Powerbook Test: 550 vs. 400.
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2002 7:52 pm
here's a post I made on the Apple message board regarding a test I did with a friend using his Powerbook G4 400 vs. my 550 using Live as the benchmark. This subject seems to come up alot so I thought people might like to see it.
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"We did a test today, albeit unscientific, but still a test indeed. We each opened a new Live session and began to load the same 4 bar drum loop at 100bpm onto ordered tracks from 1 up. I got to 9 tracks and the Live CPU meter was at 51%. His was at 28%. We rounded up to an even 10 tracks and mine hit 55% and his it 30%. We then began to add a line effect called Grain Delay to each playing track. By the time I got to track 3 my level was touching 75% and his was at %41%. My interface became so slow I couldn't really do much else. I didn't experience any audio breakup or noise. Live makes audio playback priority over screen redraw so it stays solid. My friend was able to get a total of 23 tracks going all with the effect before his meter hit %75. We did the test again in OSX and the results were similar.
My machine: G4 Titanium 550 w/384 mb RAM
His machine: G4 Titanium 400 w/384 mb RAM
Neither of us had any other open apps or network connections at all. Needless to say I was astounded and I'm seriously considering trading DOWN for one of these old books. "
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i've been bummed ever since.
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"We did a test today, albeit unscientific, but still a test indeed. We each opened a new Live session and began to load the same 4 bar drum loop at 100bpm onto ordered tracks from 1 up. I got to 9 tracks and the Live CPU meter was at 51%. His was at 28%. We rounded up to an even 10 tracks and mine hit 55% and his it 30%. We then began to add a line effect called Grain Delay to each playing track. By the time I got to track 3 my level was touching 75% and his was at %41%. My interface became so slow I couldn't really do much else. I didn't experience any audio breakup or noise. Live makes audio playback priority over screen redraw so it stays solid. My friend was able to get a total of 23 tracks going all with the effect before his meter hit %75. We did the test again in OSX and the results were similar.
My machine: G4 Titanium 550 w/384 mb RAM
His machine: G4 Titanium 400 w/384 mb RAM
Neither of us had any other open apps or network connections at all. Needless to say I was astounded and I'm seriously considering trading DOWN for one of these old books. "
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i've been bummed ever since.