Low-End PowerPC Leaves 68040 Macs in the Dust

Dave Andrews

As Apple nears the release of its first wave of PowerPC-based Macs, preliminary test results show the least expensive PowerPC Mac completing compute-intensive tasks at least three to four times faster than a 25-MHz 68040-based Mac Quadra 900. Two separate tests using a preliminary native PowerPC version of Infini-D, Specular International's (Amherst, MA) 3-D modeling, rendering, and animation package, indicate that even the low-end PowerPC Mac--which sources say will sell for about $2000--will offer a significant performance improvement over the fastest current Macs.

All native PowerPC Mac applications will get a speed boost over their 68000-based cousins, but professionals who use applications that traditionally tax a processor, such a s four-color desktop publishing, CAD, and video-editing programs, will see the greatest time saving in switching over to native PowerPC Mac applications. Specular ((413) 253-3100) stresses that the test results for the PowerPC Mac shown in the chart reflect performance of beta software running on a preliminary version of the Mac system software and prototype hardware. As the products near commercial release and are further refined, performance should improve even more.

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Illustration: Infini-D lets you quickly create 3-D wireframe models and render them using a variety of surface patterns like marble, wave, and corrosion. Once they're rendered, you can easily create professional animations.

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Illustration: Infini-D Benchmark Results All machines had Infini-D running under a 12-MB partition. Infini-D 2.5.2 is the current shipping version and the version used on the IIci and the Quadra. The PowerPC Mac is prototype hardware, with beta system software and a beta version of Infini-D. T est 1 (shown in the screen shot) was rendered using ray tracing and low antialiasing and with reflections, transparency, and shadows turned on. Test 2 (not shown) was rendered using phong shading with shadows turned on. Lower numbers are better.