[dopik]

Hi:

I have a 12 Rev A and I feel that it is so slow that it is very frustating. So I was considering buying a new PB 15 for two main reasons. 1. It feels much faster when I have used it at the store. 2. I start to have difficulties to read on a small screen and I would like the added comfort of a 15.

However, before buying it, I have run XBench on the machine at the store in order to compare the speed with mine. Does it really worth it or I am better off buying an older version? I did not restart the machine but I shut down all the softwares that were running. Down are the results between my machine and their machine and I would like you to explain to me some results.

Why the overall result has only increased by 56.73% given that the CPU is almost twice faster and the video card is obviously much better. Moore law only applies to CPU but I am wondering why such a low improvement. The computers are more than 2 years apart and I was expecting at least 100%.

The CPU test has an increased by 10.36%. How can that be?

i do not understand the other numbers so I will not ask you any questions about them.

Thanks for your answers.

dopik

My PB

Results 62.98
System Info
Xbench Version 1.1.3
System Version 10.3.8 (7U16)
Physical RAM 640 MB
Model PowerBook6,1
Processor PowerPC G4 @ 867 MHz
Version 7455 (Apollo) v3.3
L1 Cache 32K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 256K @ 867 MHz
Bus Frequency 134 MHz
Video Card GeForce4 MX
Drive Type FUJITSU MHS2060AT
CPU Test 90.95
GCD Loop 73.78 2.88 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 104.29 377.13 Mflop/sec
AltiVec Basic 104.62 3.04 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 107.43 1.67 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 77.14 3.09 Mops/sec
Thread Test 60.92
Computation 45.94 620.26 Kops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 90.36 1.13 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 54.59
System 39.58
Allocate 218.01 142.21 Kalloc/sec
Fill 27.89 222.02 MB/sec
Copy 28.28 141.40 MB/sec
Stream 87.96
Copy 81.64 596.79 MB/sec [altivec]
Scale 103.97 767.28 MB/sec [altivec]
Add 80.59 515.77 MB/sec [altivec]
Triad 89.30 545.61 MB/sec [altivec]
Quartz Graphics Test 65.76
Line 49.00 1.25 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 79.92 5.62 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 83.43 1.92 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 61.91 672.72 beziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 66.78 1.09 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 62.09
Spinning Squares 62.09 43.45 frames/sec
User Interface Test 66.24
Elements 66.24 21.31 refresh/sec
Disk Test 30.27
Sequential 29.70
Uncached Write 27.95 11.65 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 22.19 9.09 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 53.32 8.44 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 28.50 11.51 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 30.87
Uncached Write 29.88 0.45 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 28.63 6.46 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 33.66 0.22 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 31.77 6.54 MB/sec [256K blocks]



The new PB 15 at Fashion Valley

Results 98.71
System Info
Xbench Version 1.1.3
System Version 10.3.7 (7T62)
Physical RAM 1024 MB
Model PowerBook5,6
Processor PowerPC G4 @ 1.67 GHz
L1 Cache 32K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 512K @ 1.67 GHz
Bus Frequency 167 MHz
Video Card ATY,RV360M11
Drive Type Hitachi HTS541080G9AT00
CPU Test 100.38
GCD Loop 88.35 3.45 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 87.21 315.37 Mflop/sec
AltiVec Basic 99.41 2.89 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 100.48 1.56 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 142.59 5.71 Mops/sec
Thread Test 85.35
Computation 69.84 942.81 Kops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 109.73 1.38 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 118.81
System 114.76
Allocate 635.51 414.55 Kalloc/sec
Fill 101.31 806.43 MB/sec
Copy 68.04 340.19 MB/sec
Stream 123.16
Copy 118.31 864.87 MB/sec [altivec]
Scale 124.69 920.23 MB/sec [altivec]
Add 122.68 785.15 MB/sec [altivec]
Triad 127.33 777.96 MB/sec [altivec]
Quartz Graphics Test 145.33
Line 142.67 3.63 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 122.60 8.62 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 124.73 2.87 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 160.23 1.74 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 200.80 3.27 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 123.31
Spinning Squares 123.31 86.29 frames/sec
User Interface Test 178.99
Elements 178.99 57.57 refresh/sec
Disk Test 57.04
Sequential 55.92
Uncached Write 53.58 22.33 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 44.39 18.18 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 100.10 15.85 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 49.15 19.86 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 58.20
Uncached Write 53.40 0.80 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 53.64 12.10 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 68.69 0.45 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 59.54 12.25 MB/sec [256K blocks]

[RonnieoftheRose]

It must have been on automatical processor setting running at around 1Ghz. My 12" 1.5Ghz gets 132 in XBench.

[iREZ]

Yup my 12" Rev B gets that score when on highes settings. There is somekind of reason why the score was so low, what it is I dont know but I know it's something.

[ericssonboi]

Just to compare... my 15" Rev A.. Settings set on Performance
Might want to check the settings at the store too..

Results 104.19

System Info
Xbench Version 1.1.3
System Version 10.3.8 (7U16)
Physical RAM 1024 MB
Model PowerBook5,2
Processor PowerPC G4 @ 1.00 GHz
L1 Cache 32K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 512K @ 1.00 GHz
Bus Frequency 167 MHz
Video Card ATY,RV350M10
Drive Type TOSHIBA MK6025GAS

CPU Test 121.36
GCD Loop 117.89 4.60 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 122.76 443.93 Mflop/sec
AltiVec Basic 122.76 3.57 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 123.86 1.92 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 119.73 4.79 Mops/sec

Thread Test 88.24
Computation 64.07 864.98 Kops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 141.68 1.78 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads

Memory Test 130.94
System 139.31
Allocate 633.36 413.14 Kalloc/sec
Fill 139.12 1107.43 MB/sec
Copy 78.32 391.60 MB/sec
Stream 123.52
Copy 125.43 916.91 MB/sec [altivec]
Scale 127.45 940.57 MB/sec [altivec]
Add 123.38 789.62 MB/sec [altivec]
Triad 118.20 722.23 MB/sec [altivec]

Quartz Graphics Test 144.33
Line 114.36 2.91 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 137.41 9.67 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 138.80 3.20 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 129.23 1.40 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 271.93 4.43 Kchars/sec

OpenGL Graphics Test 90.74
Spinning Squares 90.74 63.50 frames/sec
User Interface Test 190.44
Elements 190.44 61.25 refresh/sec

Disk Test 59.60
Sequential 69.14
Uncached Write 70.05 29.20 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 52.43 21.47 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 151.17 23.93 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 55.90 22.58 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 52.38
Uncached Write 44.89 0.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 52.03 11.73 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 56.32 0.37 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 58.41 12.02 MB/sec [256K blocks]

[ericssonboi]

As a comparison to what the Rev D's should be...
i found this online..

http://www.macintouch.com/perfpack/tables.html

PowerBook/High
15" PowerBook G4/1.67GHz/SuperDrive: standard configuration with 512 MBytes of RAM (512K L2 cache), 80GB Fujitsu hard drive; Mac OS X 10.3.7 (7T62). Tested at Automatic and Highest processor settings.

CPU Test 198
Thread Test 145
Memory Test 135
Quartz Graphic test 184
Open GL Graphics Test 137
User Interface Test 235
Disk Test 76

Powerbook/Auto
15" PowerBook G4/1.67GHz/SuperDrive: standard configuration with 512 MBytes of RAM (512K L2 cache), 80GB Fujitsu hard drive; Mac OS X 10.3.7 (7T62). Tested at Automatic and Highest processor settings.

CPU Test 101
Thread Test 91
Memory Test 120
Quartz Graphic test 147
Open GL Graphics 129
User Interface Test 213
Disk Test 72