867 MHz PowerBook G4 Speed Tests Redux

Last Thursday we posted our speed tests of the new 867 MHz PowerBook G4. Astoundingly, the new PowerBook came out slower than our 800 MHz model. We thought it might be a bug in the special build (6E62) of 10.2.1 that the 867 MHz models were running. We were permitted to update them to 10.2.2 and re-run our tests. We also updated our 800 MHz model to 10.2.2 and pulled out a 512 MB RAM chip to make both the same at 256 MB of RAM.

Both PowerBooks ran a little slower on 10.2.2 than 10.2.1 but the results were the same. The new 867 tested significantly slower that the 800 and we have revised our speed test accordingly. As improbable as it seems, we can only conclude that both 867 MHz PowerBooks that we used in the tests are defective in some way. This will remain a mystery until we can get our hands on another 867 MHz PowerBook G4.