The mothership yesterday published the results of its benchmark tests of the recently upgraded MacBook Pros. As expected, they found the newer models to be significantly better performers than the previous generation of the notebooks.
The lowest configured model, even with less L2 cache than the previous generation, was around 10% faster than it in Speedmark tests and 23% faster when dealing with Photoshop. More interesting, perhaps, is the fact that the 15-inch MacBook Pro outperformed the better specced 17-incher on some of the tests, though not by a wide margin.
Also, as impressive as these speed gains were, they paled in comparison to the thrashing these new MacBook Pros delivered to the two-year-old Intel Core Duo equipped models, beating them by a wide margin of fifty percent in Speedmark 5 and Macworld’s Compressor tests.
If you’re in the market for a new notebook, you might want to have a look at the detailed scores and analysis. A thorough review of the newly released notebooks and benchmark scores of the MacBooks will also be published soon.
Is it me, or does it appear that every new iteration of an Apple laptop is "buy now if you need a new computer"?
I think this shows that Apple is getting something right.
You can not compare it to a PowerPC with a 166MHz front side bus. Compare it to a 32nm Quad Core IBM Cell Processor with a 2000 MHz FSB. The PowerPC Cell Processor wins on both speed and power efficiency. Intel x86 is a step backwards.