The purpose of this test was to identify the comparative speed differences between various Mac computers (including one with a 32-bit Core Duo processor). All systems were running 10.5.5 with VisualHub set to identical settings on each computer. The results are general and a guide only. Time is as reported by VisualHub in MIN:SEC.

The Core 2 Duo performed well compared to it’s older 32-bit predecessor with the 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo Mac mini beating the 2GHz Core Duo MacBook by almost 4 minutes. The 2.66GHz iMac beat the white 2GHz computer by almost 11 minutes but with the comparison between the 2GHz iMac (Late 2006) and 2GHz MacBook (Mid 2007) uncertainities of the speed of the iMac (Late 2006)’s load could have affected the results.

File information
Stargate Continum
Fromat: XVID 624 x 352, 25 FPS, 610.73MB, 938.09 kbit/s
MP3 Stereo 48.000 kHz
Duration: 01:34:33.52

VisualHub Settings
DVD, PAL, Standard Quality (Author as DVD UNselected)

MacBook Air (Mid 2009) - 34:46
1.86GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM
MacBook (Mid 2008) - 24:53
2.1GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM
iMac (Early 2008) - 19:59
2.66GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM
Mac mini (Mid 2007) - 29:34
1.8GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM
MacBook (Mid 2007) - 27:11
2GHZ Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM
iMac (Late 2006) - 30:30
2GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM
MacBook (2006) - 33:08
2GHz Core Duo, 2GB RAM

This benchmark is used to show the raw CPU compute ability of various PowerPC and Intel based CPUs. OS, optimisation etc could be argued to make a difference, but this test shows a general assessment of the computers computer capabilities.

In the test, Pi was calculated to 1048576 decimal digits on Mac OS X and to 1000000 decimal digits on Windows.

Computer specifications

* data based on ONE processor used

Software:
Super PI Windows | Mac