MacBook Pro better Vista machine than Vaio
Ken Mingis, writing for Computer World, says that Vista (Microsoft's next generation OS) runs better on his new 17 inch MacBook Pro than it does on his year old Vaio. The Windows Experience Index, a utility that is included with Vista to measure what features will run on your machine, gave the MacBook Pro a score of 4.7 out of 5 while the Vaio got a 3.6.Two things to keep in mind; Ken was running Vista in BootCamp and he is comparing a brand new top of the line laptop to one that was top of the line last year (which is a long time in the tech world). Still, it is nice to see that Macs won't have trouble running the latest and greatest that Redmond has to offer. If you're into that kind of thing, that is.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Brian P. said 5:12PM on 9-08-2006
What is Viao? Do you mean Vaio? Maybe I should click on the link and it will turn out to be a new brand??
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Quintinn said 5:13PM on 9-08-2006
I tried a similar setup on my black Macbook with Bootcamp and the RC1 release of Vista and got a fairly respectable 3.0 score. The 3.0 came from the lower video card specs on the Macbook, however the machine was able to run Aero and all the wiz bang Windows effects just fine. If you're into that kind of thing...
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NitRam Den Gale said 5:26PM on 9-08-2006
Yes, I believe that its suppose to say Vaio...
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Bill I said 5:23PM on 9-08-2006
Being an Apple guy, I appreciate as much as anyone that Apple's turn out respectable preformance running Redmond's latest-and-greatest, but reporting that a BRAND NEW 17" MBP runs Vista better than a Vaio that's a year old is an utterly useless comparison.
A year, like you said, is a long time in the tech world...but ESPECIALLY the laptop world. Consider that a year ago there was no such thing as a MacBook Pro. Compare Apple's 17" PowerBook G4 to the Vaio, and I bet you'll get VERY different results.
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Sean said 5:27PM on 9-08-2006
I want to see Apple succeed just as much as the next Apple fan, but "comparisons" like this are what give Mac fans a bad name. As a previous poster said, comparing a new MBP to a year old laptop is a TERRIBLE comparison.
I'd be very interested to see the results if they used a comparable, RECENT laptop from any of the top manufacturers.
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Mentok said 5:32PM on 9-08-2006
Viao? It helps to know what you're actually talking about before you blog something. Misspelling the headline = Mortal sin = No credibility.
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Steve said 5:38PM on 9-08-2006
Hey Quintinn,
How did you get the video card drivers to work with the macbook? I can't get more than 1024x768 to work on mine.
Thanks,
Steve
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Sabon said 10:02AM on 9-09-2006
"Still, it is nice to see that Macs won't have trouble running the latest and greatest that Redmond has to offer."
This should read:
"Still, it is nice to see that Macs won't have trouble running the latest and less sucky that Redmond has to offer."
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derek said 6:24PM on 9-08-2006
wow, this is lame. very very very lame.
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James said 6:25PM on 9-08-2006
Video Integrated Audio Operation? scratch that Video Audio Integrated Operation...
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Fred said 6:26PM on 9-08-2006
Viao, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt once, but you kept spelling it that way. Come on guys, I realize it's a Mac blog, but please get it together.
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Dustin said 6:51PM on 9-08-2006
This is one of the stupidest comparisons I've ever seen.
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mark said 7:33PM on 9-08-2006
@Bill I
I don't think the intent of this article is to compare hardware. It's known that Vista has some pretty hefy hardware requirements. I think the point is: if you just got a new MBP, you should be able to run Vista fine, if you have a year old Vaio, you might want to think about it a little more. I think this is a perfectly valid comparison, since it discusses perfromance that users of MBP's, and Vaio's can expect.
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thomas_h said 7:49PM on 9-08-2006
BREAKING NEWS
The New Dell XPS Something runs windows better than a Macintosh IIs !!
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Bill I said 8:24PM on 9-08-2006
@ mark
Of course a comparison wasn't the point of the original article, and a better way to report on this article would've been "MacBook Pro good machine for Vista!" but the way Mr McNulty reported it made it sound as if the article was written to prove Apple's superiority.
The title of his article was the obvious (and overshadowing) take-home statement, not the disclaimer towards the end. The linked article hardly mentions the Vaio past the first page, and the article's author only mentions it there simply as a here-is-a-machine-I-had-lying-around measure, not as a component-for-component comparison.
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G said 8:49PM on 9-08-2006
Dear pedant, you clearly knew what was meant by viao/VAIO. So why not just read the post and keep your 4th reich spelling B to yourself. All this TUAW bashing is getting old and is spoiling the site for me and no doubt others. Better still get your new world order a blog, get similar hits then talk.
xx G
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digitalintrigue said 8:52PM on 9-08-2006
Come on guys, Macbook Pro is 9 months old now...comparing to a year old Sony is not really lame at all.
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Hey that's me said 11:49PM on 9-08-2006
"Come on guys, Macbook Pro is 9 months old now...comparing to a year old Sony is not really lame at all."
It is lame. The 17-inch MacBook Pro was only introduced April 24, 2006, the VAIO VGN-A790 was launched at the end of last year with an older single-core processor and and older GPU. If it was the other way around the Mac web would be up in arms in a moment. Imagine reading a blog post entitled "Top-end Merom Vaio better Vista machine than year old MakBoox Pro" in January 2007.
Sony VAIO VGN-A790
2-GHz Intel Pentium M 760 single-core "Dothan"
ATI Mobility Radeon X600
Review date: September 2005
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1859531,00.asp
MacBook Pro 2.16GHz 17-inch
2.16GHz Intel Core Duo "Yonah"
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600
Introduced: April 24, 2006
http://www.designedinca.com/macs/macbook_pro/apr2006/2160-17/
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Quintinn said 12:49AM on 9-09-2006
I am using Bootcamp 1.1 (the newest version I think) and Vista RC1 that just came out the other day. I burned the 'Apple Drivers for Windows XP' disk that BootCamp makes for you and the video card drivers just worked. I wasn't able to get all the hardware to work.. iSight and a few other unidentified pieces of hardware won't load in the Device Manager.. but everything else seems to be ok. Not sure if that helps or not.
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Murph said 3:59PM on 9-09-2006
This is my first post here and I almost just let it slide. But....
Having been a windows man from '83 on and having purchased my first Mac (PowerBook G4) that's now a little over a year old, I'm reading this comparison and I'm thinking to myself that the comparison isn't really "fair". And for the record, I have no windows machines in my home, but sheesh, a year old model from Redmond versus the newest from Apple??? Nah, even for me, that's a wee bit of a stretch.
Just my 2-cents.
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