[general_re]

Although just for the record, a G4 Mac is typically about double the speed of a Pentium IV with the same clock speed.

It most certainly is not, and I highly doubt you can find reputable benchmarks to support such a claim.

[HAL9000]

It most certainly is not

I think the 2:1 ratio is about right. The PowerPC is more efficient - it gets about as much work done in one clock cycle as a Pentium does in two cycles.

There are a couple of other factors to consider -

Modern Macs have Quartz Extreme, which greatly improves video performance. Windows won't have a similar hardware acceleration architecture until Longhorn is released, at the earliest.

Some Mac software uses the G4/G5 vector processing units which will easily outperform Pentium software running at much higher speeds.

[Andy from Beaverton]