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Apple’s new MacBook Pros benchmarked: The performance increase is amazing

Friday, February 25, 2011 · 11:01 am · 26 Comments

“Even though Apple’s new MacBook Pros look like the old MacBook Pros, there’s a lot that’s new and exciting under the hood, like a completely new peripheral interface (Thunderbolt) and the new AMD GPUs. What I’m most excited about are the new Sandy Bridge processors (especially now that Apple finally has a quad-core laptop),” Primate Labs reports.

“What I was curious to know, though, was how fast are these new processors? How much of a performance benefit do the Sandy Bridge processors bring to the MacBook Pro lineup? I grabbed Geekbench 2 scores from the Geekbench Result Browser for the current- and previous-generation MacBook Pro models in order to answer that question,” Primate Labs reports.

“The performance of the new MacBook Pros is amazing,” Primate Labs reports. “The slowest MacBook Pro performs on par with the fastest previous-generation MacBook Pro, and the fastest MacBook Pro is 80% faster than the fastest previous-generation MacBook Pro.”

Full article, with the various benchmarks, here.

Categories: News

Tags: Benchmarks, macbook pro, sandy bridge, Thunderbolt

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Comment Feed

26 Comments

Bream Rockmetteller

Friday, February 25, 2011 - 11:20 am · Reply

So, that makes the slowest new MBP about 20 times faster than my 6-year-old MBP. Might be time to upgrade…
Markus Winter

Friday, February 25, 2011 - 11:26 am · Reply

Not quite accurate – the speed increase is only that much if your app supports multiple cores, and then the jump from two to four cores will give you an 80% increase (some is lost on overhead). Most “normal” apps will see nowhere near these speed increases.
SamLowry

Friday, February 25, 2011 - 11:31 am · Reply

there were no MBPs in 2005.
- solid
  
  Friday, February 25, 2011 - 12:39 pm · Reply
  
  C’mon Sam be nice. I’m sure Bream knows that a 6 year old Apple Pro Notebook was called the Powerbook G4 back then.
anaknipedro

Friday, February 25, 2011 - 11:39 am · Reply

What kind of speed book will I see from my 1st gen MacBook Core Duo? I want I want. But I’ll wait for the iMacs and the iPad 2. I think that combo would be better for my needs.
- Spark
  
  Friday, February 25, 2011 - 11:03 pm · Reply
  
  I’ve run Geekbench on my 15″ MB Pro using the first of the Intel processors: the Core 2 (no Duo) @ 2.16GHz.
  It scores 2863.
  The new 15″ with i7 @2.3GHz scores 9886
  
  Would I like a new MB Pro that is almost 400% faster than the one I now own? Yep. But my 4 year old MBP still runs like a champ, is paid for, and rarely leaves me wishing it was faster. Looks like I can wait for at least one more upgrade cycle.
anaknipedro

Friday, February 25, 2011 - 11:40 am · Reply

…speed boost…
Al

Friday, February 25, 2011 - 11:41 am · Reply

I cannot wait for the Sandybridge processors to find their way into the MB Air’s. That’s when I’ll make the investment!
- itanibro
  
  Friday, February 25, 2011 - 11:51 am · Reply
  
  Agreed.
  
  I was a little disappointed that the new MBP’s did not follow the Air’s design mantra. Apple called the Air the “new generation of MB’s”…perhaps it will be next year.
  - MikeK
    
    Friday, February 25, 2011 - 11:58 am · Reply
    
    Doubtful, It will “be” whenever Apple decides to eliminate optical drives altogether. Until then, we are stuck with 1″ thick MBP’s.
Ballmer's left nut

Friday, February 25, 2011 - 11:54 am · Reply

Show me some Sandy Bridge love for the iMac, Apple. I’m waiting for that and the iPad 2. Plus a MacBook Air with Sandy Bridge processors. I like to be ultra mobile when I’m out and about.
- Maddan
  
  Saturday, February 26, 2011 - 5:54 pm · Reply
  
  It’s a little early for Sandy Bridge iMacs, April might be a good guess. Sandy Bridge Mac Minis might follow by mid-year but they probably won’t have Thunderbolt. Sandy Bridge runs a lot hotter than the Core 2 Duos in the MacBook Airs so there won’t be any Sandy Bridge love there until that problem is solved.
Old Crow

Friday, February 25, 2011 - 11:57 am · Reply

Well my 2.33 MBP 15inch has served me well for over four years, and most of the time in Africa (many countries).
Upsides are: No viruses (I have Kaperskey to keep from passing viruses thru to Windows machines)
Works with every projector I have come across.
Performs well in high temps and dusty conditions.
Very reliable for field work (Darfur ect)
Snappy for an aging notebook, only upgrade was adding ram. Had two batteries replaces by Applecare and travel with a spare battery, two power supplies (fried one in Nigeria last year) and two video cables.

Looking at buying the new 13inch MBP.
- omalansky
  
  Friday, February 25, 2011 - 3:08 pm · Reply
  
  My 12″ powerbook G4, which is nearly six years old and has also spent alot of time in hot, dusty conditions, still runs like a champ. One can only hope that the latest crop of Apple laptops will be as rugged and reliable as many older Mac laptops have been.
  
  Regarding the new 13″ MBP: I see that the base model (2.3GHz i5) is as fast as the previous 15″ 2.8GHz i7, and the new 2.7GHz i7 is significantly faster. Meanwhile, an 8GB RAM upgrade has never been cheaper. What all this adds up to is that the new 13″ MBP is by far the most awesome machine of this size that Apple has ever produced.
  - kingmel
    
    Friday, February 25, 2011 - 11:48 pm · Reply
    
    I have a 12″ PowerBook G4 1.5GHz, and mine is still working, too. I did replace the HDD and the battery, but that is to be expected for an older notebook. It still runs well enough with Mac OS 10.5 to serve as a homework computer and general purpose browsing and internet games. How many PC notebooks of that age are still productive?
    
    I also have a (now last generation) MacBook Pro 15″ i7. It replaced a desktop at work and is quite powerful. If you factor in the improved graphics on the new high-end MacBook Pros on top of the CPU improvements, the performance must be truly impressive!
islandgirl45

Friday, February 25, 2011 - 12:24 pm · Reply

How is the heat factor on the new 15 inch and 17 inch quad-core i7s? I know it’s early, but wondered if anyone has any experience with that yet.
- solid
  
  Friday, February 25, 2011 - 12:42 pm · Reply
  
  Islandgirl, your boyfriend will be sterile in a couple weeks with those quad cores nuking his junk. Me, I don’t need any more kids, burn away MBP!
- Jax44
  
  Friday, February 25, 2011 - 5:43 pm · Reply
  
  Could be warmer:
  http://www.cultofmac.com/ifixits-2011-macbook-pro-teardown-better-repairability-but-may-be-prone-to-overheating/83649
TheMacAdvocate

Friday, February 25, 2011 - 12:34 pm · Reply

Do people still need to point out that when Geekbench says “80% faster”, it doesn’t mean “every function of the OS is 80% faster”?
- md8mac
  
  Friday, February 25, 2011 - 12:43 pm · Reply
  
  If they take it out of context as you did (totally) here, the answer is, “Yes.”
- judith
  
  Friday, February 25, 2011 - 12:59 pm · Reply
  
  A given, just like 80% more testosterone does not make you 80% faster, stronger, or lasting longer.
  - omalansky
    
    Friday, February 25, 2011 - 3:11 pm · Reply
    
    Could the adolescents please go back to their video games and leave this discussion to people who actually have something to say?
  - Spark
    
    Friday, February 25, 2011 - 10:53 pm · Reply
    
    It made me balder.
- Maddan
  
  Saturday, February 26, 2011 - 6:29 pm · Reply
  
  Only having Intel HD integrated graphics in the 13 inch model is the same kind of crap found in commodity PCs. I hope Apple doesn’t make the same mistake when they put Sandy Bridge in the Mac Mini because they should then lower the Mac Mini price at least $200!
Dave Stephens

Friday, February 25, 2011 - 5:42 pm · Reply

Adults? On MacDailyNews? LOL
Snapper

Saturday, February 26, 2011 - 6:32 am · Reply

I use the 15 inch MBP as my workhorse… the new one is finishes geekbench at 9886. Last years Quad core Mac Pro 3.2ghz was 9968.
These laptops are crazy fast!!