Actually, it does, only because Apple has the controlled the hardware environment with the software and supplies the necessary drivers to support said hardware. OEM machines and systems custom built need additional drivers and as there are multitudes of hardware profiles based on different configurations driver conflicts may exist. I have Vista running on one of my internal SATA bays in my Octo Mac Pro and I have no complaints, I boot into the OS when I need a fully running system (Virtualization will not suffice as I use AutoCAD for some work). PC Magazine ran tests a year ago and determined that a Mac system runs Windows better in bench tests, however this is not stating that a Mac is the only system to run Windows well.
There's no difference between apple producing their drivers for windows and dell, they're normally just slightly tweaked from the ic manufacturer, and supplied to you in a simple list on their website/cd. A chipset's generic drivers will work fine 99% of the time too. Apple might tie in their hardware, but it's certainly not faultless. Windows runs on infinite amounts of architects(yes) and systems with different hardware profiles like you said, but that doesn't mean it's more likely to be flakey despite the assumed logic, the example is even more extreme when you're talk about linux. Hardware detection and pnp is something windows does incredibly well.
PC magazine might as well be openly sponsored by apple from half the stuff I've glanced at - and I'd go as far as arrogantly proclaiming that most tech magazines and publications are generally biased rubbish, benchmarks tend to be the pinnacle too
I would expect general benchmarks on two properly installed machines with equal hardware to be the same assuming that there's not some hideous defect.
As an irritating jibe, I could benchmark the more subtle differences like firewire or network throughput between a cheap dell and a mbp I've access to, but there's little point - I know how intel and ti chipsets tend to perform at these tasks on the dell, and I know how apples cheap realtek devices compare.
I use autocad too, on a decent system with a workstation card. If the experience was anything but 'faultless' I would have returned or fixed it, obviously
My issue with windows oem machines is the standard of their out of the box installs. It's nice that the price is subsidized slightly by their install of roxio or whatever (I sure hope It's not the opposite), but it's easy (and seems incredibly common) for them to bodge it and ship a less than perfect machine. Doesn't bother the average enthusiast or a business that are doing their own install, but for an average consumer it seems likely to frustrate them towards alternatives.
