BARE facts on Macintosh speed FEATS

 

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DDR vs SDR Power Mac
Page 3

by rob-ART morgan, mad scientist
This THIRD page was added to the
original test page and second page on 9/1/02 to show how rendering time is affected by network transfers.
Also includes Final Cut Pro test results.

When we did a Cinema 4D render while doing a disk transfer, someone said that wasn't demanding enough. So, at their suggestion, we did a network transfer while rendering, a scenario that exercises at least three subsystems simultaneously: 

 

Initially, we used a normal network hub, which limited transfer bandwidth to 100BaseT. I decided to utilize Gigabit Ethernet full speed by using a CAT 5e cable to connect the test systems to another PowerMac. That actually helped the DDR Power Mac gain an even larger advantage (up from 9% to 13%). This is the first "significant" speed advantage the DDR has shown us.

Just for fun, I timed how long it took to transfer eight documents totalling 3.6GB over the Gigabit mini-network. It took 91 seconds in the case of the DDR Power Mac. That's a transfer speed of 39MB/sec! Kewl.

Some of you asked for Final Cut Pro 3 results. For this test, I created a 2 minute 19 second movie (using the 6 clips from the iMovie tutorial dropped in 3 times) and exported it as a high quality Final Cut Pro movie. The DDR Power Mac was only 4.5% faster:

 

 

Another reader said, do a RENDER, not an EXPORT. So we tried rendering the same movie with a WIND BLUR effect. The DDR Mac was only 1% faster.

 

CONCLUSION

The NEW DDR Power Mac finally showed the SDR Power Mac its hind quarters in a real world test. It was 13% quicker when we exercised the ATA and Ethernet subsystems while doing the CPU intensive Cinema 4D render. That would tend to support the theory that the DDR Mac can handle full system loads better.

Those who suggested that the DDR mac would excel at Final Cut Pro are going to be disappointed. It was only 1 to 4.5% faster in our two tests.

Again, I see the DDR as an evolutionary step toward the "killer" Power Mac still to come. Today we get a DDR Power Mac strangled by a single, slower bridge and system bus. "Tomorrow," we get a DDR Power Mac liberated by dual frontside bus and equally fast system bus.... we hope and pray.

 

TEST NOTES

The "SDR" Power Mac 1GHz MP had 1GB of PC133 CL2 SDRAM.
The "DDR" Power Mac 1GHz MP had 1.25GB of PC2700 CL2.5 DDR RAM
Both booted and ran apps from an IBM 120GXP drive with OS X "Jaguar" installed.

The Cinema 4D "Render Scene" test used 1024x768 screen setting. Sample file was "scene0.c4d" from CineBench2000 + attending texture files. Cinema 4D was launched first and test file opened. The network copy was then started. Third, Cinema 4D's "render scene" command was executed. Time in seconds appears at lower left of screen.

The QuickTime Export from Final Cut Pro included these settings:
VIDEO - DV/DVCPRO - NTSC, Best, 30fps
AUDIO - MPEG-4 Audio, 44.1kHz, 16 bit, Stereo
INTERNET - Hinted Streaming (no optimization)

 

 

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© 2002 Rob Art Morgan
"BARE facts on Macintosh speed FEATS"
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