MAC Vs PC - Tech Support Forums

prisoner1572 · July 10th, 2003, 05:26 PM

how does the speed of a mac compare to a pc?

Is a 850 MHZ Mac the same as a 850 MHZ PC?

XShadowZxX · July 10th, 2003, 05:32 PM

All i got to say is , " DO NOT GET A MAC ". Their terrible, PCs have alot more things u can do other then the MAC. I have never met someone who owns a mac.

PaulReetz · July 10th, 2003, 05:34 PM

no...not at all...mac frequency ratings are different in the same way AMD's frequency ratings are different form intel's (in fact i think there's an even larger difference in mHz than in AMD vs. intel). you have to snoop around ont he web to find actual rival chips. Plus apple will be closing the gap soon with their new g5 and its architecture...still not there, but their taking steps in the right direction.

I used to be a big apple fan and a part of me is still VERY glad they dropped moterola...

clearbluereason · July 10th, 2003, 05:50 PM

Quote:

All i got to say is , " DO NOT GET A MAC ". Their terrible, PCs have alot more things u can do other then the MAC. I have never met someone who owns a mac.

I don't see how someone who doesn't have access to macs (or a mac community) has such a strong opinion on macs and their abilities. Macs are great for graphic design and many other purposes and are simple to use. I prefer using a pc because I'm accustomed to them, they are much cheaper, and they allow me to play more games

Macs have their purposes too. I'm not a mac user, but I've had to use one in the past. Their processor ratings are much different from intel and amd chips so the best thing to do is some research with someone who knows about macs or search the web. People can argue about ease of use and stability, but it just comes down to what you want in the end.

hth

**EvilRick** · July 10th, 2003, 05:55 PM

I doubt if you'll ever find a real unbiased comparison between the two.

Google is about the only way to find some comprehensize benchmarks and test.

One place I found that had a relatively understandable explanation of the comparison is here

But again, they seem to lean towards the Mac as a preference.

tobu · July 10th, 2003, 06:09 PM

As far as i remember the mac chip operates at 3x times the rate as an intel. This was explained to me by my old boss but anyway. Aparently mac's architecture allows for three lot's of information in the one pass when intel only allows one. Basically a dual 1.2 gig 64 bit g5 is scarily fas no matter what you say. If what i have been told is true that would make it some where in the 6 gig mark.

On a differant note. I'm currently doing a 3d animation degree. The moment i get the money i'm getting a sexy mac. I proberly would have dumped my pc ages ago if i didn't love counter-strike so much

Bruneau · July 10th, 2003, 06:30 PM

McApples are fine ... if you can see through the BS. Don't be so quick to jump on the G5 bandwagon.
http://www.haxial.com/spls-soapbox/apple-powermac-G5/

Darthgary · July 10th, 2003, 07:39 PM

MAC's are mainly used for Video editing, but the PC can the same job and get it done faster for least the price. And Mac's OS if a far cry from XP, their new OS would of competed with Windows 95 or 98. The systems are overpriced. If you want to decorate your house or apartment and have the extra cash. Then you might want to get one.

tobu · July 10th, 2003, 07:59 PM

I'll argue that OS X is a much better OS than you say.

Bob The Great · July 10th, 2003, 08:16 PM

Darthgary, I think you have that a bit backwards. XP is no match for OS-X in most situations. XP does have more for it such as games, programs and hardware.

OS-X uses Quartz Extreme (yes stupid name IMO). This basicly allows your desktop to be rendered completly by your vid card as apposed to running it so much through your CPU like windows. Not only does this leave the CPU free to do other things, but on stuff like notebooks this generally improves battery life by allowing the GPU to be used instead of the CPU which in most cases the GPU uses less power. BTW Longhorn will be the first Windows to supposedly do this but that won't be out for a while.

Stability is great with OS-X because it is based off a very solid platform, and almost all hardware configs are in house so you don't get the really weird configs windows has to deal with (which programmers had to add a ton of bloat that most people don't use but 1 person might).

Future features are another thing Apples OS's and computers bring to the table. If you look at Apples latest press releases and then wait a few months or sometimes a year or so you will see a lot of those features getting incorperated into many PC's. Take for instance Quartz or GUI or Apples music store (it'll take off on the PC soon), or any number of things.

The main flaw in apples products though is the fact that they are so inhouse oriented. The hardware and software and everythign is very much Apple. You don't see people building there own Apples cause you can't really do much out of there default costumization. This is a strong and weak point for them.