24-inch iMac Performance (August 2007)

Steve Jobs announced new iMacs on Tuesday and while I'm not sure I like the new enclosure, I do like the other improvements that come with the new iMacs like faster processors, more hard drive space, and the Santa Rosa chipset.

I thought I'd compare the performance of the latest 24-inch iMac against the previous generation of 24-inch iMacs using Geekbench 2. While I don't have any results for the 24-inch iMac with the Core 2 Extreme processor right now, I'll update this article once I receive results for the Core 2 Extreme processor. I've updated the article to include results for the 24-inch iMac with the Core 2 Extreme.

Setup

  • iMac (24-inch Mid 2007) New

    • Intel Core 2 Extreme @ 2.80GHz
    • 2.00 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
    • Mac OS X 10.4.10 (Build 8R4031)
  • iMac (24-inch Mid 2007)

    • Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.40GHz
    • 2.00 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
    • Mac OS X 10.4.10 (Build 8R4031)
  • iMac (24-inch)

    • Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.33GHz
    • 2.00 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
    • Mac OS X 10.4.10 (Build 8R2218)
  • iMac (24-inch)

    • Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.16GHz
    • 2.00 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
    • Mac OS X 10.4.10 (Build 8R2218)

I’m reporting the baseline score, rather than the raw score, for each benchmark (where a score of 1000 is the score a Power Mac G5 1.6GHz would receive). Higher is better.

Results

Overall Performance

iMac (24-inch Mid 2007)
Core 2 Extreme @ 2.80GHz
3791
 
iMac (24-inch Mid 2007)
Core 2 Duo @ 2.40GHz
3243
 
iMac (24-inch)
Core 2 Duo @ 2.33GHz
3049
 
iMac (24-inch)
Core 2 Duo @ 2.16GHz
2898
 

Integer Performance

iMac (24-inch Mid 2007)
Core 2 Extreme @ 2.80GHz
3382
 
iMac (24-inch Mid 2007)
Core 2 Duo @ 2.40GHz
2862
 
iMac (24-inch)
Core 2 Duo @ 2.33GHz
2761
 
iMac (24-inch)
Core 2 Duo @ 2.16GHz
2549
 

Floating Point Performance

iMac (24-inch Mid 2007)
Core 2 Extreme @ 2.80GHz
5356
 
iMac (24-inch Mid 2007)
Core 2 Duo @ 2.40GHz
4485
 
iMac (24-inch)
Core 2 Duo @ 2.33GHz
4340
 
iMac (24-inch)
Core 2 Duo @ 2.16GHz
4108
 

Memory Performance

iMac (24-inch Mid 2007)
Core 2 Extreme @ 2.80GHz
2669
 
iMac (24-inch Mid 2007)
Core 2 Duo @ 2.40GHz
2402
 
iMac (24-inch)
Core 2 Duo @ 2.33GHz
2048
 
iMac (24-inch)
Core 2 Duo @ 2.16GHz
2060
 

Stream Performance

iMac (24-inch Mid 2007)
Core 2 Extreme @ 2.80GHz
1998
 
iMac (24-inch Mid 2007)
Core 2 Duo @ 2.40GHz
1912
 
iMac (24-inch)
Core 2 Duo @ 2.33GHz
1548
 
iMac (24-inch)
Core 2 Duo @ 2.16GHz
1561
 

Conclusions

The latest 24-inch iMacs have two major advantages over the older 24-inch iMacs; they have faster processors, and they use the new Santa Rosa chipset (instead of the Napa chipset used in the older 24-inch iMacs).

The faster processor helps increase both integer and floating point performance, while the faster front-side bus on the Santa Rosa chipset helps increase both memory and stream performance.

So if you're running memory-intensive applications (like Aperture or Photoshop) you'll certainly notice an increase in performance with the new 24-inch iMac. Heck, the fact that the new 24-inch iMac supports 4GB of RAM while the old 24-inch iMac supports 3GB of RAM might be enough to convince you to get one!


 
John Poole is the founder of Primate Labs and lives in Toronto, Ontario with his wife Deborah. You can find John on Twitter or .