Intel Mac Performance Behind Hype

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Intel Mac Performance Behind Hype

Posted by Zonk on Friday January 20, 2006 @06:21AM from the objective-looks dept.

Barry Norton writes "Steve Jobs, at the MacWorld tradeshow, boasted: 'the new iMac [with] Intel processor is two to three times faster than the iMac G5.' MacWorld (the publication) has been putting the iMacs through their paces. The results are a good deal less impressive than Steve's boast, showing an average performance increase of 10 to 25 per cent while performing a series of everyday tasks with software specially designed for the new systems." Ars Technica had another perspective on the new systems earlier this week.

10 of 444 comments (clear)

At least that's one thing that never changes... by TheGuano · 2006-01-20 06:26 · Score: 5, Funny

Despite the switch to Intel CPUs, the time honored tradition of "Apple benchmarks" continues :)
Re:Figures..... by CatOne · 2006-01-20 06:37 · Score: 1, Funny

Obviously, Slashdot is not prepared for the speed of your fingers. Had it been running on a new Mac with a core duo, it could have kept up you would have had first post. Drat!
Re:Newsflash! by Mr.+Underbridge · 2006-01-20 06:43 · Score: 5, Funny

I mean, we're talking about a company that said no one wanted flash players until they made one, that no one wanted to watch video on an iPod until they made an iPod that played video, and that said all x86 architecture and CISC processors sucked until they switched to them.
It seems your tinfoil is successful in blocking the Reality Distortion Field (TM).
Re:Newsflash! by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-20 06:55 · Score: 2, Funny

oh come on. Steve said it was really fast, let's not bore people with technical details... Look! Over there, bouncing icons and spinning beach balls!
Re:Errr... by CaymanIslandCarpedie · 2006-01-20 06:58 · Score: 2, Funny

Anybody who thinks droping two cores on die in place of one will double performance is relying more on 1st grade math than engineering.

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"reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
Re:Newsflash! by Dzimas · 2006-01-20 07:31 · Score: 5, Funny

The Apple site repeatedly proclaims "2x faster. Twice as amazing." Of course, perhaps Steve defined X=0.6?
Re:Newsflash! by Overly+Critical+Guy · 2006-01-20 07:38 · Score: 5, Funny

Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to step out of the car. You're writing calm, rational posts in a Slashdot zone. Please take your emotion from the glove box and wear it on your head while barking "STEVE LIED." I'll let you off with a warning this time.

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"Sufferin' succotash."
Re:Newsflash! by eclectic4 · 2006-01-20 07:55 · Score: 2, Funny

Chiat Day. The gold standard in advertising...

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"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel Boorstin
G4/5 don't suck afterall? by Johnny+Mnemonic · 2006-01-20 07:57 · Score: 4, Funny

Wait, I don't get it. Are we making fun of Apple because now it appears that G4/5 CPUs are actually about the same as Intel?

Isn't this what Mac lovers have been saying for the past 10 years, but were laughed out of the room?

Does Intel automatically start sucking, because Apple moves to the the CPU? Does PPC get magically better?

Maybe those Macs that were "1/2 as fast and twice as expensive" for the last few years weren't really so slow or so expensive after all--meaning who's the fool?

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$tar -xvf .sig.tar
Re:Newsflash! by disappear · 2006-01-20 10:06 · Score: 4, Funny

As I said: apart from compact encoding.

In other words, "So, other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the show?"