The system comparison capabilities of Speedometer are one of the most useful and powerful parts of the program. The Analysis Window allows you to graphically compare the performance of your system with the performance of other systems. In addition, you can compare the performance of other systems with each other. This can be especially useful if you are thinking about buying new hardware and want to know how well it performs. Registered users of Speedometer will receive a Machine Record File which contains performance ratings for most of Apple's current machines.
The Window
The Analysis Window appears when you select the Analysis command from the Windows menu, or if you select Systems Comparison from the Analysis menu.
The window has four major areas: the Control Bar, the Graph, the Scale Controls and the Scroll Bar.
Control Bar
The Control Bar has five areas. From left to right, they are: System One Menu, System One Comment Box [?], System Two Menu, System Two Comment Box [?], and the Current File Box [*].
The two System Menus are popup menus that allow you to select which system you wish to display. Selecting This Machine displays the results for the machine you are testing.
The two Comment Boxes are popup displays which show the System Comment for the currently displayed system.
The Current File Box is a popup display which shows the name of the current Machine Record File.
Graph
The graph is split into two parts. The top portion displays results from the Performance Rating and from the Benchmark Mix. The bottom portion of the graph has its own scale and is used to display test results from the Color and FPU tests.
If you click on the graph bar for a particular test result, a small box will be displayed which shows the ratio of the value you clicked on vs. the value on the other side of the graph. For example, if you have a Classic displayed on the left and an FX on the right, clicking in the PR Rating for the FX might tell you that the FX score is 10.79 times that of the Classic, and if you click in the Classic's bar, you see that it is .09 times that of the FX.
Scale Controls
The + and - buttons at the lower left part of the screen are used to increase and decrease the scale of the graph. The central area displays the current scale range and acts as a popup menu to allow direct selection of a specific scale.
The Scroll Bar
On a large-screen Macintosh, you can see all of the Analysis Window at once so the scroll bar is inactive. If you are using a smaller monitor, such as that on a Classic or PowerBook, then the window is too small to display the entire graph. In this case, use the scroll bar to move up and down the display.
