is a Mac 1.6Ghz faster then a Intel P4 3.4Ghz ?

Intruder · Post by **Intruder** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 10:44 pm

Hi there... so i know now that for decreasing my cpu meter when i use a lot of vst plugins i have to increase my cpu speed ..... can i say then that a P4 3.4Ghz is faster then a 1.6Ghz Mac.... ? if it is ...then my choice will be clear....

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 11:05 pm

search the forum for the Live 4 Performance Test, you will find many answers there.

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 11:08 pm

Apparently, any old 486 will be faster than all the computers Apple have ever released put together.

SFW

It still runs Windows.

-Paws

pix · Post by **pix** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 12:54 am

maybe falling off a building. No doubt they have better aerodynamics...

FaX-01 · Post by **FaX-01** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 1:07 am

Intruder wrote:Hi there... so i know now that for decreasing my cpu meter when i use a lot of vst plugins i have to increase my cpu speed ..... can i say then that a P4 3.4Ghz is faster then a 1.6Ghz Mac.... ? if it is ...then my choice will be clear....

In a word NO .
Please bare in mind though that CPU power and Creativity are not mutually exlusive and that many people here make great tunes with Mac's.
I have a 3.2 17" wxga Toshiba Satellite P20 and it's only marginally behind
a Dual G5 in the Live CPU test.
That said that is RUNNING Live - the G5 woulde cream this Running Logic anyday of the week IMHO so it's all relative to the applications being used also.

Logic on a G5 is pretty much like SSE2 and Hyperthreading enabled SONAR running on a 3.4ghz HT P4 for example - both will have a lot of grunt.

My personal advice if you're going for a laptop is get neither and grab a high quality 2ghz Dothan with 2meg cache - long battery life - zilch fan noise - extremely lightweight and exceptionally powerful when using Live.

Word of advice though make sure it runs graphics on a seperate card and doesn't run on OzMicro / ENE / CNE card bus/usb chip sets.
Oh and make sure you have decent PCMCIA slots and at least one Firwire 400 port.

So Toshiba / IBM (T40-T42p range are excellent) / Sony Vaio though quite a few user here are getting great use out of tha new AMD64 mobile systems also.

I wouldn't be basing my decision on raw power but rather on what I feel comfortable with. I know XP pro pretty well and am very comfortable with it.
You'll still get alot of use out of a decent spec'd Mac and better resale value to boot should you upgrade at a later date to a newer system.

LiveLong · Post by **LiveLong** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 1:19 am

noisetonepause wrote:Apparently, any old 486 will be faster than all the computers Apple have ever released put together.

SFW

It still runs Windows.

-Paws

Blah Blah always follow...

Remember who invented scsi, firewire... and the original windows

Saved you from the dos interface. you could have been there today without the fruit of knowledge

.

I use live on a pc, logic on a mac, and love these threads

d2 · Post by d2 » Sat Feb 26, 2005 4:24 am

LiveLong wrote: Remember who invented scsi, firewire... and the original windows

SCSI was an ANSI extension to the SASI interface, developed by Adaptec and Shugart Associates, based upon the "OEM Channel" interface on IBM mainframes. It was available on mainframes and several mid-sized UNIX systems LONG before it appeared on the Macintosh. Apple had NOTHING to do with "inventing" it, and it was available on PCs at the same time it became available on Macs.

Apple did indeed begin the development of Firewire. Sony had quite a bit to do with it as well, so it's unfair to say Apple "invented" it.

Windows (X-Windows to be precise) and the very idea of Graphic User Interfaces was hardly "invented" by Apple. Apples GUI was mostly stolen from work being done at Xerox's Palo Alto Reseacrch Center (PARC).

If you wish to hold forth on a subject, it's best to actually know what you are talking about.

Milkmansound · Post by **Milkmansound** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 4:52 am

It all comes down to the architecture of the processor. RISC vs. CISC or something, I am a little out of my depth here - but I think macs use RISC, which enables them to process more data at once - therefore they are better for audio and graphics and stuff.

Therefore fewer clock cycles gets more done.

The nice part about 1.6Ghz Vs. 3.whatever is that the mac processor running with the slower clock will last a lot longer. The newer intel chips just burn out after a few years at that clock speed.

I spent 3 years repairing electronics in the same space as a computer repair shop - most of the dead computers they got were the newer ones with the high clock speeds. The mac technician was only in there once a week for a few hours - and there were 3 PC techs... see where this is headed?

edit - I should add that Vermont is the highest mac using state per capita

LiveLong · Post by **LiveLong** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 6:04 am

If you wish to hold forth on a subject, it's best to actually know what you are talking about.[/quote]

d2, thanks for the detailed info, I knew none of this. However when we discuss computer aerodynamics and 486 kicking all Apple machines at once...

, This is not a court for facts.

My main point was that the Mac is pushing forward. It had firewire on entry models when PC's did not, Apple had the balls to kick out the floppy drive, and the PC follows. The windows thing, I work on XP and OS-X, please do not compare...
Apple design is another thing, that is pushing the envelope for all industrial design, not only computers. I-Mac, I-Pod, I-Toilet paper, I-everything. (I-BM

)

THIS GAP IS ALWAYS THERE.

Performance is another issue, I know live is better on a PC (optimized for it) but I really don't know much about processors etc, and never get a clear info on that.
For me, there is more in working with a computer than the dry "how fast it is", it is not only a $$$ for speed smart deal.

MarkH · Post by **MarkH** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 6:29 am

Intruder wrote:Can i say then that a P4 3.4Ghz is faster then a 1.6Ghz Mac.... ? if it is ...then my choice will be clear....

For Live, yes, the P4/3.4Ghz is faster. According to the Live performance test the P4/3.4Ghz runs 24-26%. A single G5 1.8Ghz iMac perform at 33%, but I'm not sure where the 1.6Ghz is at. Probably somewhere around 36%.

One thing to keep in mind is that you can only have one internal hard disk on the iMac. If you want additional storage you have to use Firewire, but that's most likely going to hold your audio interface as well since the iMac has just one Firewire port. I really don't know how much this effects performance though. I purchased a Dell P4/3.4/512/ATI Radeon PCI-X/160GB SATA for $750 and a Dell 20" 2005FPW for $550. I am very happy. Not because I saved money but because performance is great.

Regards,
Mark

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 6:47 am

d2 wrote:Windows (X-Windows to be precise) and the very idea of Graphic User Interfaces was hardly "invented" by Apple. Apples GUI was mostly stolen from work being done at Xerox's Palo Alto Reseacrch Center (PARC).

If you wish to hold forth on a subject, it's best to actually know what you are talking about.

Just to clarify. Apple copied the Xerox idea, and expanded on it. Microsoft flat out stole code from Apple, hence all the lawsuits against Microsoft from Apple.
Not to defend Apple, but it's always touted as if to say that Microsoft are somehow in the clear because a good idea on the part of Xerox that never really saw the light of day, was used by Apple. While Microsoft was successfully sued by Apple for stealing code.
The idea of windows was an Apple invention BTW, the mouse and GUI was Xerox.

This is what I've read on numerous occasions anyway.

FaX-01 · Post by **FaX-01** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 7:13 am

MarkH wrote:One thing to keep in mind is that you can only have one internal hard disk on the iMac. If you want additional storage you have to use Firewire, but that's most likely going to hold your audio interface as well since the iMac has just one Firewire port. Regards,
Mark

Incorrect information there Mark

G5 iMac - 2 Firewire 400 ports ; 3 USB 2.0 ports ; 2 USB 1.1 ports on keyboard ; VGA output ; S-video and composite video output - so you can run both a Firewire 400 audio drive + firewire audio interface...................... :wink:

MarkH · Post by **MarkH** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 7:24 am

FaX-01 wrote:G5 iMac - 2 Firewire 400 ports ; 3 USB 2.0 ports ; 2 USB 1.1 ports on keyboard ; VGA output ; S-video and composite video output - so you can run both a Firewire 400 audio drive + firewire audio interface......................

Damn, I think that's twice you've caught me. I need to start doing my homework. I guess the real question (and possibly what I was subconsiously thinking of) is whether the Firewire ports are on the same bus or two seperate busses? At least they wouldn't have to be daisy chained which is probably the most important thing.

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 7:32 am

Machinesworking wrote:
d2 wrote:Windows (X-Windows to be precise) and the very idea of Graphic User Interfaces was hardly "invented" by Apple. Apples GUI was mostly stolen from work being done at Xerox's Palo Alto Reseacrch Center (PARC).

If you wish to hold forth on a subject, it's best to actually know what you are talking about.
Just to clarify. Apple copied the Xerox idea, and expanded on it. Microsoft flat out stole code from Apple, hence all the lawsuits against Microsoft from Apple.
Not to defend Apple, but it's always touted as if to say that Microsoft are somehow in the clear because a good idea on the part of Xerox that never really saw the light of day, was used by Apple. While Microsoft was successfully sued by Apple for stealing code.

didn't microsoft buy a shit ton of Apple stock years ago in a trust settlement?

yes, yes they did.
but he's right, Microsoft is the corporate angel.

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 8:36 am

AdamJay wrote:didn't microsoft buy a shit ton of Apple stock years ago in a trust settlement?

yes, yes they did.
but he's right, Microsoft is the corporate angel.

That's another interesting story. Microsoft was successfully sued by Apple for copyright infringement, but never paid a dime.... until Microsoft offered to buy stock in excess of the lawsuit settlement. The story is MS pretty much told Apple, " Look we can drag this out in appeals for years, and likely we will, or you can allow us to buy stock, if you disagree to this, we will drop Office for the mac! ", this would have crushed Apple at the time. It came out through ex Apple employees in the monopoly trial from what I remember, and was corroborated by a friend who works at Apple.
Steve Jobs on the other hand chased the prosecutors out of his office, yelling "The government is bullshit!" at them. Proving what a hippy he really is, couldn't rat out even an enemy. Besides they play the same games.

I really get a kick out of the computer industries dirty laundry. Corporate warfare at it's bloodiest.

is a Mac 1.6Ghz faster then a Intel P4 3.4Ghz ?

is a Mac 1.6Ghz faster then a Intel P4 3.4Ghz ?

Re: is a Mac 1.6Ghz faster then a Intel P4 3.4Ghz ?

Re: is a Mac 1.6Ghz faster then a Intel P4 3.4Ghz ?

Re: is a Mac 1.6Ghz faster then a Intel P4 3.4Ghz ?

Re: is a Mac 1.6Ghz faster then a Intel P4 3.4Ghz ?