G5 vs. x86 and Mac OS X vs. Linux

demonbug writes "Anandtech has an article up comparing performance of dual G5s to AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon workstations. The article also takes a look at performance under Mac OS X versus Linux. It provides an interesting look at some of the strengths and weaknesses of the different CPUs." From the article: "This article is written solely from the frustration that I could not get a clear picture on what the G5 and Mac OS X are capable of. So, be warned; this is not an all-round review. It is definitely the worst buyer's guide that you can imagine. This article cares about speed, performance, and nothing else! No comments on how well designed the internals are, no elaborate discussions about user friendliness, out-of-the-box experience and other subjective subjects. But we think that you should have a decent insight to where the G5/Mac OS X combination positions itself when compared to the Intel & AMD world at the end of this article."

Comments

Re:No PowerPC Linux in the Review?!

[fimbulvetr]

Don't forget this:

The server performance of the Apple platform is, however, catastrophic. When we asked Apple for a reaction, they told us that some database vendors, Sybase and Oracle, have found a way around the threading problems. We'll try Sybase later, but frankly, we are very sceptical. The whole "multi-threaded Mach microkernel trapped inside a monolithic FreeBSD cocoon with several threading wrappers and coarse-grained threading access to the kernel", with a "backwards compatibility" millstone around its neck sounds like a bad fusion recipe for performance.

Summary

[varmittang]

The G5 woops when it comes to floating point, and stays just behind in everything else. AMD of course takes top honors in almost everything. The find out that OS X kernel doesn't do so well on the server when it comes to multiple threads created while using MySQL and other possible open source software, so they conclude OS X a good desktop, but Linux is better on the Server. They will look into Linux on PPC to see which is better next time, PPC or x86 when it comes to a Linux server.

Re:Summary

[kylef]

The G5 woops when it comes to floating point, and stays just behind in everything else.

Uh, that's not what I read:

The conclusion is that the Opteron has, by far, the best FPU, especially when more complex instructions such a FDIV (divisions) are used. When the code is using something close to the ideal 50% FADD/FSUB and 50% FMUL mix and is optimised for Altivec, the G5 can roll its muscles. The normal FPU is rather mediocre though.

That hardly sounds like the G5 is "whooping" when it comes to floating point...