01-12-2006, 10:22 AM

Hi All

Righto I have decided to do a small test.

I have replaced my Imac G5 Isight with a 17inch Intel Dual Core, (IDC) to save my typing.

The IDC will be coming in 3 days time, I will be ordering the IDC with the standard 512mb ram as compared to my current 1GB setup.

I shall time application startups and see what the differences are and then report back- this will hopefully give people a real world comparison as opposed to 2-3X claims lol.

If we can make a list of programs that you all use I will if i have them try and replicate real world scenarios- clocking the speeds!

Watch this space, should be interesting!

01-12-2006, 02:32 PM

Cool, can't wait for real-world results...
I'll be doing the same at work when the new models arrive...
They should start arriving in stores here in Germany next week according to Apple.

01-12-2006, 03:30 PM

Sounds great
Try these progs:
Illustrator
Photoshop
Dreamweaver
Entourage
Itunes

01-12-2006, 04:15 PM

try iMovie and FCP as well if you can

01-12-2006, 05:56 PM

The RAM difference is going to play a large factor and make it difficult to truely compare. If you have 2 sticks of ram in the G5, you might want to remove one, leaving 512MB so that they are on the same level.

01-12-2006, 07:07 PM

Load times will be limited by the hard drive mostly, they will both have similar 7200rpm 3.5in drives. I wouldn't expect to see a huge difference because of that.

01-14-2006, 06:51 PM

I think the only accurate tests you could possibly do are ilife'06 and iwork'06 comparisions. How fair is it compare two systems (using photoshop for example) when a program is developed specifically for one, while the other requires the use of rosetta to run properly?

The iproducts are universal (being they run natively in either OS) so it would be fair. (unless there is software that is already available that is developed for both versions)

01-14-2006, 06:55 PM

Try booting a Windows XP disk. Not installing, just see if you can boot from an Install CD/DVD...

01-15-2006, 05:57 AM

Originally Posted by damontgo

try iMovie and FCP as well if you can

FCP wont work apple said that at the key note and the universal version isnt out yet

01-17-2006, 09:32 AM

Originally Posted by BEEEsH

I think the only accurate tests you could possibly do are ilife'06 and iwork'06 comparisions. How fair is it compare two systems (using photoshop for example) when a program is developed specifically for one, while the other requires the use of rosetta to run properly?

I for one would still like to know how Photoshop performs with Rosetta, in comparison to the native performance on a G5. I was planning on buying an iMac G5 but now I'm wondering if I should maybe opt for the Intel Dual Core instead. I use Photoshop a lot and there's no telling when Adobe will release a Universal version, so Smartz... PLEASE test it with Photoshop. I would really appreciate hearing the results and your opinion. :yinyang:

01-18-2006, 08:47 AM

RIGHT TIME FOR THE RESULTS

The Intel Mac arrived today at lunch. It is a 17 inch 512mb dual core. Compare to my G5 with 512mb - i took out the additonal stick to make the tests fairer.

First impressions are the Intel machine boots a fraction faster than the G5, I would conservatively put it at around 5 seconds faster, however not as fast as shown on a video doing the rounds on the net but indeed it is faster.

The first test I applied to the machine was to open photoshop and see how long it took each machine to fully open it.

The G5 machine opened this program in around 25 seconds
The intel machine opened this program in around 11 seconds.

Ilife 06 was placed on both machines and run.
The G5 machine opened this program in around 18 seconds
The intel machine opened this program in around 06 seconds.

I decided to test the machine using illustrator and a brochure I had put together which was 56 pages long with some very high res images in it.
The G5 machine opened the file after 16 seconds, and the Intel machine did this in 5 seconds, however the Intel machine allowed me to grab and scroll the document with no delay whilst the G5 machine was a bit more jerky.

I enjoy watching quicktime movie trailers on my Imac and found that whilst I could watch hi- res trailers there. I ran a test on The Xmen 3 HD trailer. The G5 Imac played up to 720p with no slowdowns or problems at all. When going to the next level 1080p trailer the G5 had problems even with 1gb system ram installed, the sound played but lost synch with the video as a lag slowly crept in. The intel machine played the 1080p with 512mb without a single hitch, the playback was fluid and uninterrupted.

Back to photoshop, and Indesign CS2 I found that Intel machine was on a par with the G5 but weirdly in certain functions the intel machine would blow the G5 away, certain brush and effects when applied suing the Intel would speed through instantly, where as the G5 would be 3-10 seconds behind in some cases.

Office proved to be very interesting as in my tests there was no difference at all, the load times varied by a second or two but nothing massively, and these would change around each instance, the only program I found to have what i would consider a noticable effect was Word. When a word docuemtn laden with images was opened on the Intel machine it did so with no delay, in the past there had been a 1-5 second delay but i had attributed this to down to the hard drive. Could this be due to the original powerpoint presentation being created on a Pc who knows.

One thing that is for sure is that the Intel machine comes with some nicer packaging, the manual, remote and documents come in a sexy slide box which was a plastic bag affair with my G5.

I cannot say enough about Rossetta, its like omni-present. If it is there and working you certainly dont notice, I will be interested to see how some of my game slike Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 run on the machine but generally across the board the Intel is either the same or faster. When native universal versions of the core mac programs appear like Adobe CS3 and Office I think we will see a huge speed jump!

01-18-2006, 09:30 AM

wow! from what you have reported there are substantial speed increases with the intel chips. i do wonder if the intel chips run cooler than the g5 processors?

01-18-2006, 09:43 AM

awesome comparison! My new iMac arrives Friday cant wait!!!!

01-18-2006, 10:08 AM

Cool. I have a few questions that maybe you could also answer.

1. Does the new machine make less noise that the old one. (as in fan noise after a while of operation)

2. Can you dual boot with windows.

Thanks.

01-18-2006, 11:49 AM

Originally Posted by Mr Bobbins

2. Can you dual boot with windows.

An article in Ars Technica says you can not at this time. The article has been posted several places on this site.