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ravenz · 10:17 PM

I went to my local Apple Store (Knox Street - Dallas, TX) to get my son's iPod Shuffle repaired. While there, I asked about the new Intel iMacs - they had two 17" units in stock, and planned to use them as floor units. I went up to the cashier and was able to get one, surprisingly. I guess there was a disconnect with the staff and I was lucky.

I spent this morning migrating everything from my kids' eMac and testing Universal Binaries /Rosetta performance for my software developer friends.

Some quick notes:

* Lack of Classic support doesn't bother me, but a whole bunch of educational software for my kids is now useless.

* Many of the tests I performed for friends with Universal Binaries failed. I passed Console logs back and forth, and we were able to fix issues. In one case, we could not proceed and it will require more testing time.

* Rosetta performance is great. I couldn't tell the different in most cases.

* XBench tests were performed and uploaded, but I don't trust the results. The numbers looked worse than a first generation G4 PowerBook. Something in XBench is not optimized for Intel. I used the Universal Binary version.

* I had to beg my kids to get off the computer - PhotoBooth and ComicLife (both installed by default) were very popular with the young ones.

Please ask away if you have any questions or want me to test anything.

mduell · Jan 14, 2006, 09:29 PM

Can you run the Photoshop benchmark from the PowerMac forum?

ravenz · Jan 14, 2006, 09:33 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

Can you run the Photoshop benchmark from the PowerMac forum?

Can I download a Photoshop Demo from Adobe? I do not own a copy.

ravenz · Jan 14, 2006, 09:36 PM

Originally Posted by ravenz

Can I download a Photoshop Demo from Adobe? I do not own a copy.

Found the demo link on Adobe - 300MB. Let me go start the download process.

Robert25 · Jan 14, 2006, 09:44 PM

Okay, this is a seriously superficial question.

What does booting up look/sound like? Is it the gray Apple logo and familiar chime we have come to know and love, or is there a noticeable difference?

By the way, congrats on your new iMac!

ravenz · Jan 14, 2006, 09:47 PM

Originally Posted by Robert25

Okay, this is a seriously superficial question.

What does booting up look/sound like? Is it the gray Apple logo and familiar chime we have come to know and love, or is there a noticeable difference?

By the way, congrats on your new iMac!

Same old boot chime (this seemed like the perfect opportunity for Apple to update the boot chime), same grey Apple. The biggest change is boot time. I'll reboot in a bit (after getting Photoshop demo) and time the total from sound to login window. It seems much faster.

Robert25 · 10:05 PM

That's good to know. There were rumors that Apple was going to change the boot chime, but those were apparently incorrect.

To tell the truth, I was afraid booting up would look like my work computer! That fear was probably irrational, but aren't most?

Good news on start up time. My 1.8 (SP) G5 can go from 0 to ready in 35-45 seconds, so I have no complaints there. However, my work computer (a Compaq) boots in roughly 2 minutes as does my Pismo PowerBook G3 (now 6 years old).

Thanks for the quick response!

ravenz · Jan 14, 2006, 09:59 PM

Originally Posted by ravenz

Same old boot chime (this seemed like the perfect opportunity for Apple to update the boot chime), same grey Apple. The biggest change is boot time. I'll reboot in a bit (after getting Photoshop demo) and time the total from sound to login window. It seems much faster.

Boot Time!

From start of boot chime to login window:

#1: 18.91 seconds
#2: 17.74 seconds
#3: 17.68 seconds

Not sure how this compares to other Macs, but it seems much faster.

Mac OS X 10.4.4
Build 8G1165
(Serial Numbers are starting with W86)
1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo
512 MB DDR2 SDRAM

ero2 · Jan 14, 2006, 10:05 PM

I guess I have a few questions if you don't mind. I have placed an order for the macbookpro, so since my questions are about software hopefully you can help?

I am worried about running photoshop as well, so as soon as you get those numbers it will help me decide whether to cancel my order or not.

Do programs running under rosetta still feel faster? Since people say you won't notice a difference, are emulated programs just like they were on your old mac, or faster even though in emulation?

Any obvious observations we should know about, things that work and don't work? Does setup assistant still tarnsfer programs, music, photos etc?

Nebrie · Jan 14, 2006, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by ravenz

Boot Time!

From start of boot chime to login window:

#1: 18.91 seconds
#2: 17.74 seconds
#3: 17.68 seconds

Not sure how this compares to other Macs, but it seems much faster.

Mac OS X 10.4.4
Build 8G1165
(Serial Numbers are starting with W86)
1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo
512 MB DDR2 SDRAM

That seems to be around the time for my DP 2ghz PM

ravenz · Jan 14, 2006, 10:10 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

Can you run the Photoshop benchmark from the PowerMac forum?

1:05 (65 seconds) with Photoshop CS2 (v9) running through Rosetta.

ravenz · Jan 14, 2006, 10:13 PM

Originally Posted by ero2

I guess I have a few questions if you don't mind. I have placed an order for the macbookpro, so since my questions are about software hopefully you can help?

I am worried about running photoshop as well, so as soon as you get those numbers it will help me decide whether to cancel my order or not.

Do programs running under rosetta still feel faster? Since people say you won't notice a difference, are emulated programs just like they were on your old mac, or faster even though in emulation?

Any obvious observations we should know about, things that work and don't work? Does setup assistant still tarnsfer programs, music, photos etc?

Rosetta doesn't seem slow. Even loading Photoshop wasn't too bad. I didn't feel like I was waiting, really.

Rosetta applications on this iMac are faster than PowerPC apps on my Powerbook G4 1.25GHz. Not that it means much.

I don't understand the setup assistant question. Can you clarify?

ero2 · Jan 14, 2006, 10:18 PM

normally when you buy a new mac it asks if you want to transfer blah blah to your new mac, you say yes and it says plug in your new computer and it offers to transfer programs, itunes music, and pictures from your old mac to your new mac automatically. I looked up other times and it says 1.67 GHZ Powerbook with 1gig of ram is 147 secs, so this seems good, how much ram doy uo have? I can't wait to see how fast it is once photoshop is native.

So, the universal binaries you tried all failed? I am curious because it looks like on versiontracker there is a lot of programs already universal, but if they all fail, then what's the point LOL.

You are making me more excited and less likely to cancel my MacBookPro order by the minte, THANKS for volunteering to answer questions for all of us!

ravenz · Jan 14, 2006, 10:19 PM

Originally Posted by ravenz

Rosetta doesn't seem slow. Even loading Photoshop wasn't too bad. I didn't feel like I was waiting, really.

18 seconds for Photoshop CS2 to load through Rosetta (the same amount of time it takes to boot the iMac, coincidentally).

ravenz · Jan 14, 2006, 10:22 PM

Originally Posted by ero2

normally when you buy a new mac it asks if you want to transfer blah blah to your new mac, you say yes and it says plug in your new computer and it offers to transfer programs, itunes music, and pictures from your old mac to your new mac automatically. I looked up other times and it says 1.67 GHZ Powerbook with 1gig of ram is 147 secs, so this seems good, how much ram doy uo have? I can't wait to see how fast it is once photoshop is native.

So, the universal binaries you tried all failed? I am curious because it looks like on versiontracker there is a lot of programs already universal, but if they all fail, then what's the point LOL.

You are making me more excited and less likely to cancel my MacBookPro order by the minte, THANKS for volunteering to answer questions for all of us!

I have the standard 512MB - going to order more on Tuesday.

I did not do the migration through the setup assistant. I did this process manually.

Some of the Universal Binaries failed. Graphic Converter did not. My friends who are developers sent test Universal Binaries and I had probems with virtually all of them on the first try, actually.

ravenz · Jan 14, 2006, 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by ero2

I looked up other times and it says 1.67 GHZ Powerbook with 1gig of ram is 147 secs, so this seems good

And this is through Rosetta (65 seconds). Think of the improvement once Adobe releases a Universal Binary of Photoshop!

leery · Jan 14, 2006, 10:38 PM

Thanks so much for all this info, ravenz! I was about to order a G5 iMac on Tuesday, but the Apple online store was closed. When it reopened I had to rethink everything. But one concern of mine is color depth on the iMac display. Is it 6-bit or 8-bit? I'm not sure how you'd test, other than with a side-by-side comparison or knowing what to look for. (I think it's the same display as the G5 models, if anyone else wants to chime in.)

Those photoshop numbers are good news.

ravenz · Jan 14, 2006, 10:42 PM

Originally Posted by leery

Thanks so much for all this info, ravenz! I was about to order a G5 iMac on Tuesday, but the Apple online store was closed. When it reopened I had to rethink everything. But one concern of mine is color depth on the iMac display. Is it 6-bit or 8-bit? I'm not sure how you'd test, other than with a side-by-side comparison or knowing what to look for. (I think it's the same display as the G5 models, if anyone else wants to chime in.)

Those photoshop numbers are good news.

Depth:32-bit Color (from System Profiler)

Resolution max is 1440x900 with millions of colors.

Nebrie · Jan 14, 2006, 10:51 PM

Do you have any OS X games of any type? Will they run? (if so how fast)

ravenz · Jan 14, 2006, 10:59 PM

Originally Posted by Nebrie

Do you have any OS X games of any type? Will they run? (if so how fast)

I was playing World of Warcraft - worked fine (although Ironforge is still a lag prison). WoW Universal Binary will be out in two weeks, and I have high hopes for that.

t_hah · Jan 14, 2006, 11:37 PM

Do you have a link to your XBench tests? The numbers will prbably be off, because XBench is probably not optimized for the Intel systems, yet.