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PC Laptop to Apple Laptop...What are the Equivalents??

T

TimboAA

Member
My university requires Dell Laptop, however, the major I am in uses all Apple products (go figure). Pricewise...if i were to sell my Dell laptop I might get $900 for it...and realistically, I don't think I can get an Apple laptop w/the same performance for the same price.


So what I was wondering is...

I have a 1.4ghz Centrino w/512mb of RAM, and a 32mb video card.

What is the Apple laptop equivalent performance wise?


My overclocked desktop doesn't even come close to the dual processor G5's we're using in the computer lab, but I was thinking it would be nice to have the convenience of working within the same operating systems some of my work. What I'm figuring is though...with performance vs. budget in mind... my Dell laptop is better off than the Apple laptop.

I know or hear that Apple's are superior when it comes to graphic processing, but by how much? Or how easy is it to surpass the processing power with the same budget?

Thanks
 
you really can't compare apples to oranges. I know everybody always talks megahertz, but you really can't.
an apple laptop will run apple programs faster then a windows notebook, and a windows notebook will run windows programs faster then an apple. You can not really say a 1.4 mhz p-m isequal to a 1.4 mhz (if it existed g4).
it used to be there was a performance gap but these days windows pcs and noteboks are pulling way ahead in normal use. if you compare office between the two, the pc will run quicker and handle office better. Even in graphic programs, there really isn't a difference anymore.
I've sold a power mac, a powerbook, and 2 ibooks in the last two years, and bought 2 windows laptops, and built two windows pcs.
If you are looking for a good deal, apple has some good laptop deals on refurbs right now. As far as how they compare with windows pcs, i already stated above.
 
Also, keep in mind that the G4 processor can produce data in 128 bit chunks, unlike most PC processors, such as the Pentium M, produce data in 32 bit chunks. Altivec makes this possible in the G4 processor. A comparison, my 1GHz eMac whooped an AMD 2000+ running at 2.07GHz in photoshop in various tests, i.e. gaussion blur and Image Sizing with an average of 12 seconds on the tests.

As theblackbox stated, if you are looking for a good deal, apple does have some good laptop deals. You should check those out.

Good Luck with your decision. 🙂
 
Thanks's guys.

Maybe comparing it to mhz was a bad analogy or relationship. But the photoshop tests are a good thing to compare it to. My major (Interactive Digital Design) which uses such programs as Maya, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, etc are all on the Mac.... as well as the PC (minus a few such as Garage Band). What I'm wondering is...will I benifit from using a Mac w/these programs or a PC (laptops of course).

I'll go over to Apple and see what they have for deals.

Thanks again for all of your help.


P.S. Go Red Sox! (The curse has been reversed!)
 
well, the real question is, how much flash/adobe vs how much maya?

flash/adobe - better on a mac

maya - linux is best, then windows, then mac.
 
For music, DV, and Photoshop, macs are hard to beat. AltiVec-enabled programs such as PhotoShop run very fast, and the mac can run circles around PC's in DV editing.
On the other hand, the PC is faster for almost anything else. PC's have far more games, and because they're optimized for X86 systems, they always end up running faster. You're also going to be cut short on what you can use, as many periepherals do not have drivers for windows. Networking is a pain in the keister, and you're stuck with less programming tools, as well. (Admittedly, Linux is superior for programming anyway, but Linux is far more prevalent on X86 anyways. I had a mac, and it was nice, but you're sort of alienated from the rest of the universe, or at least in terms of computers.
There is also the question of raw performance. Apple's G5 is an aging processor, but Apple's stuck using it until they can get the G5 cool enough to use in a laptop. In terms of raw performance, a top-of-the-line, fully upgraded PowerBook G4 (3000$) is smoked by an Inspiron 9100, which costs half as much (they were selling them for 950$ a while ago), and a top-of-the-line ABS would get you a 256mb 9800 card, along with lots of RAM and a faster processor.
Does that answer your question?
 
Originally posted by: TimboAA
I know or hear that Apple's are superior when it comes to graphic processing, but by how much? Or how easy is it to surpass the processing power with the same budget?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Dollar for dollar an Apple system doesn't really stand a chance unless you're specifically running apps that make Macs look good...
 
I'll give you my experience. I had a Sharp Actius notebook with a PIIIM 1.1 Ghz processor and 512Mb of ram. My Apple 900Mhz G3 with 640Mb ram pretty much whooped up on the Sharp. Programs were faster, and I could have open more programs before noticeable slowdown. That might have been due to slightly more ram in the Apple, but the Sharp was running DDR ram which is faster than the PC100 (or was it PC133) ram in the Apple.
 
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