Totally at a loss . . . .

Question

Yesterday, after much angst, Apple replaced my faulty dual core 2.3 ghz G5 with a brand new Mac Pro 2x2.8 ghz dual quad core. I added two more sticks of Apple RAM (ouch). So the computer has 4 gigs of RAM. I ran Xbench 3.1 on the MacPro, and it was slow compared to other like machines - LIKE HALF AS SLOW. Here are the results for the new machine:
Results 68.90
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.4 (9E17)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacPro3,1
Drive Type WDC WD3200AAJS-41VWA0
CPU Test 63.26
GCD Loop 234.21 12.35 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 48.70 1.16 Gflop/sec
AltiVec Basic 476.70 19.00 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 22.54 743.73 Mflop/sec
Floating Point Library 128.45 22.37 Mops/sec
Thread Test 104.81
Computation 874.89 17.72 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 55.74 2.40 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 108.52
System 84.76
Allocate 55.96 205.51 Kalloc/sec
Fill 71.79 3490.47 MB/sec
Copy 278.29 5747.87 MB/sec
Stream 150.78
Copy 153.82 3177.13 MB/sec [altivec]
Scale 150.66 3112.51 MB/sec [altivec]
Add 150.20 3199.57 MB/sec [altivec]
Triad 148.54 3177.55 MB/sec [altivec]
Quartz Graphics Test 98.71
Line 123.64 8.23 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 99.97 29.85 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 95.18 7.76 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 107.75 2.72 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 78.27 4.90 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 144.42
Spinning Squares 144.42 183.21 frames/sec
User Interface Test 28.20
Elements 28.20 129.42 refresh/sec
My later model MacBook with just two gigs of ram blew the big boy away:
Results 141.70
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.4 (9E17)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBook2,1
Drive Type ST9120822AS
CPU Test 131.46
GCD Loop 253.78 13.38 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 114.72 2.73 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 97.55 3.22 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 132.98 23.16 Mops/sec
Thread Test 186.85
Computation 177.38 3.59 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 197.40 8.49 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 121.77
System 132.75
Allocate 158.56 582.29 Kalloc/sec
Fill 120.32 5850.04 MB/sec
Copy 125.30 2588.08 MB/sec
Stream 112.48
Copy 102.37 2114.43 MB/sec
Scale 109.42 2260.51 MB/sec
Add 125.87 2681.24 MB/sec
Triad 114.80 2455.86 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 151.83
Line 132.65 8.83 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 184.38 55.05 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 150.81 12.29 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 149.13 3.76 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 150.75 9.43 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 303.12
Spinning Squares 303.12 384.53 frames/sec
User Interface Test 239.71
Elements 239.71 1.10 Krefresh/sec
Does anyone have an idea what's going on? These results make absolutely no sense.
I talked to an Apple Tech, and he said there might be a setting somewhere that is turning off one of the processors to save energy. I can't find anything like that. Any help would be appreciated.
Do I have a bum new machine?! Thanks in advance.
Marc Weinberg

Answer 1

I really don't give much weight to Xbench. It hasn't been updated since 10.3.3 even.
Mac towers
http://www.barefeats.com/harper.html
http://www.barefeats.com/harper7.html
iMac
http://www.barefeats.com/imp02.html
Graphics maybe?
http://www.barefeats.com/harper10.html
One of the easiest ways to have trouble, slow performance is migrating from G5 to Intel Mac Pro which will lead to sluggish molasses.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=435350&tstart=0
Sorry you paid Apple premium, you can do much better with 3rd party RAM.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory
Highest bandwidth comes from filling the DIMM slots
http://www.barefeats.com/harper3.html