Comparative G5/G4 Tests

rocketjam writes "Barefeats.com has posted test results comparing a 2GHz G5 MP, 1.8GHz G5, 1.6GHz G5 and G4 MP's at 1.4GHz, 1.25GHz and 1GHz. They use Photoshop, Cinebench 2003 and a Bryce 5 render for tests. Bottom line is the G5 2GHz MP has the best bang for your buck, but you might think twice about trading in that dual processor G4 for a solo G5...the G4s hold their own quite well. They also say tests in Panther yielded significant increases in the G5 scores."

Comments

non-optimised software

[Ffakr]

I mailed the barefeats guy but haven't heard back yet...

The photoshop tests indicate version 7.0, while Adobe has posted some optimised libraries and plugins for 7.0.1 that supposedly speed up some functions considerably.

I haven't heard back as to whether the author actually used 7.0.[0] or the slightly optimised 7.0.1.

so far, I'm pretty happy with the reported G5 performance considering how different the architecture is to the G4.
Apple's in a very odd position for a Computer Company right now. Instead of releasing increasingly bloated software that runs ever slower, requiring ever faster hardware... their hardware is getting faster and the software is speeding up. i'm running Panther now and it is noticeably faster at many tasks. :-) The same seems to be the case for the G5 in general... it's only going to get faster.

Re:caveats about these tests

[King Babar]

Okay, I'm not going to be lazy. I went to Dell.com and configured a 2.4ghz Dual Xeon with Windows XP, 512mb RAM, a DVD drive and a modem. This is roughly the same configuration offered by the G5.

Price is $2,801.

So the Mac is about $200 more than a system with about the same performance once the Mac is optimized.

OK, so I am even less lazy, and I disbelieve. I did what you said you did, and my dual-Xeon Precision 650 with a USB mouse, USB keyboard, dual-monitor DVI capable video card 120 GB IDE drive (largest IDE drive there; Serial ATA is not an option and the SCSI drive prices gave me the giggles) and DVD-RW/CD-ROM 48X (hope it's writable) drive and no Dell support (to equal the Apple G5) would cost me a total of $3054.10.

Now, I was too lazy to find out if the Dell had gigE ethernet like the Mac, but this is a closer comparison *IF* you are right about the fact that an optimized dual 2 GHz G5 is only equivalent to a 2.4 GHz dual Xeon. If it actually turns out to be anywhere close to a 3.0 GHz dual Xeon, we can stop having this conversation right now, since that box starts at over $4000. Myself, I'm guessing the truth is somewhere in between.

So that makes the G5 about the same performance as a Dell that might run anwhere between $0 and $500 more. "Priced very attractively" is how I would have to put this. Likely not attractively enough to get *many* Windows shops to switch (based on hardware cost and software legacy alone anyway), but attractive enough to keep market share and probably then some.