Well, numbers don't lie; I guess I just remember the NeXT as a slower machine because I was always playing with it side by side with SGIs or something :O It actually stacks up pretty well, here's the results of my rough little morning benchmark if anyone wants to know :O
NeXT config was: Color Slab, 040/25, 32 MB RAM, NeXTstep 3.3, 5400 RPM drive, 24 bit color, 1280x1024 Mac config was: Quadra 800, 040/33, 20 MB RAM, Mac OS 7.5.3, 5400 RPM drive, 16-bit color, 800x600 Not totally a fair contest since my Q800 can't sling video quite like my NeXT can, however, the two configurations aren't totally out of line with one another ... I measured: Boot-up time: NeXTstation Color - 1:24 Quadra 800 - 1:35 (although many extensions are installed - could likely be reduced 10-20 seconds) Browser launch time: NeXTstation Color - ~0:22 (OmniWeb) Quadra 800 - ~0:25 (Netscape Navigator 3.x) Page load and render, my personal main page: NeXTstation Color - ~0:15 (OmniWeb) Quadra 800 - ~0:12 (Netscape Navigator 3.x) Page load and render, my Definity PBX at home page (fairly long text) NeXTstation Color - ~0:43 (OmniWeb) Quadra 800 - ~0:30 (Netscape Navigator 3.x) Page load and render, my Nortel PBX at home page (a little bigger yet) NeXTstation Color - ~0:57 Quadra 800 - ~0:30 So the color Slab is actually about neck and neck with the Quadra 800... considering it's around 25% less clock rate and is moving a lot more video data than the Quadra, it actually keeps up pretty well. The Quadra does a little better rendering "larger" pages but that's just the test I chose and we all know OmniWeb isn't the fastest thing in the world ... Not so bad after all. I guess this vindicates the NeXT :O It really isn't any slower than a contemporary Mac and can in fact be slightly quicker in some cases. Best, Sean On Sat, May 30, 2015 at 10:46 AM, Sean Caron <sca...@umich.edu> wrote: > I swear, this is the only place in the world where I have seen the group > consensus shake out that NeXTstep was fast and responsive on the NeXT '040 > hardware :O > > I am about to go downstairs and benchmark my Color Slab vs my Quadra 800 > and make sure I'm not going nuts, LOL. > > Best, > > Sean > > > On Fri, May 29, 2015 at 4:47 PM, Jerry Kemp <ot...@oryx.us> wrote: > >> Jumping in on the bandwagon. >> >> A few years back, I had a friend loan me his NeXT slab for about a year. >> 25 Mhz CPU. Everything pretty much stock. >> >> My observation of the default GUI was it was pretty darn quick, not even >> taking into account the hardware it was running on. >> >> Jerry >> >> >> >> On 05/29/15 02:44 PM, Toby Thain wrote: >> >> >>>> >>> My impression is the same - the UI on my Cube, slabs, is quite zippy. I >>> think >>> that hardware blitter helps... >>> >>> --Toby >>> >>> >>> >
