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Windows XP Boots, Works on Intel-Based Apple PCs

Windows XP on Macs: Tested, Benchmarked

by Anton Shilov

[ 03/22/2006 | 09:34 PM ]

After some time of testing and tweaking, enthusiasts have managed to launch Microsoft’s Windows XP on Apple’s Mac computers featuring Intel processors, which means that now users of Macintosh PCs can enjoy benefits of both Mac OS X and Windows operating systems, something, which many have desired. The question is, how fast do Windows XP applications perform on the Mac?

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In an attempt to find out how fast do Intel Core Duo based iMac, Mac mini and MacBook Pro perform against laptops that run Windows XP natively, the reviewers from the Gearlog web-site have tried all three and put them against “Wintel” world competitors. The list of benchmarks is, unfortunately, not very long.

“The two Mac desktops outran even blazing-fast single core systems, which typically do the Windows Media Encoder test in 10-13 minutes. We haven't tested any other Intel Core Duo desktops, but the iMac competes well against a Polywell machine with a dual-core Athlon 64 X2 3800+, while the Mini and MacBook Pro are held back a little by their slower laptop hard drives. Predictably, all the Macs blow away the Shuttle XPC M1000, which has the previous generation single-core Pentium M processor. That system scored 16 minutes on Windows Media Encoder, and took 2:52 to complete the Photoshop script,” the review reads.