Low End Mac's Online Tech Journal

Macintosh MHz Speed Chart, 1984-2003

Dan Knight - 2003.02.18, updated

The three tables below are not exhaustive - for instance, they don't show any notebooks. What they attempt to do is illustrate the fastest and slowest Macs on the market from January 1984 to the present. These tables only reflect CPU speed; they take no account of the differences in processor efficiency.

In terms of overall efficiency, today's CPUs are about eight times as efficient as the 68000 in the first Macs, which makes the dual 1.42 GHz Power Mac G4 approximately 2,500 times as powerful as that first Macintosh in 1984. (Apologies in advance for the small type we had to use to get this to fit the page.)

Since 2002

     2002        2003        2004        2005        2006        2007        2008        2009        2010        2011        2012
     000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111  
     123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012
 Intel CPUs
3000                                                          Mac Pro 
2333                                                         iMac Core 2 
2000                                                 iMac Core Duo 
1833                                                         iMac Core Duo 
1500                                                 Mac mini core solo 
 PowerPC CPUs
2700                                        G5/2.7 GHz  
2500                              G5/2.5 GHz  
2000                  G5/2.0 GHz 
1800                                iMac G5/1.8 GHz 
1420              G4/1.42 GHz Mac mini
1250         G4/1.25 GHz
1000  G4/1 GHz   G4 iMac 1GHz
     000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111  
     123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012
     2002        2003        2004        2005        2006        2007        2008        2009        2010        2011        2012

1993-2003

     1993        1994        1995        1996        1997        1998        1999        2000        2001        2002        2003
     000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111  
     123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012
1420                                                                                                                          G4/1.42 GHz 
1250                                                                                                                     G4/1.25 GHz 
1000                                                                                                              G4/1 GHz   G4 iMac 1GHz 
 867                                                                                                       G4/867 
 800                                                                                                               G4 iMac/800->
 733                                                                                                   G4/733 
 700                                                                                                       iMac/700 G4 iMac/700 
 600                                                                                                  iMac/600----------------->
 533                                                                                                  G4/533 
 500                                                                                      G4/500 iMac/500--
 450                                                                                 G4/450 iMac/450--|
 450                                                                              B&W G3/450 
 400                                                                         B&W G3/400 iMac/400-----------|
 350                                                        9600/350                  iMac/350--------|
 333                                                                    G3/333  iMac/333 
 300                                                               G3/300 
 266                                                           G3/266         iMac/266 
 233                                                  9600/233 G3/233   iMac/233 
 200                                            9500/200 
 150                                        9500/150 
 132                             9500/132------|
 110                       8100/110-|
  80               8100/80---7100/80--|
  75                             6200/75 
  66               7100/66---6100/66--|
  60               6100/60---|
  40      Quadra 840av|
  33 Mac IIvx|         Q.630----|
  25  C.650---Quadra 605----->
  20  C.610---|
  16 Classic II 
     000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111  
     123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012
     1993        1994        1995        1996        1997        1998        1999        2000        2001        2002        2003

1984-1994

     1984        1985        1986        1987        1988        1989        1990        1991        1992        1993        1994
     000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111  
     123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012
  40                                                                           Mac IIfx-----------------|              Quadra 840av|
  33                                                                                                    Quadra 950-----------------------
  33                                                                                                          Mac IIvx---|         Q.630-
  25                                                                                              Quadra 700------C.650---Quadra 605-----
  25                                                                     Mac IIci---------------------------------|
  20                                                                                  Mac IIsi--------------------C.610---|
  16                                                               Mac IIcx----|
  16                                       Mac II------------Mac IIx------------------Mac LC----------LC II-------Color Classic--|
  16                                                              Mac SE/30----------|            Classic II--------------|
   8                                       Mac SE-----------------------|             Classic-----------------|
   8 128K-----------------|  Plus----------------------------------------------------|
   8          512K----------- 512Ke------------|
     000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111000000000111  
     123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012123456789012
     1984        1985        1986        1987        1988        1989        1990        1991        1992        1993        1994

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Links for the Day

• Mac of the Day: 15" MacBook Pro Core Duo, Jan. 2006 - The first Intel-based MacBook launched at 1.83-2.0 GHz, had several teething problems.
• Group of the Day: PowerBooks covers pre-G3 PowerBook users.
  
• March 15 in LEM history: 00: AOL 5.0 - 01: A Quadra after all these years - Setting up a floppy server - 02: Trade-ins could grow Apple's market - Upgrading an old G3 - 04: Lombard CPU upgrades - 05: Cleaning your Mac's hard drive - 06: 2.7 GHz dual G5 or 2.3 GHz dual-core G5? - MySQL and PostgreSQL - 07: Making floppies for older Macs
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