Mac vs PC - Benchmark and Speed Tests - PC versus Mac - Apple, Windows Reviews - Popular Mechanics This recent article is particularly remarkable for several reasons. First, it was authored by Popular Mechanics, not an outfit I consider a hotbed of Macophiles. Second, its findings gave the win to Macs not on the strength of the Mac OS, but on the strength of Apple's hardware. One thing people forget is that Apple was first and foremost a hardware company, but one that sees the hardware and software as inseparable components. I happen to strongly agree with that approach as providing the best overall user experience, both in usage and in support. Anyway, the truly amazing finding here is that an Apple computer of roughly the same specs in hardware as a PC actually runs Vista in a Boot Camp partition much faster than the PC does! Clearly, Apple knows how to fit the components together in a way that optimizes their separate abilities. Outside of that, Popular Mechanics found that Leopard, the new Mac OS, "trounces" Vista in speed across the board.