The Runcible Blog

PyStone results (best of 4 tries for each):

• AMD Sempron 1.5Ghz running FreeBSD 6.0: 29090.9 pystones/sec
• Dual G5 2Ghz desktop running OS 10.4.6: 30120.5 pystones/sec
• Dual G5 2Ghz Xserve running OS 10.3.9: 11261.3 pystones/sec
• Macbook Pro 2Ghz running OS 10.4.6: 45871.6 pystones/sec (1.5x faster than G5)

Yes, I'm sure this isn't a scientific test. The Xserve failed miserably. Even though it did have a light load, I'm guessing OS 10.3.9 played a part in its poor performance. I'm also not sure why my lowly Sempron nearly beat the Dual G5...

(I'll also note that the pystone benchmark running inside a Parallels hosted version of FreeBSD 6.1 on the Macbook performed slightly better than the benchmark running natively in OS X! Explain that one to me. [I'll try the test again later])

One thing is clear, though: As far as pystones go (and whatever a pystone is...), the Macbook Pro trounces the G5 when running the same version of python on the same version of OS X.

I'm convinced -- this thing is fast.