So here's the specs of a new MacBook Pro...

• 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor with 2MB shared L2 Cache
• 667MHz frontside bus
• 1GB (single SO-DIMM) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300)

New iMac...
• 2GHz Intel Core Duo processor
• 2MB shared L2 cache at full processor speed
• 667MHz system bus
• 512MB of PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SDRAM expandable to 2GB

How will this affect the speed of MacMAME? Faster? Slower?

Who knows... maybe Nathan should run a competition...?

Simon

I have a 2 GHz Pentium M (the immediate predecessor to the the Core Duo) and MAME32 on it benchmarks in the neighborhood of a Pentium 4 3.4-3.6 GHz/Athlon 64 3400-3600+. In other words, you've never seen MAME this fast :-)

I would imagine the Dynarecs would virtually guarantee that at any rate, assuming they can be converted.

Xcode Intel is still using GCC, right? The dynarecs will "drop right in" then.

Yeah, those won't be an issue at all.

So, how long until existing software (and how much of it will make it) is ported over to 10.4.4 on Intel?

If I were a betting man, I'd say most every program you care about will be native by the end of the year. I'll probably finish up MacMAME here before too long, once my iMac arrives. And really, that's all that matters, don't you think? :-)

^^^ Why yes, yes I do think. I'm excited to see how much of a speed increase we will get.

So you ordered one, too?

I guess he didn't have to. Since he'd a MacTel developpement machine, Apple's *giving away* free iMacs to them. Lucky B******.

Well, "giving away" isn't quite right. The development kit cost $999 and was due back at the end of 2006. Apple is instead replacing it with a retail iMac which I get to keep. So essentially, I'm paying $999 for a new iMac, which is just slightly cheaper than the typical developer discount price for one ($1150 I think).

Brad, Looking forward to reading your review and experiences of running Windows Vista:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10794396/from/RS.3/

Brad,

The games I care about outside of MacMAME and its loveliness are:

Jedi Knight II: Outcast
Jedi Academy
Star Trek: Elite Force I & II
Star Wars Lego (enjoying that one right now)
Call of Duty

Now, I'd be very very surprised to see these ported over to Intel, but I'm prepared to be surprised.

Sean I second your observation. Now, I'm sure that there's mention of Quake III game engine Universal Binaries on ADC! However, please correct me if I'm imagining things!

If I remember correctly, the exchange wasn't part of the original deal, right ? The deal was $999, only for a devkit machine on loan you had to return 1 year later, no matter what. So you may consider that the iMac is a *bonus*.

Yes, definitely. The iMac is a surprise bonus on top of the original deal. The lease has essentially turned into a purchase, which is definitely better than having to return the DTK and have nothing to show at the end of 2006. :-)

Back to the original question of how will macmame run on the intel box. Well to be honest, until universal is released it's not really worth it. It runs under rosetta but it runs slow, well depending on what your trying to play. I found most games ran slow and choppy, they actually ran better on my ibook 800mhz G4. If you have a G5 keep running it on there until the updates are released. I can't wait to see what this machine can actually do!