How An Old PowerMac G5 Compares To Modern Intel CPUs

[leipero]

Have they suddenly stopped working?

What do you mean? In general? Ofc. not, they are simply not powerful enough for everyday tasks, especially on desktop side.

[ldo17]

What do you mean? In general? Ofc. not, they are simply not powerful enough for everyday tasks, especially on desktop side.

Really? I did some “everyday tasks, especially on desktop side”, on an old 32-bit laptop just the other day.

[leipero]

Really? I did some “everyday tasks, especially on desktop side”, on an old 32-bit laptop just the other day.

Laptop isn't desktop, but, as I said, text docs etc. it would be fine..., try to watch HD videos on youtube on 32-bit machines, msot of them can't run even 480p.

[torsionbar28]

I work with some Power8 hardware but there's no way I'd get approval to run any kind of benchmarks on it

Sometimes its easier to ask for forgiveness, than to ask for permission.

[torsionbar28]

Laptop isn't desktop, but, as I said, text docs etc. it would be fine..., try to watch HD videos on youtube on 32-bit machines, msot of them can't run even 480p.

What are you using, a 486? My first generation Raspberry Pi can play 1080p video just fine.

From wikipedia: While operating at 700 MHz by default, the first generation Raspberry Pi provided a real-world performance roughly equivalent to 0.041 GFLOPS.^[18][19] On the CPU level the performance is similar to a 300 MHz Pentium II of 1997–99.

[leipero]

What are you using, a 486? My first generation Raspberry Pi can play 1080p video just fine.

From wikipedia: While operating at 700 MHz by default, the first generation Raspberry Pi provided a real-world performance roughly equivalent to 0.041 GFLOPS.^[18][19] On the CPU level the performance is similar to a 300 MHz Pentium II of 1997–99.

Good luck playing 240p video on youtube with Pentium II, heck, it is really questionable if it could play 144p..., Raspberry Pi is ARM processor, not x86..., you are comparing apples to oranges with it's software and architecture.

In fact, here is a thing, set up any Pentium 4 class CPU (last Desktop CPU's that are not x86_64 compatible) and try to play youtube video at anything over 240p, those CPU's can't properly be used for web browsing, let alone playing youtube videos...

I mean try it, I don't want to argue with you.

[torsionbar28]

Good luck playing 240p video on youtube with Pentium II, heck, it is really questionable if it could play 144p..., Raspberry Pi is ARM processor, not x86..., you are comparing apples to oranges with it's software and architecture.

In fact, here is a thing, set up any Pentium 4 class CPU (last Desktop CPU's that are not x86_64 compatible) and try to play youtube video at anything over 240p, those CPU's can't properly be used for web browsing, let alone playing youtube videos...

I mean try it, I don't want to argue with you.

Of course old machines are slow, my point is only that video playback is not so dependent on CPU speed. I'm in full agreement that intel P4 and earlier x86 CPU's are nearly useless today. But that has nothing to do with 32 bit vs 64 bit. After all, a DEC Alpha server from 1994 is fully 64 bit, but it's so slow in 2017 a modern cell phone is more powerful.

That said, there is a place for modern 32 bit software. Machines with low memory (think appliances and embedded devices) benefit from 32 bit OS and software. Also there is the new x32, which has its place.

[leipero]

Of course old machines are slow, my point is only that video playback is not so dependent on CPU speed. I'm in full agreement that intel P4 and earlier x86 CPU's are nearly useless today. But that has nothing to do with 32 bit vs 64 bit. After all, a DEC Alpha server from 1994 is fully 64 bit, but it's so slow in 2017 a modern cell phone is more powerful.

That said, there is a place for modern 32 bit software. Machines with low memory (think appliances and embedded devices) benefit from 32 bit OS and software. Also there is the new x32, which has its place.

Ofc. there's use for x86 CPU's, but not on the server and desktop side, think how cheap RAM is, it will only get cheaper and limitation of 32bit would not help. Heck, even most ARM based devices (Android etc.) have gone trough that limit on mid-high end. Sure, Android 4-core ARM with 1GB of RAM is useful, but it is just a matter of time when it will become useless, when? I don't know, maybe it happened already on Android 7.0, i know 6.0 is useful with just 1GB for basic tasks and even some light Android games (even Mortal Kombat X etc.).

[ldo17]

Laptop isn't desktop...

What laptop OSes do you run, as distinct from desktop OSes?

[leipero]

What laptop OSes do you run, as distinct from desktop OSes?

I'm not aware of Intel Atom CPU's for desktop, that was my point, we are talking about CPU's here, without x86_64 instruction set. If there are Atom parts for desktop, I retract my statement and aknowledge I'm wrong. But still, It's not like Atom CPU's are fast (from other posts, I don't know frome xperience = never used them).

I mean, tho whole point of separating desktop from laptop in this case comes because of Intel Atom CPU's. We know that laptop parts are mostly underpowered Desktop parts, and if we assume same software is used (as it is, OS, browser etc.), we can only conclude that if Desktop aprt can't do one task, laptop will do it even harder. But, I am not sure about Atom counterparts on Desktop, I think there is no such part on desktop (unlike other CPU's), and that Atom counterparts on desktop are without instruction set limitation. That's why I'm separating it, could be wrong, maybe tehre are Atom parts for desktop with same limitation.

The whole point is, if Atom parts are, say on [email protected] level, then those parts obviously have much better performance compared to any other Desktop CPU with same limitation (32-bit), and that CPU would be capable of playing 720p videos on youtube for example, and your statement would be right in that case (that it is not useless).