Mac mini Performance (August 2007)

Along with new iMacs, Apple announced (well, sort of announced) updated Mac minis last week. While the Mac mini updates are much more modest than the iMac updates, they're still significant, and with the Mac mini's move from the Core Duo to the Core 2 Duo, Apple's current computer lineup is 64-bit (which is a first for a PC manufacturer, I believe).

Of course, how much of a performance improvement does the switch to Core 2 Duo processors bring to the Mac mini? To find out, I've compiled a comparison of the new Mac mini models against most of the previous Mac mini models (including the PowerPC-based Mac minis) using Geekbench 2 results from the Geekbench Browser.

Setup

• Mac mini (Mid 2007)

  • Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.00GHz
  • 2.00 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
  • Mac OS X 10.4.10 (Build 8R3014)

• Mac mini (Mid 2007)

  • Intel Core 2 Duo @ 1.83GHz
  • 2.00 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
  • Mac OS X 10.4.10 (Build 8R3014)

• Mac mini (Early 2006)

  • Intel Core Duo @ 1.83GHz
  • 2.00 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
  • Mac OS X 10.4.10 (Build 8R2218)

• Mac mini (Early 2006)

  • Intel Core Duo @ 1.66GHz
  • 2.00 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
  • Mac OS X 10.4.10 (Build 8R2218)

• Mac mini (Early 2006)

  • Intel Core Solo @ 1.50GHz
  • 2.00 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
  • Mac OS X 10.4.10 (Build 8R2218)

• Mac mini

  • PowerPC G4 (7447A) @ 1.50GHz
  • 1.00 GB PC3200U-30330 DDR SDRAM
  • Mac OS X 10.4.10 (Build 8R218)

• Mac mini

  • PowerPC G4 (7447A) @ 1.42 GHz
  • 1.00 GB PC3200U-30330 DDR SDRAM
  • Mac OS X 10.4.10 (Build 8R218)

• Mac mini

  • PowerPC G4 (7447A) @ 1.25 GHz
  • 1.00 GB PC3200U-30330 DDR SDRAM
  • Mac OS X 10.4.10 (Build 8R218)

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

Integer Performance

Floating Point Performance

Memory Performance

Stream Performance

Conclusions

Moving from the Core Duo to the Core 2 Duo brings modest performance improvements without an increase in clock speed, and moving from 1.83GHz to 2.0GHz brings (unsurprisingly) another modest increase in performance. If you're running a previous generation Mac mini I see no real reason to upgrade (unless, of course, you want to use 64-bit applications).

Of course, if you're moving from a PowerPC (or Core Solo) Mac mini, you'll notice a huge improvement in performance, not only from the improved Core 2 architecture, but also from the addition of an extra processing core.