Powerbooks... Are they really THAT Powerful?

[mootymoots]

Okay, I admit to not knowing much about processors and what not, but is a 1.5 GHz Powerbook, a little bit not powerful compared to todays standards? I see PC laptops from 2.5-3 Ghz

Dont flame me... I'd really like to know how a 1.5Ghz Powerbook compares in the PC world, as they must be half decent otherwise people wouldnt keep buying them :laugh:

So, if you guys could give me a quick explanation on comparisons, that'd be great, so I can truely shrug off my PC blues :rofl:

Cheers :)

[vincent]

well it depends on what ur doing with your laptop. when i was in college id see guys running maya 4.0 on theres

[mootymoots]

i wouldnt be doing 3D animation (afaik), but i'd be doing say Photoshop, Flash, 2-3 Browsers, PHP editor, and Email all at once. My 3.2Ghz Athlon cries when I do this here.... could be my 512MB ram though....

[sundayx Veteran]

processor performance and power can not be based purely on its clock speed.

[Enrickey]

Just because it has a lower megahertz rating, doesn't mean it is necessarily slower. Take a look at AMD, they have their Athlon 64 2800+ clocked at 1.8GHz, yet it will easily beat a Pentium 4 Prescott at 2.8GHz.

There are two ways a processor can gain speed, one is to increase the clock speed, the other is to increase the efficiency. The power book's processor is much more efficient than a standard P4.

I don't know if the 1.5GHz power book can stand up to a 3GHz Pentium 4 laptop, but one thing is for sure, it is much faster than a P4 laptop clocked at 1.5GHz.

While I am in no way a Mac user, I am a strong Windows enforcer, I just wanted to make it clear to you that the clock speed isn't the be all end all of performance factors.

Edited for grammar, spelling and clarity

Edited January 6, 2005 by Enrickey

[vincent]

Just because it has a lower megahurtz rating, doesn't mean it is necesarily slower. Take a look at AMD, they have their Athlon 64 2800+ clocked at 1.8GHz, yet it will easily beat a pentium 4 prescott at 2.8GHz.

There are two ways a processor can gain speed, one is two increase the clock speed, the other is to increase the effeciency. The powerbook's processor is much more powerfull than a standard P4.

I don't know if the 1.5GHz powerbook can stand up to a 3GHz pentium 4 labtop, but one thing is for sure, it is much faster than a P4 labtop clocked at 1.5GHz.

585243898[/snapback]

:yes: good point

[[idkfa]]

i wouldnt be doing 3D animation (afaik), but i'd be doing say Photoshop, Flash, 2-3 Browsers, PHP editor, and Email all at once. My 3.2Ghz Athlon cries when I do this here.... could be my 512MB ram though....

585243887[/snapback]

No problem for an iBook or a PowerBook.

But be sure to get at least 512MB RAM ;)

[thetechroom]

i wouldnt be doing 3D animation (afaik), but i'd be doing say Photoshop, Flash, 2-3 Browsers, PHP editor, and Email all at once. My 3.2Ghz Athlon cries when I do this here.... could be my 512MB ram though....

585243887[/snapback]

OSX Loves Ram, get 256MB Ram with your system and then upgrade to 768MB by purchasing a 512MB Ram stick from Crucial.

That should just do the trick!

[mootymoots]

Just because it has a lower megahurtz rating, doesn't mean it is necesarily slower. Take a look at AMD, they have their Athlon 64 2800+ clocked at 1.8GHz, yet it will easily beat a pentium 4 prescott at 2.8GHz.

There are two ways a processor can gain speed, one is two increase the clock speed, the other is to increase the effeciency. The powerbook's processor is much more powerfull than a standard P4.

I don't know if the 1.5GHz powerbook can stand up to a 3GHz pentium 4 labtop, but one thing is for sure, it is much faster than a P4 labtop clocked at 1.5GHz.

585243898[/snapback]

Yupp, and this is why I wondered what the deal was... I really want nad will need a laptop, so I want to get the best I can, and I really want mac, but if Apple dont upgrade the PB somehow at the expo, then is it really worth going for at 1.5ghz? What do you think?

Obviously I want to get the best I can for the time, I dont want to buy an already dated machine if you see what I mean, seeing as technology moves so fast.... Pursuade me mac users, I want .. ahem NEED one :p

[Knight']

The G4 chip is a real dinosaur, and really shouldn't be in Apples Pro line laptops. A modern Pentium-M laptop would slaughter a Powebook G4, and I've seen laptops (specifically from Sony) that are much thinner than the Powerbooks. I would avoide these laptops if you're looking for a powerful system, and either buy a Pentium-M based laptop or wait for a G5/Freescale based laptop from Apple.

[Chad]

And yet, at the same mhz, the G5 is no better than a G4. It's not really THAT much of a dinosaur.

A 1.5 gig G4 will be plenty. Photoshop is altivec enabled, and I think Flash might be as well, so you'd be running those in 128bit. The G5 does horribly with Altivec apps at this point. that should change in future revisions.

[Ridgeburner]

Sorta offtopic, but why do people insist on saying LaBtop? The guy up there who compared the 2800+ and the 2.8 p4, seems to know his stuff pretty well, yet TWICE calls it a laBtop? why???

[uniacid]

By labtop he could mean that the P4 is a desktop replacement laptop, so you could have a mini lab :p

[quigley0]

Processor ratings in herz is going away. I bet by this time next year, all processors will be rated by some measure of perfomance factor. At least, I hope so anyway.

My wife's laptop, (which i am typing on now), is a 17in powerbook. I have a PC for my main computer (a shuttle SFF), and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Well, ok, maybe the world. But, as far as a second computer goes, I am having a blast with the Mac laptop. In many ways, it has less issues than my PC does. (My PC likes to drop my WiFi on its convienence, the Mac stays strongly connected, refusing to let go. The little mac that could)

For apps such as Web, Music, Photo, etc, this laptop is great. The aluminium finish is outstanding. (Sony may be thinner, but I feel that this laptop is really I fine piece of machinery.)

Games: This is where the PC wins hands down. Now, I do have games on the Laptop, and they run fine. But, PC's just feel better suited for gaming. (Although, Warcraft III in widescreen is fun)

But, do some research on your own. Determine what type of apps you are using. if you are surfing the web, listening to music, writing word Docs etc, the Mac is a great choice. I am tired of removing spyware from my friends' PC's, so I have been telling them to get Macs. (there is some spyware for mac I guess, but, I haven't come across it.)

[betasp]

It really is impossible to accuratly do benchmarks between the two. No programs accurately run because all programs have built in optimizations.

I will say that a G4 is sluggish compared to a fast p4 processor... On a G5, the OSX box is snappy and very fast, but most of that is due to the faster bus speed and more cache. But to come back to your base question, yes they do compare and diffrent clock speeds.

[Bling3k12]

I use my PowerBook to death, and giving it an extra 768MB of RAM (from 512MB to 1.25GB) really increased performance, by a large factor! Performance gains were very noticable. Once I get another $150 free, I'm definitely replacing the remaining 256MB with a 1GB. All of what you mentioned is possible and works great on my Mac.

[mootymoots]

hmmm, its really tough... Im thinking now that if apple dont announce something about the PB next week at the keynote, im gonna have to pass on it. It may be worth getting a G5 desktop with all that 1.25Ghz FSB action until the G5 or other improvement comes along on the PB. i really think that buying an existing one just wont have any longevity in it, and over here in the UK, they aint cheap!!! :)

To add aswell, I think its important to think not only about what I want to achieve on it now, but what I'll want to do on it in say 12 months, or 2 years down the line. I'd like to get some time out of it if at all possible

[kirk26]

Okay, I admit to not knowing much about processors and what not, but is a 1.5 GHz Powerbook, a little bit not powerful compared to todays standards? I see PC laptops from 2.5-3 Ghz

Dont flame me... I'd really like to know how a 1.5Ghz Powerbook compares in the PC world, as they must be half decent otherwise people wouldnt keep buying them  :laugh:

So, if you guys could give me a quick explanation on comparisons, that'd be great, so I can truely shrug off my PC blues  :rofl:

Cheers :)

585243860[/snapback]

What woman's name goes with that picture under your username? Nice assets!

[thetechroom]

What woman's name goes with that picture under your username?  Nice assets!

585245121[/snapback]

Elisha Cuthbert

[kirk26]

Elisha Cuthbert

585245202[/snapback]

Thanks.

[uniacid]

To add aswell, I think its important to think not only about what I want to achieve on it now, but what I'll want to do on it in say 12 months, or 2 years down the line. I'd like to get some time out of it if at all possible

585244682[/snapback]

Well technology is always changing and advancing, x86 PC's for the most part are easily upgradable and so are Mac's but if your looking for something you won't have to worry about much in the long run then I'd go with the Mac, it has all the features you want and if you get a G5 Desktop you won't be disappointed, unless of course your a big gamer also :p

[Dust]

My powerbook 1ghz could probably handle all that stress at once. And my pentium 4 1.6 @ 2.1 could do that in a pinch. go for mac.