Mac OS X 10.1.1 Update--How Fast Is It?

We began benchmarking Mac OS X when v10.0 was released and the major complaint was its speed (lack of it actually) in starting up, launching applications and resizing windows. Mac OS 10.0.2 was an improvement but Mac OS X 10.1 really improved Mac OS X's performance. We benchmarked 10.1 in September. The major remaining performance issue is 2D video performance. Recently Apple released 10.1.1 update. Does it improve performance? We have run our benchmarks using our 450 MHz G4 Cube, the best desktop computer ever made. It is stock except for RAM (now up to 1.2 GB). So how fast is it? Here are the results with networking and AppleTalk turned off:

450 MHz G4 Cube Average Launch Times in Full Seconds

Application	10.0	10.0.1	10.0.2	10.0.3	10.04	10.1	10.1.1
Startup Chime to Login	-	-	-	-	96	68	60
Login to Desktop	-	-	-	-	20	9	11
Shutdown	-	-	-	-	-	4	4
Classic Mode	-	-	-	53	40	46	46
Netscape 4.77	7	6	4	3	4	2	2
AppleWorks 6.1b/6.2/6.2.1	-	-	6	5	6	2	1
IE 5.1/5.1.1/5.1.2/5.1.3	9	10	8	8	9	2	2
OmniWeb 4.0cf3/4.0rc1/4.0/4.0.1/4.0.5	14	13	9	13	10	3	4
System Preferences	3	2	2	2	3	1	1
Scroll in Acrobat 5	-	-	-	72	69	82	86
Let1kWindowsBloom	-	-	-	-	-	-	61

Each entry is an average of three timings. The speed may be influenced marginally by updates in the applications as well as in Mac OS X. There is a hint that startup time, measured from the chime until the login window appears, may have decreased but for the most part there is no real change. There is little difference among launching Classic, Carbon and Cocoa applications.

Unfortunately, 2D graphic speed remains slow as measured by scrolling the PDF file of the 144-page Virtual PC 4 manual. Scrolling the same document in Mac OS 9.2.1 on the G4 Cube takes a mere 34 seconds, less than half the time in Mac OS X 10.1.1. We have also added a new graphics benchmark, Let1kWindowsBloom, that times how long it takes to open and close 1000 windows in the Finder. It takes only 9 seconds in Mac OS 9.2.1, almost one-seventh of the time in Mac OS X 10.1.1. We hope that Apple will address this remaining performance issue soon.