Once developers start using GCD for their applications, you'll start noticing significant improvements in performance.
Shoot, I already noticed the difference on my 2.5 yr old Mac Pro (1.1). First boot on 10.6 and I was like "wow, feels like a new machine again". All of the bundled apps have been recompiled (64 bit) and cleaned up (and apparently take advantage of GCD everywhere possible). I really didn't think I would see that much of a difference with 10.6 and really only upgraded because I could for $29 (I mean at that price, why not right?) I am very happy with my $29 purchase thus far. I've only had to work through a couple app incompatibilities (and as I have been able to work around them just fine, I am happy.) This is of course just my experience thus far with 10.6. I have no hard benchmark numbers for you. But I noticed right away the smoothness it brought to my older Mac Pro. And it was an easier upgrade than going from 10.4 --> 10.5.
So far I've only had an issue with one program (or rather, a couple versions of the same program) in Snow Leopard. I do 3D renders in DAZ 3D's Carrara Pro 7. The first time I launched it, I had no text in the application. And I mean everywhere. No text on the menus, tabs... you name it. I also had Carrara 6 still on my system, so I launched it - same deal. Appears to be a font issue. So I went searching the DAZ 3D forums for topics about this issue and found a workaround.
Wow... honestly I can't believe the speed boost in everyday things that Snow Leopard gave to my 2.5 yr old Mac Pro today. Seriously, it feels like a new machine again. I bought the upgrade only because it was so cheap pre-ordering it for $29... I really wasn't expecting much of a difference. All of the re-written apps leap on screen the moment I've clicked on the dock I swear. Of course, they did not re-write iTunes, so it's still slow to load up (ok slow for this machine... not really that s
For drives of equivalent spec, on SAS, on SATA, same spindle speed, I suspect that it is largely marketing fluff and a few firmware tweaks; but 15k RPM vs. slower is a nontrivial difference.
I agree completely. We've got two SANs at work... the older one is full of U320 10k RPM drives and the new SAN is all 15k RPM SAS drives. The new SAN leaves the old one in the dust (and has 20TB more space, too!
The Call of Duty series has plenty of players online using the PC versions. Just watch, when Diablo III is released, it will sell like hotcakes.
Side note: I don't buy anything published by Electronic Arts (that's both PC and console).
Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle. -- Steinbach