Some weird Xbench benchmarks

[Project Alice]

I did some xbench testing four different macs this morning and I am very surprised with the results. This actually makes me question the validity of xbench.
I tested the following Macs:
15" 1.67Ghz PowerBook G4 with 512MB of ram (xbench is reporting 1GB for some reason) 64MB VRAM
15" 1.5Ghz PowerBook G4 with 2GB of ram - 128MB VRAM
12" 1.5Ghz PowerBook G4 with 1.25GB of ram
Dual 1.8Ghz PowerMac G5 with 6GB of ram - Geforce 6800 Ultra

And here are the results:

Spoiler: 1.67Ghz PowerBook

Results 47.17
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.8 (9L31a)
Physical RAM 1024 MB
Model PowerBook5,6
Processor PowerPC G4 @ 1.67 GHz
L1 Cache 32K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 512K @ 1.67 GHz
Bus Frequency 167 MHz
Video Card ATY,RV360M11
Drive Type FUJITSU MHV2060AT FUJITSU MHV2060AT
CPU Test 82.53
GCD Loop 92.38 4.87 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 57.95 1.38 Gflop/sec
AltiVec Basic 329.82 13.14 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 97.63 3.22 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 52.00 9.05 Mops/sec
Thread Test 60.47
Computation 70.40 1.43 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 52.99 2.28 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 38.46
System 36.77
Allocate 281.27 1.03 Malloc/sec
Fill 37.94 1844.59 MB/sec
Copy 19.36 399.78 MB/sec
Stream 40.30
Copy 43.72 902.98 MB/sec [altivec]
Scale 44.61 921.72 MB/sec [altivec]
Add 38.40 817.94 MB/sec [altivec]
Triad 35.83 766.41 MB/sec [altivec]
Quartz Graphics Test 79.79
Line 63.72 4.24 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 81.81 24.42 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 74.85 6.10 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 83.84 2.11 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 105.72 6.61 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 81.20
Spinning Squares 81.20 103.00 frames/sec
User Interface Test 27.89
Elements 27.89 128.01 refresh/sec
Disk Test 30.27
Sequential 47.88
Uncached Write 40.93 25.13 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 40.67 23.01 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 73.91 21.63 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 47.63 23.94 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 22.13
Uncached Write 7.88 0.83 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 51.55 16.50 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 51.72 0.37 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 66.40 12.32 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Spoiler: 1.5Ghz 15" PowerBook

Results 29.13
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.8 (9L31a)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model PowerBook5,4
Processor PowerPC G4 @ 1.50 GHz
L1 Cache 32K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 512K @ 1.50 GHz
Bus Frequency 167 MHz
Video Card ATY,RV360M11
Drive Type HTS721010G9AT00 HTS721010G9AT00
CPU Test 33.32
GCD Loop 56.55 2.98 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 23.96 569.29 Mflop/sec
AltiVec Basic 104.14 4.15 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 42.88 1.41 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 17.32 3.02 Mops/sec
Thread Test 24.77
Computation 28.54 578.27 Kops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 21.87 940.98 Klocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 26.63
System 20.74
Allocate 95.01 348.90 Kalloc/sec
Fill 17.40 845.86 MB/sec
Copy 13.04 269.40 MB/sec
Stream 37.22
Copy 42.52 878.20 MB/sec [altivec]
Scale 41.83 864.11 MB/sec [altivec]
Add 34.41 732.96 MB/sec [altivec]
Triad 32.29 690.73 MB/sec [altivec]
Quartz Graphics Test 37.29
Line 30.56 2.03 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 35.87 10.71 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 28.26 2.30 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 40.31 1.02 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 75.24 4.71 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 56.58
Spinning Squares 56.58 71.78 frames/sec
User Interface Test 19.22
Elements 19.22 88.21 refresh/sec
Disk Test 27.91
Sequential 40.88
Uncached Write 40.38 24.79 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 39.29 22.23 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 34.46 10.08 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 53.72 27.00 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 21.18
Uncached Write 7.36 0.78 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 57.35 18.36 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 51.46 0.36 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 61.80 11.47 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Spoiler: 1.5Ghz 12" PowerBook

Results 34.09
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.8 (9L31a)
Physical RAM 1280 MB
Model PowerBook6,8
Processor PowerPC G4 @ 1.50 GHz
L1 Cache 32K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 512K @ 1.50 GHz
Bus Frequency 167 MHz
Video Card GeForce FX Go5200
Drive Type ST9100823A ST9100823A
CPU Test 65.81
GCD Loop 111.54 5.88 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 46.19 1.10 Gflop/sec
AltiVec Basic 295.38 11.77 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 78.67 2.60 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 34.17 5.95 Mops/sec
Thread Test 48.30
Computation 57.30 1.16 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 41.74 1.80 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 28.55
System 22.68
Allocate 156.88 576.12 Kalloc/sec
Fill 20.14 979.34 MB/sec
Copy 13.12 270.91 MB/sec
Stream 38.50
Copy 42.78 883.61 MB/sec [altivec]
Scale 45.62 942.56 MB/sec [altivec]
Add 35.20 749.84 MB/sec [altivec]
Triad 33.13 708.77 MB/sec [altivec]
Quartz Graphics Test 56.16
Line 45.93 3.06 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 63.42 18.94 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 57.05 4.65 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 57.08 1.44 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 60.83 3.80 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 42.80
Spinning Squares 42.80 54.30 frames/sec
User Interface Test 17.07
Elements 17.07 78.36 refresh/sec
Disk Test 28.86
Sequential 49.29
Uncached Write 51.10 31.37 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 31.26 17.68 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 78.93 23.10 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 59.13 29.72 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 20.40
Uncached Write 6.96 0.74 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 48.27 15.45 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 58.41 0.41 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 68.45 12.70 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Spoiler: PowerMac G5

Results 29.34
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.8 (9L31a)
Physical RAM 6144 MB
Model PowerMac7,2
Processor PowerPC 970x2 @ 1.80 GHz
L1 Cache 64K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 512K @ 1.80 GHz
Bus Frequency 900 MHz
Video Card GeForce 6800 Ultra
Drive Type ST3500630AS ST3500630AS
CPU Test 38.27
GCD Loop 40.08 2.11 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 38.70 919.59 Mflop/sec
AltiVec Basic 77.65 3.09 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 23.93 789.41 Mflop/sec
Floating Point Library 39.67 6.91 Mops/sec
Thread Test 24.76
Computation 23.05 467.03 Kops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 26.74 1.15 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 66.47
System 56.18
Allocate 91.10 334.56 Kalloc/sec
Fill 65.42 3181.05 MB/sec
Copy 36.84 761.01 MB/sec
Stream 81.39
Copy 73.62 1520.69 MB/sec [G5]
Scale 77.80 1607.32 MB/sec [G5]
Add 84.43 1798.63 MB/sec [G5]
Triad 92.00 1968.18 MB/sec [G5]
Quartz Graphics Test 62.45
Line 54.61 3.64 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 59.17 17.66 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 58.60 4.78 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 62.38 1.57 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 85.10 5.32 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 42.83
Spinning Squares 42.83 54.33 frames/sec
User Interface Test 10.13
Elements 10.13 46.48 refresh/sec
Disk Test 52.95
Sequential 74.80
Uncached Write 52.57 32.28 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 120.50 68.18 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 53.46 15.64 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 134.27 67.48 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 40.98
Uncached Write 13.95 1.48 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 117.88 37.74 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 93.71 0.66 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 147.93 27.45 MB/sec [256K blocks]

As you can see the 1.67Ghz PowerBook was the fastest according to xbench. Even with only 512MB of ram.
The 12" Powerbook coming in 2nd, and the G5 was close with the 1.5Ghz 15" in last place.
What is more interesting is the openGL tests on the G5 should blow others out of the water with its 6800 Ultra, but according to xbench the Geforce 5200 in the 12" Powerbook performs better. Yeah right, lol.

I uploaded the xbench result files because it looks like the plain text ones are a little hard to follow on here.

 

[z970]

Maybe it was indeed the wrong tool for TenFourTrim...

 

[Jubadub]

I also question Xbench's validity (try using OpenMark for OpenGL), but some things do come to mind... Namely L3 cache (lacking in G5s) and superior AltiVec (given the same processor clock, because AltiVec support was rushed for the G5, although normally the G5 AltiVec makes up for that and surpasses G4 AltiVec because of the usually-higher clock). Could AltiVec assist with OpenGL, as well?