There are 4 matching posts.
After reading a Blender benchmarking, I decided to benchmark my new Macbook to compare to the other results.
I tested my Macbook and my flatmate’s Dell PC, just to give a comparison. The specs of these was as follows:
- Dell – Intel P4 2.4Ghz HT, 512MB DDR 400. Windows XP Home SP2.
- MacBook – Intel Core Duo 2.0Ghz, 512MB DDR2 667. Mac OS X 10.4.6.
For each build/machine two test were run, one with multiple threads off, and a second test with multiple threads turned on. This is a new feature which is part of the new render pipeline 2.42.
First up, the Dell running with Blender 2.42 RC 1" – One thread- 2:12. Multi threads- 2:13. (All times in M:SS format)
Next up I benchmarked the Macbook running the OS X PowerPC version of the Blender 2.42 RC1 release, requiring the use of Rosetta to translate the PowerPC instructions to Intel instructions. Times – One thread – 4:37. Multi threads- 3:22.
Lastly I benchmarked an Intel native version of Blender on the Macbook. This is a rather old build from around March. Some of the UI isn’t working as well as it could currently, with menus requiring you to hit F9 (Expose All Windows) twice to get them to render. Times – One thread- 1:37. Multi threads- 1.15.
As expected, the render times for the Intel Version were much faster than the PowerPC times. The times for the Dell were probably hindered by the fact the Windows renderer is known to be much slower than the Linux and OS X versions. I’ll try the linux version on the PC tomorrow, and Windows and Linux versions (If a live-CD exists yet) on the Macbook.
If anyone can point me in the direction of a newer Intel build, that would be greatly appreciated.
After about 20 hours of compilation, my Mac Intel build of the NeoOffice 2.0 Alpha 3 source code is ready to go. I’m not really sure if I can distribute this build, as I think it may infringe on NeoOffice’s trademarks. If you want a copy, I ‘may’ be able to give you a copy if you ask nicely in the comments.
It certainly is faster than the PPC build running in Rosetta, and is faster than PPC Microsoft Office as well. Now is the time to encourage people to use NeoOffice over MS Office, while MS Office is behind with their Intel transition.
If you want to try building this yourself, you’ll need the XCode packages, which are downloadable from Apples developer site. You’ll need to register, but it’s free. I then followed the build instructions available on the NeoOffice site. It took about 20 hours to compile all the packages on my Macbook 2.0Ghz 512MB, but it will be faster if you have more RAM.
If you need to be on the cutting edge, and use Java 5 instead of Java 1.4, then follow the instructions documenting the required changes on the Apple Developer mailing lists.
You can get an Intel binary directly from NeoOffice, but only by paying into their early access program. Think of this as a donation. If you build your own copy, that probably means you use this software, so consider making a donation. If anyone knows about whether or not I can distribute this software, then please get back to me in the comments.
Note: When you build this on an Intel machine you get an Intel binary, when you build it on a PPC machine you get a PPC Binary. As far as I know there is no way to make a Universal Binary outside of XCode, or by using Intel’s own compilers.
How’s this for frequent updating? I’ve not updated my blog in a while, mostly due to doing other things. I’ve got a good few things to tell you about in the next few posts.
First up will probably the nearly-a-hospital-trip crash I had last week, and then the epic Tweed Valley ride I had only a few days later. I’ve got some nice pictures from both.
Currently I’m building an OS X Intel version of NeoOffice, which will be ready in a few hours. I’ve release it if it works, so other people can sample the goodness.
Did he say Intel? Yes I did, I got myself a nice shiny new Apple Macbook 2.0Ghz! I got a white one, as paying almost £90 for black seemed really silly.
More later.
People who know my opinions on computer hardware will probably be quite surprised to see the logo to the right, but yes, I do now have a Xeon workstation!
With two Xeon 1.7Ghx Processors onboard, and 768MB of RAM, it should buzz through the 3D work I have planned fairly quickly. As I demand more from the system, it will likely get a pair of 2.8Ghz or thereabouts processors, and more RAM. I currently have Fedora Core 5 Linux running from a 10GB hard drive I had lying around, but the plan is to buy a pair of 18.2GB 15,000rpm SCSI drives, and create a raid array of them.
When I first ran the machine, I was surprised at just how much noise it made when idle. I don’t mean it was just humming, it was competing with the tumble dryer in the next room! When I tried running two instances of Prime95 to stress test it, I was getting system errors reporting overheating on processor 0. Oh dear I thought, then I remembered that on inspection, one of the CPU heatsink clips had appeared to be broken. A quick modification of the broken clip, and a clean of the CPU and heatsink surfaces, and the machine now runs with no errors, and at an acceptable noise level even at full bore!
Update
I had a lot of trouble getting the Nvidia drivers to work on my machine due to troubles with the earlier Fedora Core 5 kernels. If anyone else is having trouble, or is just wanting instructions on the driver installation, check this thread for full instructions.
