Results and Benchmarks
Important note: the below benchmark results are comparing the hackintosh that I built in October 2010 with the current generation Mac Pro. However, the newer hackintosh components that I’m now recommending are much faster, scoring well over 10,000 (in the teens) — depending on which build you choose, your scores should be 15,000+. For a price-performance comparison these old results are still useful though and I didn’t feel like redoing the images; today, the new machine trounces ye olde Mac Pro even more thoroughly.
Let’s take a look at some benchmarks, so we can measure our hackintosh against the Mac Pro. Geekbench is a program that measures CPU and memory speed — note that it does NOT take into account GPU acceleration, which is one of our largest advantages over the “real” Mac Pro (if you’re going to be using Adobe video applications and other programs like DaVinci Resolve). You can find the top scores of all Macs tested with Geekbench, including $10,000 12-core machines, here. There are some ridiculously high scores there, but keep in mind there are also some ridiculously high-priced machines — the top machine costs well over six grand. So let’s take a look at the range of scores that includes the current $2,500 Mac Pro model. Higher numbers are better. How does the NoFilmSchool Hackintosh compare to a machine that costs twice as much?
That’s 20% faster performance at 50% the price. On top of this, if you follow this guide today, the machine you’re building should be significantly faster, since I’ve updated the guide to recommend the latest Intel processors. Plus, this isn’t even taking into account the nVidia GPU, which will accelerate Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 to the tune of ten times faster (later on, we’ll see benchmarks to prove that, too).
Again, the current machines are at least 50% faster than the example graphic above. With overclocking, in fact, I was able to make this old computer take fifth on the entire list — above the 6-core 3.33 GHz 2010 Mac Pro, which retails for $3,500 (more than twice the price of our Hac Pro). However, after doing some reading about how processor temperatures affect longevity, and facing the undeniable truth that “overclocking by definition reduces the useful lifetime of any CPU,” I decided against overclocking my machine. For my own purposes, I could only detect the performance difference between the overclocked CPU and the stock version through benchmarking applications and After Effects render times; I’d rather have a computer that lasts several years instead of one that runs marginally faster and dies an early death. However, once you’ve built the machine, it’s simply a BIOS setting — you could certainly overclock it for certain times, and leave it running at stock speed the rest of the time.
There are a lot of hackers out there who overclock their machine to the extent of running a 2.8Ghz processor at 4.2GHz, but their goal is to get fast benchmark scores. Our goal is to create stuff with our machine, and in that regard, stability and longevity are more important to us than they are to your average hacker. Still — once you’ve built it, it’s up to you.
Now, Geekbench isn’t the only benchmarking utility out there, but it’s sort of the “main” one. I could run a lot of others, and I’ve tried a few. In the future I might sift through these results and post them here if anyone wants more results. But quite frankly, I could care less about the benchmark scores. All I know is this machine works, and rather than run a dozen tests, I’ve been putting it to good use. I recommend you do the same.
Before we go any further, let’s compare the components of our hackintosh with that of the stock Mac Pro.
44 COMMENTS
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To my knowledge, you can’t. But you can get a high-end Intel chip and get close to the same performance. If you need dual processors and are going to spend that much money, I’d suggest the real thing…
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Charles Rudolph on 04.4.11 @ 5:27PM
To run a dual cpu with intel’s X-58 chipset i would go with the EVGA Classified SR-2 (retail $580) which can run 1366 xeon and 48GB of ram…i would love to see that as a hackintosh :)
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bArT on 10.30.10 @ 8:45PM
can you make cinebench 11.5 test? thanx in advance
http://www.maxon.net/downloads/cinebench/cinebench-115.html -
an you make cinebench 11.5 test? thanx in advance
http://www.maxon.net/downloads/cinebench/cinebench-115.htmlReply
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kicap on 01.16.11 @ 3:34PM
What about an equivalent LCD screen that can perform as good as Apple LED Cinema Display?
Since we are already building Hackintosh, might as well get an equivalent screen right?
What are you using with your hackintosh?
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I’ve got a 24″ Dell 1920×1200 monitor. Same resolution as a Cinema Display, a bit cheaper…
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Yep.. the Famous Apple Cinema Display is another case of Apple charging a lot for the looks…. ……. even running a pro-end broadcast edit suite.. you DO NOT need a cinema display. A well calibrated Dell will be fine, and when it comes to colour correction and testing for Broadcast – you aren’t going to be relying on a Cinema Display in any event.
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you can buy the cinema displays for pretty cheap, just to get that much closer to having a real mac, but i would just go with a sony bravia to get your best bang for the buck, you could hook up everything to it
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Those Geekbench scores are rather low. For a few bucks you can build Hackintoshs now that go for 12500-15000 Geekbench. Also Cinebench and Novabench are both much better than Geekbench.
Overclocking will not reduce your CPU lifetime if you do not up the volts. High volts and high heat degrade the CPU not pure MHZ.
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Those geekbench scores are from when I built my machine several months ago — the currents ones in this guide should be faster.
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Danny on 07.8.12 @ 10:25AM
mhz does cause an increase in heat transistors are effiecent at turn off or on … the switching between states disapates the most power
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David Petree on 05.6.11 @ 5:56PM
OK, I need some assistance. I have built everything per your guide, i am up and running great. Same specs as in this blog
I7-950
12 gigs of ram
GTX-465
SSD HDAnd it seems fast, but i just ran a benchmark test, and i got a total of 2813
As in your screenshot above, here are my 4 scores
1956
3471
2835
3465Please tell me what i did wrong or where i have to tweak it to get the results as in your screenshot
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David Petree on 05.9.11 @ 9:50AM
Can either of you two guys assist me? Please read the post below this one. I am getting low scores and i build basically the same machine. Here is my latest Score after enabling all the CPU Core stuff.
http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/408591
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Strange, very strange. The i7-950 should be FASTER than mine, not slower…
Did you guys use iBoot/Multibeast with the correct DSDT from the database?
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David on 05.9.11 @ 2:33PM
I did use iBoot/Multibeast…I think i used the correct DST. DO you have any suggestions on how i can go back and apply it again?
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Download the latest MultiBeast, latest DSDT, and try the kext again, then restart.
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yah so I was really getting into this whole deal and i told my parents,and they think its a good idea, but my brother told me that its super glitchy and you need drivers and its not worth it.
I just want to know if this is true with your hackintosh build because he swayed me more into going with windows 7.
DOES IT WORK WITHOUT DRIVERS AND BEING GLITCHY
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Mine runs fine, no glitches.
That said — what you’re doing is building a Windows PC and installing Mac OS X on it. There’s nothing to stop you from also running Windows… you can run both and use whichever you like most.
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dude thanks i feel so much better. Im definitely going to stick with your build then
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just to make sure 100%, will i need to install any drivers at all, or have to deal with problems if I stick with ur guide
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Hi, I’ve just finished assembling the hardware for hac pro, but when I turn it on the fans just spin for a second then stop, then a short pause, then fans spin for a second again, repeatedly – nothing shows on screen and it doesn’t seem to get to bios or anything like that. Any troubleshooting ideas?
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cappy on 11.10.11 @ 2:46PM
Hey David. I’m having the same trouble except the system and cpu fan does not spin at all. No Bios or anything comes up on the screen? Were you able to solve this? Anyone have any ideas as how i screwed this up?
hardware: intel i7-2600k, gtx-460, GIGABYTE GA-Z68MX-UD2H-B3, Corsair Vengeance Blue 16 GB ram
I tested the psu and it works independently. thanks for anyone trying to help.
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editjeff on 08.15.11 @ 9:16AM
Hey Koo, just finished building my HacPro per your list with a few differences… Put a Nvidia GTX285 (used from ebay) in my machine and used a 120GB OWC SSD 6Gbps and went with a Sony Optiarc Bluray burner. Install went well, ran geekbench 32-bit test and got a 11805 score. Just need to figure out how to shut down hacpro from osx instead of reboot. Thanks a bunch.
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Yeti on 08.23.11 @ 7:17PM
hey there Koo!!!
Just wanted to say a massive thanks for this guide…finally typing up on my 10.6.8 hackintosh…
Took me a while to save for the parts, just as i got everything together, you updated to Lion!Ah well, the video card was a pain (GTX 470 AMP) but it turned out all i needed was some fresh bios and a clean install.
Again thanks, i’ve always been interested in hackintosh builds but yours was hands down the easiest to follow…
Now to show Cinema4D what this beast is made of ;)-
dangunn on 09.11.11 @ 11:29PM
I am having a TERRIBLE time getting my 470 to work. What BIOS are you running?
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Yeti on 09.16.11 @ 6:38PM
i think i updated to FF if my memory serves me right… the only other thing i did was use a custom DSDT from the database on tonymacx86.com…
I literally gave up until i did this, my mind was completely destroyed with it yet with one last push did the above. Works a treat now, only problem is you dont get HDMI outta the box… you have to do some editing for that.
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Does anybody have geekbench scores from the current NoFilmSchool Hac Pro amazon list? http://amzn.to/nkMfJN
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Unless you insist on FCP, what is the obsession with Mac in the first place? I’ve been successfully running a hackintosh for about a year now, but I only built it to handle clients in my music recording studio who bring in Mac hardrives. When editing my own video or audio post for others, I always boot to my Windows 7 partition with PP CS5. The Nvidia drivers come quicker and more easily on the PC side too.
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August Anderson on 10.11.12 @ 1:30AM
Some of us just prefer Mac OS. It’s also more universal in the media world, at least when you reach a certain level.
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With the upcoming IVY Bridge processors we can achieve better benchmark scores with lower cost.
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Nick on 02.1.12 @ 12:38PM
I found these results on Geek Bench’s site:
http://browse.geekbench.ca/user/subaru_highlander/geekbench2
Apparently this person’s Hackintosh is doing almost double your setup. How can we find this person to get their system specs???
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paul on 10.2.12 @ 5:50PM
i would love to have a faster machine (who would not) but my year old iMac gets a 20-30% higher geek bench score (between 12000 and 14000 depending on how many apps are running)….available now refurb for 1800…and that includes a 27″ display….
the bottleneck with imacs was always drive speed and expansion but with TB this is all in the past….i get 600mb/sec read/writes on my pegasus raid (which cost as much as the iMac but 12TB is 12TB…)….-
The score in the image is from my old machine. The new ones are much higher.
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Mike T. on 10.24.12 @ 12:04AM
Koo – What is the geekbench score for your NEWEST Hac Pro build? And be honest – have you had ANY issues running Final Cut or Adobe products since you go the machine up and running?
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Omar on 11.23.12 @ 2:22AM
You mention having an advantage for DaVinci Resolve users, but will this build even work with Resolve?
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Peter G on 12.8.12 @ 8:40PM
Just wish to thank you, Koo for your hard work in putting this together for us; I certainly hope you might provide any updated info that you believe will be useful to us who haven’t begun the build just yet. 2013 is upon us and I’d like to think that by now, some significant advances have taken place (e.g., Thunderbolt available on a couple of ASUS motherboards, etc., etc) that should really make Hackintosh builders salivate.
But for now, can anyone (or you, Koo) provide some simple steps for getting HDMI out from motherboards (and graphic cards) to work, on an Intel i7 2600K machine? Any reference links would be helpful and appreciated. TIA, and Merry Christmas to all.
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Marcus Pun on 02.13.13 @ 6:12PM
The only reason to build a HackMac is to use FCPX or FCP 7. and Smoke. that’s about it. Everything else can run nicely on Windows 7. Still, like the idea of making the tax dodging heads in Cupertino explode warms my “I didn’t buy a Mac I made my own hi perf PC for half the price” heart.
Hi,
Do u have any information it is possible to make 2x Intel Core i7 to make 8core hakintosh?
Which matherboard use?
Thanks in advance for reply
bArT