[stephen122333]

I am thinking of buying a new computer and thinking of moving to Mac (as I have iphone/pad and appleTV). But looking at the specs of my current computer they only seem to be slightly less then the latest Macs. This seems unlikely as the computer is a few years old and was never top of the range.

Here are my specs (from control panel/ system&maintenance)

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5800 @2.00GHZ 2.00GHZ

Memory (RAM) 3.00GB

am I miss under standing all the numbers? Am I completely stupid?

[Maxatoria]

Apple only refresh their product range once a year at best and generally they are even pretty behind the times at that point, so if you want performance then look elsewhere but if you fancy getting a mac wait till they do a refresh but given apples idea on secrecy you may not get much warning

[soulboy77]

It's not a like for like comparison. Mac OS and apps are generally more efficient and less resource hungry than MS stuff so you don't necessarily need a high spec machine.

[alanwarwic]

There are a few dedicated Apple OS applications that cannot be compared.
For the rest they are proven to be usually both buggy and slow.

It is not that OS/X is much worse even though lack of framework can create more work for the coder, its because Windows get the users and thus the coders worthwhile time.

It is a different situation on IOS for those applications allowed into the store. Apple actually cripples HTML 5 apps to promote their app store.

[cnbcwatcher]

Originally Posted by Maxatoria

Apple only refresh their product range once a year at best and generally they are even pretty behind the times at that point, so if you want performance then look elsewhere but if you fancy getting a mac wait till they do a refresh but given apples idea on secrecy you may not get much warning

And if you divulge anything you shouldn't the men in black turtlenecks might pay you a visit Best be careful.

[Gormond]

Originally Posted by stephen122333

I am thinking of buying a new computer and thinking of moving to Mac (as I have iphone/pad and appleTV). But looking at the specs of my current computer they only seem to be slightly less then the latest Macs. This seems unlikely as the computer is a few years old and was never top of the range.

Here are my specs (from control panel/ system&maintenance)

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5800 @2.00GHZ 2.00GHZ

Memory (RAM) 3.00GB

am I miss under standing all the numbers? Am I completely stupid?

New macs run far better processors than the T8500, infact new Ultrabooks will run faster than this using ULV chips.

Have a look http://www.notebookcheck.net to compare how the chips preform, you will be surprised how good the new Ivy Bridge chips are.

You can't just look at a C2D at 2GHz and a new Ivy Bridge chip at 2GHz and think they run at the same speed.

If you thinking about something like the iMac, it's due a massive upgrade any time now, expected to be October last I heard.

[alanwarwic]

Originally Posted by Gormond

You can't just look at a C2D at 2GHz and a new Ivy Bridge chip at 2GHz and think they run at the same speed.

I think generally it was 10% difference but newer stuff probably has it at 20% now.

[Gormond]

Originally Posted by alanwarwic

I think generally it was 10% difference but newer stuff probably has it at 20% now.

In what benchmark?

Whetstone for example which measures floating point operations you get:

Core2Duo T9500 2.6Ghz - 19062
Core i5 3320M 2.6Ghz - 38553