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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Saturday, June 28, 2003

Apple benchmark lies
The Apple fanatics just can't stand it, but those G5 benchmarks are as bogus as a three dollar bill. As always, CNET's Michael Kanellos does get it, noting in a recent article the ways in which Apple's supposed "fastest personal computer in the world" is anything but. First, the scores Apple posted for the Intel competition are bogus. According to the Apple-sponsored tests, Dell Computer's Dimension 8300 with a single 3 GHz Pentium 4 scored 693 in the SPEC floating point test, below Apple's score of 840 (for a dual processor G5). However, previous (non-Apple) tests show the Intel 3 GHz Pentium 4 scoring 1213 on the floating-point test, while the 3.2GHz version hit 1252; both of these scores are roughly 50 percent faster than Apple's best dual processor score, and the Intel systems are both using a single processor, no less. Furthermore, floating point is supposedly the area in which PowerPC processors outdo the Intel competition. Heh. On the integer tests, the figures are even further off. Apple's tests show the dual-processor G5 machine scoring 800, while Dell's scored only "slightly higher" with 889; too bad Intel actually racked up scores of 1164 and 1221, respectively, for the 3 GHz and 3.2 GHz systems. Game over. Second, Apple did things to illegally tilt the test in the G5's favor. For example, the G5 was outfitted with faster Serial ATA technology, compared to the standard ATA hard drives used on the Dell. And then there's the infamous choice of a GCC compiler that Apple uses to develop Mac OS X; meanwhile, no one actually uses this compiler outside of Linux on PCs. Third, there is Apple's legacy: The company has been lying to its customers ever since Jobs took the company back. A few of the more infamous examples: The (400 MHz) G4 Cube was a "supercomputer" (it wasn't), the G4 was faster than any PC (remember the "Pentium toasting" commercials?), and virtually ever single promise about release dates ever uttered from Jobs' mouth proved to be false (the PowerBook 17 was coming in February 2003, remember? It was available in limited quantities in March, but in volume in April, in one recent example). In fact, Apple's bogus claims are so bald-faced, the company's been sued several times by shareholders. The stupid part of all this is that the G5 is cool. It really is. Hell, I want one. But Apple gets more bad publicity from the BS than the good feelings from the already converted can possibly overcome. Will the company ever learn?

[ Posted at 10:33 PM | Permalink ]