Power Mac G4 733 MHz Speed Redux

Yesterday Apple responded to questions regarding the speed (or perceived lack thereof actually) of the newest 733 MHz G4 CPU, Motorola model number 7450. On Tuesday we pointed to posted web site tests which showed that a Power Mac G4 with a single processor 533 MHz CPU (older model 7410) is faster or nearly so on a number of application tests than the newest 733 and that the Dual 533 is faster on most.

Apple responded by divulging its own tests. The response was posted on Accelerate Your Mac. Apple used three applications: Photoshop, MediaCleaner and Final Cut Pro. The 733 was faster than the single 533 on the only test it was included--Photoshop 6.0. The dual 533 was faster than the 733 on the MediaCleaner and Final Cut Pro tests and nearly as fast on the Photoshop test. The results of a Photoshop test will depend highly on the relative mix of operations and filters that are multiple processor aware versus those that aren't. Since Apple didn't divulge the mix, one can not unequivocally accept the results.

In addition, MacInTouch posted it's tests between a 733 and a dual 500, not a dual 533. The dual 500 was faster on one (SoundJam) of the three tests (Photoshop, SoundJam and QuickTime) more related to the CPU speed than the graphics card or hard disk drive speed. However, the vast performance difference between the ATI Rage Pro 128 graphics card in the dual 500 and the nVIDIA GeForce2 MX card in the 733 clearly biassed all tests rendering MacIntouch's conclusions suspect.

It is clear that the dual 533 Power Mac G4 remains the overall speed king. However, the 733 is no slouch. It is fastest in a large number of circumstances, many of which many people will use most of the time making the 733 the speed king to them. Rightly so. Let's move on. We happily look forward to dual 733 Power Mac G4s and even faster G4 processors in the near future.