CNET have taken the 64-bit versions of
Windows 7 and
Snow Leopard for a spin around a
2008 MacBook Pro, and produced a decent first peek at comparative performance. Of course, there are significant provisos to get through first -- it's only one machine, running on Apple's drivers, testing mostly Apple applications, and the two systems default to
different versions of QuickTime -- but we can still glean some indication of where the two heavyweights are relative to one another. Snow Leopard appeared consistently quicker in time-based tests, with faster bootups, shutdowns and MP3 encoding, but Windows 7 showed its muscle in producing better frame rates in games and a significant advantage in Cinebench rendering. Battery life was found to be distinctly better under Snow Leopard, but we'd put that down to the underlying hardware being optimized for OS X. Hit the read link for the full testing procedures and more of those old school bar charts -- it should get you well prepped for the forthcoming flood of similar head-to-heads once WIndows 7 officially ships next week.
[Via
Apple Insider]
posted Oct 16th 2009 2:33PM
You guys just love to flame bait huh?
Flame bait = ad revenue!
Perhaps. However since everyone can see how pointless this comparison is I think most people will sihj, click and move on.
I guess people wanna see how good CNET is in bed with a fruit.
I would've never guessed that I-Tunes would be faster on an Mac (sarcasm)..you know.... that's only what it was created for...
@Mark Anderson On this i can agree with you. It has been proven time and time again that the port of COD4 for OSX is absolutely horrible. It is so badly written by who the hell ever that even on a Mac Pro with the highest end EVGA GTX285 card it was still 15fps below the bootcamp. Of course on that same mac pro using the REAL directX version of the game it got a ridiculously awesome FPS. Unfortunately the state of our tech schools still does not bode well for OpenGL, since i believe there is money to be had from MS if you teach DirectX.
At the end of the day, my mac book is a chick magnet. your PC's aren't. 'nuff said.
This is such a pointless article. Like everyone's been saying, this just proves that OSX applications run best on the platform for which it was originally intended. It's pointless for CNET to have done these tests for Engadget to have passed on this rubbish.
In other news, fish fare well in the water, not so well on land.
A fair test would be to test Windows 7 on a laptop in the same prince range as the macbook pro. Of course leopard will run better if it only have to run in about a dozen of hardware configuration VS. Thousand of configuration for windows 7. I want to know if I should spend $1500 on a macbook pro or $1500 on hp/ dell, what would get me better performance??
You should know, Anderson. You have a Macbook, right? Based on this information, we know it attracts dicks.
NOOOO... You're a towel!
What a wad of dick! >-/
... oh and what a coincidence the article comes JUST before windows is released O_=
@Detox
It certainly attracted you, Chapel.
I keep thinking we should get an option to downrank articles... I this one should def be grayed out on the main page so that I dont have to read this BS. Engadget ""reporting" keeps going south...
What's next, Office '08 runs faster on Windows 7 than Snow Leopard? Tsk
Tsing Tao. More like Tsing wow. So I guess all you got is to start blaming the game companies for the ridiculous game apple platform. What else can you expect from an apple fanboy. Like I said before apple people spend most of their time dimishing their OS flaws by pointing out the flaws on the other guy. The reallity is that no matter how you put it its pretty embarasing that windows would perform better than OSX in their own machine. It just embararasing.
You guys, and by "you guys" I mean the crazy Microsoft Fanboys, always talk about Mac users "drinking the Kool-Aid," and you guys read one little review and you go absolutely crazy. You guys reacted almost as badly to that Phil Schiller article yesterday. Who's drinking the Kool-Aid now?
Apple's Development tools are free and comes with every Apple OS, and is the same SDK used to create the OS. Just like virtually all *inx operating systems.
Whats extra pathetic here is that Windows7 isn't built with Microsoft's own Development tools like .NET (and I shudder to think if it were), otherwise the numbers for Windows7 would be far, far, worse.
Windows7 is built using the lowest common denominator compiler for maximum compatibility across a wide array of cheap hardware. It is 'good enough' code (as in you will pay for it -regardless). User's don't know or realize that the code being executed doesn't take advantage of the Intel Instruction set to the fullest.
Yes, having better then Mac hardware is a given and way cheaper in the PC world. But it doesn't bode well when those drivers just 'sorta work' and the OS 'kinda uses it'.
Remember when Intel touted MMX stickers on WinTel boxes? That was touted for "some day in the future" third party apps will use this feature 'cause Microsoft's native Window Manager certainly doesn't. Heck, you had to go out of your way to turn on Pentium Pro instruction sets when you compiled software for using MSDN tools.
But good enough is plenty fine for the masses and Microsoft's balance sheet. Anything more might be mistaken for innovative.
@stevo
That is blasphemy MS would never do such things (sarcasm indeed)
"Bwahahah!! the Article's author's name is Dong"
Wow, and I thought it was only the Apple Fanboys who could be douche bags.
Keep drinking that Kool-Aid, Microsoft Fanboys.
Interesting! So Mac fanboys are right when they say Mac's are better because it has dedicated hardware and a vice versa OS.
What wonders me about Windonesians is why they still will not admit it even if year after year they are shown the superiority of OSX over Windows.
Yeah, if you say Macs are better than PCs, the Microsoft Fanboys say: "Macs run the same hardware as PCs."
If you say OS X runs faster than Windows 7 on a Mac, they say: "Well, hey, it's Mac hardware so what do you expect?"
Huh? They want it both ways, but here again, they miss the big point. People like Macs because OS X is optimized to run on the hardware. Using a certain selection of hardware makes it easier for Apple to come out with a new version of OS X every two years, because they know exactly what they're working with.
Some people like that kind of integration, which is why Apple did so well over the recession. People aren't buying Macs because they're "trendy," they're buying them because they work better.
@Trashoner I guess you dont understand how game development is done. Infinity Ward created COD4 using directX and it runs awesome on a variety of hardware combinations on the windows platform. Then a COMPLETELY different THIRD PARTY did the port to OS X using openGL and wine, and they did it really really badly, it happens very often in these ports, just as it does from 360 to PS3. This was not a dig on windows or COD but on the badly done porting from the third parties responsible for such a thing.
Its very apparent that you are only interested in your stupid flame war and not the facts. A better test would have been a blizzard game since their OS X games are natively written for the operating system, unfortunately blizzard hasnt released a new game that would actually be useful for this in a very long time. I guess you could use warcraft 3 since its most likely more resource hungry than WOW.
And really Tsing Wow? REARRY?
Fail results, I mean iTunes? How about use something less Appleish?
You do realize the irony here in game development? Before the launch of the Xbox 360, several alpha development kits were spotted using Apple's Power Mac G5 hardware.
Apple is meant for getting work done, so it HAS to 'just work'. As I've pointed out prior, popular game dev kits (for Windows, Nintendo Wii, etc) were only available on Mac hardware, like Unity3D.com. Its still the most amazing 3d development environment.
Windows 7 for the win. Sorry guys but the scores are true since i read this i went on and installed the Win7RC on my macbook pro vs my pc laptop with the same configuration ( i even took some ram out of the laptop pc to make it even) And win& scores alot higher then OSX. It makes since though if you think about it. apple has not yet got OSX to truly utilize and take on the full power of a Intel CPU yet. They just switched. Give them some time it will improve for sure.
A valid comparison would be to run OSX on a hackintosh using generic *nix drivers and then run the tests.
I think you can't really compare the OSes now, they are going for different objectives and Apple aims toward being fast and Microsoft towards compatibility.
Apple can fuck up in the driver issue and they only have to do a few drivers each year. So avoid old stuff. Microsoft has to make all their partners work on drivers since they can't unify them all. old stuff can run here, but can slow down boot time pretty fast.
The point is, is you want a new fast machine always get an Apple and try to stay inside their software as much as possible and many thrid parties do some shitty work, like Adobe going 64 on windows and 32 on Apple. Not to mention most +5 year old Apple stuff will have compatibility problems with new stuff
If you want most stuff to work, no matter how old they are, get Windows and sacrifice a little speed. If you don't wanna sacrifice any speed on Windows, don't install anything that isn't super-optimized for windows 7.
I run both and could not live without one of them. Sticking to only one OS is ok, put flaming the one you don't own is pointless. Even flaming Linux is so passé now...
@Steveorevo
You do realize that's because the Xbox 360's CPU is based on an IBM PowerPC chip, right?
lol @steveorevo
making up crap again.
Windows 7 aka Vista Pro has failed miserably again!
Yes, thats where that quote came from. They finalized on the IBM Xenon processor (not to be confused with Intels).
Itunes encoding speeds?
all it shows is that apples optimisation of their software for windows 7 isn't as good as the original that was created and intended for OSX. Reviewing and comparing is more than just run a few programs because programs can be biased as well. Honestly I expected better from Cnet.
@Chuck
their excuse for bias and crap reporting.... it's just a BLOG "
@ Tsing, you can come out with whatever explanation you want. The fact is that they're still just excuses for being outperformed. You know you are a crappy player when you loose a game in your own turf. I seriously doubt that windows 7 outperformed OSX just based on porting. Come on man, be real. You know who is the big player when comes to video games. I just didn't expect that windows 7 would outperform OSX in a mac. I'm pretty sure this would've been the same with warcraft or any blizzard game. But I guess you can come out with whatever untestable reason why OSX doesn't do good with video games. I guess I expected OSX to outperform Windows in every single test when done in their own machine. that's it.
I saw what you typed about my other post. I do not make up crap. I posted only 3 links about how many flaws are found in the apple platform. If you are gonna call me a lier the least you can do is back up your statement. Don't just call my posting disgusting and then run away like a Nancy. If you are gonna post crap back it up or shut the hell up and that goes for all that crap you said about porting, wine, and all the other bull crap you made up. Post a link where people can read and learn. All you have to do is click and read and accept the reality. The reality is that apple is in a very crappy position right now to be pointing fingers. I guess I would feel like crap too if I had spent thousands or dollars and still have a bunch of flaws with my system.
All I know if you those guys that bought a powerPC would've bought an XP system instead they would be a lot happier right now. They would be getting a much better OS than what they're stuck with now. A good company doesn't only serve they new customers but also the old ones. This is gonna happen again when 128bit becomes a standard. This is why OSX is never gonna outsell windows. But that's apple. Lets outmode everything so that everybody has to buy all of our crap all over again. Or you gonna come out with an excuse for that too? Apple doesn't like or support there older customers. Innovation should not come at the expense of old customers. This is a very lazy approach because its a lot easier to come out with a new product than to come out with a solution that would make everybody happy right. People now days don't have the money to spend in a computer that is gonna be outdated in a few. They want be able to upgraded it. They don't want just one brand, they want a bunch of options. But again, when was the last time you heard of an apple user being to upgrade a CPU or a motherboard. This is the sad reality of apple, the just want money and they're getting lazy about support and the quality of their products. They used crappy RAID instead of SAN for the time capsules. that's 500 buck product that apple will not even service. I know people talked crap about the xbox 360 burning but at least MS had the balls to accept the mistake, pay for shipping, fixing, a free 30 day live gold gift card, and extending the warranty of a product that cost only half of those time capsules.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/06/are-some-apple-time-capsules-locking-themselves-up-for-good/ http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/10/11/major-bug-in-snow-leopard-deletes-all-user-data
http://www.neowin.net/news/main/07/10/30/leopard-allegedly-facing-java-problems
@Steveo
You really don't know crap about programming so please stop embarrassing yourself. One of the reason's Microsoft has remained king for so long is there development tools are really top notch. There are plenty of things that Microsoft and Windows aren't the best at, but their development platform is definitely not one of them.
@bf71090
What are you smoking? If thats true, why doesn't M$ build Windows with the same tools they publish? I've been programming Windows for 13 years, and everyone in the industry knows that their SDKs stomp on standards left and right. Even high level specifications like IE is only CSS2 compliant, ala 1998. HTML5? good luck!
If you knew anything... about high level or low level programming you'd know what a nightmare and pain in the ass Microsoft has made of development. Whether its being sued for violating the Sun's JVM licenses and making the ill compatible and later complete failure 'J#' (just to stall protected code till .NET matures -and we're still waiting) or F'ing up MS-SQL Server by stealing, YES downright STEALING Sybase right from under them and breaking it, or how about their whole multimillion dollar loss and lawsuit with BURST Media, or ... or...
The list goes on and on. Yeah, 'TOP NOTCH PAIN IN THE ASS'. Its called Registry Hell and taking a perfectly good model like COM, rebranding it ActiveX COM and f*cking it up royally.
Like I said, you can't compare a pseudo compiler language like .NET to Cocoa and Objective C (or C for that matter). You are delusional. Game engines for Microsoft are built in OLD C or old C++. And that is why you will never see Windows7 built with Microsoft's own 'cutting edge' Development Tools. Period.
this anderson guy is awesome
people are people even in the cyberspace, for what this article is worth. This news is not upgraded anymore. Actually win 7 whacks Apple in many aspects not only games, that's why MAC are pro-creating mocking ads agains windows 7. How cheezy is that ei?
detailed sources: http://pinoytutorial.com/techtorial/windows-7-official-suite-why-should-you-get-it/
You can see there a young-looking bill gates with his "broken promises" lol
This is going to be fun.
Man, it's hilarious how all the Apple Haters and Microsoft apologists descended on this thread like a swarm of hornets to honey. Good lord, could they be anymore defensive.
One thing these tests do prove to me at least, is that Macs are the best computers to run Windows 7 on. Those shut-down and start-up times are better than anything I've seen on a PC so far.
That in a lot of ways, that is sad on Microsoft's part.
As opposed to MS haters and Apple apologist?
Or let me guess, those folks don't really exist, right?
I would not defend MS and hate Apple. What I do is hate BULLCRAP and defend Objective INFORMATION >-/
Here in Engadget, we've seen Zune fanboys and iPhone fanboys. If we were to put them on a scale to see which one is stupider, I think the answer would be pretty clear.
I forgot Microsoft Fanboys. There are obviously Microsoft Fanboys now and it doesn't just extend to the OS X versus Windows melodrama. You also see these specimens in any thread about the PS3 or Wii.
They want Microsoft to be the best at everything so bad. Sorry, kids, that's not how the universe works.
For every successful product like the iPhone, there's something like AppleTV. Or Windows XP and the Zune. Or the Google search engine and the G1. No one company can be successful at everything.
how could you forget? The majority of engadget readers are young (or short term memory) "Microsoft does no wrong" junkies.
Look_Around_You, you are one of the biggest Apple-haters and MS apologists ever to grace the comments pages of Engadget. You probably shouldn't say anything about anybody else being any kind of hater or apologist.
This could get ugly pretty quickly.
I would like to point out that some of the tests on both systems are done with Quicktime and iTunes, which are really testing how well Apple ported the applications to Windows than the actual speed (and the Windows ports are definitely worse in terms of performance).
Indeed. This benchmark is bullshit. At most, it highlights how poor Apple's porting skills are.
Do some tests with some real software. Encode some MP3s with LAME on either OS and see how it fares.
So 1/4 benchmarks were done with Apple software and that makes it a biased test? What are you smoking and where can I get some?
@Mio: EXACTLY! When I recently benchmarked my Core i7 Hackintosh against some other computers, I looked no farther than FFMPEG. Multi-threaded, multi-platform -- I could easily compare Apples to Oranges, erm, Windows to Ubuntu.