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White & Black MacBook Q&A - Revised November 16, 2006
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How fast is the MacBook running Windows?
Please note that this Q&A is specifically referring to the discontinued original MacBook. All MacBook models are capable of running Windows at a similar speed to an equivalently configured Windows notebook.
Given the fact that the MacBook is for all intents and purposes the same as a Windows notebook while booting into the Windows operating system, you could anticipate that performance would be similar to any other Windows notebook of similar configuration.
PC World tested the MacBook using their WorldBench 5 suite of performance tests and came to much the same conclusion:
We installed Boot Camp and Windows XP Home in a FAT32 partition, then ran WorldBench and its battery of real-world tests using applications like Microsoft Office, Photoshop, and WinZip.
How'd it do? Quite well for a notebook with a fast CPU (Intel's 2 GHz Core Duo) but relatively skimpy RAM (512 MB) and integrated graphics that steal their RAM from the main memory. In fact, the MacBook's WorldBench score is 88, faster than four of the five models on our current All-Purpose Laptops Top 5. . .
The MacBook's XP performance is right in the zone for general-purpose notebooks. Which is good news if you're intrigued by it, but are worried that a machine designed to run Mac OS can't possibly do a decent job at running Windows XP. The MacBook can, and does.
Readers not already familiar with PC World's WorldBench 5 testing suite may also be interested in reading another PC World article explaining the software applications used for testing as well as the overall testing methodology.
In another great article that should be read in its entirety, CreativeMac compared the MacBook 2.0 13" (Black) running Windows XP via Boot Camp to a Dell Precision 470 and an Alienware MJ-12 each performing a series of Photoshop and After Effects tests.
Using Photoshop, the author reports:
In two of the three tests, the MacBook beat out the Dell Precision 470, which is powered by dual 3.6 GHz Xeon processors. And it tied the Xeon machine in the remaining test. It even beat the quad-processor Alienware MJ-12, which was loaded up with 2.21 GHz Opteron processors.
In After Effects, the results weren't quite as spectacular, but impressive nevertheless:
It didn't necessarily beat the ultra-high-end workstations in many tests, but at least it kept pace with them, and that's saying something for any notebook, let alone a consumer notebook like the 13-inch MacBook. It did beat the dual Xeon in three tests; it tied the Alienware quad Opteron in one test and beat it in one other; And, though it didn't beat the HP quad Opteron system in any tests, it did tie it in one and came in respectably behind it in others.
Ultimately, if you want to subject your MacBook to running Windows, it is more than capable of the task.
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