Wanted: stand for NeXT monitor

[Sean Caron]

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 <scaron at 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 <other at 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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>