Performance testing of Apple iMac Core Duo, Core 2 Duo, and Core 2 Extreme Models with various Memory configurations

Other World Computing Reseller and Manufacturer of Mac Products

Search:

Upgrading Memory in your
iMac Intel - Real-World Performance Testing

Performance Testing of iMac Core 2 Duo Memory Configurations

We first started this memory testing series in response to questions as to whether it was better to have more memory or a matched pair of memory in Apple iMacs, Mac mini, and Macbook Intel Core Duo models. The results have been and continue to be very consistent. Having more memory is always a benefit, even if you are only able to add/replace one memory module at a time. How much memory you install and when you do it is entirely up to you and your budget. Amazingly, upgrading to more memory in the iMac you already have can actually deliver a larger performance increase that from buying a new one with just base memory! There is hardly any better return on investment you can make for your iMac than when you boost its memory. Economical, Easy to Install, and gives a real performance boost that you’ll immediately appreciate.

NOTE: The latest iMac 2007 Models (Aluminum Style) support up to 4.0GB of Memory. All Prior iMac Core 2 Duo Models support up to 3.0GB of Memory. All Core Duo iMac Models support up to 2.0GB. Although the first Core 2 Duo iMacs support only up to 3.0GB, by popular demand did also test these with 4.0GB, where a some performance benefit is present due to the then enabled 128 Bit Memory addressing. The 4.0GB true addressing models will show additional performance benefits where the applications utilize more memory

Apple iMac Intel Memory Testing of 1.0GB, 2.0GB, 3.0GB and "4.0GB" configurations by Other World Computing

Photoshop CS3 Results

Adobe Photoshop CS3 is the newest, Intel-native iteration of the popular image editing program.

This test measures the time (in seconds) it takes to execute a custom 21-step action script using Adobe Photoshop CS3. Lower times are better.

RAM Configuration	1024 MB (1x 1024)	1536 MB (1024+512)	2048 MB (2x 1024)	2560 MB (2048+512)	3072 MB (2048+1024)	4096 MB (2x 2048)
iMac (Mid 2008) 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo	Not Tested	Not Tested	66.88	Not Tested	57.44	56.56.
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo nVidia Graphics	Not Tested	Not Tested	72.00	Not Tested	61.91	61.44
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo ATI Graphics	Not Tested	Not Tested	74.72	Not Tested	62.72	61.78
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo	Not Tested	Not Tested	76.87	Not Tested	64.75	62.59
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo	Not Tested	Not Tested	92.68	Not Tested	75.16	73.03
iMac (Mid 2007 "Aluminum") 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo Extreme	84.56	83.53	82.50	76.09	68.06	66.84
iMac (Mid 2007 "Aluminum") 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo	95.47	94.78	92.32	86.50	78.75	77.31
iMac (Mid 2007 "Aluminum") 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo	109.72	107.35	105.87	100.22	92.06	91.97
iMac (Late 2006) 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo	102.75	98.69	96.94	95.67	84.00	82.13
iMac (Late 2006) 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo	106.94	104.35	103.62	97.28	91.03	86.85
iMac (Early 2006) 1.83 GHz Core Duo	142.88	138.00	135.83	N/A	N/A	N/A

"Stress Test" Results

This test also times how long it takes Adobe Photoshop CS3 to run a series of 21 actions. However, in addition to Photoshop, the iTunes Visualizer is also set to run. This generally taxes both the video card and the processor. Lower times are better.

RAM Configuration	1024 MB (1x 1024)	1536 MB (1024+512)	2048 MB (2x 1024)	2560 MB (2048+512)	3072 MB (2048+1024)	4096 MB (2x 2048)
iMac (Mid 2008) 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo	Not Tested	Not Tested	77.22	Not Tested	67.81	66.94
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo nVidia Graphics	Not Tested	Not Tested	78.50	Not Tested	68.56	67.06
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo ATI Graphics	Not Tested	Not Tested	80.62	Not Tested	67.44	67.23
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo	Not Tested	Not Tested	81.00	Not Tested	71.28	70.50
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo	Not Tested	Not Tested	99.25	Not Tested	100.25	80.25
iMac (Mid 2007 "Aluminum") 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo Extreme	101.78	95.38	89.31	83.56	80.78	78.50
iMac (Mid 2007 "Aluminum") 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo	118.53	109.57	108.53	101.06	93.72	90.94
iMac (Mid 2007 "Aluminum") 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo	119.09	118.53	115.75	113.50	106.69	105.97
iMac (Late 2006) 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo	133.66	127.47	125.44	121.28	112.28	110.09
iMac (Late 2006) 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo	141.84	134.81	134.50	130.29	122.06	118.90
iMac (Early 2006) 1.83 GHz Core Duo	173.56	167.07	166.66	N/A	N/A	N/A

"RAM Hog" Results

This test times how long it takes to run our standard 21-step Photoshop action in Photoshop CS3 when 50% othe installed RAM is taken up with another program. Lower times are better.

RAM Configuration	1024 MB (1x 1024)	1536 MB (1024+512)	2048 MB (2x 1024)	2560 MB (2048+512)	3072 MB (2048+1024)	4096 MB (2x 2048)
iMac (Mid 2008) 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo	Not Tested	Not Tested	152.43	Not Tested	90.34	57.20
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo nVidia Graphics	Not Tested	Not Tested	165.66	Not Tested	99.94	61.09
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo ATI Graphics	Not Tested	Not Tested	164.37	Not Tested	97.18	63.19
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo	Not Tested	Not Tested	170.13	Not Tested	99.38	63.69
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo	Not Tested	Not Tested	205.57	Not Tested	116.75	74.97
iMac (Mid 2007 "Aluminum") 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo Extreme	272.78	189.10	155.09	126.28	102.34	68.79
iMac (Mid 2007 "Aluminum") 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo	315.25	204.09	165.03	139.00	114.25	77.84
iMac (Mid 2007 "Aluminum") 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo	299.54	210.25	172.54	149.34	129.84	93.69
iMac (Late 2006) 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo	297.09	205.63	169.65	140.72	120.94	115.50
iMac (Late 2006) 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo	298.28	206.00	170.13	142.97	123.69	120.79
iMac (Early 2006) 1.83 GHz Core Duo	336.75	255.09	228.40	N/A	N/A	N/A

Halo Results

In order to heavily tax the video card, we ran the time demo of the Intel-native version of the popular game, Halo.

Results are the average frame rate (in frames per second) achieved. Higher results are better.

RAM Configuration	1024 MB (1x 1024)	1536 MB (1024+512)	2048 MB (2x 1024)	2560 MB (2048+512)	3072 MB (2048+1024)	4096 MB (2x 2048)
iMac (Mid 2008) 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo	Not Tested	Not Tested	68.11*	Not Tested	69.86	70.12
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo nVidia Graphics	Not Tested	Not Tested	67.70*	Not Tested	68.22	69.17
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo ATI Graphics	Not Tested	Not Tested	32.06*	Not Tested	32.01*	32.62*
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo	Not Tested	Not Tested	31.25*	Not Tested	31.57*	31.49*
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo	Not Tested	Not Tested	28.66*	Not Tested	28.63*	28.66*
iMac (Mid 2007 "Aluminum") 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo Extreme	111.81	122.14	124.88	124.45	126.36	126.46
iMac (Mid 2007 "Aluminum") 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo	105.18	118.28	118.74	118.54	118.64	118.53
iMac (Mid 2007 "Aluminum") 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo	72.33	78.35	78.42	78.55	78.57	78.64
iMac (Late 2006) 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo	119.54	119.75	120.00	120.11	120.15	120.16
iMac (Late 2006) 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo	114.88	115.45	115.59	115.18	115.73	115.01
iMac (Early 2006) 1.83 GHz Core Duo	62.80	68.31	68.54	N/A	N/A	N/A

* Changes in the default installed OS for the 2008 iMacs have resulted in lower than expected scores for those models. We are looking into the cause of this. It should be noted, however, that the improvement gained from additional RAM remains relatively the same.

XBench Results

XBench is a standardized utility for measuring the performance of your computer, as compared to a "baseline" computer. (More information and the application, itself, can be found here.)

For this test, we checked all the options except for the Disk Test, as it was the only one that did did not either touch System memory or Video Memory. Higher Point results are better.

RAM Configuration	1024 MB (1x 1024)	1536 MB (1024+512)	2048 MB (2x 1024)	2560 MB (2048+512)	3072 MB (2048+1024)	4096 MB (2x 2048)
iMac (Mid 2008) 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo	Not Tested	Not Tested	253.41	Not Tested	256.53	256.71
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo nVidia Graphics	Not Tested	Not Tested	236.80	Not Tested	234.06	239.46
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo ATI Graphics	Not Tested	Not Tested	233.51	Not Tested	234.64	238.63
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo	Not Tested	Not Tested	214.82	Not Tested	218.85	221.39
iMac (Mid 2008) 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo	Not Tested	Not Tested	198.83	Not Tested	198.65	200.04
iMac (Mid 2007 "Aluminum") 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo Extreme	190.76	199.51	199.81	200.40	200.70	200.86
iMac (Mid 2007 "Aluminum") 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo	170.15	172.41	173.03	173.66	173.84	174.11
iMac (Mid 2007 "Aluminum") 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo	146.19	147.51	147.88	147.63	148.05	148.89
iMac (Late 2006) 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo	175.79	175.83	178.69	176.32	177.17	178.41
iMac (Late 2006) 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo	164.37	165.90	168.19	166.39	166.96	168.17
iMac (Early 2006) 1.83 GHz Core Duo	126.54	128.09	128.76	N/A	N/A	N/A