Xbench 1.1 is Out

and available for download via MacUpdate. Xbench is one of the best utilities for testing the speed of the various components of your computer in Mac OS X. We have used it since version 1.0 in our "How Fast Is It?" comparisons. Xbench is donationware. Version 1.1 [2003-08-23] changes:

• Optimized for the PowerMac G5, compiled with GCC 3.3
  
• Avoid use of vec_dst on PowerPC 970 for better performance
  
• Changes to the AltiVec test to reduce dependence on memory bandwidth
  
• Removed use of vec_dstt
  
• Changes to floating point test
  
• Added vecLib FFT test
  
• Added automatic machine type detection
  
• Fixed an issue where the results submission sheet caused the results window to become catatonic
  
• Prettier submit button
  
• Recalibration of CPU tests, Disk tests
  
• Fixed spinning rainbow cursor during OpenGL test

Unfortunately, the new vecLib FFT test on our 17" PowerBook G4 appears to be unstable, i.e. changing significantly between the first (very low) and subsequent runs, which greatly affects the CPU results. In general, our experience is that v1.1 gives slightly higher scores than v1.0 and slightly more variation between runs. Our advice is to run it three times, toss out any outlier scores, reboot, run it again three times, toss out the outliers again if any and average the remaining scores.