Mac OS X 10.4.9--How Fast is It? There is a Performance Improvement
Last week, Apple released Mac OS X 10.4.9 update (see our 3/14 edition) and we have now had a chance to test it extensively. The update, the first in five months, has many fixes and improvements, including new ATI and Nvidia graphics drivers.
Have the changes improved Mac OS X's performance? To find out we ran our standard set of speed tests to test the performance of Mac OS X 10.4.9 relative to that of Mac OS X 10.4.8 using our two Intel-based Macs:
(1) a 2.33GHz 15" MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo with 2GB RAM and an ATI X1600 graphics card; and
(2) a 2.33GHz 24" iMac Core 2 Duo with 1GB RAM and an Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT graphics card.
The tests consist of four canned benchmark applications, five so-called real world tests and five 3D games. When we tested 10.4.8 back in October 2006, we dropped the Adobe Reader scrolling test due to significant inconsistencies in results using version 7.0.x of Adobe Reader. However, Adobe Reader 8.0 is a Universal Application, so we've begun using it again for reference with future tests and it is very fast on an Intel-based Mac.
Here are the results for the MacBook Pro C2D:
| Test | Mac OS X | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
10.4.9
|
10.4.8
|
Perf. Chg. %
|
|
| Benchmarks: | |||
| Altivec Fractal 1.3+ (GFLOPS) |
9.9
|
9.8
|
+1
|
|
Cinebench 9.6 - Rendering (2X)
|
724
|
707
|
+2
|
|
- OpenGL Hardware Lighting
|
4321
|
3588
|
+20
|
| Let1kWindowsBloom 1.0+ (sec) |
8
|
9
|
+11
|
| Xbench 1.3 - CPU |
121
|
121
|
0
|
| - Threading |
231
|
231
|
0
|
| - Memory |
129
|
127
|
+2
|
| - Quartz Graphics |
143
|
140
|
+2
|
| - OpenGL Graphics |
207
|
184
|
+13
|
| - User Interface Graphics |
377
|
360
|
+5
|
| "Real World" Tests: | |||
| Startup (sec) |
25
|
24
|
-4
|
| Shutdown (sec) |
9
|
8
|
-12
|
| Dup. 500 MB Folder of Files (sec) |
41
|
40
|
-2
|
| Scroll 144p Document (sec) |
10
|
46+
|
n/a
|
| Export QT FQDV in iMovie HD 6.0.3 (sec) |
48
|
46
|
-4
|
|
3D Game Tests
|
|||
| Quake III Arena 1.32-Intel (frames/sec) |
626
|
624
|
+0
|
|
Halo 2.0 (frames/sec)
|
55
|
55
|
0
|
| Call of Duty 1.5+ (frames/sec) |
46
|
44
|
+9
|
| Doom 3 1.3A MQ (frames/sec) |
90
|
89
|
+1
|
| Quake 4 MQ (frames/sec) |
67
|
65
|
+3
|
There are two notable changes in performance (i.e. greater than 10%). First, the tests show that the OpenGL graphics performance on the MacBook Pro C2D's ATI graphics system is significantly improved in the benchmark application tests (Cinebench, Let1kWindowsBloom and Xbench), probably due to the new drivers. However, in reality there is only a marginal improvement in the speed (frame rate) of some of the five 3D games. The second notable performance change is that shutting down takes longer by a significant percentage but its only a second in reality so not meaningful.
Here are the results for the iMac C2D:
| Test | Mac OS X | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
10.4.9
|
10.4.8
|
Perf. Chg. %
|
|
| Benchmarks: | |||
| Altivec Fractal 1.3+ (GFLOPS) |
9.7
|
9.8
|
-1
|
|
Cinebench 9.6 - Rendering (2X)
|
726
|
724
|
+0
|
|
- OpenGL Hardware Lighting
|
4416
|
4376
|
+1
|
| Let1kWindowsBloom 1.0+ (sec) |
7
|
7
|
0
|
| Xbench 1.3 - CPU |
120
|
121
|
-1
|
| - Threading |
234
|
233
|
+0
|
| - Memory |
130
|
128
|
+2
|
| - Quartz Graphics |
167
|
165
|
+1
|
| - OpenGL Graphics |
169
|
169
|
0
|
| - User Interface Graphics |
495
|
476
|
+4
|
| "Real World" Tests: | |||
| Startup (sec) |
20
|
19
|
-5
|
| Shutdown (sec) |
8
|
7
|
-14
|
| Dup. 500 MB Folder of Files (sec) |
26
|
25
|
-4
|
| Export QT FQDV in iMovie HD 6.0.3 (sec) |
38
|
38
|
0
|
|
3D Game Tests
|
|||
| Quake III Arena 1.32-Intel (frames/sec) |
835
|
837
|
-0
|
|
Halo 2.0 (frames/sec)
|
94
|
91
|
+3
|
| Call of Duty 1.5+ (frames/sec) |
59
|
60
|
-2
|
| Doom 3 1.3A MQ (frames/sec) |
127
|
128
|
-1
|
| Quake 4 MQ (frames/sec) |
--
|
96
|
n/a
|
There is only one notable performance change in the iMac C2D with Nvidia graphics, the same increase in time to shutdown as seen in the MacBook Pro C2D test. This indicates that something may have been added to the shutdown sequence by 10.4.9 but in reality it is not significant.
In summary, we have used Mac OS X 10.4.9 on a wide range of Macs, both PowerPC-based and Intel-based, for nearly a week without finding any problems caused by the upgrade. This is a good thing because 10.4.9 is probably the last update, except for security updates, for Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4.x). In addition, it appears that the updated graphics drivers helped the graphics performance of our ATI-based MacBook Pro C2D but not our Nvidia-based iMac C2D.
We look forward to the release of Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" and testing its performance as we have with every release of Mac OS X since it inception. [Bill Fox]
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