Again, Call of Duty was 26 percent (7 frames per second) faster on the older Nvidia-powered 13-inch model.
The new system was 36 percent faster in our iTunes test and 28 percent faster in our Handbrake test. The 13-inch 2.7GHz Core i7 MacBook Pro’s improvement was less dramatic, scoring only a 13-percent gain over the model it replaces, a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo system. Our Handbrake test finished 47 percent faster on the newer system than on the one it replaces. The biggest leap was in our iTunes AAC-to-MP3 encoding test, which was 57 percent faster on the new system. The lower game performance will probably be seen by many as a reasonable price to pay for the increased performance found in other applications. The new system was faster at just about everything, except for our Call of Duty tests, which was only able to display 26 frames per second versus the 33 frames displayed by the older model with Nvidia graphics. Overall, the new entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro, with a Speedmark 6.5 score of 141 was 35 percent faster than the 106 score by the 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo model it replaces. With the processor, cache, graphics, and memory controller all residing on the same die, these Core i5 and Core i7 processors helped propel the new MacBook Pros well past their predecessors in CPU performance.ġ5″ MacBook Pro 2.66GHz Core i7 dual-coreġ7″ MacBook Pro 2.53GHz Core i5 dual-coreġ3″ MacBook Air 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo (256GB SSD)
Intel Core i series processors (known by the code-name Sandy Bridge), are found inside every new MacBook Pro. What we can test is the effect the new processors and graphics have on performance. Thunderbolt-equipped products have been announced, but they are have not started shipping, so unfortunately, we are unable to test the speed of the Thunderbolt connection in this round of testing. The port looks like the Mini DisplayPort and you can still connect a LED Cinema Display or Mini DisplayPort adapter, but you’ll also be able to connect up to six peripheral devices, such as hard drives. It’s now the Thunderbolt port, a new technology that Intel developed with input from Apple. The only external clue to any changes comes in the form of a tiny icon near what was the Mini DisplayPort connector. All MacBook Pros have 4GB of 1333MHz DDR3 memory.
The $2499 17-inch model has the same specs as the $2199 15-inch model. The $1799 configuration sports a 2GHz quad-core Core i7 processor, a 5400-rpm 500GB drive, and a discrete AMD Radeon HD 6490M graphics processor with 256MB of GDDR5 video memory, while the $2199 offering features a 2.2GHz quad-core Core i7 processor, a 5400-rpm 750GB drive, and a discrete AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics processor with 1GB of GDDR5 video memory. Both 15-inch models come with Intel’s integrated HD Graphics 3000. The 13-inch models come with Intel’s integrated HD Graphics 3000, and either a 2.3GHz dual-core Core i5 processor and a 5400-rpm 320GB hard drive for $1199, or a 2.7GHz dual-core Core i7 processor with a 5400-rpm 500GB hard drive for $1499. The new lineup consists of two 13-inch models, two 15-inch models (down from three in the previous generation) and one 17-inch model. In testing conducted by Macworld Lab, the laptops released Thursday turned in Speedmark scores between 13 and 53 percent faster than the systems they replace.Īpple overhauled its MacBook Pro offerings with new processors, new graphics, and a new peripheral connector.
The benchmark results for Apple’s latest MacBook Pros are in-and they’re impressive.