Workstation benchmarking tips

[TnT]

I asked this in the Alt. Life. forum, but maybe can get more respons here.

At work we are going to be receiving a G5 and a P4 for testing to put machines into a classroom. I manage the Macs, and I get to run tests and benchmarks on the G5. I've never done any real benchmarking for a short report before. So if you guys could give me some tips and also software I could use on OS X / Unix, it would be quite helpful.

Thanks,
Thien

[UtwigMU]

You need to do cross platform benchmarks and make sure you do benchmarks of apps you use.

Currently dual G5 is only leading in Photoshop 7.0 (my rig completes whole benchmark in ~115s, the G5 in ~95, but individual filter normalized score is much better on G5.

Other benchmarks: Cinebench - Xeons own dual G5, untill beta benchmarks I owned them as well now they own me by ~10 points on 500 order of magnitude scale.

Maya, Mathematice - G5 again gets pwned by Xeons.

Also take price/performance into consideration.



Battlefront forum (crossplatform comparison section) on Arstechnica.



About 1/2 of threads here are dedicated to PC vs Mac comparison (the others are linux vs Windows).

There are also a few benchmark threads, where you can compare your results and see if you're doing everything right.

Recommend:
PS7 Bench
Cinebench
Maya

Gaming benchmarks can also be used, but IMO choose whatever performs best at equal price in applications you use - you're not ordering systems for gaming here.

Also if you have large installed base of Macs and people are more used to them and switching would involve learning curve (equally for vice-versa), consider Mac.

I hear that some video school departments are Mac centered and PC guys get expelled by elitist mac people.