The dual quad-core 2.8 GHz Mac Pro is moving well ahead of the PowerMac G5 quad core 2.5 GHz system (PowerPC 970) in both CPU and graphics performance, according to Bill Fox at Macs Only! on Monday. The Mac Pro scored 40.5 gigaflops on the Fractal test.

The Fractal, Cinebench, Xbench, file duplication, and Quake and Halo frame rate benchmarks were published. Since the PowerMac G5 was running Tiger, the benchmarks were not exactly on the same footing, but those differences can be expected to be small compared to the factors of two and three obtained in the benchmarks. More important was the eight core vs four core comparison and how the benchmarks were able to exploit that difference.

Most notable were the Cinebench rendering, OpenGL hardware Lighting, CPU threading, and Quake II frame rate improvements. For comparison, a 2.4 GHz C2D MacBook Pro was also compared, and it compared well with the PMG5 except for the Fractal test.

The upgrades Apple and Intel have made to the Mac Pro have been incremental. The original Mac Pro didnit embarrass the older PMG5 -- which has a very strong IBM PPC970 CPU. Nowadays, however, the older four core PPC system is really showing its age and the eight core Intel Mac Pros are pulling strongly ahead of the older, but highly regarded PMG5.