Apple updated its Mac mini desktop offer a little more than a week ago to very little fanfare . Maybe the society should have made a bigger deal about the new miniskirt — thanks to immobile Core 2 pair processors , the latest minis understandably out - execute their Intel - based predecessor .
Unlike the fresh iMacs , the latest minis have n’t change in any way on the surface . The major addition are under the lens hood , where the miniskirt now has a Core 2 yoke central processor , be given at either 1.83GHz or 2GHz . Previous Mac miniskirt featured a Core Duo chip with f number of 1.83GHz and 1.66GHz . In plus , the mini now ships with 1 GB of RAM , up from 512 MB , and more strong - driveway capacity . Unchanged are the price , the need to supply your own keyboard , mouse and display , and the Intel GMA 950 merged graphics , which partake the system ’s main computer memory .
It ’s the comprehension of the second generation of the Core Duo C.P.U. business that represents the big change for the mini personal credit line , and not just because of the marginally fast clock speeds . The Core 2 duet chipset carry the 128 - second SSE3 transmitter railway locomotive , which can process twice the amount of datum per cycle than the Core Duo processor , which could litigate only 64 bits at a time .
The validation of the Core 2 ’s advantage can be found in the bench mark answer . For good example , the new 2GHz model was 24 - percent quicker than the old 1.83GHz Mac mini in our Photoshop test . More significantly the new 1.83GHz Core 2 duet fashion model was 19 - percent quicker in that trial than the erstwhile high - death Mac mini , despite suffer the exact same clock speed . ( The novel 1.83GHz mini was 20 - pct quicker than the old 1.66GHz model . ) Compressor 3 score showed even more dramatic improvement , with the fresh in high spirits - end modelling compressing our movie 35 - percent quicker than the former high - terminal . The new 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo model terminate compressing the movie 28 - percent quicker than the Core Duo variant of the miniskirt running at the same speed and 32 - per centum quicker than the 1.66GHz Core Duo Mac mini .
The Core 2 duet chipset can reconcile up to 4 MB of L2 cache , which is shared between the processing magnetic core . The upper limit of the Core Duo CPU is 2 MB of L2 cache . It takes much less time for the mainframe to get at data point stored in the L2 hoard than in main storage , so the more L2 cache usable , the more data the processor can keep close at deal . The 2GHz Mac mini includes the full 4 megabyte of L2 hoard , while the new 1.83GHz system still ships with the same 2 MB establish in the erstwhile simple machine . And though the new 2GHz Mac miniskirt was about 8 - percent faster in our overall system bench mark , Speedmark , with the mellow - end CPU run about 10 - per centum faster than the low end , it ’s hard to figure out how much of the performance deviation is attributable to the increased L2 cache .
Core 2 Duo Mac mini Benchmarks
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Speedmark 4.5 lashings are relative to those of a 1.25GHz Mac mini , which is assigned a score of 100 . Adobe Photoshop , Cinema 4D XL , iMovie , iTunes , and Finder scores are in transactions : seconds . All system were running Mac OS XTC 10.4.10 with 1 GB of RAM , with processor public presentation set to Highest in the Energy Saver druthers pane when applicable . The Photoshop Suite test is a hardening of 14 scripted tasks using a 50 M file . Photoshop — s memory was set to 70 percent and account was set to Minimum . We recorded how long it took to render a conniption in Cinema 4D XL . We used Compressor to encode a 6minute:26second DV filing cabinet using the videodisc : Fastest Encode 120 second – 4:3 setting , using Apple ’s qmaster software system to create a two instance cluster to process the job . In iMovie , we applied the Aged video recording effect to a 1 - instant picture show . We converted 45 minutes of AAC audio file cabinet to MP3 using iTunes ’ High Quality stage setting . We used Unreal Tournament 2004 ’s Antalus Botmatch mediocre - flesh - per - second score ; we tested at a closure of 1,024 by 768 pixels at the Maximum mise en scene with both audio and graphics enable . We duplicated a 500 megabyte file in the Finder . We create a Zip archive in the Finder from a 1 GB booklet . To compare Speedmark 4.5 scores for various Mac system , visit our Apple Hardware Guide.—MACWORLD LAB TESTING BY JAMES GALBRAITH AND JERRY JUNG
disregardless , the new systems were faster than the old modeling across the gameboard , even managing to get about 13 - percent more skeletal system per second in our Unreal Tournament 2004 test against the old high-pitched destruction model and 19 - per centum more frames per 2nd than the dispirited - ending 1.66GHz manakin . And while it is nice to see some improvement in game gobs , the Mac miniskirt remains at the bottom of the Mac barrel for gambling . Many gamers were hoping that a Modern version of the Mac mini would trench the Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics for something with a little more kick , but Apple opted to get with the budget graphic for this unexampled bent of Mac minis . equate the fresh Mac minis ’ 23 or so frames per second to the entry level , 2GHz Core 2 Duo iMac ’s 70 frames per second solution and you ’ll see why even casual gamers will continue to shun the miniskirt in favor of hardware with consecrated graphics memory .
In many of the processor - intensive tasks , like hand over a scene in Cinema 4D or encode a movie in Compressor , the 2GHz Core 2 Duo iMac and Mac mini were cervix and neck opening . Other examination admit in the overall Speedmark score , such as file duplication and importing files into iPhoto , highlighted the disadvantage of including slower , 5,400 - revolutions per minute toilsome crusade in the Mac mini as opposed to the iMac ’s 7,200 - rpm drive . These tests , along with the dumb 3 - D game frame rate , help give the iMac its 22 - per centum high Speedmark score .
If you ’re seem for an older Mac mini to reference while face at the performance of these fresh Mac minis , look no further than the Speedmark score . Our baseline , or 100 system , for calculating all systems Speedmark score is a 1.25GHz G4 Mac mini with 1 GB of RAM .
Check back presently for Macworld ’s full review of these young Mac minis .
[ James Galbraith is Macworld Lab director . ]
