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mac 1.5 vs PC

8

808

macrumors member
Original poster
some dude at the apple store said that
though the mac is clocked at 1.5 ghz
it is actually comparable to a PC at 2.4 ghz

is this true?

anyone? bueller?

thanks
 
808 said:
some dude at the apple store said that
though the mac is clocked at 1.5 ghz
it is actually comparable to a PC at 2.4 ghz

is this true?

anyone? bueller?

thanks
Click to expand...

in some tasks probably, in others no. each chipset has its strengths and weakneses. Generally speaking, a ppc chip is faster than a x86 chip at the same clock speed. I'm not sure I'd give it that much of an advantage though.

But of course, a lot fo the efficiency of a mac is not in the processor but in the OS, and how other components work with less hassle.
 
Probably depends on what you are doing, how much memory, disk subsystem, etc. Blanket statements, like the above, aren't very useful. What most folks here are going to say is the P4 2.4 is running Windows (unless you run Linux), while the Mac runs OS X. It's your choice, but I certainly get a lot more done on OS X than I ever did on Windows.
 
808 said:
some dude at the apple store said that
though the mac is clocked at 1.5 ghz
it is actually comparable to a PC at 2.4 ghz

is this true?

anyone? bueller?

thanks
Click to expand...

no... not really. Its kinda propaganda... Honestly PC's are generally faster and cheaper. You pay for the Hardware. With Macs you pay for the software... Honestly I dont think anybody would buy these things if they were running Windows XP...
 
After about 8 man hours (time actually spent), I still can't get bluetooth to work on my PC with my phone. It took 2 minutes on a friend's 17" PB. That's where the speed comes in.

15" powerbook, here I come!
 
Buy the PC if you are only interest in specs, and having something shiny to brag about.

Buy the Mac if you are tired of Windows and all the grief it's given you.
 
Sun Baked said:
Buy the PC if you are only interest in specs, and having something shiny to brag about.

Buy the Mac if you are tired of Windows and all the grief it's given you.
Click to expand...

In other words, buy the Mac. 🙂 🙂
 
Southbridge said:
no... not really. Its kinda propaganda... Honestly PC's are generally faster and cheaper. You pay for the Hardware. With Macs you pay for the software... Honestly I dont think anybody would buy these things if they were running Windows XP...
Click to expand...

I wouldn't buy anything that ran Windows. I want to get stuff done, not fix system daily.
 
808 said:
some dude at the apple store said that
though the mac is clocked at 1.5 ghz
it is actually comparable to a PC at 2.4 ghz

is this true?

anyone? bueller?

thanks
Click to expand...

Yes, a 1.5 GHz G4 it is generally more comparable to a PC at around 2.2-2.4GHz, if you compare to a Pentium 4 with 512KB level 2 cache

On the other hand, a 1.5GHz G4 is also generally comparable to a 1.3-1.5GHz Pentium M or a 1.4GHz-1.6GHz AMD Athlon 64 processor.

But like others have said, different processors have different strengths. On some specialized tasks a 1.5GHz G4 would perform worse than a 1.5GHz P4 and on some other specialized tasks a 1.5GHz G4 would perform better than a 3.0GHz P4.
 
There might have been something wrong with the PC but I unzipped a 1.5gig file way faster on a 1.25GHz eMac than on a 2.8GHz P4 once.. and that's pretty fast.
 
Southbridge said:
um... yeah... thats a real unbiased source... 🙄

the pentium 4 1.7ghz came out in 2001...
Click to expand...

Well if you actually watch the video you will see that they use lots of well known facts (ie pipelines vs. clock speed). And I am not suggesting macs are faster for the money, I just hate it when n00bs are like:

"I SaW ThiS WiCkEd PC at 3.6GhZ BuT Mac ArE LikE Only 2.5 and TheY arE ReallY ExpeNsiVe"

Also even though that P4 came out on 2001 the same architecture is still used in moden PCs and the G4 is still used in PowerBooks, iBooks, eMacs, and MacMinis

I do not believe that the employee's statement there was propoganda.
 
on the whole PC's are faster. They have better hardware. So they can run first person shooters and stuff like that faster. If you want to do that stuff buy a PC. If you want a good OS get a mac. It's really that simple.
 
There's a lot of threads on this subject.

Performance does vary from app to app and on the different systems. From a Cinebench point of view, my P4 2.4ghz is just 2 points slower than my 1.8ghz G5.

This does not bother to much of any extent. This is because it is the Mac experience that counts.
 
Southbridge said:
on the whole PC's are faster. They have better hardware. So they can run first person shooters and stuff like that faster. If you want to do that stuff buy a PC. If you want a good OS get a mac. It's really that simple.
Click to expand...

That's partly true. Not all have better hardware but many do. A lot of times it comes down to having stronger processors and video cards but the rest of the systems are flaky. I have to say that it would have been nice to have had PPC970 throughput on an Apple system 4 years ago.

I like my machines and, in certain conditions, they really move faster than bigger, apparently faster x86 machines but it's not always like that.
 
Rocksaurus said:
In other words, buy the Mac. 🙂 🙂
Click to expand...
Some people have very low self esteem so they absolutely have to have absolutely the latest and the greates shiny bauble, designer label, etc. so they can rub their neighbors and friends noses in it -- or are plainly weak willed wusses that cave easily into peer pressure, or do what people tell them.

So they will either end up buying a PC because of it's specs, get a complete matching Apple outfit based solely on looks, or buy whatever anyone else already has just to fit in.

Be a mouse, cover yourself in tasty seasoning and go play with the cat. Or buy what you want -- not what we tell you.
 
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