Casual MacBook vs. PowerBook encoding benchmark

I just performed a quick and dirty speed test to see how fast my (wife's) new MacBook is at video encoding.

MacBook
1.83GHz Intel Core Duo
512MB RAM

PowerBook G4
1.25GHz PowerPC G4
2GB RAM

Both systems were rebooted and AirPort and Bluetooth were turned off. I let them sit there for a few minutes to allow for background processes to load and everything to settle down. Then, I opened an identical 110MB QuickTime file (3:02 running time, H.264 format), and using both hands for simultaneous kickoff, started converting them to iPod format.

The MacBook completed the task in roughly 3 minutes. The PowerBook took roughly 11.

Impressive.