Sign In
Register
Help
I agree, or rather the two clients I've recently set up with new 24" iMacs agree that they are all but impossible to hear. One client migrated from a dual 2.5 GHz G5, the other from an 866 MHz G4. Both are likewise very pleased with the performance of the iMacs compared with their previous "desktop" Macs, both of which, of course, sat on the floor. Indeed, the 24" iMac seems to weigh less than the 22" Cinema display I moved away with the G5. All in all a very impressive transition.
On the question of multi-core CPUs, one factor seldom accounted for in the performance tests is multi-tasking. Even if your apps aren't particularly good at multi-threading their work, If you run more than one or two programs at a time, the more cores you have over which to distribute the load the better. I suppose such conditions are hard to measure with the kind of linear tests most often used to gage computer performance. But just because it's hard to measure doesn't mean the issue isn't important - and relevant.
In any event, with competition between Intel and AMD showing no signs of cooling off, I think we will continue to see rapid growth in CPU power. Video processing is improving at a similar rate. As for Mac model changes, every model in the lineup has seen a processor upgrade in the first year of Intel Mac sales. And the introduction of the 24" iMac was hardly an insignificant addition to the lineup. Indeed, it was just the thing to get several media pros I know to leave their old iron behind.
MultiQuote
