Should You Buy an Intel Mac?

Sep 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus

           
 

FIG. 1: An Intel Core Duo processor powers every Mac that Apple has introduced since last year. Whether you’re ready to make the switch depends on the software you use.

Unless you've been living on the moon for the past year, you know that Apple (www.apple.com) has abandoned PowerPC processors and is replacing them with chips from Intel. In fact, most of Apple's current crop of computers — the iMac, the Mac mini, the MacBook, and the MacBook Pro — already have Intel inside (see Fig. 1).

New Terminology

Before discussing what Apple's switch to Intel processors means to you, I should explain a few new terms. Intel's Core Duo processor is the central processing unit (CPU) — the “brain” inside your computer. The Core Duo has two execution cores, or computational engines, on one chip. The result is a single chip that offers roughly twice as much computational power as a single-core chip.

In previous models and in current Power Macs, Apple used PowerPC G4 or G5 CPUs manufactured by IBM, Motorola, or Freescale. Today, most Macs use an entirely new and very different type of CPU manufactured by Intel. One result of this switch is that software you previously used with your Mac G4 or G5 will need to be updated by its maker to achieve maximum performance on Intel-based Macs. Programs that have been updated to run natively on Intel-based Macs and will also run on PowerPC-based Macs are called Universal applications or Universal Binaries.

For applications that have not been (or will not be) updated to Universal, Mac OS X 10.4.4 and later versions contain a new technology known as Rosetta. You don't see it, and you don't have to configure it or even think about it. Rosetta works behind the scenes, letting you run most non-Universal applications on Intel Macs. That's the good news; the bad news is that because Rosetta is translating older code on the fly, applications running under Rosetta pay a performance penalty that ranges from virtually unnoticeable to unbearably annoying.

There is also one newly obsolete term you can forget: Classic. Intel-based Macs can't run Classic applications developed for Mac OS 9 at all.

An Apple with Five Flavors

When you use a Mac that has an Intel processor, you'll encounter five types of software: Universal, Intel only, Rosetta compatible, Rosetta sluggish, and incompatible. On an Intel Mac, Universal and Intel-only applications and plug-ins are some of the fastest Mac software ever. Some Rosetta-compatible software runs acceptably under Rosetta, but other software runs sluggishly. And some Mac software is completely incompatible with the Intel processor and doesn't even run under Rosetta.

Almost every program from Apple, including Mac OS X and its bundled applications (such as Safari and Mail), is Universal — so are the company's Pro applications (such as Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro), Express applications (Logic Express and Final Cut Express), and iLife applications (GarageBand, iMovie, iTunes, iWeb, and iDVD). Almost every program Apple makes, including Mac OS X, runs faster than ever on an Intel-based Mac.

Performance of many non-Universal productivity applications, including Microsoft Office 2004, Quicken 2006, and Adobe Reader, is perfectly acceptable under Rosetta. Those programs (and many others) may run slightly slower on an Intel-based Mac than on a PowerBook G4, but not slow enough to annoy you. Alas, other programs — most notably Adobe Photoshop and the other components of Adobe Creative Suite 2 — are sluggish enough to hamper your productivity.

A handful of programs and hardware drivers — including all but the latest versions of Apple Pro and Express applications, all Classic applications, Microsoft's Virtual PC, and some third-party keyboard, mouse, tablet, and audio interface drivers — don't work at all under Rosetta. Consequently, if you depend on any of those or are a heavy Adobe user, you should probably wait until the software you rely on is available in an Intel-only or Universal Binary version.

Just for the record, Apple reports that more than 2,000 Universal applications are already available and that the transition continues to gather momentum, with more applications being introduced for Intel Macs every day.

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