Benchmarks Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

MacTech benchmarks Parallels and VMware Fusion

by Mike Schramm (Nov 2nd, 2011)

The 2011 MacTech Conference starts up here in Los Angeles today, and TUAW will have reports and interviews live from the conference all week. Before things begin, however, MacTech has been busy benchmarking (as usual). Its latest benchmarking showdown features virtualization software options ...

Geekbench scores benchmark iPhone 4S A5 at 800MHz

by Kelly Hodgkins (Oct 11th, 2011)

Here is some good news and bad news for prospective iPhone 4S owners. The bad news is that the iPhone 4S has a dual-core 1GHz CPU, but its clocked to 800 Mhz. The good news is that, even with slower clock speeds, the 4S still beats the pants off the iPhone 4 and other Android ...

Macworld benchmarks: Mac mini BTO can match iMac performance

by Chris Rawson (Aug 29th, 2011)

As the closest Apple comes to a "budget model" Mac, the Mac mini usually turns out to be substantially less powerful than the larger, more expensive iMac. However, Macworld discovered via recent benchmarks that a build-to-order current-generation Mac mini can meet or exceed many performance ...

Bare Feats finds iMacs compare to Mac Pros running Final Cut Pro X

by Steven Sande (Jul 11th, 2011)

Final Cut Pro X users might want consider an iMac instead of a Mac Pro, according to some recent benchmarks run by Bare Feats. The graphics and speed testing site recently tested FCP X on three different Macs to see which current model was able to tame the power-hungry app the best. The ...

Macworld publishes first round of benchmark results for new iMac

by Dana Franklin (May 4th, 2011)

Macworld posted the results of its first benchmark tests for the newly updated family of iMacs this morning. The publication's tests found Apple's latest iMacs to be generally faster than previous iMacs, although certain build-to-order (BTO) models from 2010 still outperformed the new family of ...

A5 beats Tegra 2 in benchmark tests, thanks to larger size

by Mike Schramm (Apr 11th, 2011)

GLBenchmark pitted a few tablet processors against each other in a speed showdown, and Apple's custom-designed A5 chip in the iPad 2 handily beats NVIDIA's Tegra 2 processor, used in competing tablets like the Motorola Xoom. A few analysts are saying that it's the size that matters in this case ...

Android vs. iPhone in 'flawed' mobile browser performance test

by Dana Franklin (Mar 17th, 2011)

Post edited to clarify that the browser testing is not representative of Safari performance, and included Blaze response to CNET. –Ed. Blaze Software, a Canadian software company, today released the results of what it calls a "definitive" research effort to discover "which [mobile] ...

iPad 2 benchmarks show impressive gains over original model

by Steven Sande (Mar 14th, 2011)

One of the first things many iPad 2 upgraders noticed was that the new device seemed very fast in comparison to the original iPad. Over at GigaOM, blogger Geoffrey Goetz ran benchmarks on an iPhone 4, an iPad and an iPad 2 (all running iOS 4.3) to show how speedy the new iPad really is. As ...

AnandTech benchmarks the iPad 2, shows huge graphics gains

by Chris Rawson (Mar 13th, 2011)

AnandTech is in the midst of a lengthy analysis of the iPad 2's hardware. The results so far confirm what most of us already knew: the iPad 2's display is virtually identical to the original iPad, the cameras are nothing to write home about, and the CPU is slightly more powerful. What's most ...

iOS 4.3 gold master benchmarks from WIRED show speedier Safari browsing

by Steven Sande (Mar 9th, 2011)

In case you're wondering how that iOS 4.3 update is going to work out for you, WIRED has released results of benchmarks they performed using the gold master (release) version of the software. What they found was that the update provides major improvements in Safari's ability to run JavaScript. ...

USB 3.0 for Mac benchmarks and review

by Dave Caolo (Dec 20th, 2010)

Don't let Apple's lack of USB 3.0 support get you down. LaCie has you covered with the 2big USB 3.0 RAID drive, and Engadget has run benchmarks on it. The gang used a "relatively new" Mac Pro with the following specs: Apple Mac Pro (2009) 2.66GHz quad-core Intel Xeon 'Nehalem' CPU 6GB (2 x ...

Office 2011 puts pedal to the metal with demonstrable speed bumps

by Michael Rose (Nov 17th, 2010)

As we've been diving into the Microsoft Office 2011 application suite, we've been focusing on the new features going from 2008 to 2011, and the relative value versus alternative tools like Apple's iWork suite. One thing we haven't really nailed down, though, is speed. Although it's easy to see in ...

MacBook Air benchmarks for maxed-out 11-inch model

by Steven Sande (Nov 8th, 2010)

Those sweet, thin little MacBook Airs are sure making a lot of Mac-heads drool, even though they are not the speediest Macs in the world by a long shot. While the diminutive 11.6-inch model isn't really designed to be used with Pro apps or CPU/RAM hogs like Adobe Photoshop, that didn't keep the ...

Macworld posts MacBook Air benchmark results

by Dave Caolo (Oct 26th, 2010)

When the new MacBook Airs were introduced, many were shocked to see a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor in the standard 11-inch model and a 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo processor in the standard 13-inch model. Isn't that a step backward? The previous generation had either a 1.83GHz or a 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo processor ...

iPad tech specs reveal Cortex A8, 256MB Ram, PowerVR SGX 535

by Mike Schramm (Apr 6th, 2010)

Now that the iPad has been out and tested for a few days, developers have a much better idea of what's exactly under that perfectly-formed hood. Turns out the A4 processor is modeled on the Cortex A8, a fact which was not only expected, but gives a little extra credence to the theory that chipmaker ...