SPEC tests

[Vlade]

I think thats what they are called, but I have some questions.

1. I know windows machines currently beet the G4 in those tests(mostly integer), but that isnt tested with altivec is it? If not, how do we stand with altivec?

2. Does anyone know where I can get some benchmarks? I want to compare my g4 733 to my friends celeron.

 

[FelixDerKater]

The SPEC tests check the performance of the Integer and FPU units on your processor. They neglect vector processing units, such as AltiVec.



http://www.barefeats.com/
That site is full of various benchmarks comparing Macs to Mac and Macs to PCs.

 

[Catfish_Man]

Re: SPEC tests

Originally posted by Vlade
I think thats what they are called, but I have some questions.

1. I know windows machines currently beet the G4 in those tests(mostly integer), but that isnt tested with altivec is it? If not, how do we stand with altivec?

2. Does anyone know where I can get some benchmarks? I want to compare my g4 733 to my friends celeron.

1) We get the **** beaten out of us less badly (The G4 does really really horribly on SPEC). On a few things like RC5, we do some beating ourselves, but for most things, the clock difference is just too high. Also, Intel's compiler can automatically use their Altivec equivalent in certain situations, and Apple's (GCC) can't do that.

2)Find a program you both use. Time it. That's the only truly accurate benchmark. Every synthetic benchmark has a bias, and each real world app also has a bias. If an app is memory bound, it makes sense to use a memory bound benchmark. As for cross platform benchmarks... try searching for caffiene mark and seeing if it's free (make sure to install Java 1.4.1 from the apple developer page before you do it though, it boosts Java performance a bunch). If that's not free, I'm not sure what you could use.

Celerons are kinda odd. The P4 Celeron should get beaten down for any app that isn't memory bound, unless it has a HUGE clockspeed advantage over the G4. It's basically an original P4 (they seriously sucked), with half the cache (not a nice thing to do to a processor like the P4). The P3 Celerons are a good deal better per clock, although the clockspeed difference makes them lose to their P4 brethren.