'PRO' BENCHMARKS: iMac 2.8GHz Aluminum versus Others Originally posted August 15th, 2007, by rob-ART morgan, mad scientist August 21st, 2007, added Aluminum iMac 2.4GHz results September 5th, 2007, added Aluminum iMac 2.0GHz results We are busily testing the new 2.8GHz iMac Aluminum against various other Macs. In this second installment, we test some pro or productivity apps. We ran Maxon's new Cinebench 10 CPU and OpenGL tests on various desktop Macs. The ORANGE bars signifiy the new Aluminum iMacs. LEGEND Mac Pro 8c FX4500 = Mac Pro 8-core 3GHz with Quadro FX 4500 Mac Pro 4c R1900 = Mac Pro 4-core 3GHz with Radeon X1900 XT iMac 2.8 R2600 = iMac C2D 2.8GHz with Radeon HD 2600 Pro iMac 2.4 R2600 = iMac C2D 2.4GHz (24") with Radeon HD 2600 Pro iMac 2.33 G7600 = iMac C2D 2.33GHz (24") with GeForce 7600 GT iMac 2.0 R2400 = iMac C2D 2.0GHz with Radeon HD 2400 XT MBP 2.4 G8600M = MacBook Pro 2.4GHz with GeForce 8600M GT INSIGHTS: If you are serious about rendering complex 3D models, you'll want the 4 or 8 Core Mac Pro. The iMac 2.8 Aluminum shows its strength compared to the previous fastest iMac (2.33) by rendering the model 21% faster and flying through the sample 27% faster. The next test was to do a RAM Preview Render of two Motion 3 Templates. The first one is the Fire-Mortise 2 NTSC (720x486) 300 frame template. The second render was of the Tech Blue-Video Open (1920x1080) 150 frame "HD" template. INSIGHTS: This test, which puts as much as a 30% load on the GPU, is definitely faster on the new iMac 2.8GHz with the Radeon HD 2600 GT. Are you surprised to see the Mac Pro 4-core with the Radeon X1900 XT beat the expensive Mac Pro 8-core with the Quadro FX4500? We're not. Not only does Motion NOT take advantage of more than 2 cores, but the $250 Radeon X1900 XT does a better job handling the render duties its given than the $1600 FX4500. OTHER IMAC ARTICLES We have results for 3D Games under Mac OS X comparing all three models of AL iMac to other Macs. See our Windows XP Pro/Vista version of the 3D Game tests comparing the 2.8GHz iMac to the 2.33GHz iMac. See test results from Photoshop CS3 and After Effects CS3 on all three models of Aluminum iMac. WHERE TO ORDER YOUR IMAC If you live in the USA and plan to purchase an APPLE product, please CLICK THIS LINK or any APPLE DISPLAY AD to help us earn our affiliate commission. It's a great way to support Bare Feats. WHERE TO BUY MEMORY FOR YOUR MAC We always order our Macs with the factory default memory config and then visit either Other World Computing or Trans International to purchase our memory upgrades. Has Bare Feats helped you? How about helping Bare Feats? © 2007 Rob Art Morgan "BARE facts on Macintosh speed FEATS" Email , the webmaster and mad scientist