Gearlog has successfully booted Windows XP on an Apple iMac 20-inch, a MacBook Pro, and a Mac Mini Intel Core Duo and run some benchmarks. What they found might surprise some people.
“Desktops maven Joel Santo Domingo ran some benchmarks on the three machines, and came up with surprising results. The MacBook Pro is the fastest Core Duo laptop we’ve tested running the Photoshop scripts. It’s faster than other laptops originally designed for Windows. This bodes very well for the performance of an Intel-accelerated OS X Photoshop, when that finally appears,” Sascha Segan reports for Gearlog. “The MacBook Pro beat four other Core Duo laptops on the Photoshop test, though it came in behind them on the Windows Media test.”
“The two Mac desktops outran even blazing-fast single core systems, which typically do the Windows Media Encoder test in 10-13 minutes. We haven’t tested any other Intel Core Duo desktops, but the iMac competes well against a Polywell machine with a dual-core Athlon 64 X2 3800+, while the Mini and MacBook Pro are held back a little by their slower laptop hard drives. Predictably, all the Macs blow away the Shuttle XPC M1000, which has the previous generation single-core Pentium M processor. That system scored 16 minutes on Windows Media Encoder, and took 2:52 to complete the Photoshop script,” Segan reports. “In other words, Apple makes fast Windows PCs.”
Full article with benchmarks here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Gandalf” for the heads up.]
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Until last monday, the company I’m with was using G3, 350 mhz, with 515 ram on System 8.5. Now we’re using Dell GX620, 3.5ghz with 1 gig ram, with Windows XP Pro. What junk… Well, I can honestly say, apart from Adobe Acrobat, the Mac is about the same speed, or even a touch faster. Say no more.
Because they are a Hardware company.
Silly benchmarks. XP on Macintosh is missing great hunks of code, fan control being the most famous. When both platforms are approximately equal in capabilities for all tasks, then I’ll be interested in the speed comparisons.
However, I must say that it bodes well for Leopard vs. Vista (assuming Vista ever ships, of course)
CandTsmac,
Apple is the best SW and HW company. Or are you trying to tell us that MS is in any way a better SW company?
Yeah, what happened to the “MacDude is a loser” post? It up and vanished when I returned to see if the real MacDude left some stupid rebutal (because he is a loser).
As the sang goes- “Sometimes it is better to sit there and look stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”
Well I think that in reality it is better for the Mac software community that the ‘booting XP on a Mac’ thing never becomes too easy or too popular. I have heard all the arguements FOR dual booting a Mac posted around the net since Apple first comfirmed that they where switching to Intel, but I have to say I don’t agree with the supporters of the idea. I DO see the value of it because I use Remote Desktop to use Windows only programs all day long, but my real hope is that the software developers will make Mac versions of their products. I don’t see how dual booting a Mac will help that cause.
Verbose,
Dual booting XP on a mac machine exposes more people to Apple machines than before. If the dual boot user base grows, evetually those users will tire of switching between OS’s. In most cases, if they purchased a mac, they prefer OS X and are suffering Windows for the time being, as you noted. Eventually, that community would become more vocal in their demand for equivalent OS X products and ditch XP altogether.
Dual-booting offers an intermediate step on the way to becoming M$ free does it not? Dual booting gives someone almost the best of both worlds….until they realize that one world is the better choice.
MW: course, as in, Apple is on course to blow M$ outta the water!
dix99:
our sympathies are with you. what moved your employer to switch with all the good things happening on the bright side?
The hardware will be the same. Performance will not.
It’s the OS, Stupid.
Windows sucks.
“Apple Macs are very fast Windows PCs”
It’s like decorating Rolls Royces with dingle balls, neon ground effects, rotating chrome wheels, chain link steering wheels, airbrushed zodiac license plates, and a “Dixie” horn.
Good news for John C. Dvorak.
What a horrible day for Apple (wink, wink, wink). Now gamers can have the best of both worlds, XP for their games and OS X to surf the net secure in the fact that Apple is much, much more secure than anything M$ can market.
Sorry, have to go. Need to call my broker to get more Apple stock.
The next task is to put up $25,000 for someone to get windows apps to run directly on a Mac.
All this is nice but for the love of God, can a Mac running OS X (MBPro) not be a laggard compared to similar PC laptops for once!? I’m referring to the latest ARS-tech review. A year from now I don’t want to hear/read “well, due to *insert reason* speed is lacking”. With PPC processors it was software or the processor itself. Now with Intel processors it’s OS X that’s not optimized. Enough already!
Running Windows OS on a Mac is like shiting on your own doorstep!
UUuuuuuughhhhhhh!
Shoot me, cut my balls off but don’t call my Mac a PC.
Who does this infidel think he is?
Leo
I agree with Wilbur – the ideal setup would be to bypass winblows altogether and just be able to install and run apps made for windows.
I agree with Wilbur – the ideal setup would be to bypass winblows altogether and just be able to install and run apps made for windows.
I agree with Wilbur – the ideal setup would be to bypass winblows altogether and just be able to install and run apps made for windows.
I agree with Wilbur – the ideal setup would be to bypass winblows altogether and just be able to install and run apps made for windows.
I have to disagree with running windows apps natively… Wouldn’t that also allow virii, adware, spyware, etc. etc. to run natively on a mac? I thought other then it just works better that was the single best reason to GET a Mac..