With Leopard ’s release hulk at the end of this workweek , Macworld science laboratory staff office are preparing to update our overall system performance benchmark , Speedmark , to account for the new operating organization . If you ’ve ever read one of our benchmark charts — to see one , check out this revue of the late upgraded Mac mini example — and thought to yourself , “ Why do n’t they test software X ? ” well , here ’s your opportunity to aid us fill in app X with your favorite program .
primarily we ’re looking for tests that are repeatable , consistent , and whose results scale between systems . If , for deterrent example , the mix artwork of the Mac miniskirt can easily suffice up full frame rates of the recent Pong plot , then the latest ATI or Nvidia cards wo n’t show any carrying into action advantage , and therefore it ’s not a safe campaigner for comprehension in Speedmark .
For your book of facts , here ’s a list of trial that make up the current version of Speedmark .
Mac OS go
Microsoft Office X(Note : These 3 tasks require Rosetta to melt down on Intel - base Macs )
iTunes
iMovie HD
iPhoto
Camino(Note : Both Safari and Firefox were returning very inconsistent scores when we were creating the examination list below , so we proceed with Camino . We will re - evaluate those browsers for potential inclusion in this reading of Speedmark . )
Unreal Tournament 2004(Note : The title of this plot say it all — it ’s clock time to change this test ! )
Cinema 4DXL 9.1
Photoshop used to be part of Speedmark , but we pulled it out the calculation after the introduction of Intel Macs due to the lotion ’s slower operation under Rosetta . We did leave in the Office tests because we felt that Rosetta performance was / is relevant for hoi polloi thinking about upgrading to an Intel Mac . Now that Adobe ’s CS3 runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel - free-base Macs , we will reintroduce Photoshop as part of Speedmark 5 .
So please send us your run suggestions now , and look for a Modern variant of Speedmark to accompany the first new Mac reviews of systems give up after Leopard ’s introduction .
