I guess we’re all tired of the endless PC versus Mac debate, I for myself have decided to not enter such a discussion with anyone again. If you’re comfortable using a Mac I’m not going to try and make you switch. Apple however has added more fuel to the fire today by releasing performance data for a number of dual G5 processor PowerPCs. Naturally Apple wouldn’t be Apple if the Mac didn’t beat the Pentium 4 by nearly 100%, that’s to be expected with benchmark data coming from Apple. What’s surprising though is the fact that they also benchmarked an Athlon-64 and concluded it performed far, far worse than the Pentium 4.

Last time we checked the Pentium 4 had a hard time keeping pace with the Athlon-64, even with the Pentium 4 running at double the clockspeed, so we are left scratching our heads as to what exactly has Apple been doing, could they have mixed up the numbers by mistake? Well, that’s entirely possible, as just about everyone knowledgeable about computers will tell you that clock for clock the Athlon-64 is the better processor. But there’s more, as becomes evident from reading the small print published with the benchmarks. The small print actually details that although available Apple hasn’t used identical applications on all systems for benchmarking.

For example, instead of using Adobe Premiere on both the Apple and x86 platforms they used Final Cut Pro on the Apple platform and Adobe Premiere on the x86. Not surprising the results differ, in Apple’s favor. Apparently Apple conveniently ignores the very basic principle of benchmarking; you should be comparing apples to apples, or at least make an effort to do so. This not only invalidates their scores but it makes Apple look particularly amateurish; clearly they don’t know the first thing about fair benchmarking, or simply went out of their way to have the new PowerPC come out on top. Fortunately they’re upfront and honest about their intentions as their opening statement reads: Your unfair advantages start with the PowerPC G5. And that’s exactly right; PCs usually get benchmarked on a level playing field, PowerPCs seem to need quite a bit of doctoring to make them come out on top, so much for a fair comparison.

Sander Sassen.