Yosemite Geekbench iMac 2011 results

[vkd]

*Edited 30 Oct 2014 - Added scores for Mac OS 10.9.2 w/ Fusion Drive (120GB Samsung 840 EVO + 1TB)

OK I just did extensive Geekbench testing with Mac OS both native and in virtual machines (Fusion and Parallels).

Hardware:
iMac (27-inch Mid-2011)
Intel Core i5-2500S @ 2.70GHz
16GB Memory

Test OSs:
Mac OS 10.9.2
Mac OS 10.9.5
Mac OS 10.10 (Build 14A386)

Virtual Machine Software:
VMware Fusion v7.0.0
Parallels 9.0.0

Geekbench Versions:
Geekbench 2.2.0
Geekbench 3.0

One anomaly with Parallels 9 was that after installing VM Tools, copying Geekbench both to and from it resulted in non-usable executables.

ON a base system of Mac OS 10.9.5, Mac OS 10.10 in Parallels ran smoother than in Fusion even though its score was slightly lower! I put this down to the graphics rendering, as what affected my 5 mins of testing principally was the mouse cursor, which was 'sticking' or 'lagging' in Fusion, something that didn't occur in Parallels. Running on a base system of Mac OS 10.10 however did not present this 'feature'.


Geekbench 2.2.0 32bit scores were:
Mac OS 10.9.2 native on 2011 iMac 27": 7737
Mac OS 10.9.2 native on 2011 iMac 27" w/ Fusion Drive: 7960
Mac OS 10.9.5 native on 2011 iMac 27": 7516
Mac OS 10.10 native on 2011 iMac 27" : 6628
Mac OS 10.10 in VMware Fusion 7.0.0 on 10.9.2: 5761
Mac OS 10.10 in VMware Fusion 7.0.0 on 10.9.5: 6205
Mac OS 10.10 in VMware Fusion 7.0.0 on 10.10: 5270
Mac OS 10.10 in Parallels 9.0 on 10.9.5: 5518
Mac OS 10.10 in Parallels 9.0 on 10.10: 4953

*Reference score: 7844

64bit scores:
Mac OS 10.9.2 native on 2011 iMac 27": 8546
Mac OS 10.9.5 native on 2011 iMac 27": 8214
Mac OS 10.10 native on 2011 iMac 27" : 7215
Mac OS 10.10 in VMware Fusion 7.0.0 on 10.9.2: 6329
Mac OS 10.10 in VMware Fusion 7.0.0 on 10.9.5: 6614
Mac OS 10.10 in VMware Fusion 7.0.0 on 10.10: 5842

*Reference score: 8565


Geekbench 3.0 - 32bit:
Mac OS 10.9.2 native:
Single-Core Score:2755
Multi-Core Score: 7156

Mac OS 10.9.2 native w/ Fusion Drive:
Single-Core Score: 2562
Multi-Core Score: 6764

Mac OS 10.10 native:
Single-Core Score:2591
Multi-Core Score: 5670

Mac OS 10.10 in Fusion 7.0 on 10.9.2:
Single-Core Score: 2654
Multi-Core Score: 4592

Mac OS 10.10 in Fusion 7.0 on 10.10:
Single-Core Score: 2641
Multi-Core Score: 4642

Mac OS 10.10 in Parallels 9.0 on 10.9.2:
Single-Core Score: 2352
Multi-Core Score: 4134

Mac OS 10.10 in Parallels 9.0 on 10.10:
Single-Core Score: 2429
Multi-Core Score: 3581

*Reference scores: 2703 & 7121


*Reference scores taken from average of submitted Geekbench scores as provided by:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...inch-aluminum-mid-2011-thunderbolt-specs.html

 

[vkd]

I posted updated scores with Mac OS 10.9.2 native with Fusion Drive today. It is interesting to note that, using Geekbench 2 the scores with Fusion Drive are slightly better than without, and higher than the reference average score, whilst with Geekbench 3 they are worse! LOL

 

[vkd]

Let a few hours pass by and the scores improve! LOL

Mac OS 10.9.2 native w/ Fusion Drive:
Single-Core Score: 2747
Multi-Core Score: 7331

 

[vkd]

Few hours later and the scores seemed to have stabilised:


Mac OS 10.9.2 native w/ Fusion Drive:
Single-Core Score: 2749
Multi-Core Score: 7246

(these are with Geekbench 3.2.2 (32-bit))

 

[vkd]

Just done a point upgrade to 10.9.3:


Mac OS 10.9.2 native w/ Fusion Drive:
Single-Core Score: 2808
Multi-Core Score: 7276

(these are with Geekbench 3.2.2 (32-bit))


Remembering that the average scores (see Original Post) are 2703 & 7121, and this system has a Fusion Drive, from the POV of Geekbench, there doesn't seem to be a lot of benefit. In practice though, there is a LOT of benefit, the system is definitely much "snappier".