[macintologist]

Remember back in the day, like 1997 when the G3 came out. Apple ran ads mocking Intel, showing how the Powerbook G3 "eats Pentium II's for lunch".

Remember the Mhz Myth, and how the G5 was the "fastest personal computer" in the world, and how it kicked Intel's ass?

Why is Apple now all of a sudden so happy to be using Intel processors? What has changed about Intel? Is the Core Duo basically the same speed as a dual G5 now clock speed for clock speed?

More than 6 months after WWDC and I'm still a little puzzled about this paradigm shift.

[Ghoser777]

So, who wants to rehash this debate again?

[rickey939]

I like their icon...oh wait.

[sek929]

Intel sucks!! My G4 is eleventy billion times faster in phototshop raster tests!

[Tomchu]

I never believed a word that came from Apple's mouth about processor performance. They might have been vaguely ahead at one point, but since the Athlon XP and Athlon 64, that have been thoroughly trumped throughout every generation.

[vmarks]

Intel and AMD both had to accept that the megahertz myth was a myth in the end.

AMD markets something named Athlon XP 1400+ and it's a 1.2ghz processor.

Intel's Core Duo (also called Dual Core) processors and Pentium M processors run at 1.86 and 2ghz, but less than two years ago they had mobile Pentium 4 processors running at 3.06ghz. Even in desktop machines, Intel is shipping processors using the lower mhz rated Dual Core. Why? Because they can do more computing with lower power and heat at the lower mhz rating than with the higher numbered Pentium 4 chip. Also, they can get more chips made at the lower mhz rating than at the high rating- which was the problem with Motorola and the G4 not so many years ago.

Apple, ahead of their time, again.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by macintologist

Remember back in the day, like 1997 when the G3 came out. Apple ran ads mocking Intel, showing how the Powerbook G3 "eats Pentium II's for lunch".

The G3 did eat the Pentium II for lunch. The G3 was really an amazing little chip. The 604e before it had been faster clock-for-clock than Intel's offerings, and the clock speed had actually been higher, and then the G3 came along and performed better than even the fastest 604e, even though the clock speed wasn't as high. IIRC, something like a 275 MHz G3 kicked the crap out of the 350 MHz 604es, and certainly beat the 266 MHz Pentium IIs that were all the rage back then.

Remember the Mhz Myth, and how the G5 was the "fastest personal computer" in the world, and how it kicked Intel's ass?

The G5 might have been briefly, at about the time it came out. The others caught up, though.

Why is Apple now all of a sudden so happy to be using Intel processors? What has changed about Intel? Is the Core Duo basically the same speed as a dual G5 now clock speed for clock speed?

Because the Core Duo is basically the G3. Intel had, in the Netburst/Pentium IV, a bunch of big, power-hungry, inefficient chips that, although they had huge clock speeds, were pretty bad clock-for-clock and ran really hot, eating a lot of power. Along comes the Core Duo, which although it runs at a lower clock speed, it goes against Netburst chips with a much higher MHz rating and hands their asses to them. It's the first time Intel has seemed to care about efficiency, really.

And with the G5 also being a hot, power-hungry monster, it seems that the roles have been pretty much reversed these days. Apple likes efficient, low-power chips to power their ultra-thin laptops, so this would make the Core Duo attractive to them.