Originally posted by robguz
Even at 1Ghz, a Ti would be mostly slower than Apple's slowest desktop offering. The Ti has fallen behind since it's intro. Originally at 500 when the lowest desktop was at 466. When it went to 667, the desktop was 733. When the Ti 800 came out, the desktop was 800 too but sans L3 cache.
That's not really true. A 1 Ghz TiBook would perform all non MP aware tasks as fast as a Dual 1 Ghz tower and, as it stands, MOST applications do not take advantage of dual processors. With respect to the 800, I'm not sure what you mean. The 800 Mhz TiBook DOES have a 1MB L3 cache. If you are saying the desktop 800 did not, you are correct. However, the desktop 800 was not Apple's fastest offering when the 800 TiBook arrived - the dual 1Ghz Quicksilver was released about 3 mos before the 800 Mhz TiBook and the dual 1Ghz had 2 MB of L3 cache per processor.
It is unrealistic to expect Powerbooks to ever rival the fastest desktops in speed in light of the other requirements (small size, portability, low energy consumption, lower heat). But, the fact is, the current 800 Mhz TiBook performs exceptionally well - much better than 800 Mhz iMacs and rivaling the older 800 Mhz single and dual processor towers.
On another note, I agree with what others have mentioned about this TiBook rumor. MacOS Rumors has ALWAYS been full of crap. They don't know jack sh-t about what's coming out. They have been 100% WRONG at every single product introduction the past 18 months. Other more reputable websites such as ThinkSecret have indicated not to expect any new hardware until 2003. While I hope Apple does release something next month, I highly doubt they will.
Finally, those of you who already own an 800 Mhz TiBook and are worried about your machine becoming "old" or "obsolete", GET OVER IT! You are currently holding in your hot little hands one of the best portable computers ever made. A 200 Mhz bump in speed and switch to Radeon 9000 is not going to be a huge performance boost and your "old" TiBook will still be working just as good as it ever has for years and years. I'm typing this on my 800 TiBook w/ Cinema Display and I'd be just as happy with this great system even if Apple comes out with a 1.25 Ghz Tibook.
