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JebusKrist

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 23, 2012
5
0
Alaska
Alright so I've been googling for a good while more so since the official launch & reveal of the new mid-range Mac Mini specs trying to get a 1:1 comparison between the old mid-range Mac Mini and the new mid-range Mac Mini thus far I've turned up exactly nothing except some comparisons between the Intel HD Graphics 4000 & the Radeon HD 6630M on PC based notebooks.

I'm not satisfied with this for many reasons the simplest being the PC version of the Radeon 6630M get their VRam from system memory which is DDR3 whilst the Mac Mini has 256MB DEDICATED GDDR5 VRam obviously not a fair nor 1:1 comparison. I've been a technician for more years than I care to admit or can remember and know that even with identical hardware performance can vary greatly based on System BIOS version and Video BIOS version Driver revisions and so on again not a very good comparison even on a PC side review.

I've decided in a moment of genius/insanity call it what you will that in order to get the information I seek & to provide some clarity to the rest of the masses I'd solve this conundrum by simply purchasing one of each, setting them up as identical as I can barring the fact one has 1333mhz DDR3 while the newer one has 1600mhz DDR3. I'm sure the 500gb vs 1TB drive will play some role in the results but mainly I'm looking to settle the dual core I5 vs quad core I7 debate as well as the Radeon HD 6630m vs the Intel HD Graphics 4000 debate.

What I ask from the community is suggestions on benchmarking software (free) for testing the CPU, Graphics and Hard Disk Performance.
 
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...I'm looking to settle the dual core I5 vs quad core I7 debate as well as the Radeon HD 6630m vs the Intel HD Graphics 4000 debate.

What I ask from the community is suggestions on benchmarking software (free) for testing the CPU, Graphics and Hard Disk Performance.
Really not much to settle.

Radeon HD 6630M is going to beat out the HD 4000 in benchmark tests.
dual-core i5 is going to lose (obviously) to the quad-core i7.

The question you should be asking, is there an actual quantifiable performance gain that users can "FEEL" by using the quad-core i7 over the dual-core i5 and radeon 6630m vs hd 4000. That is up to option and usage.

macminicolo has already posted benchmark results comparing the CPU between the old-mid-level mac mini and the new mid-level mac mini.
http://blog.macminicolo.net/post/34175374589/impressions-of-the-2012-mac-mini-updated
 
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