked to 10 Ghz since they don't need any special liquid nitrogen cooling system... All they do is just open their living room window to let a -243°C breeze coming in and turn the computer on, without even using a heat sink.. Hahahahahahaha
#13.2 chimera963 on 15 Jul 2005 - 12:22
Why are you posting on on this thread if you hate Apple? It's about 'them'.
No need to bitch about them. if your gna post something, post something worth reading.
#13.3 yert* on 15 Jul 2005 - 15:30
I thought his post was interesting. So, be quiet?
(4 replies) #14 neocitron on 15 Jul 2005 - 03:33
everyone who follows apple has contracted a disease that makes them spread propaganda in a false and brainwashing manner which only contributes to Apple's sales...
#14.1 machorro on 15 Jul 2005 - 03:58
QUOTE
everyone who follows microsoft has contracted a disease that makes them spread propaganda in a false and brainwashing manner which only contributes to Microsoft's sales...


QUOTE
everyone who follows sony has contracted a disease that makes them spread propaganda in a false and brainwashing manner which only contributes to Sony's sales...


QUOTE
everyone who follows Intel has contracted a disease that makes them spread propaganda in a false and brainwashing manner which only contributes to Intel's sales...


you get the point...
#14.2 SquareSoft0 on 15 Jul 2005 - 04:11
Yes, fanboyism is a disease that transcends all platforms.
#14.3 eilegz on 15 Jul 2005 - 05:43
LOL good one xDD
#14.4 eAi on 15 Jul 2005 - 09:37
sony doesn't deserve a bold?
(4 replies) #15 fahad on 15 Jul 2005 - 06:12
Does this mean that Apple computers will be cheaper now?
#15.1 machorro on 15 Jul 2005 - 06:59
i don't think so... at least the difference in price will not be so big...

now i have a question:

could upgrade your CPU?, because that could be a good thing in regards of cut some expenses at the time of upgrading since normaly Mac users can upgrade everything except CPU right?
or will Apple have control over the processors too?
#15.2 ArtOf_War on 15 Jul 2005 - 07:03
No, it only means they'll suck less
#15.3 Colin-uk on 15 Jul 2005 - 09:32
QUOTE

could upgrade your CPU?, because that could be a good thing in regards of cut some expenses at the time of upgrading since normaly Mac users can upgrade everything except CPU right?
or will Apple have control over the processors too?


if Apple are locking down OSX to certain hardware, then you may only be able to get that "certain hardware" from apple..
#15.4 Zenith on 17 Jul 2005 - 09:08
im guessing (and hoping) that Apple will keep the all-in-one design they have now, so that may mean that everything is soldered onto the same board, therefore it would be dificult to change CPUs etc.
(3 replies) #16 hostility on 15 Jul 2005 - 06:14
Mac OS X for Intel
#16.1 eAi on 15 Jul 2005 - 09:37
Now thats what I call a productive and informative comment.
#16.2 bucko on 15 Jul 2005 - 12:21
Correction, Mac OS X for Intel Macs, not PC's
#16.3 - diego - on 15 Jul 2005 - 13:54
just wait a few days.. and u'll see
(4 replies) #17 betasp on 15 Jul 2005 - 12:24
How as OS performs on a platform has nothing to do with the raw processor power. There is a reason why VT (currently using OSX with some optimization) and others (running linix and *ni have used Apple machines for there processing farms... they outperformed the X86 versions.

Also, MS fanboys, why would MS be switching to a PPC chip in the new XBOX if it were slower than an X86 chip.


(edited for clarity and accuracy be me, thx. for the clarification)

Last edited by 36080 on 15 Jul 2005 - 13:55
#17.1 chimera963 on 15 Jul 2005 - 12:25
good point there.
#17.2 roadwarrior on 15 Jul 2005 - 13:04
QUOTE
There is a reason why VT and others have used Apple machines running linux for there processing farms...


The VT supercomputer runs OS X, not Linux.
#17.3 mugwhump on 15 Jul 2005 - 14:43
Probably because Microsoft has enough clout to get IBM to make a chip specifically for their purposes...something that Jobs/Apple couldn't get IBM to do. And that was a bitch-slap to his ego.

It's quite irrelevant, really. All you Mac kiddies that are throwing around the "fanboy" comments in regard to Intel, Microsoft...where will that get you? Exactly nowhere. You proclaiming your blind faith to an architecture that will be, for most intents and purposes, DEAD ON THE DESKTOP in two to three years only shows how truely sad you are.

You will buy new Apple computers, they will have Intel processors inside them, and neither the system nor you will be any more "special" than they were already. Unless you mean special as in "short bus".
#17.4 thenetavenger on 16 Jul 2005 - 06:45
1) The XBox 360 Processor is not the average PPC, and they moved to it because they could CLOSE the architecture to prevent the wide scale hacking the basic Win2k X86 XBox had a problem with.

2) Microsoft DID NOT get IBM to make the CPU for the XBox 360. Microsoft Licensed the technology from IBM and CREATED THEIR OWN Version with work from NEC and the Microsoft CPU Team created for the endeavor. IBM didn't MAKE this CPU, nor does IBM own it, that is Why Microsoft can have it made anywhere and even sell the rights to the CPU if they like for XBox 360 clones.
#18 ev0| on 15 Jul 2005 - 13:12
This story is major propaganda, and you guys all fell for it.
(3 replies) #19 mr_da3m0n on 15 Jul 2005 - 13:54
Interesting facts:

OS X *is* a really slow and clunky OS, from the technological point of view.

From the programmatical point of view, Apple compiles OS X apps with -Os instead of O/2/3 (4/5 with the Apple GCC fork, I believe). This makes OS X binaries optimised for size rather than speed. So they spent more effort in removing the bloat than optimizing "teh snappy feel™". However, some people will of course argue that compiling with -Os does some magic regarding inline/unrolling of functions hence, it boosts performance in some areas. (I do agree to a point -- compiling a linux kernel with -Os can lead to a measurable performance increase. By measurable, I mean around 5-7% i think that was the number, not the 0.05% you get from adding --funroll-loops, rebuilding your whole gentoo system and prelinking).

Second point... I am probably not making a breaking news statement here, but the Mach Microkernel blows. Microkernels are fun as student project, when there is no viable SMP stacks whatsoever, but in this day and age... urgh. (because, as you know, OS X is basically a glorified NeXTStep with BSD flavor at its core.)

I have been running Linux on my G3 iBook for a while (had to drop it though, crappy battery support, sleep would only seldom resume and it gave me a headache) and it was really blazing fast, to my surprise.

What I would like to see would be a *real* benchmark with, say, three gentoo systems, compiled in the most similar way.

x86 AMD against x86 intel against PPC G5.

Now *that* would be fair.
#19.1 patseguin on 15 Jul 2005 - 14:19
LOL! If anything, those "interesting OPINIONS" not "interesting FACTS". If you want to talk slow and clunky, look at a WindowsXP machine that hasn't had a clean install in 6 months.
#19.2 rlepage on 15 Jul 2005 - 15:07
Take my folks' P2-350 which hasn't been cleaned for at least a YEAR on the same install. And it still runs kewl. Cause my folks know how to use it.

Don't associate old and slow, please. My folks' 350 beats the crap out of my neighbor's AthlonXP 2800+.
#19.3 ev0| on 16 Jul 2005 - 01:26
^^ I don't believe that for one minute
(1 reply) #20 burning_jonny on 15 Jul 2005 - 15:03
The best way to get a true response of speed is to do a blind TASTE TEST....

Two boxes, and you don't know which processor you are using. Then tell us which one "feels" faster.
#20.1 Toastyone on 15 Jul 2005 - 16:40
In order to do that right I think you should set them both up with Linux...that’s really the only way IMO to compare them
#21 bsharp on 17 Jul 2005 - 20:47
I have a Pentium 133 running Windows xp and it runs fast no joke! It boots a little slower about 5 sec than my big rigs. It is slow as a snail at compressing files but if you were to just surf the net minus the java and flash it is pretty fast. I think the only reason it is so slow on some things is that it will only hold 96megs of ram and XP really needs at least 256 to run well.

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