“As someone who uses both platforms for work and personal entertainment, I’ve been wanting to do a performance comparison between Windows 7 and Mac OS X… The right time seems to be now, as Snow Leopard has been out for a while and has even been updated to 10.6.1, and Windows 7 has been at the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) vendors for almost three months and has also had a few updates. Furthermore, Boot Camp 3.0 seemed to make Windows run better than ever on a Mac,” Dong Ngo reports for CNET Reviews.
“There’s no rocket science involved here; all you need is a good stopwatch, a MacBook Pro, and a lot of time,” Ngo reports. “I chose Windows 7 64-bit as Apple claims Snow Leopard is now a pure 64-bit OS with most of its built-in applications being constructed with 64-bit code.”
Ngo reports, “In time-based tests, Snow Leopard consistently outdid Windows 7… Windows 7 on the MacBook Pro still has a significantly shorter battery life than Snow Leopard… Windows 7’s battery life is just about two-thirds of Snow Leopard’s on the MacBook Pro.”
Ngo reports, “Cinebench R10 showed that Windows 7 was better than Snow Leopard in 3D image rendering–with a score of 5,777 vs. 5,437 for the OS X (higher is better). In gaming, Windows 7 also offered higher frame rates. In our Call of Duty 4 test, Windows 7 scored 26.3 frames per second while Snow Leopard got 21.2fps.”
Ngo writes, “If money is not an issue–and it definitely is for most of us–you should get a Mac anyway. It’s the only platform, for now, that can run both Windows and OS X.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Spending money wisely is the actual issue, not what the sticker price reads. Look at spec for spec comparisons and consider Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and the Mac is always less expensive than a comparable Windows PC over the life of the machine.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Jersey_Trader” for the heads up.]
OK then.
“When you kneed to Ngo…..Dong Ngo.”
Come on, Apple, it’s time to erase the gaming advantage of Windows’ graphic drivers. What’s the plan?
Cinebench R10 by what I read on Maxon’s web page is not 64 bits. Cinema 4D R11.5 is (64 bits) and more than 100% faster than Cinema 4D R10. So we would probably see a better score for the Mac with Cinebench R11 when it comes out.
I just use my PC as a glorified game console anyway. For any serious work or “iLife” sorts of things, it’s always my Mac.
Face it… If macs were 100 times faster than windblows and windose would crash 50 a day… the stupid morons will still buy it.
I found the “for now” interesting. I guess he thinks Apple’s going to relent and unleash Mac OS X on the masses? lol
C’mon MDN! This “test” is neither fair nor unbiased…
What about processor and memory usage, while doing taxing file system operations or network operations?
Or comparing performance of native Windows 7 apps against GCD-enabled, OpenCL-enabled, native Snow Leopard apps?
or psystar will have its way…
riiight.
LOL try versing my PC. I bet no Crapple’s computer can beat mines.
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http://www.bing.com When it comes to decisions that matter, Bing & Decide
Hi LiM,
All Apple has to do to change the “who has the most games at the best prices” issue is to let the Mac run the app games that were created and run on the Mac.
These are the kind of things that drive me crazy. Why is there not a Mac version of every app? Only Apple knows.
When the NEW MacTablet is running the iPhone and iPod touch apps, it will be hard for Apple to not let the Mac’s and AppleTV run then too!
In the end, is it not about what Steve Ballmer chanted. DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS. And now they are developing on the Mac!
Tsunami coming!
@ I’m a PC
“try versing my PC”
What the heck is “versing”? Where did you learn English?
Jersey,
It really isn’t an issue with Apple. The problem is there are a much smaller number of Apple users. It costs a lot of money to port the games over, and it isn’t worth it too them many times.
The funny thing is that since most PCs are cheapo boxes in an office running e-mail, there really aren’t as many game buyers as the numbers may show.
@ LiM: “Come on, Apple, it’s time to erase the gaming advantage of Windows’ graphic drivers. What’s the plan?”
Well for starters it would be nice if the GPU manufacturers would write their own drivers for OS X as they do for Windows. Currently Apple writes the drivers for OS X and can’t optimize them at the level the manufacturers can. And they also build in hardware support for Direct X which is a Windows only technology. Once they deal with both of those issues, then maybe graphics on both systems will have an equal playing field. Until then, Windows will ALWAYS have an advantage over every other OS.
@ I’m a PC
“try versing my PC”
Well, there’s a typical PC user for you.
Who remembers the C-64 vs IBM clone (PC) days? The C-64 was always made fun of as just being a ‘game machine’.
But now we have a huge computer using population of which the majority are still children (age 12 thru 35). I guess the ‘game machine’ is now pretty important.
Grow up little ones!
Rendering frame rate is irrelevant if you want pristine graphics. If it’s not synchronized and tears visibly, then it’s flawed. Windows blits images to the screen fast because their sync is imperfect. Mac OS X sync is better, but probably not as efficient as it could be (and I know this as fact from much kernel, GL and CGS code experience).
It sounds like 7 is slower that SL mainly in things that don’t matter a whole lot to me, faster in things like those that DO matter more to me. In most cases, the difference is measurable, but not terribly significant.
How about a measure of how fast 7 is while a suite of AV software is running – to approximate the Macs minimal vulnerability?
About the games … most of the better games arrive on the Mac a little while after they arrive on the PC. Most of the crap games never get converted. Blizzard arrives same-day with great games.
@ I’m a PC
“When it comes to decisions that matter”
Don’t listen to internet chatter.
Do your research, engage your mind.
Then bad decisions your hands won’t bind.
“Versed” your PC has been!
@DLMeyer
Modern Antivirus software takes up almost no resources compared to what even entry-level PC’s provide. I doubt you’d see any noticeable difference.
@I’m a PC
You’re a bad example. I’ll say the same thing, though… Macs can’t touch my PC in any way unless it’s a dual-CPU desktop (and even then, unless you’re running something optimized for more than four cores, there’s no contest). Gaming-wise, similarly, there’s no comparison. With this in mind, how am I foolish to go with Windows, as so many on this site seem to believe?
@MDN
Way to completely skew the article… How does OS X ‘consistently’ beat Windows 7? The most significant victory there is battery life. And on a MacBook Pro, this has, from what I’ve read, more to do with drivers – Windows can’t shut down either GPU, OS X can -> huge difference in power use. Bottom line there, Windows wasn’t designed for the hardware.
@Hm…
Clever!
I correct so many people over ‘versing.’ Guess that’s how languages change. Welcome to your new verb.
I too wish Apple would start to take gaming seriously on the Mac, but I suspect Steve buys the concept that microcomputer gaming is dying and it’s all going to consoles. I don’t believe that concept. The only thing I still maintain a pc for is gaming.
Don’t care for gaming. User experience, that’s what counts for me.
Recently, both of my PC’s became infected (despite firewalls, virus scanners) and had to wipe them and install Windows again. That’s a user experience I did not ask for. The windows register: a user experience I did not ask for (despite a few system ‘cleaners’).
I’m Mac only for now.