Hi STEM nerds! I collect vintage computers and got curious, so I ran a couple of tests to see which one is better for the task. What’s that task, you ask? I’m running a fairly simple program where a dot goes up and explodes midway into a firework. Here’s what that looks like:

It’s going to be in QBasic so it’s capable of running on both machines! Plus, it’s lightweight and free if you want to try it yourself. QBasic is a programming language from Microsoft that started at Dartmouth college. It’s fairly simple and has tons of guidebooks out there! It’s widely regarded as the basis for modern languages. Here’s the code if that’s the case: Fireworks for QBasic If not, here’s how my testing went!

HYPOTHESIS

Before experimenting, I asked our iUP students and teachers what they thought would be our winner. Surprisingly, these were our results (a whopping 44 responses!):

Curious that 16% chose the 2006 PC. Some people have faith! iUP’s collective hypothesis, however, is that our modern laptop will run this program better.

I briefly spoke to Timothy Zhou, 8th grader, about why he decided to choose the vintage PC. His reasoning is actually pretty good. He said, “Because PCs are bigger, and have much more components than a laptop.” Furthermore, he argued, “Even if laptops are modern, the PC has much more capacity for more stuff. You can also modify it with better quality RAM, CPU, GPU, etc. Laptops are just small computers, and it’s just probably for some work.”

An anonymous respondent from the other side of the hypothesis stated, “Since it’s newer, it probably will be able to run it faster than a computer from 2 decades ago. I’ve used a laptop for my whole life and it runs things smoothly.”

JUDGING CRITERIA

Well, what is better? I’ll be testing in 5 areas:

Speed: Can the computer run this without going into overdrive?

Lag: Is the program running smoothly?

CPU Usage: Self-explanatory- which one uses less of the CPU?

Memory: Also self-explanatory- which one is using less memory?

Efficiency: Overall, which one is better suited for this program?

Let’s start testing!

Please keep in mind that with 15-20 years difference in technology, there’s a lot of difference. For example, my laptop has 2gHz of CPU and my modified Mac can only support up to 867MHz. 

LAPTOP

This is a modern DELL laptop. On it, all windows have been closed except for the software needed to test this project. The lag is visible when the fireworks explode, so, where does it fall in the judging criteria?

Speed: It’s running without my mouse moving every other second. Picture a child’s attempt at stop motion- that’s the lag I’ll be referring to. In theory, I can run something, like music, and it’d still function.

Lag: It runs smoothly until the fireworks explode, as I said before. There isn’t a reasonable measure of lag in numbers, but the explosions aren’t running smoothly.

CPU Usage: 10% of the CPU is being used! In comparison to other things, that’s a significant chunk. Putting that into perspective, 1/10 of the CPU is going into running old, lightweight software. That seems like a lot. I’m curious now, so let’s run software that came with the computer to show a comparison! On average, software that came with it took up ~4% of the CPU. Interesting…

Memory: Get ready to be SHOCKED. 50% of the memory is going into running this program.

Efficiency: I’m saving this one for comparison. This’ll come back in the end!

2006 PC

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for. The slow one, the underdog, the one with low faith bestowed upon (forgive my wording, I wanted a fun lead-up)… my vintage Mac! It’s a Power Mac G4 for those wondering. In all honesty, some pieces were upgraded, but a Mac can only support so much. I replaced the CPU because it was slow, and it still is. The CPU is now 867MHz! I’m not cheating, I promise! The hard drive also needed to be replaced but was only a slight upgrade. And, as you will see, the results are interesting!

Speed: You won’t believe this one. The mouse moves around smoothly, I can open other programs easily, etc. I’m actually shocked- it looks better than the PC.

Lag: I don’t think you’ll believe this one, either. 0 lag. Like none. The fireworks aren’t doing that laggy explosion where they move in slow frames like the laptop. Plus, the speed that the “rocket” shoots up isn’t set and depends entirely on how the computer chooses to run it. It’s not set in the programming. It shoots faster than an actual firework. For point of reference, my father has an insanely overpowered PC and the firework shoots up maybe a fraction faster than my Mac. However, the explosion is still significantly slower than his, as it is only maybe 12% faster than my other laptop.

CPU: Yes, everything above is probably too good to be true without a setback. I think this is a common thing with older computers. If they’ve sat with not much running while still being powered on, launching into software feels like a kick in the nose. Upon beginning the program, the CPU usage shot up from 2% to about 60%. Yikes. But fear not, those rooting for this unc of a PC! After adjusting, it lowered down to about 30% of the CPU being used. 

Memory: This one I feel doesn’t need a lead-up. It’s pretty expected that 15% of the memory went towards running this program.

Since I tried a comparison of software that came with the computer on the laptop, I think it’s only fair I try that here. 13% of the memory was used on average, and 10% for the CPU.

QUESTIONS THAT YOU MAY BE WONDERING

Before we get to the results, I think some questions may be running through your head.

What’s a CPU? Why’s it important and why are you bringing it up so often? The CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. I always saw it as the Core Processing Unit if that brings some more perspective into its importance. Everything going on inside of the computer that isn’t what’s on the screen, like pictures, is happening there.

MHz vs gHz? Megahertz is a unit below Gigahertz. It’s essentially the amount of storage the CPU has.

Why didn’t I use my dad’s PC? My dad’s PC wasn’t used because it’s entirely unreasonable for someone to have that as an accessible device (24 CPUs running at 4gHz) and wouldn’t be a good average result. I wanted to add this because the mention of it earlier provided perspective and I didn’t want it to seem like I was intentionally using a worse computer. That’s why the laptop was chosen- it’s a good average of all the typical home computers.

Why QBasic? It could be considered more fair because this particular language has an emulator for every computer. Therefore, newer hardware should, in theory, be running this with no problem- it’s old, it needs to work on old computers which have less capacity for other things.

What’s the relevance of this to my life? In all honesty, nobody’s forcing you to use a vintage computer in your day-to-day life. This isn’t a persuasive article in any intentions, I just became curious; however, I do think vintage computers could serve a purpose in our lives. It’s important to know where things came from, and interesting, too. We learn social studies to know how our society was formed and how world relations were developed. Vintage computers are the technological side of that for things like iPhones, AI, instant messaging, even iUP! Plus, it’s just cool to know that certain things from our past that we might not even know of can be useful for different types of projects.

Have any other questions? Fill out this google form! Questions on Vintage Stuff

CONCLUSION

This is the moment we’ve been waiting for… RESULTS. Yes, there’s the data up there, but what does it mean? It’s hard to say which one is better. So, here’s the efficiency category:

Vintage PC: VERY fast. This computer barely breaks a sweat running it at high speeds, but it doesn’t know to lower it. Likely the reason the CPU is so high but it runs so smoothly.

Laptop: Not as fast as you’d expect for room for 15-20 years of improvement. Does it run without breaking a sweat? Yes. Does it run fast? Not really. I don’t think this one knows to speed up, whereas the other one doesn’t know to slow down.

Personally, I feel that there’s no definite answer. Something I find interesting is the laptop I’m using is Windows and the Mac is, as the name suggests, Apple. QBasic is a property of Windows, so you’d assume the laptop would be better equipped for their own property. It shocks me that the results are so hard to find a definite winner from. Interesting because computers were simpler when hardware considered vintage came out, so the software had to be less complicated. It’s odd to think that older software that undoubtedly has WAY less components runs slower on modern devices. 

Also note on the vintage PC there was a lot of visible lag when opening all of the programs I tested even though the computer’s statistics showed it was less power.

In conclusion, I’d call it a tie! The laptop is more hardware-efficient, but the PC runs it faster and looks better, plus doesn’t cause visible performance issues. Only until you check the percentages do you raise an eyebrow. That doesn’t happen for the laptop- quite the opposite. So, the laptop leaves more room for other things to run, but while the PC is objectively less capable of running the same amount of programs along with the testing software, it runs more smoothly and would serve better if the sole intention of running the program was for your entertainment and not as a screensaver, for example. So, next time the programming bug bites, consider trying it out on a vintage PC or doing some research into how vintage PCs work! You may just unlock a new hobby and take that seemingly useless peace of metal out of the basement!