Time for the true. Mac benchmarking :)

[MacTron]

There is a lot of threads in where we discuss a variety of topics about the impact on the system performance of  L3/L2 caches,SSD's, video cards and so on. This may be a good place to post MacBench an Cinebench results to compare some harware against another an to help to put things in clear.
I know that synthetics test results may differ from computer performance in the real task that each user use to perform, but it provides an absolute objetive results.
I couldn't put Macbench 4 & 5  to full work, (where in the world is MacBench 5 CD?) so I choose MacBench 3.

MacBench 3 download:
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4486.0.html
Menu: Test Suites/ Run Test Suite/ All Test

Cinebench 2003 download:
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php/topic,4486.0.html
In Main section: click on "Start all test"

[MacTron]

I start with the scores From a MDD single 1.25 overclocked to 1.5 Ghz.
Model: G4 MDD
CPU: [email protected] Single (1.25 overclocked to 1.5)
L2/L3: 256k/1Mb
System Bus: 166 Mhz
Video Card: GeForce4 Ti4600
HD: Samsung SSD (with PATA/SATA adapter)


MacBench 3.0
(% faster than a PM 6100/60)

Processor: 3991%
Floating Point: 3028%
Disk Mix: 7400%
Publishing Disk Mix: 1456%
Graphics Mix: 6430%
Publishing Graphics Mix: 7271%

CINEBENCH 2003

Rendering (Single   CPU): 142 CB-CPU
Rendering (Multiple CPU): --- CB-CPU
Shading (CINEMA 4D)                : 172 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Software Lighting) : 499 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Hardware Lighting) : 1033 CB-GFX

[MacTron]

Stock MDD single 1.25

Model: G4 MDD
CPU: [email protected] Single
L2/L3: 256k/1Mb
System Bus: 166 Mhz
Video Card: Radeon900Pro
HD: Maxtor


MacBench 3.0
(% faster than a PM 6100/60)

Processor: 3305%
Floating Point: 2520%
Disk Mix: 3167%
Publishing Disk Mix: 1064%
Graphics Mix: 3010%
Publishing Graphics Mix: 2226%

CINEBENCH 2003

Rendering (Single   CPU): 119 CB-CPU
Rendering (Multiple CPU): --- CB-CPU
Shading (CINEMA 4D)                : 147 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Software Lighting) : 393 CB-GFX
Shading (OpenGL Hardware Lighting) : 399 CB-GFX

[MacTron]

and first impressions:

[supernova777]

so what am i really looking at here..
the yellow bar...same machine? with default processor clock? + default GPU?
the purple bar.. same machine? overclocked to 1.5ghz? + Ti4600 GPU upgrade + SSD upgrade? (2 x SSD on seritek? or just 1 ssd on generic sata pci?)

so in summary:
cpu  : 20% gain from overclock
disk : 130% gain from ssd
gpu : 114% gain from ti4600 over r9000

not sure what publishing graphics mix means but wow  220% increase

[MacTron]

so what am i really looking at here..
the yellow bar...same machine? with default processor clock? + default GPU?

Yes.

the purple bar.. same machine? overclocked to 1.5ghz? + Ti4600 GPU upgrade + SSD upgrade?

Exactly.

(2 x SSD on seritek? or just 1 ssd on generic sata pci?)

No. SSD on ATA100 via SATA to PATA converter. (the Seritek is in another machine...)

so in summary:
cpu  : 20% gain from overclock
disk : 130% gain from ssd
gpu : 114% gain from ti4600 over r9000

You got it. 

[Syntho]

That MacBench software link isn't working. I want to bench my 9600/233 against a Sonnet G3 500mhz card. Can you get a working link?

[supernova777]

That MacBench software link isn't working. I want to bench my 9600/233 against a Sonnet G3 500mhz card. Can you get a working link?

download from macintoshgarden i believe its there
http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/macbench-30

[Syntho]

MacBench 3.0 doesn't seem to recognize my components at all.

[supernova777]

That MacBench software link isn't working. I want to bench my 9600/233 against a Sonnet G3 500mhz card. Can you get a working link?

so u have the 9600
and u got the g3 upgrade card?
and its all installed? working?
sucks about the macbench not working
but congrats on your new vintage build!
u have already installed os 8.6?
very vintage.. back in the days before reason or live ever existed!
http://www.oldschooldaw.com/forums/index.php?topic=155.0

[Syntho]

It's working, it just won't recognize anything. Let me get a screenshot exported...

[Syntho]

Having video card problems, will fix that soon.

As you can see, this is way way slow compared to the graphs MacTron was posting. These are the results from a 233mhz 604e CPU and the stock SCSI HD that came with the system. I'm putting an SSD, a new set of RAM and the new CPU in there late next week. Will be fun to see how it compares to this.

[Syntho]

500% faster than a 60mhz system, compared to the 3000% on a 1.25ghz 

[IIO]

yeah thats what i would have guessed: a G3 crunches about two times more numbers than a 604e.

so now you can use orange vocoder and renaissance reverb at the same time, gratulations.

[supernova777]

lol u win award for most ghetto lookijng screenshot;D heheh

[Syntho]

The ATI Rage 128 it came with seems to be almost dead. I'm gonna use some Twin Micro 128 cards soon though.

[Syntho]

I didn't save the old test, so just compare these pictures.

Stock 233mhz CPU w/4GB SCSI HD and a broken video card:





Sonnet G3 500/1M CPU w/ OWC SATA HD, 768mb RAM and a Twin Turbo video card

[supernova777]

looks like you are in fine shape compared to the last tesT! 
sata disk speed off the chart!
what gfx card did u throw in there
oh nvm i see u wrote it there

[Syntho]

The G3 Sonnet is confusing me. It says the bus speed is 250 (should be 500?), but I read that it's 2:1. I don't know what 2:1 means but 250 times 2 is 500. Also, in the system profiler it tells me that there's 512k of L2 cache but there's actually 1M on that card. The Sonnet program called Metronome says it has 1M though. Maybe this has two separate L2 caches of 512k, each at 250mhz a piece or something? That's my guess.

I don't know much about CPUs and how they work, but this G3 upgrade is blistering fast compared to the stock 233mhz. It's more than double speed it seems. The 233mhz doesn't even have inline or backside cache I don't think, just regular L1 and L2. Browsing through directories is much quicker now, and so is installing software, and there's generally less lag and hiccups.

OS8.6 also helps since the system requirements are a bit less, and plus there are less extensions.

[supernova777]

i dont have my g3 450mhz hooked up right now but i swear its faster then my g4 450mhz!! (also not hooked up)
i dunno why or how thats even possible but it sure does feel that way...
the sata disk speed really speeds it up too almost as much as the cpu.
the biggest bottleneck for computers back then (1998-2003)
was the disk speed - hands down