Are PCs slower than Macs? – Are Macs faster than PCs? – Are Windows computers slower than Macs?

Macs are faster than PCs, right?  If you have a Mac and a PC, which wins the speeds test?  Which one is faster to your email, Internet pages, and photos?  Maybe it’s your Mac?

Let’s back up for a moment.  As always, we must compare apples to apples to have a fair test to see if Macs are actually faster than PCs.  If you have the latest generation iMac going up against a PC with an Intel core 3rd generation processor, well, that’s not a fair fight.

So, let’s just assume that your Mac and PC are running exactly the same processors, RAM speeds, hard drive speeds, and all the rest of the peripherals are at precisely the same levels of speed.  Let’s also assume you are always connecting to the same wireless router and both computers are the same distance away.  Lastly, we must assume that the PC or Mac doesn’t have a failing hard drive, computer virus, or any other computer issue that may give the other an unfair advantage.

The boot up speed test.  We measured how long it took for not just the computer to boot up, but for all start-up programs to run also.  Don’t think this was lopsided as we just ran the speed test with a brand new iMac and comparable specs on a brand new PC.  No extra software was added.  Winner:  Mac at 15.9 seconds.  The PC booted up at 32 seconds!

Shutdown test.  Mac won again, shutting down at only 3 seconds while the PC took a slow 34 seconds.  Yes, background programs on the PC got clogged up, slowing down the process.

Software install speed test.  It took Microsoft Office 3 minutes and 25 seconds to install on the Mac and a slower 5 minutes and 10 seconds on the PC.  A little lopsided so far indeed.

Based on the boot up, shutdown, and software install speeds tests, we can rule the Mac the clear winner here in terms of being faster.