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First
Full Results Posting: March 5th, 2001
Last Updated: March 14th with updatd iMovie
numbers
by rob
ART morgan,
mad Mac scientist
with testing help from Rick
Ortiz
and Jeremy
Hansen
Here
it is... what everyone's waiting
for...
Actual
Test Results
This
is something new we tried. Take the 6 movie clips
from iMovie's Tutorial and export them as a
QuickTime movie (Movie for CD-ROM, Medium Quality,
320 x 240, 15 fps, 44kHz). For you Final Cut Pro's,
I got the same time when I exported the same clips
to a QuickTime movie using the same settings.
(This
chart was last updated on 3/14/01 when QuickTime 5
Preview 3 produced faster times on the SOLO
533.)
Another
new test. Each machine imported 3 Beach Boys Songs
using MP3 and "Best Quality." The songs were "Deuce
Coupe," "409," and "Shut Down." Appropriate,
n'est-ce pas? They were imported from the internal
hard drive. Seems the first time we did this test,
the 733 was much slower. Apple (and you readers)
pointed out that we were actually measuring CD
drive speed and the SuperDrive reads slower than
the "no so super" CD-RW.
Look
closely at this chart. The SINGLE G4/533 is
faster than the G4/733. And the Dual G4/533
blows it away. This must be a case where the 733's
pipes are too long and its cache is too
small.
This
is 20 typical actions like Rotate, Resize, Blur,
Sharpen, Convert to CMYK, etc. The G4/733 is only
slightly faster than the Single G4/533. And look at
it in relation to the Pentiums. Makes you wonder
about Steve Job's demo at MacWorld Expo! (Check
this
link
for more on that.)
All
systems tested above had a GeForce2 MX graphics
card. I added this chart for those who pointed out
(and rightly so) that the CPU speed delta shows up
best at low resolutions and low quality textures.
The bad news is that the Pentiums blow away the Mac
in this mode. The good news is that help is on the
way. The OS X version of Quake on a Dual G4 goes
over 133 fps. The bad news is the 733 probably
won't do games much faster under OS X unless they
get a boost from AltiVec "awareness."
I'm
leaving this graph here to show you what happens
when the resolution and texture quality is set at
very high quality. The gap closes between the
G4/533 and G4/733. It also closes between the Macs
and the Pentiums.
Everyone
screamed "foul" at me for posting the "1024x768
High Quality" test results. Again, their point was
well taken. I'm not testing graphics cards here.
I'm testing CPU's. So I turned off options and
lowered the quality on just about everything to
give you this graph in both RAVE and OpenGL mode.
(Now if we could just convince Mark Adams to create
an OS X MP aware, AltiVec aware version of Unreal
Tournament...;-)
PERFORMANCE
ANALYSIS
Bottom
line: The Dual G4/533 was faster than the G4/733 in
3 out of 7 tests I ran. If you discount the
"Maximum" Quake3Arena test, it's a tie. But the
next paragraph is most surprising.
Though
the G4/733 has a 37.5% faster clock speed, on-chip
cache, multiple FPU's, and multiple Velocity
Engines, it was only 13.1% faster than the SINGLE
G3/533 (average of my 7 tests).
The
technical excuses already abound. Some are blaming
the new 7450 version of the G4, saying it is 10 to
20% slower than the 7400/7410 version running at
the same clock speed. Others are saying it's OS
9.1's fault. That it doesn't handle cache fetches
efficiently with the new 7450 based G4/733. Still
others are blaming applications that aren't written
to take the 7450 into account. And don't forget,
when the 256K on-chip cache runs out, the 1MB L3
cache is running at only 183Mhz. Curses!
Here's
a very clear explanation from a source intimately
acquainted with 7450 architecture: "The 7450, while
being a very well-engineered chip, is not as fast
as a 7400/7410 at the same clock speed. The
additional L2 on-chip cache, Altivec, and FPU units
were put there to make up for the deeper pipeline.
There are also some programming penalties that have
not been present before (cache hits, branches,
etc.). Once X hits, and some apps are reworked for
it, the 733 will regain much of it's oomf. Until
then, it is not a linear scale of performance when
compared to the earlier chips, but it's not quite a
20% hit. The MP machines are by far the better
buy."
People
who ordered the 733 betting it would be the fastest
Mac are throwing up in their toilets. The Dual 533
buyers are lighting up cigars and patting
themselves on the back. Those with unfulfilled
BTO's are emailing me asking if they should be
switching the order to a Dual 533. I suppose if
they did, they could use the left over money to get
a GeForce3 card. One reader was so undecided, he
purchased both the 733 and Dual 533. So you see,
Bare Feats' reports are good for Apple sales!
It
would seem the biggest advantage of the 733 is the
internal SuperDrive. That's nothing to sneeze
at. I think it's well worth the $700 difference in
price (when both models are comparably equipped).
The email I get indicates owners L-O-V-E the
drive.
Is
the 733 deficient or is this a case of "think
different?" I hope for the sake of the consumer
that Apple and the third party developers will find
ways to squeeze out the 7450 chip's potential.
They don't call it the "bleeding edge" of
technology for nothing.
RELATED
LINKS
Rick LePage has
posted a comparison
of the G4/733 to a Dual
G4/500
and Single G4/400 on MacInTouch.
For more on the
G4/733 under-performance, read the postings at this
XLR8YourMac forum THREAD.
Read Dan Knight's
reaction to these tests and his cost analysis on a
page he calls, "One
Brain Or Two?"
(Low End Mac)
Which is
faster,
the Radeon or the GeForce2?
Read about the
UN-optimized
Photoshop 6.0 for Pentium
fiasco.
Again, big mahalo
to the guys who provided testing help,
Rick
Ortiz and
Jeremy
Hansen!
(Visit their web sites as your "thank
you".)
TEST
HARDWARE
Test
machines:
G4/733 Power Mac (256M of RAM, GeForce2 MX, Mac OS
9.1)
Dual G4/533 Power Mac (256M of RAM, GeForce2 MX,
Mac OS 9.1)
Single G4/533 Power Mac (256M of RAM, GeForce2 MX,
Mac OS 9.1)
Dual G4/500 Power Mac (256M of RAM, ATI RAGE 128
Pro, Mac OS 9.04)
Radeon AGP graphics card provided courtesy of ATI
Technologies
Pentium
3 866MHz (512M of RAM, GeForce2 MX, Windows ME)
Sony VAIO Pentium 3 1.0GHz (256M of RAM, GeForce2
MX, Windows ME)
Sony VAIO Pentium 4 1.3GHz (256M of RAM, GeForce2
MX, Windows ME)
Sony VAIO Pentium 4 1.5GHz (256M of RAM, GeForce2
MX, Windows ME)
WHERE TO ORDER YOUR APPLE PRODUCTS
When ordering products from Apple Store USA, please click THIS TEXT LINK or any Apple display ad as your "portal" to the online store. In so doing, you help to support Bare Feats.
© 1995-2007 Rob Art Morgan
"BARE facts on Macintosh speed FEATS"
Email
, the webmaster
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