Saturday, March 12, 2005

Since we last tested an Apple Power Mac G5 nearly a year ago (May, 2004), Apple upgraded the processors inside to 2.5GHz, and added an innovative liquid cooling system to make sure the super-hot chips stay cool. Other than that, the computer is identical to the one we tested last year. It’s still an excellent machine in every way. However, those who think it’s faster than any PC might want to take a look at our benchmark tests. For Adobe After Effects users, it’s now an even closer call when trying to choose between Mac versus PC.

In September ... I reviewed a new Dell product, the Precision Workstation 470 with two Intel Xeon 3.6GHz chips inside. It blew through our After Effects tests faster than any computer I’d seen. The only drawback I found with the computer was its price, a whopping $5493 when it was first released. But that was six months ago – since then its price has plummeted more than $1000. Coincidentally, its price as configured ($4426) is almost exactly the same as that of the Apple Power Mac G5 ($4449) we just received here at the Midwest Test Facility. Since the two machines are only $26 apart, I decided this would be a perfect time to satisfy dozens of e-mail requests, asking us to compare the fastest Mac with the fastest PC. So here goes.

Looking at the results ... you’ll notice that the Mac G5’s performance is quite similar to that of our fastest computer, the Dell Precision Workstation 470. In the After Effects tests, although the G5 is only half as fast as the 470 in test 1, it rallies with test 2, coming to within a few percentage points of the 470’s performance. The Mac gets beaten in test 3 and 4, but rallies back to win its only test in our entire benchmark series, test 5.

Taking a look at all the rest of the benchmark scores, the Mac is beaten consistently by the PC. If you look to the left of the Dell Precision Workstation 470 scores, you’ll notice that the ABS dual Intel Xeon 3.4 GHz machine also beats the Mac G5 on all of the tests except one as well. Keep in mind, the 3.4GHz Xeon chip is the second-fastest Xeon chip in Intel’s line, and all of the Intel Xeon chips are due for a speed bump in the second quarter of this year.

Even though Apple CEO Steve Jobs promised a 3GHz Mac by summer, 2004, that obviously didn’t materialize. In fact, the only way Apple was able to enable a 2.5GHz chip to operate without melting down was to create an unusual liquid cooling mechanism, along with a group of fans that are, frankly, too loud for my taste. As Apple rakes in the cash for its smash-hit iPod line of personal music players, its G5 development has practically paused for over a year now. At the same time, PCs and their corresponding processors and chipsets continue to improve, albeit at a slower pace than in years past. Still, the PC shows itself to be a faster computer than the Mac in our benchmark tests.