OS X faster on Pentium ? Our opinion
16/07/05 11:23
Some Macintosh related web sites have started threads about the news that "Intel Developer Macs Outperform G5s". Surprizing ?
Not really.
No real benchmarking has been done until now and only a few applications have been tested. What we all know from information available :
1. the Pentium family has always been good at integer (and thus string) processing: better than PowerPC processors.
Applications tested take benefit of this: no FinalCut, Photoshop, sound processing, scientific applications have been tested where the floating point advantage of the PowerPC could have showed up.
2. gcc - with which most applications tested have been compiled - has always been a compiler suite with better support for x86 family of processors than for the PowerPC one.
A real benchmark test would have to compare also Intel compiler on x86 against IBM's one on PowerPC.
Intel choice by Apple will probably be a performance advantage for most ("normal") users,
abandon of the PowerPC is probably a sad news for scientific and high-performance ones.
Apple goes for the masses...,
After all, they are there to make the most money, no ?
The ideal would be to see both product lines continue to exist in parallel...
No real benchmarking has been done until now and only a few applications have been tested. What we all know from information available :
1. the Pentium family has always been good at integer (and thus string) processing: better than PowerPC processors.
Applications tested take benefit of this: no FinalCut, Photoshop, sound processing, scientific applications have been tested where the floating point advantage of the PowerPC could have showed up.
2. gcc - with which most applications tested have been compiled - has always been a compiler suite with better support for x86 family of processors than for the PowerPC one.
A real benchmark test would have to compare also Intel compiler on x86 against IBM's one on PowerPC.
Intel choice by Apple will probably be a performance advantage for most ("normal") users,
abandon of the PowerPC is probably a sad news for scientific and high-performance ones.
Apple goes for the masses...,
After all, they are there to make the most money, no ?
The ideal would be to see both product lines continue to exist in parallel...