Test Shows Snow Leopard is Faster Than Win 7

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manjyomethunder

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[citation][nom]GoldenEye4ever[/nom]Maybe I read this wrong, but did they test Win7 running in Bootcamp?If so, this test is complete garbage.The only way to properly test it is to get 2 identical systems, install MacOS on one and Win7 on the other.Thus allowing for native access to the hardware.I'm not a MS fanboy, but Win7 is thus far the best MS OS to date.[/citation]

BootCamp isn't virtualization, it's dual booting.
 
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I've always known Win7 wasn't going to be better than XP, I didn't know it even was outbested by OSX.
What would be nice is do that same test again, but with the 32 bit version!
After all, who would need a 64bit OS, when the max installed RAM is 4GB anyways?

You're better off running a 32 bit OS, that loses about 500MB RAM on 4GB, than using a 64bit OS which uses 10% more RAM, and in the end has that 500MB allocated to where the 32 bit system wouldn't even need it!
 

LegendaryFrog

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Dear Tom's Hardware:

We get it, this Marcus Yam fellow is an Apple fanboy. Is there a reason that you are letting the quality of the front page news stories decline because of him?

Regards,
Your Readers
 

kamel5547

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Here's an idea... don't use applications written by Apple in the benchmark (i.e. iTunes and QuickTime). I think it is obvious that Windows versions of iTunes are poorly written (my Vista x64 iTunes crashes constantly so I switched ot a different application). Also, how about just using standardk benchmark suites that test various items rather than specific applications?
 

manjyomethunder

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"512MB Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT video card – things that you could also find in a PC notebook."

Battery life favoring OS X is obvious, it switches to the integrated 9400M when usage is low, under Windows it's constantly stuck with the 9600M GT which consumes more power.
 

papasmurf

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(with native drivers from Boot Camp 3.0)

There is your problem AS IF if apple doesn't tweak these things to make their OS appear faster and better. Mac OS also had the edge in this test (litterally) Because it was on the outer sectors of the hard drive, most of these tests are offset by this lower hard drive performance. NONE of these tests are apples to apples because of different software used to achieve the results.

This is why I don't read Toms Hardware anymore - the results of psudo science, and bad test setups are taken as fact by many people who read your articles.
 

V8VENOM

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Tom's needs a post filter, if you can prove you own and use both operating systems and hardware, then you are permitted to post in the thread.

That would filter out ALL the fanboy posts. Same filter can and should be applied to ATI vs. nVidia posts also. In fact, why can't people just STFU when they don't have experience with both? In fact, some of these fanboy posts come from people that haven't even used Windows 7 on a PC yet -- that's just how lame the posts are.

I know I know, Tom's does this to generate web site hits which in turn keeps their advertisers happy and the money flowing...but honestly, do you really need all these fanboys posting away ??

 

soul555top

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The problem here is not Apple news, the problem here is the quality of the news. I would never use a Apple because I like to modify my computer and play games, I don't dislike Apple or their products, but they are overpriced and I am not the type of person who buys into something because it is popular. I read an article about Apple's ad campaign to go against Windows 7 launch, which could be seen as Apple favoritism, but you know what, that was an interesting read and that is what I want from my news, good relevant information. This article is terrible in the fact that the benchmarks have little to no meaning, and also no data to back it up.

If we are going to send a message to the editors here, I only ask that they try to eliminate non-news from their front page and only have relevant tech/world news, and not garbage like this. Whether you like a PC or Apple product, the fact remains the same that bad articles are bad articles. This is a bad article.
 

era86

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Screw all you Mac haters... really. At least my laptop is shiny and looks like it's worth $2000. Oh yea...and the fact that I can trip over my laptop cord and not break my machine makes it worth the price. And don't forget the glowing apple on the back..

:) :) :) :)
 

war2k9

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To be fair, I believe that the bench mark be conducted in two different machines.
The first test should be on a pc laptop. Run win7 bench mark on it than install hack a mac os 10.6 on it show us the result.
The second test should be a macbook or macbookpro and show us the results of both os. Make sure that laptop have the same spec.
Now that is a fair test.
 

porksmuggler

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These Apple articles are always good for a laugh, and yeah we all know it had to be written by Marcus or Jane.

So what we've learned:

Snow Leopard boots and shuts down faster than bootcamp.
Snow Leopard is quicker at converting files into Apple's formats.
The battery test seems to be a win.
Win 7 is faster in the 2 actual applications.
Marcus Yam, by making the statement "likely due to better drivers from nvidia, proves he is clueless about the state of graphics on OSX.
 

crom

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I don't drink the Microsoft kool-aid like a lot of other folks here do, but there is a serious error with your tests. The fact that you're running Windows 7 on hardware that isn't 100% compatible with it is a big glaring mistake. You'd be better off buying a laptop from say Dell that has the same internals and then running your tests. I can almost guarantee you that Windows will be faster and perform significantly better in the gaming department than Apple does with OpenGL.
 

dmoney_07

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[citation][nom]parsifal57[/nom]Add on that Windows 7 is running within Boot Camp this alone will affect Windows 7 performance, a fair test i would say not.[/citation]

Running within Boot Camp? All Boot Camp does is slice your Mac HFS+ down and add a fat partition. It also provides drivers for Windows. Windows is not running within anything. In fact it runs native on the machine, thanks to Macs now using Intel processors.
 

Gigault

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What is Tom's doing? In the last few days they have posted stories like this tiring to say how Apple is better. These tests support nothing. The tests have been run on a Mac, with Mac software, of course it will run faster on the Mac. And don't tell me Bootcamp doesn't slow Windows down with it's craptaculer driver support. itunes is crap on ANY PC because it's a Apple App...really Tom's you guys need to rethink these stories before you make yourself look like fools.
 

JTWrenn

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Show me the money! I want to see a $1000 pc vs a $1000 Mac....oh wait better make it $1500 across the board so it will be possible.

Then have them run benchmarks from 3rd party software manufacturers only, and we will see who wins. Running iTunes for a benchmark is stupid. Use a stand alone piece of software that is made for both platforms and I bet $ for $ the mac runs away crying.
 

JTWrenn

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[citation][nom]dmoney_07[/nom]Running within Boot Camp? All Boot Camp does is slice your Mac HFS+ down and add a fat partition. It also provides drivers for Windows. Windows is not running within anything. In fact it runs native on the machine, thanks to Macs now using Intel processors.[/citation]


Yikes... Ok, you already said the problem. It provides the drivers. This means that the drivers are most likely not optimized for Windows 7 as they are not updated quite as often as the hardware manufacturers would like. Oh, and no, Apple did not make all the hardware in here.

This is why people are saying it is running within bootcamp. It would be the same thing if Mac OSX was shoehorned into a PC. It is not optimized for it quite as much as it could be. The amount is negligible but it is still there.

I think a greater focus should be on the use of Itunes in every comparison of speed. It is most likely a much more optimized program on OSx, as it would be stupid for Apple to put more time into the Windows version.

Either way, lame test, I want to see $ vs $. This just tells you that OS X is better if you have a Mac...wow who would have guessed. Of course, if you want to play games run boot camp...funny stuff.
 

fulle

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Interesting that using an Apple OS and running Apple software to encode to a format that is heavily favored only by Apple devices was faster than Windows on an Apple laptop. Apple. But what happens when you factor in 3rd party programs to do the same conversion?:
-Badaboom on Windows would CRUSH these conversion speeds and there is no version for OSX yet.
*tear for pathetic fruit lovers*

Also, in the non-Apple software benchmarks Windows 7 was faster.

OSX wins in battery life again... which isn't a surprise when Win 7's new power save features included things like disabling the NIC card (laughable really). But, I'm seriously getting annoyed with OSX vs Windows comparisons using iTunes as a software benchmark. Give me a break.
 

sailfish

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Now they tell me after I purchased 3 half-priced Win7 upgrades for Xmas gifts and another $30 student upgrade for daughter's laptop!

"OH, THE HUMANITY OF IT ALL!"
 

V8VENOM

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Gigault -- there are plenty of fools here, you're contributing to the fool pool. Do you know what Boot Camp does? Have you ever used Boot camp -- give you a hint, you don't need "drivers" to run Boot Camp.

Boot camp = dual boot. You then load the OS of choice on the allocated drive/partion -- it does NOT require ANY drivers from Apple -- want proof, I'll link to a screen shot of my device manager list from my Boot Camp Vista drive on my MacPro and show you -- yes, I get drivers from the same places you PC fanboys do, ATI, nVidia, etc. etc. same F'in drivers.

OMG, the ignorance and stupidity of the Windows fanboys is amazing.
 

danish_2828

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I still don't see Snow Leopard as a new operating system system, I see it as a Service Pack, that I paid $30 for. If this was a service pack they would be on SP6 by now with Puma 10.0 being SP1, Juguar 10.2 being SP2, Panther 10.3 being Sp3, Tiger 10.4 being SP4, Leopard 10.5 being SP6, and Snow Leopard 10.6 being SP6. The only real difference I see with Leopard is that it does boot up faster than Leopard did, talks with exchange (finally I can view the same calendar on both my Windows system and Mac), the dock has changed a little, and it actually let's me dismount drives without me arguing with the computer. Everything else pretty much looks like the same.

Some might argue that Windows 7 is a service pack as well. Well, it isn't, in my opinion. Especially if you're using the Professional or Ultimate. I currently have Windows 7 Ultimate Signature Edition installed and it is a completely different animal. XP mode is a good enough reason to get it, especially for those people that are hesitant on upgrading to 64 bit OS. No longer do you have to worry about if it is compatible to run earlier software. It's almost like Windows 95 when they had the 32 bit kernel and 16 bit kernel all in one OS.
 
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