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Initial Tests: Dual G5 2GHz with Radeon 9600 vs 9800 |
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Intro: (If you want to skip the chit-chat and go direct to the tests, click here) I want to preface this article to note this is just the results of initial tests I've done in the first day of having the Dual G5. There's a lot more I'd like to do but after so many requests to compare performance of the 9600 vs 9800 Radeon (retail) card, I wanted to post this as soon as possible. (The advantage of the retail Radeon 9800 Pro over the BTO 9800 Pro card is the fact only the retail model can use the ATI displays 3D/GL Overrides feature. The downside is that the retail card does not have an ADC port for those that have or plan to buy an ADC display. A $99 adapter would be required for that. The BTO card is an 8x AGP version, where the retail is 4x AGP, but I don't think that is a real factor in performance based on 8x vs 4x AGP PC tests.) Notes on Retail 9800 Pro card G5 Install:
First Impressions on Dual G5: After seeing the specs on the G5 when it was announced I wondered if the faster bus and memory (dual channel) design would better 'feed' a fast graphics card. As seen so many times in the past with 3D/First Person games, the previous Mac designs just don't come close to saturating a modern graphics card or allow it to reach its maximum potential. I hate to keep repeating it but since some still buy a new graphics card and are disappointed that it's not a lot faster at lower resolutions than their previous card, I'll say again that performance depends on several factors such as:
The good news is that the G5 DP system seems to be a clear improvement as far as item 1. And as more software is optimized for the G5 (none tested here are), performance should also improve. I have Photoshop 7 (and the G5 plugin update) but have not had time yet to test that app, but it's on the to-do list. Although there's not as many tests here as usual, it's the best I can do in the first day of use with the G5 (and preparing for Hurricane Isabel). I show game tests first since there's been less of that posted to date for the G5. I show both a lower resolution (more CPU bound) and higher resolution (to stress the graphics cards) to illustrate the performance difference in the 9800 vs 9600 card in the G5 and how two systems with the same card compare. In many cases like 2D tests, the results are more CPU bound than video card. System Details: (All OS X updates applied before testing)
A few non-game tests include results from a Digital Audio Dual G4/533 (10.2.6) with 1GB of RAM and an ATI 8500 graphics card and a 1.4GHz CPU upgrade.
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Lightwave 3D 7.5c Tests![]() I finally made time to install Lightwave 3D 7.5c on the Dual G5 (w/9800 Pro retail card) and ran the "Hummer" scene preview playback test I've used in some past graphics card reviews. I'm not an experienced LW 3D user but I was impressed to see the preview playback on the Dual G5 was literally twice as fast as with a MDD Dual G4/1.25GHz with the same graphics card installed.
(Different graphics cards were tested in the MDD G4, the fastest at the Hummer playback was the GF4 Ti at 43.8 seconds.)
Quicktime to MPEG4 Conversion
![]() QT6 Pro export shows no real benefit from dual CPUs. High end apps like Final Cut Pro do however, although I can't afford them for benchmarking right now. (I do have Final Cut Express and as soon as I can create a test project I'll include results with that program.)
iMovie 3 Export Tests
![]() As you can see from the results, this is another app that doesn't take advantage for dual CPUs, and isn't optimized for the G5 (yet at least).
Appleworks 6.2 Scrolling TestsWith the desktop set to 1600x1200, millions colors I used AppleWorks 6.2.7 to test scrolling times from top to bottom of a 100 page, multi-column newsletter with images. As usual, in the same system, the differences with different graphics cards is small (within the margin for error of starting/stopping a stopwatch). ![]() 2D performance isn't really graphics card bound (at least with a modern graphics card).
"Hi Mike, |
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Since I prefer real-world tests over pure benchmarks, I didn't focus on them for this first posting.
CineBench 2003 TestsI used Maxon's Cinebench 2003 benchmark (later versions at Cinebench.com) with the desktop set to 1600x1200, millions colors. I've included both the render score results scores as well as the Framerates for the two 3D scene fly-by tests. (I didn't spend time to graph the software/GL SW/GL HW scores yet, but the scene flyby tests I think better illustrate the differences in performance.)
![]() I also graphed the detailed results from CineBench regarding the Hardware OpenGL framerates for the Scene1 and Scene2 fly-bys.
![]() (I know XBench 1.1 and later were tweaked for the G5 a bit but I've not tested with v1.1.3 yet.) |
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Copyright ©, 2003, all rights reserved. |