On 1/12/06, Mark Slater <email@hidden> wrote:
> Granted the iMac isn't the best choice for a development machine, but
> I'm a student and it would be replacing a dual 500 MHz G4 with a 19"
> CRT. But before I go and ask my advisor to throw down some cash for
> the new machines, I'd like to be able to tell him at least roughly
> how much faster they'll perform than the iMac we were considering
> last week. If the Java performance is comparable between the G5 iMac
> and the Core Duo iMac, we'd do better by getting a late model G5 and
> saving some money, but if the performance is improved by 25% or more,
> that would justify getting the Intel-based iMac.
Looking at the hardware the G5 core in the prior iMac (a single core
system) is with in a few percentage points performance wise (depending
on what you are measuring) to a single core in the new iMac but the
new iMac has two cores (Core Duo). To be more specific a single core
in the new iMac is faster at integer then the G5 in the prior iMac
(25-50% faster) and for floating point the G5 core and the Intel core
are about the same... but again the new iMac has TWO cores not one.
(<http://www.apple.com/imac/intelcoreduo.html>)
In other words new iMacs should have better (talking at a broad level)
single threaded performance as the old iMacs with the new iMacs will
doing much better in a multithreaded environment (which all Java
applications on Mac OS X are) since it has two cores.
Then factor in that Sun has spent a lot longer time optimizing the
HotSpot compiler for Intel ISA.
I see no good reason not to get the new iMac if you are going to use
it for Java development. Just make sure to get as much memory as you
can afford.
(you are looking at substantial performance increase from your current
dual 500MHz G4 system regardless of which system you get)
-Shawn
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