Hands-On Report: Mac OS X 10.6.7 (and 10.6.6)--How fast is it?

by Bill Fox, MacsOnly.com March 22, 2011

Yesterday, Apple released Mac OS X 10.6.7. This is, perhaps, the last edition of Snow Leopard before Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) debuts this summer. I say this because there have really been no significant glitches in the past few point version of Mac OS X 10.6. We have tested the speed of virtually every version of Mac OS X since the public preview of Mac OS X 10.0, a real dog when it came to speed, was released. Until Lion is out, we expect no real speed differences except, perhaps, in graphics as the drivers keep getting updated (1.6.24 in 10.6.6 and 1.6.26 in 10.6.7) so we have only been testing the graphics speed of the past several releases.

To learn how fast 10.6.7 is I ran a number of my standard speed tests that focus on graphics. I also ran 10.6.6 since the last version I tested was 10.6.5 when I got my latest and greatest Mac graphics card, the ATI Radeon HD 5870. I tested both recent Snow Leopard versions in my 2008 dual quad 2.8GHz Mac Pro and my 2010 13" MacBook Pro with Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics.

Here are the results:

Table 1--Mac Pro Standard Graphics Speed Tests for Mac OS X 10.6.7
(Higher is faster)
Test 10.6.7

10.6.6

10.6.5
Benchmark
     
Cinebench 11.5 Rendering (8x)
6.39 6.57 6.58
-OpenGL Hardware Lighting
26.6 26.8 26.8
Xbench 1.3
     
- Quartz Graphics
225 228 228
- OpenGL Graphics
190 202 230
OpenGL Ext. Viewer 3.22
145 145 145
GAME TESTS
     
Quake III Arena (frames/sec)
977 974 974
Halo 2.0.4 (frames/sec)
154 154 155
Red is faster.

 

Table 2--13" MacBook Pro Standard Graphics Speed Tests for Mac OS X 10.6.7
(Higher is faster)
Test 10.6.7 10.6.6

10.6.5

Benchmark
     
Cinebench 11.5 Rendering (2x)
1.35
1.35
1.33
-OpenGL Hardware Lighting
11.5
12.3
11.2
Xbench 1.3
     
- Quartz Graphics
152
149
152
- OpenGL Graphics
153
156
163
- User Interface Graphics
170
176
167
OpenGL Ext. Viewer 3.22
122
123
-
Red is faster.

While it may appear that the graphics speed of Snow Leopard has gotten slower over the past three releases for the Mac Pro and ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card, the change is very slight and not significant except as measured by the simple OpenGL test in Xbench 1.3, a fairly long in the tooth benchmarking application, and in the CPU test of Cinebench 11.5, a very recent version. For the MacBook Pro with Nvidia graphics there are no significant differences nor trends among the three recent releases of Mac OS X 10.6.


Software Special of the Day: 20 to 50% Off or more!

Get a deal a day from MacUpdate's Software Promo.




Copyright © 1995-2011 by Bill Fox
All rights reserved.

MY LAWYER MADE ME POST THIS: 8-/
The Macs Only! web site is for informational purposes only. No one associated with Macs Only! assumes any responsibility for its accuracy. The information is subject to change without notice. Any use of, or actions taken based upon any of the information contained on this web site is done entirely at your own risk. Mention of any products or services is for informational purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation. Macs Only! and those associated with Macs Only! assume no responsibility with regard to the selection, performance or use of these products.

OUR PRIVACY POLICY

Apple, Apple Logos, Macintosh, and Mac OS Logos are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners.

[Back to top of page]

 

 

Apple iTunes

Apple Store

Apple Store

Buy a Mac and get a FREE iPod Nano!

Apple Online Store

About Us

Est. Dec. 28, 1995


Publisher