MacWindows Special Report: Running Windows 95 on a Macintosh.

This report sponsored by Computer Currents.

Thanks to Newer Technology for the use of the MaxPower and MaxPower Pro processor cards.

In this report:

• Overall results and conclusions
• Text of review (Published in Computer Currents). This includes product descriptions and analysis.
• Results for each of 13 tests. Graphs of the results and a description of each test.
• Test setup and conditions of testing
• Raw data in table form
• Features table

Products tested:

Connectix Virtual PC 1.0.1 with Windows 95, $149 (software)
Insignia Solutions SoftWindows 95 4.0.1, $199 (software)
Orange Micro OrangePC 536 w/Cyrix 166 MHz 686, 16 MHz RAM, Windows 95, $846 (an expansion card for PCI slot with software)

(See MacWindows Solutions for a brief description of these products with links to the manufacturers.)

Overall results and conclusions

The average of 13 real-world tests of Windows 95 software relative to the result of the OrangePC result.

From this data, we can conclude several things about Windows performance on Macs:

• A hardware solution with a Pentium-compatible processor is significantly faster than a software emulator, even on a Power Mac G3. Orange Micro's lower-end OrangePC 536 card with only 16 MB RAM ran Windows 95 nearly twice as fast as the emulators running on G3 chips with up to 40MB of memory.
• SoftWindows 95 is faster than Virtual PC. The performance difference decreases as the processor gets faster.
• Processor speed is more important than amount of RAM in emulators.
• Increasing RAM assigned to the emulator increases performance, but the greatest increase was from 24 MB to 32 MB, with much smaller gains in going to 40 MB. MacWindows recommends that you have a minimum of 32 MB of RAM assigned to the emulator software.

Additional observations:

• These tests were conducted with 512k level 2 cache in the Mac. Increasing cache will increase performace of the emulators.
• PowerBook G3 tests were conducted at 800 x 600 full screen mode, while the other tests were conducted at 640 x 480pixels. This probably accounts for the slightly slower results on the PowerBook G3 than on a Power Mac with G3 processor

Please see the full text review for more details.

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Results for each of 13 tests (graphs)

Tests were conducted with Windows 95, the CorelDraw Suite, and Microsoft Office 97. The raw data for these tests can be seen in the table below.

The 13 graphs are displayed in two groups:

First set:

• Microsoft Windows 95 Find file "Northwind," a sample database file, part of MS Acess 97
• CorelDraw, rotate the "eye" sample file by 65 degrees
• CorelPhotoPaint, guassian blur on "apple" sample file
• Microsoft Access 97, launch from Windows 95
• Microsoft Access 97, "Northwind" sample database, run query "Catagory Sales, 1995"
• Microsoft Access 97, "Northwind" sample database, run crosstab query "Quarterly Orders by Product"
• Microsoft Access 97, "Northwind" sample database, create report "Summary Sales by Quarter"

Second set:

• Microsoft Word 97, launch and open 50,000-word file from Windows 95
• Microsoft Word 97, scroll 50,000-word file
• Microsoft Word 97, replace "the" with "teh" (720 replacements)
• Microsoft Excel 97, launch and open 100-cell by 100-cell spreadsheet file from Windows 95
• Microsoft Excel 97, recalculate all cells in 100-cell by 100-cell spreadsheet file
• Microsoft Excel 97, create a 3-D graph of a 6 x 15-cell portion of spreadsheet file

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Test setup and conditions

Hardware configuration:

PowerBook G3, 2xx MHz, 512 MHz level 2 cache, 32 MB RAM

Power Macintosh 7500

Hard drive: 3 GB Quantum hard drive.

RAM 48 MB in system

Level 2 RAM Cache: 512k

Processors:

132 MHz 604 Apple processor card
250 MHz 604e MaxPower processor card from Newer Technology, and a
250 MHz G3 MaxPower Pro processor with 512k backside cache.

NOTE: Connectix doesn't recommend running Virtual PC on anything slower than a 180 MHz 603e processor, which is why the 7500's original 601/100 processor wasn't tested.

The OrangePC card was tested with the slowest PowerPC processor, the 132 MHz 604.

System Software and Settings

• Mac OS 8 was used on all systems.
• The disk cache was set to 1024k.
• AppleTalk and File Sharing were turned off.
• Display: full screen mode, 256 colors, 640 by 480 pixels (800 by 600 on the PowerBook G3).
• The virtual C: drive files were all 350 MB in size.
• For the emulators on the 7500, tests were repeated with RAM allocations set at 24 MB, 32 MB, and 40 MB on the 7500. For the PowerBook G3, tests were conducted with 24 MB allocated to the emulator only.

Test Procedure

• Measurements were taken between 3 and 7 times for each test using a stopwatch.
• Windows 95 was restarted after every measurement.
• The Macintosh was restarted and the hard drive defragmented after testing each Windows product at a particular RAM allocation

Raw Data

Time in seconds (smaller numbers indicate faster performance). Each number is the average of 3-to-7 test trials.

Mac/Processor	PowerBook G3		7500/G3/250						7500/604e/250						7500/604/132
Product	SoftWindows 95 4.0.1	Virtual PC 1.0.1	SoftWindows 95 4.0.1			Virtual PC 1.0.1			SoftWindows 95 4.0.1			Virtual PC 1.0.1			OrangePC	SoftWindows 95 4.0.1			Virtual PC 1.0.1
RAM for Product	24 MB	24 MB	24 MB	32 MB	40 MB	24 MB	32 MB	40 MB	24 MB	32 MB	40 MB	24 MB	32 MB	40 MB	16 MB	24 MB	32 MB	40 MB	24 MB	32 MB	40 MB
CorelDraw, Rotate 65°	2.60	3.03	1.87	1.83	1.84	3.30	2.62	2.39	3.20	2.25	2.21	3.28	2.96	2.63	0.91	3.43	3.30	3.40	4.83	4.09	4.07
Corel PhotoPaint Gaussian Blur	4.44	4.84	4.44	4.28	4.23	5.36	4.88	4.75	5.05	4.97	4.70	5.32	5.21	5.07	1.97	9.44	8.27	8.53	9.35	8.97	8.67
Windows 95 Find file "Northwind"	3.54	4.17	3.65	3.81	3.39	4.29	3.94	3.77	5.41	5.12	6.00	5.89	5.47	5.33	2.99	7.32	7.77	6.75	9.55	8.39	8.27
MS Access 97, Launch	7.14	6.86	6.02	5.79	5.47	9.84	7.56	7.08	6.92	6.54	4.67	9.66	8.56	8.41	3.77	9.54	9.51	8.05	15.30	12.76	12.47
MS Access 97, query	5.52	5.55	4.69	4.41	4.16	8.61	5.89	5.86	6.94	5.56	5.40	9.96	8.63	7.90	2.87	9.22	7.27	8.10	16.79	14.22	13.33
MS Access 97, query (crosstab)	7.94	8.62	7.39	7.19	7.23	11.53	9.58	10.27	10.82	9.96	9.76	14.44	13.92	13.53	5.06	14.81	14.78	13.71	24.19	22.72	21.47
MS Access 97, Report summary	10.60	9.82	9.77	8.85	9.00	12.33	10.95	10.40	13.50	11.75	12.41	17.40	15.32	14.92	5.86	18.74	16.35	17.37	27.65	24.92	23.70
Word 97, open file and launch	20.22	19.54	18.21	16.61	16.46	19.08	17.50	15.78	19.52	18.78	20.48	22.93	20.40	19.73	12.37	26.72	26.88	25.68	36.79	31.81	29.83
Word 97, scroll 50k charactors	14.58	15.76	18.09	17.77	17.66	17.21	17.09	17.28	16.28	15.94	16.21	19.12	18.96	19.41	10.84	17.89	17.84	17.53	30.23	28.80	27.76
Word 97, replace 720 words	3.91	4.40	3.98	3.10	3.04	5.02	3.93	3.49	4.76	4.19	4.00	5.68	5.46	5.31	2.06	7.74	6.46	5.93	8.81	8.83	8.00
Excel 97, launch and open	11.45	11.22	10.55	8.62	8.13	11.86	11.26	10.67	12.61	10.11	9.75	15.77	13.92	13.49	5.10	16.53	14.65	14.02	25.53	22.91	20.67
Excel 97, recalc. 100x100cells	2.51	2.10	2.42	2.08	2.22	2.40	2.25	2.32	3.10	2.63	2.68	2.89	2.61	2.72	1.32	4.96	4.26	4.69	4.94	4.50	4.43
Excel 97, create chart	3.10	3.51	2.92	2.45	2.43	3.97	3.45	3.48	3.49	2.99	2.98	4.57	4.52	4.22	1.82	4.28	3.58	4.09	7.23	6.72	6.20

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Features:

	Cost	Operating systems supported	Minimum Mac processor*	Sound	DirectX	MMX	Support of PC SCSI devices	Joystick support	Access c: drive from Finder	AppleGuide help of Windows or DOS
Connectix Virutal PC 1.0.1	$149 (With Win 95) $69 (with PC-DOS)	DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95 Windows NT, OpenStep, and any OS that runs on Intel	180 MHz PowerPC 603 processor	Sound Blaster Pro out only	No. (Emulates a video card that is incompatible with DirectX)	Yes	No	Mac joysticks	Yes	No
Insignia Solutions SoftWindows 95 4.0.1	$199 (With Win 95)	DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95	66 MHz 601 PowerPC processor	Sound Blaster Pro under Wind95, out only	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
Insignia Solutions RealPC (Not tested)	$79 (with MS-DOS)	DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95	66 MHz 601 PowerPC processor	Sound Blaster Pro and Sound Blaster 16, in and out	Yes	Yes	Yes	Mac joysticks	Yes	Yes
Orange Micro OrangePC 536 (with 166 MHz Cyrix 686)	$846 (With Win 95)	DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95 Windows NT, OpenStep	Any Mac with PCI expansion slot (NuBus discontinued)	Sound Blaster 16 in and out	Yes	Available at extra cost	Yes	Includes game port for any PC joystick	No	No

*Manufacturer's recomendation

See MacWindows Solutions for links to manufacturer sites and contact info.