Filed under: Hardware, Macbook Pro
MacBook Pro vs PowerBook 2.0 GHz benchmarks
No, that
headline is not a typo. I found an extensive set of MacBook Pro benchmarks over at Bare Feats that pits the machine against a Dual Core G5 2.0 GHz, an iMac
Core Duo 2.0 GHz, a MacBook Pro Solo 2.0 GHz (for good measure I guess) and a PowerBook G4 that has been upgraded to
2.0 GHz, thanks to Daystar
Technology. Yes, from checking out their site it looks like it's possible to upgrade some PowerBooks to 2.0 GHz G4
chips, but it'll cost ya - the upgrade is $499.Getting back to the benchmarks topic: Bare Feats ran the typical Cinebench and Photoshop tests between these machines, and as usual the iMac Core Duo typically won out, with the MacBook Pro pleasantly nipping at its heels. They also produced some pleasant frame rates when testing Doom 3 and Unreal Tournament 2004.
Bare Feats also tested whether matching memory pairs - such as two 1 GB sticks - made any difference in performance over a 1 GB 256 MB configuration. Fortunately, there was virtually no difference in their tests, save for small, single digit improvements in iMovie and Photoshop CS that aren't really anything to write home about.
[via IMG]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Wade Emmert said 3:20PM on 3-21-2006
I don't think there is a MacBook Pro solo. They only come with the duo.
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arkowi said 3:33PM on 3-21-2006
I actually looked at these the other day. Very impressive. As soon as it looks like they have some of these hardware issues worked out with the MacBook Pro I would like to sell my Dual G5 2.0 and my Powerbook G4 1.4...One computer to rule them all.
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Tetra said 4:01PM on 3-21-2006
"I don't think there is a MacBook Pro solo. They only come with the duo."
You're right. They disabled a core on the MacBook Pro for testing purposes.
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Goobimama said 4:31PM on 3-21-2006
#1: That's what i thought. But on reading the article I found that they turned off one of the cores in the Macbook Pro Core Duo to make it a core solo...
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David Chartier said 4:36PM on 3-21-2006
There actually is a MacBook Pro Solo, of sorts. If you install developer tools you get a System Pref pane that can shut off one of the cores.
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David Reitter said 4:39PM on 3-21-2006
Those single digit improvements are probably no improvement at all, because the difference they see might not be significant - that means they're attributable to chance alone.
I've run some benchmarks myself on various machines, and running them on the same machine several times showed a lot of variance. I wonder how much all these benchmarks that people publish are really worth in practice...
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Phil Voissem said 12:12AM on 4-05-2006
In regards to: "As soon as it looks like they have some of these hardware issues worked out with the MacBook Pro I would like to sell my Dual G5 2.0 and my Powerbook G4" Are there any specific hardware issues hindering the Macbook? I am looking into replacing my iBook G4 with a Macbook within the next couple months and I'd like to make sure I won't have any problems with it off the bat.
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