The new 500 MHz iBook--How Fast Is It?

Just a couple of weeks short of a year ago we got our 400 MHz PowerBook 2000 (Pismo). It is the fastest PowerBook we've ever owned and the first that could basically take the place of a desktop computer. The 400 MHz Pismo sold for $2500 with 64 MB RAM and a 6 GB hard drive. We bumped the RAM to 512 MB and the drive to 20 GB and have been running Mac OS X on it comfortably for two months. The Pismo was discontinued in January when the PowerBook G4 Titanium was released and great buys can be had on it today.

Yesterday we received a couple of new base 500 MHz iBooks, i.e. with CD drives and 64 MB RAM, for evaluation. Both were perfect out of the box, i.e. no problems and no bad pixels on the razor sharp 12.1" 1024x768 screen. The new iBooks are beautiful and fast but they cost only $1300, nearly half that of our Pismo. The have a faster CPU clock speed (500 vs 400 MHz) but a slower system bus (67 vs 100 MHz). They have the same graphics chip and screen resolution but the Pismo's screen is 2" larger. In return, the iBook is a full pound lighter than our Pismo and has a screen height 2" lower. If one wants a large screen, modularity and an infrared port, then a used Pismo may be a better choice. If one wants lighter weight and a lower screen height for travel, then the new iBook is the better choice. But how do they compare on speed? We added a 128 MB RAM module, brought their Mac OS 9.1 up to date and loaded Mac OS X 10.0.3. We then ran a few benchmark tests to see how the new iBooks compared running Mac OS 9.1 and Mac OS X.

In Mac OS 9.1 we ran the Walker 1.2 atrium spin to check QuickDraw speed, ThroughPut 1.5 to check RAM to VRAM speed, Gauge Pro 1.2 to check memory speed, launched AppleWorks 6.1.2, ran Cinebench 2000 to check 3D video performance and MacBench 5.0. Here are the results:

Test	500 MHz iBook	400 MHz Pismo
Walker 1.2 Spin (min fps)	34	36
ThroughPut 1.5 - CPU (MB/s)	49	50
- FPU (MB/s)	75	83
- CopyBits (MB/s)	67	124
Gauge Pro 1.2 Memory Speed (MB/s)	78	98
Launch AppleWorks 6.1.2 (sec)	4	3
Cinebench 2000 - Shading, OpenGL (score)	4.6	4.6
- Raytracing (score)	6.0	4.2
MacBench 5.0 - CPU (score)	786	1104
- FPU (score)	1677	1321
- Disk (score)	1025	1662
- Graphics (score)	2610	3717

Generally, the two computers are very comparable. The only remarkable points are the faster 2D performance (ThroughPut CopyBits and MacBench Graphics) of the Pismo and the significantly faster Cinebench 2000 Raytracing 3D score of the iBook. The iBook, despite the faster CPU clock, is slower at integer math (MacBench CPU) but much faster at floating point math (MacBench FPU) which is consistent with slower 2D performance and faster 3D performance.

Okay, what about Mac OS X? Both run Mac OS X acceptably and similarly based on a subjective feel from using both computers. We took some objective measurements in the launch times of applications in Classic mode (Netscape 4.77, WordPerfect 3.5e) and native applications (Internet Explorer 5.1.1--Carbon; OmniWeb 4.0.1--Cocoa). We also timed how long it took to start up Classic mode (Mac OS 9.1). Here are the results:

Application (sec)	500 MHz iBook	400 MHz Pismo
Netscape 4.77	5	4
WordPerfect 3.5e	2	1+
Internet Explorer 5.1.1	9	12
OmniWeb 4.0.1	16	14
Start Up Classic Mode	59	61

Again, both computers are generally comparable.

So, the choice between a new 500 MHz iBook and a discontinued 400 MHz Pismo really does come down to screen size and modularity versus transportability. One other thing we noted is that the Pismo's screen is perceptibly brighter than either of the new iBooks we received. This may be just chance since there are many comments on the web in fora commenting on how bright the new iBook's screen is.