I just got my computer back from Apple - They fixed nothing

Question

Long ago I made a post expressing concerns that none of the animations on my computer were as smooth as my girlfriend's Macbook with the same specs. I tried everything recommended to me, including typing some stuff into the console. Nothing fixed it.
In order to make sure I wasn't just crazy, I downloaded Xbench, a program recommended to me for benchmarking. I was told that my score should be around 100.
That being said, my score does not get above 70. Clearly something is wrong with the graphics processing on my computer because when running to through the graphic benchmarking portion of the test, my girlfriend's computer speeds through it, whereas mine goes fairly slow.
After being completely stumped by the problem, I took my computer to the Apple store nearby to get repaired. The Mac Genius didn't seem to believe that anything was wrong (he refused to acknowledge the benchmarking program) and said he'd have my logic board replaced anyway.
I just recieved my computer today and nothing has changed. I'm still getting low scores on Xbench and none of my animations are as smooth as they should be. What the heck is going on? Is it possible that nothing was actually replaced, or could the problem be stemming from something that isn't on the logic board? A RAM diagnostic didn't turn up anything...

Answer 1

A computer's performance is affected by software or else hardware issues. If the memory chip isn't 'seated' right, hard drive speed or read capacity, whatever. Could be anything. In regards to software, there can be installation issues - people say that a fresh install with all-at-once updating has less problems than an install where you upgrade or "add" to another install. Same goes for updating after you add software applications - it is just more complex and less efficient. But there are so MANY ways to tune a computer. What about energy saving settings (vs "performance")? Also the more ikons you have on your desktop the more RAM is used. It is a learning curve you can begin by opening Activity Monitor. You want to watch how much RAM is used, disk activity, startup activities running in the background (display saver on or off?) and so on. CPU activity (and temperature) is a big indicator.
If you are hoping to someone here to post "one thing" that points to your concern, I doubt that will happen. Sometimes hardware is manufactured 2nd rate (the Seagate Drive issue from months back) and you MIGHT have a poor quality part in your machine. Not often though. Diagnosis takes time and patience. If you are in a hurry take heart in the fact that Macs have a great resell value and get rid of it / buy fresh, upgrade to the Santa Rosa - better video. (Or offer money & a trade for your GFs - maybe speed isn't as important to her).
If it were me I would try a fresh (erase) install & download all the updates at once. This is recommended by posters here. It is often posted that a new software update 'slows' a machine from prior to the update. I don't have an answer for why, except that the times I downloaded all-in-one updates I had less slowdown problems. It is a pain, though. And it may not 'fix' things. That's the reality of performance trouble-shooting, though. It's real life & it ain't fair.
Another way to go is to upgrade the performance through a new hard drive (7200 RPM).
Another thing to try is Opera / Firefox. I find Safari inconsistent - sometimes fast, next day slow. Opera and Firefox can really fly in comparison.
You are right to be annoyed. The logic of the situation is that a mass-manufactured unit should be measurably consistent (and it obviously isn't). The sad part is that these things can take so much effort to determine, it may not be worth your while to find out 'why'.