Apple's MacBook Pro: Using it as a Mac and a PC
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 13, 2006 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mac
Performance Comparison: G4 vs. Core Duo
Before I get to the actual numbers comparing my PowerBook G4 1.5GHz to the MacBook Pro 2.0GHz, I should say that actually using the machine felt a lot faster. Just scrolling through a Finder window is so much faster on the MacBook Pro than on the old G4. Everything is a lot more responsive and the system as a whole feels desktop-fast. That being said, I can't get away without putting it to the test so here we have it - a PowerMac G4 1.5GHz vs. a MacBook Pro 2.0GHz.
Both systems are configured the way they were from Apple, with 1GB of memory but the original hard drives in each. Obviously the MacBook Pro has an advantage there because of its newer hard drive, however most of my tests aren't very disk bound minimizing the impact of differing hard drives. First off, we've got the good ol' boot test:
The MacBook Pro boots much quicker than the old PowerBook G4, much like the iMac Core Duo boots faster than the iMac G5. While the PowerBook G4 boots (from power on to desktop fully loaded) in just under 50 seconds, the MacBook Pro does it in just over 30 seconds. Although personally I keep my notebook on almost as much as my desktop, boot time is important for traveling where I'm constantly turning my machine on and off.
Just like in my iMac Core Duo review, wherever benchmarks/applications were multi-threaded I tried turning off the second core on the MacBook Pro to give you a good idea of what a Core Solo would be performing like up against the PowerBook G4. Not only is this interesting to look at, but there's also a good possibility that the future iBook replacement will have Core Solo as a processor option. The first two tests here both happen to be multi-threaded so you'll see results from both the Core Solo and Core Duo setups.
The MacBook Pro is ridiculously fast compared to the PowerBook G4 in converting MP3s using iTunes: the encode time is around 35% lower on the MacBook Pro. Disabling one of the cores does significantly level the playing field, although the Core Solo at 2.0GHz still manages to be a bit faster than the G4 1.5.
Under QuickTime we see a full 50% increase in performance over the PowerBook G4. If you disable the second core, the G4 1.5 actually pulls ahead of the Core Solo 2.0. The PowerBook to MacBook Pro upgrade, purely from a performance stance, is looking very impressive already.
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boinkle - Thursday, April 13, 2006 - link
Great review, apart from making me think "that's still quite pretty!", at the end of the day it's just a PC in an Apple enclosure. It's shiny, fast, but has all the problems of an Apple 1st gen product, with few of the benefits of Core duo showing up...How I wish someone had given Freescale some incentive to develop the G4 further (to a reasonablt timescale). It's amazing that it's still even *reasonably* competitive. Imagine dual-core, 65nm G4 derivative production? Don't TI have a 65nm fab up and running now? That's where your 5 hours would come from, Anand... pie in the sky, I know.
*sigh*
littlebitstrouds - Thursday, April 13, 2006 - link
How about some gaming benchmarks. If you run windows and game are you getting good performance numbers? If I could have a Mac for everyday use and boot up windows when I want to game I might jump on this.Visual - Thursday, April 13, 2006 - link
you have some borked page 18 after the "final thoughts" page showing up in the dropdown.in printarticle.aspx it shows up as a duplicate of page 17 for some reason
as to the article itself - good job :)
my guess as to why the vm is faster than the real thing is because the hdd emulation works somewhat like a ramdrive - its a file on the apple hdd but it probably gets cached up by osx or by the vmsoftware itself.
plinden - Thursday, April 13, 2006 - link
That could be - I have maxed out at 2GB RAM in my iMac, and I get wired RAM is close to the max and a hefty number of Page Outs (up to 210,000 last time I looked. before it setayed below 5000 even after being on for a week) while running Parallels VM.
ibisbowti - Thursday, April 13, 2006 - link
I been using the 1.83 Core Duo for about a week now. I think it is one of the latest builds according to the serial number. No problems at all, other than it does get pretty warm. Heat issue seems better after latest firmware update. I think the aluminum is designed to be a big heat sink! I thought the Front Row software would be a little gimmicky, but it is pretty cool, especially when sitting the unit on a coffee table and watching the HD movie trailers, IPhoto pics, etc with others. It's an awesome machine so far.artifex - Thursday, April 13, 2006 - link
Since you say you ran the same tests as in your earlier review, I'd like to see graphs comparing the results of the Intel iMac vs. the MBP. and add in ones for the Intel Mini, if you can. I suspect we'll see iMac > MBP > Mini, but it would be nice to be sure.Also, if you could slap Parallels on the Mini and tell us how much of a hit the virtualization takes because the hardware virtualization is disabled for that line, that would be really interesting.
Thanks.
AppaYipYip - Thursday, April 13, 2006 - link
"Apple quality control at it's best"That comment bothers me. Overall, there are no other manufacturers that come even close to Apples quality, design, and workmanship. Yet, you find one key that sits slightly off and suddenly feel the need to make such a blanket statement. If it bothers you so much, take it back and Apple will repair it for you, in record time.
Calin - Thursday, April 13, 2006 - link
The IBM thinkpads (before the Lenovo deal) were regarded as the best business laptops (or at least PC laptops) as quality and workmanship. Too bad they were designed with cramped keyboards (at least the models I saw) and no trackpad.Ryan Norton - Thursday, April 13, 2006 - link
I'm a PC guy but I like Macs a lot and will probably buy a Macbook Pro, either now or when Merom ones come out. I figure Anand probably is too. Yet I work with Mac zealots who give me endless shit about the unequivocal superiority of Apple everything over PC (except for games, which they concede). So when someone like me finds a glaring flaw that seems like something that should have been spotted before it got to the end user, it's easy to take a cheap shot at Jobs =^)Sunrise089 - Thursday, April 13, 2006 - link
If I had my dream review of this product, here's how I would have you test gaming performance:Test performance in Windows mode. Then compare it to other Core Duo notebooks. Then see if there is any game written natively for OS-X under Core Duo, and run the OS-X version and the Windows version to see the difference in OS on performance on the same machine.
Other than no gaming info, terrific review.