User Experiences With New iMacs

Played with 20'' iMac core duo at the Apple store. It was fast. Not as fast as the 3.8 GHz Dell box running 10.4.3 8F1111G with the new Intel native iLife. But much faster than my 2.1 GHz iMac G5. Leaves it in the dust. The right move on Apple's part.

DOES IT BONG???? That is the question!! :-)

yeap, there is a report on another thread that it dongs

You maed my day!!! Thanks :-D

sure put's winblows to shame. I bet Vista will be even worse, it'll need twice the omph to do the same thing OSX does... If only Apple decided to open their OS to all x86's, then developers would start porting everything, and it would surely be a worthwhile switch to almost everyone. But they cant give up Office X :'(

So it does feel good? I read about some strange benchmark results and a "not so good feeling" about it here: http://www.macaddict.com/forums/topic/76536

I am really considering to buy one when there is a way to install windoze - just for the games.

We've gotten some feedback from those who have been using the new iMacs, and all of it (so far) has been resoundingly good.

 

Don writes to give us a taste of the speed of the UI. Granted, these Quicktime videos (UI, Booting) were taken with his cell phone, but they do give sense of the iMac's speed as well as Don's love for resizing browser windows. Is it just me, or have I seen hacked OSx86 machines boot faster than this one?

 

Also in the mail is a letter from Dennis telling us, "I wanted to provide some feedback as there have been numerous folks asking about dual booting installing xp by holding the c key. I can confirm that the c key does not working OSX just boots up. I havent tried much else as i received bought it last night but i can confirm that this thing is extremely FAST. I ran a few high def videos at full screen and compared with a powerbook G4, intel 3.4ghz PC and the imac 2.0 core duo. the imac was flawless - i could even drag the high def video around the screen really fast without disrupting the video. The powerbook choked and the pc hung up a bit - my pc has a geforce 7800 gt video card also. I am extremely happy with it!"

 

Thanks for the letters, guys. Are you getting a new iMac? Have you already gotten one? Let us know your thoughts and impressions!

i dont know why your pc hungs, but here on my Athlon64 3000 + Gforce 6600gt i just tryed to see if it was that bad and i am able to run 4 avi/mpeg files and a dvd at the same time run the internet and browse around and it does not lag or bug just the sound thats f***ed up because of the 5 video playing on five different player at the same time and i have no problem moving the player screen around on my two screen at the same time, so i am not saying that the new mac arnt good but you should definitly check how your win pc is configured.

Oh and i am using the oh so memory hugging firefox to browse the web to give you an idea i just looked at my task manager and it gives me this cpu usage is going from 66% to 80% memory usage is at 460mb and i have 46 process running

Arstechnica has a review: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/imac-coreduo.ars

Arstechnica has a review: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/imac-coreduo.ars

those are nice result like they say in there conclusion there is still room for optimisation but for most of it the result are really positive

Also in the mail is a letter from Dennis telling us, "I wanted to provide some feedback as there have been numerous folks asking about dual booting installing xp by holding the c key. I can confirm that the c key does not working OSX just boots up.

I thought I read somewhere that the key for cd booting on Intel Macs is 'd' and not 'c'. Anyone else heard this?

It is d, yes. Guessed to be due to DVD starting with a D.

That's a great Ars Review. They usually always do a great job.

That's a great Ars Review. They usually always do a great job.

Yes, except the benchmarks are not 100% fair:

on the testing machines, the iMac Core Duo had 512MByte, the iMac G5 had 1GByte and the Power Mac G5 had 4.5 GByte RAM.

A user posted in the thread about it... the xbench was much slower than it should have been. Here they are on a 20" iMac:

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/groupee/fo...96006927731/p/6

While XBench does suck as a benchmark (thinking that spinning cubesare a good benchmark!? sounds as bad as viewperf...), the new iMac was hobbled by beam synching.

 

The PPC version of XBench was linked vs 10.3, and the x86 version was linked against 10.4, so the Intel run was being by beam synched where the PPC was not.

 

Here are the results from my 20" Intel iMac, with and without beam sync:

 

With Beam Synching:

 

Quartz Graphics Test 72.20

Line 68.81 4.58 Klines/sec [50% alpha]

Rectangle 70.18 20.95 Krects/sec [50% alpha]

Circle 68.96 5.62 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]

Bezier 91.66 2.31 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]

Text 66.39 4.15 Kchars/sec

OpenGL Graphics Test 161.85

Spinning Squares 161.85 205.32 frames/sec

User Interface Test 22.62

Elements 22.62 103.80 refresh/sec

 

 

Without Beam Synching:

 

Quartz Graphics Test 131.81

Line 119.74 7.97 Klines/sec [50% alpha]

Rectangle 130.11 38.85 Krects/sec [50% alpha]

Circle 128.50 10.47 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]

Bezier 129.42 3.26 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]

Text 156.57 9.79 Kchars/sec

OpenGL Graphics Test 165.21

Spinning Squares 165.21 209.58 frames/sec

User Interface Test 346.55

Elements 346.55 1.59 Krefresh/sec

In addition, here are the startup key options on an Intel Mac:

# Press C during startup: Start up from a bootable CD or DVD, such as the Mac OS X Install disc that came with the computer.

# Press D during startup: Start up in Apple Hardware Test (AHT), if the Install DVD 1 is in the computer.

# Press Option-Command-P-R until you hear two beeps: Reset NVRAM

# Press Option during startup: Starts into Startup Manager, where you can select a Mac OS X volume to start from. Note: Press N to make the the first bootable Network volume appear as well.

# Press Eject, F12, or hold the mouse button: Ejects any removable media, such as an optical disc.

# Press N during startup: Attempt to start up from a compatible network server (NetBoot).

# Press T during startup: Start up in FireWire Target Disk mode.

# Press Shift during startup: Start up in Safe Boot mode and temporarily disable login items.

# Press Command-V during startup: Start up in Verbose mode.

# Press Command-S during startup: Start up in Single-User mode.

# Press Option-N during startup: Start from a NetBoot server using the default boot image.

Hi All,

(1st post!)

Anyway, I bought 2 new 20" iMac Core Duo's (Wednesday of last week) and I am THRILLED! I am a programmer, so much of this may descend into tech-speak although I will try to keep it all understandable.

The good, the bad and the ugly:

Rosetta "Just Worked".

The 512MB RAM the machine shipped with is NOT ENOUGH when using Rosetta! Page Out levels extremely high when just running 1 PowerPC compiled program (FireFox using Rosetta) and 1 Intel compiled program (iTunes). Page out's went above 1000 after only 10 minutes of surfing and NOT playing music in iTunes.

Fixed by adding 1 GIG to 2nd slot. No page out's yet (after one week of constant running)

Seems that you need to reboot to actually clear the system from getting bogged down after using several PowerPC Programs -- this is bad!

ONE BIG GOTCHA: Watch out when you download Quicktime Components! I have several XVID movies. I thought nothing of just going out and getting the XVID QT component (codec) from the official site--HOWEVER, when played at normal frame size (not full size) the XVID movie skipped 20 frames every couple seconds. (At least that is what it seemed). The moral of the story: Just cos Quicktime is Intel compiled does NOT MEAN the Components we all know and love are Intel compiled and WHEN they deign to work together (at all) the performance is CATASTROPHIC!

Also, trying to search for QT Components that are INTEL (x86 for Mac) builds is impossible! So, all the codecs you know and love are OUT until they are recompiled.

On the flipside, DeerPark (a firefox compile for Intel only) works great! Most features are in place, however there are a few disabled features..and it is Intel only..not Universal Binary.

Some other things to remember:

Anyone that just "uses" a Mac and is not an uber-geek will have issues with speed cos they do not understand Universal Binary, Intel only, etc. My spouse is getting tired of hearing "Oh, that is cos that program is not Intel compiled--just wait a few weeks/months until it is released." He wants good performance now...not weeks/months from now.

Also, many things that are advertised as "Universal Binary" are not. GET INFO is your friend. Look for Intel or Universal Binary in the Get Info window. Unfortunately this means downloading the .zip or .dmg file, opening it and Getting Info on the app.

Watch out for things such as Timbuktu Pro which I usually install to aid in troubleshooting my spouse's computer when i am away. It has 2 PowerPC-only programs which are always running and thus Rosetta is always running eating away memory. I notice about 150MB of RAM in use PLUS the memory allotted to those programs when Rosetta is running them. Better to use in this case? Turn on Apple Remote Access (in the Sharing pref panel) and set a VNC password--Remember to port-forward the firewall as necessary. A bit slower to send/receive data across the network, but much friendlier on the host computer as it is Intel compiled and has many (Chicken of the VNC) clients which are also Intel compiled.

Other issues so far: darwinports and fink have yet to be updated and I am not sure the RPMs (or deb files) are compiled for this platform--may require a download of source and recompile--but am not sure. More info later on this.

Anyway, that is my $.02!

Jann

Thanks Jann for the great info! Welcome to the forums!

Anyway, that is my $.02!

 

Jann

Thank you for detailed info Jann, it was done quite clearly and with a charm, really!

By the way do you intend to make you iMac boot Windows XP?

Look: http://forum.osx86project.org/index.php?showtopic=7168&st=40

Thank you for detailed info Jann, it was done quite clearly and with a charm, really!

By the way do you intend to make you iMac boot Windows XP?

Look: http://forum.osx86project.org/index.php?showtopic=7168&st=40

Thanks for the reponse. PS: The link above (titled: "I Did It") does not say anyone did it. Confusion.

Thanks for the reponse. PS: The link above (titled: "I Did It") does not say anyone did it. Confusion.

Right, that was just the first step on the long way towards this notorious dual-booting, but by that moment that step was really encouraging!

http://forum.osx86project.org/index.php?s=...indpost&p=44687

Hi All,

 

(1st post!)

 

Anyway, I bought 2 new 20" iMac Core Duo's (Wednesday of last week) and I am THRILLED! I am a programmer, so much of this may descend into tech-speak although I will try to keep it all understandable.

 

The good, the bad and the ugly:

 

Rosetta "Just Worked".

True.

The 512MB RAM the machine shipped with is NOT ENOUGH when using Rosetta! Page Out levels extremely high when just running 1 PowerPC compiled program (FireFox using Rosetta) and 1 Intel compiled program (iTunes). Page out's went above 1000 after only 10 minutes of surfing and NOT playing music in iTunes.

Can't agree with that. I have 1 gig of ram on my laptop (SSE2) and I've started today 2 Rosetta and two intel applications. Rosetta were MS powerpoint and MS Excel and native were OpenOffice (185MB Real ram, was about 100MB above anything else in the system at that moment) and KeyNote.

No "extremely high" paging at all. Everything was running smoothly. Also, some other Intel apps were started at the moment: Camino, Thunderbird and, of course, Adium

Fixed by adding 1 GIG to 2nd slot. No page out's yet (after one week of constant running)

doubt that. ANY system does page out to conserve physical memory after some time.

Seems that you need to reboot to actually clear the system from getting bogged down after using several PowerPC Programs -- this is bad!

Very wrong. The system will cure itself after some time. I've experienced this when I've had ~760MB out of 1 gig occupied and I said "I DON'T WANT TO REBOOT! Let's see what happens". I've worked all day without a glitch and, at the end of the day, about 8 hours later, the system memory usage was at the "normal" level (slightly more that the boot level).

ONE BIG GOTCHA: Watch out when you download Quicktime Components! I have several XVID movies. I thought nothing of just going out and getting the XVID QT component (codec) from the official site--HOWEVER, when played at normal frame size (not full size) the XVID movie skipped 20 frames every couple seconds. (At least that is what it seemed). The moral of the story: Just cos Quicktime is Intel compiled does NOT MEAN the Components we all know and love are Intel compiled and WHEN they deign to work together (at all) the performance is CATASTROPHIC!

Also, trying to search for QT Components that are INTEL (x86 for Mac) builds is impossible! So, all the codecs you know and love are OUT until they are recompiled.

Search the forum for DivX 6 beta intel version

On the flipside, DeerPark (a firefox compile for Intel only) works great! Most features are in place, however there are a few disabled features..and it is Intel only..not Universal Binary.

Some other things to remember:

Go to mozilla wiki for DeerPark, Camino and Thunderbird Intel builds.

Anyone that just "uses" a Mac and is not an uber-geek will have issues with speed cos they do not understand Universal Binary, Intel only, etc. My spouse is getting tired of hearing "Oh, that is cos that program is not Intel compiled--just wait a few weeks/months until it is released." He wants good performance now...not weeks/months from now.

You don't have to be a geek to use activity monitor and it's "platform" column. Also, if you need a software, you need it and use it (MS office and Photoshop are huge apps but very usable in Rosetta on my {censored} laptop). The objective is to do you work, not apps benchmarking, right?

Also, many things that are advertised as "Universal Binary" are not. GET INFO is your friend. Look for Intel or Universal Binary in the Get Info window. Unfortunately this means downloading the .zip or .dmg file, opening it and Getting Info on the app.

True.

Watch out for things such as Timbuktu Pro which I usually install to aid in troubleshooting my spouse's computer when i am away. It has 2 PowerPC-only programs which are always running and thus Rosetta is always running eating away memory. I notice about 150MB of RAM in use PLUS the memory allotted to those programs when Rosetta is running them. Better to use in this case? Turn on Apple Remote Access (in the Sharing pref panel) and set a VNC password--Remember to port-forward the firewall as necessary. A bit slower to send/receive data across the network, but much friendlier on the host computer as it is Intel compiled and has many (Chicken of the VNC) clients which are also Intel compiled.

Rosetta does not eat too much memory, trust me

Other issues so far: darwinports and fink have yet to be updated and I am not sure the RPMs (or deb files) are compiled for this platform--may require a download of source and recompile--but am not sure. More info later on this.

Compile Darwinports from source. They work OK on intel.

 

Anyway, that is my $.02!

 

Jann

Thanks for sharing the information.

Alex

EDIT: oops, quoting didn't work?

Alex

 

EDIT: oops, quoting didn't work?

will do in the future