Intel-iMac performance

Apple's iMac Core Duo performance claims are being challenged by a new report claiming that "real-world" performance is only between 10 to 25 percent faster than its IBM PowerPC-based counterpart, far lower than the doubling in throughput widely claimed by Apple. According to Techworld.com, "[Macworld] carried out a series of tasks using two Apple applications, iMovie and iPhoto, discovering that performance boost ranged from worthy to absolutely nothing, depending on the application function tested. For Apple applications that aren’t yet Intel native - running using the Rosetta emulator - the performance is only half what it would be on the PowerPC architecture that preceded the switch to Intel. This is potentially calamitous for the average Mac user because until Apple applications arrive that have been compiled to run on the Intel chips natively, they will be forced to use Rosetta and see performance drop compared to their PowerPC machines."

The Macworld report said that "Intel-based iMacs are fast, but gains don’t match Apple’s claims... Apple’s much-publicized test scores for the new iMac were made with programs designed specifically to generate test results. So they may give some indication of the overall performance potential of these systems. However, such test results often don’t match up to what regular users see in their everyday work—i.e., the speed of real-world applications."

by MacNN Staff