I cant find anything on this. Xbench's website gives them similar overall benches, but the CPU score for the dual 867 is 107 on average, and the mini is like 150!
what you all think?
what you all think?
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which is faster dual 867 G4 or 1.25 mini?
- Thread starter watchmainspring
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feakbeak
macrumors 6502a
I'm not expert on Mac hardware, but I believe most apps have to be written to take advantage of both processors at once otherwise that's app's process will just run on one processor. So, you would probably see a performance loss on the dual 867 for any one application/task unless that app was written with dual procs in mind. If you multitask a lot and have many apps running that are not CPU-intensive then the dual 867 would probably be a better machine for you.
You also have to consider things like expandability, style, noise-level, etc.
You also have to consider things like expandability, style, noise-level, etc.
mini
I have the 1.25 mini now.
I was considering some expandability....
My basic activities are:
ichat, word 2-3 docs, itunes playing, 2-3 firefox pages, and stickies running at once.
then, I usually close them all and play battlefield.
what you think is faster?
I have the 1.25 mini now.
I was considering some expandability....
My basic activities are:
ichat, word 2-3 docs, itunes playing, 2-3 firefox pages, and stickies running at once.
then, I usually close them all and play battlefield.
what you think is faster?
feakbeak
macrumors 6502a
I didn't even know they had Battlefield on the Mac. Then again I have no interest in Mac gaming. If you're going to be gaming you need a better graphics card than what the Mac mini has. If you are strapped for cash the Dual 867 MHz is probably not a bad option, but it's also not a great gaming machine either - especially for newer games.Winstonp said:
Is this a specific used machine that you are looking to buy, if so, what is the asking price? Resold Macs go for a fair price - it may be better to save that money and use it towards picking up the lowest model PowerMac. Hopefully, updates will be coming soon. If you don't have enough money now, maybe just get by on your Mac mini for now and save up and get the low-end PM the next time they get updated.
Another suggestion would be to pick up a good PC. They cost less for the hardware you get when compared to Macs and there is much more variety in games. But, I'm not sure what your views are of the Windows platform or how much money you have invested in Mac games already.
Just throwing out some ideas here.
If you play Battlefield the Dual 867 will be faster mostly because you can use a Video Card much better than what the mini has. Also I believe BF has some SMP optimizations.
Applications don't really need to be optimized to see a boost on a DP system, you will notice this if you multitask alot and even if you don't now you will learn how to given the headroom. I can have like 6 windows in Safari open, Burn a DVD, Listen to itunes, iphoto open, mail open, Limewire running, Working with Logic Pro, etc etc all at the same time without so much of a hiccup on my Dual 2.5 sure not all these apps are SMP aware but they are all running on their own threads for each respective functions and OSX utilizes all functions across both CPU's
Just for your note the Dual 867 had 256k of on chip cache and 1MB of L3 per processor and ran on a 133Mhz FSB compared to mac mini @ 1.25Ghz w512k on chip Cache.
Ignore Xbench scores they are utterly useless, Xbench does not account for MP and is inaccurate at benchmarking the Video Card. With a decent Video Card and faster HD than the mini the PowerMac will feel more responsive in most tasks.
Applications don't really need to be optimized to see a boost on a DP system, you will notice this if you multitask alot and even if you don't now you will learn how to given the headroom. I can have like 6 windows in Safari open, Burn a DVD, Listen to itunes, iphoto open, mail open, Limewire running, Working with Logic Pro, etc etc all at the same time without so much of a hiccup on my Dual 2.5 sure not all these apps are SMP aware but they are all running on their own threads for each respective functions and OSX utilizes all functions across both CPU's
Just for your note the Dual 867 had 256k of on chip cache and 1MB of L3 per processor and ran on a 133Mhz FSB compared to mac mini @ 1.25Ghz w512k on chip Cache.
Ignore Xbench scores they are utterly useless, Xbench does not account for MP and is inaccurate at benchmarking the Video Card. With a decent Video Card and faster HD than the mini the PowerMac will feel more responsive in most tasks.
They'll be close (as XBench shows) oveall, but in porsc intensive tasks, the Mini would likely whip the tower. Then again you can change out most everything in the tower, including the proscessor. Are you sure that an 867 model is at about $500? I'd look at what tower you could bet for the price of a mini.
