New low-end iMac makes major performance leaps
updated 04:00 pm EDT, Thu July 29, 2010
Dedicated graphics most important
The new low-end iMac -- one of several models released this week -- displays some significant performance boosts over its predecessor, tests show. The latest version switches from a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo CPU to a Core i3 processor of the same clock speed. Graphics are now handled by a dedicated ATI Radeon HD 4670 chipset with 256MB of onboard memory, instead of NVIDIA's integrated GeForce 9400M; system RAM has been upgraded in speed from 1,066MHz to 1,333MHz.
The updated model is, in general, said to be over 20 percent faster than its direct ancestor, and nearly 9 percent faster than the old 3.2GHz Core 2 Duo iMac. Performance may be faster still under particular benchmarks, such as MathematicaMark, where the Core i3 scores 40 percent better than the 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo. A Compressor benchmark however shows a jump of only 11 percent.
The advance from a 9400M to a 4670 is said to make an even greater difference. The new iMac is capable of almost four times the framerate of the 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo, and a 12fps boost over the 3.2GHz system and its video hardware. Integrated GPUs are, as a rule, slower than dedicated cards or chipsets.
