New vs Old: MacBook Pro Benchmarks compare the Core 2 Duo 13″, Core i5/i7 15″ and 17″ models

Apr 19, 2010 - 15 Comments

This chart displays the GeekBench scores of the new 2010 MacBook Pro models versus each other and the older 2009 models they replaced.

new macbook pro benchmarks

As you can see from the scores, the MacBook Pro Core i5 and i7 models really blow away their predecessors, while the MacBook Pro 13″ model with it’s Core 2 Duo processor gets a smaller bump in the benchmarks.

This is in line with earlier MacBook Pro benchmarks showing the 50% performance gain when moving from the Core 2 Duo chips to the Core i7.

The above chart was put together by PrimateLabs, who notes the following (emphasis mine):

It’s no surprise the new laptops are faster. It’s interesting to note, though, that the slowest Core i5 is faster than the fastest Core 2 Duo processor despite running at a much lower frequency (2.40GHz vs 3.06GHz). This is a result of the architecture improvements in the i5 and the i7. For example, Turbo Boost and Hyper-Threading provide a nice boost to processor scores; single-threaded workloads benefit from higher processor frequencies while multi-threaded workloads benefit from extra hardware threads. Memory scores (especially Stream scores which measure raw memory bandwidth) are higher due to the integrated memory controller on the i5 and i7.

PrimateLabs goes on to recommend the base MacBook Pro 15″ Core i5 and maxed out RAM, which isn’t surprising considering the huge performance gain of the Core i5 processor, and more RAM is always good with Mac OS X. I would generally agree, and add that the optional high resolution screen of the MacBook Pro 15″ is a really compelling upgrade.

.

Related articles:

Posted by: William Pearson in Mac Setups, News

15 Comments

» Comments RSS Feed

  1. […] Apple, meaning power was going to be slightly harder. thankfully OSX Daily had been there for me [1] allowing me to plot Price, against benchmark. According to the benchmark for Loupie’s mac […]

  2. […] 5 yet, this software update handles that for you. The update comes in at a whopping 639.1 MB on my MacBook Pro 2010 model which makes for a pretty hefty download, but on another Mac right next to me the download is […]

  3. Skippy says:

    thanks for these numbers, however I would really like to know how the Macbook Pros compare against the Macbook as well.

  4. Dennis says:

    Too bad these weren’t taken in the 64 bit mode… my macbook pro with the i5 2.4 scored a 5637 in 64 bit mode

  5. […] files in Transmit for MacThe best MySQL Database manager for Mac OS X? SequelPro might be itNew vs Old: MacBook Pro Benchmarks compare the Core 2 Duo 13″, Core i5/i7 15″ and 17&#82…Amazing iPhone to iPad upgrade […]

  6. Kevin says:

    Too bad these weren’t taken in the 64 bit mode… my macbook pro with the i5 2.4 scored a 5637 in 64 bit mode

  7. Brad says:

    Wow, I want to get one now.

    To bad I don’t have $1500…maybe in a couple of months.

  8. yojenga says:

    i mean i5

    who bothers.

  9. yojenga says:

    15 on the 13″

    …you wish. Expect 4 hours of battery life. Bleh.

  10. Cory says:

    This makes the C2D chip seem so ancient, there’s no other PC laptop that still uses it, and now Apple puts it in a ‘new’ model, what a bad idea! It’s about to be EOL’d if it hasn’t been already.

    Still holding out for the i5 13″…..

  11. yruoc says:

    I have the 15″ i5 2.53GHz. I just ran Geekbench x64 and got 5849.

    • Eliza says:

      that is really fast

      • Macorama says:

        I think the above scores are averaged like GeekBench usually does. Yruoc might have an SSD drive and 8gb of RAM for all we know.

        Personally I think real world benchmarks are better than the GeekBench/XBench type scores, I’d rather see how it does in Photoshop, iTunes imports, video ripping, etc.

    • Kevin says:

      thats right on for what it should be for the 64 bit version, mine is the i5 2.4 and i got 5637 (completely stock with no upgrades or changes)

Leave a Reply

 

Shop on Amazon.com and help support OSXDaily!

Subscribe to OSXDaily

Subscribe to RSS Subscribe to Twitter Feed Follow on Facebook Subscribe to eMail Updates

Tips & Tricks

News

iPhone / iPad

Mac

Troubleshooting

Shop on Amazon to help support this site