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Wake up time faster on new macbook!!

brent0saurus

brent0saurus

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 16, 2006
228
1
So my gf has the macbook right before the newest one and i noticed that when i wake it from sleep, the desktop appears immediately, but you can't do anything for a few seconds. It's not a huge deal but kind of irritating considering my powerbook wakes faster. We took it to the genius bar because her trackpad button was broken and while i was there i asked him about it. He said it's just "different hardware."

Now my brother gets the newest macbook and i notice it wakes up instantly! But i thought the only difference was faster ram, a slightly faster processor, a bigger hard drive and better battery life.


So my question is, why do the new macbooks wake up faster than its predecessor!?

(also, my gf's brother and my roommate have the same "slow wake up" model they all behave the same so it's not just hers)

This is really just out of curiosity, but i figured someone on here has got to know the answer.
 
scienide09

scienide09

macrumors 65816
May 5, 2007
1,385
0
Canada
Because the new MB is new, and probably doesn't yet have a whole bunch of extra apps and files on it? Also, I expect that the older MB has a bunch of files and folders on the desktop, correct? This will slow down it's "readiness" time.

As for hardware-related causes, it could be anything from slight differences in RAM to the HDD read/write speeds.

Does it bother you that much?
 
brent0saurus

brent0saurus

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 16, 2006
228
1
scienide09 said:
Because the new MB is new, and probably doesn't yet have a whole bunch of extra apps and files on it? Also, I expect that the older MB has a bunch of files and folders on the desktop, correct? This will slow down it's "readiness" time.

As for hardware-related causes, it could be anything from slight differences in RAM to the HDD read/write speeds.

Does it bother you that much?
Click to expand...

no, her brother's macbook was bought like 3 days ago. he got it after they upgraded for $800 so it's not that. it's just a difference in hardware or something?

it doesn't bother me at all. my brother has the faster one :)
i was just wondering if anyone knew WHY. just seems strange
 
R

relativist

macrumors regular
Jan 13, 2009
179
0
Well, to really know for sure, your brother should upgrade the RAM on his macbook to 800MHz. I did on mine and I get instant wake-ups. The way sleep works, it does have a lot to do with the RAM, so it doesn't surprise me that newer/faster RAM handles it better.
 
brent0saurus

brent0saurus

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 16, 2006
228
1
relativist said:
Well, to really know for sure, your brother should upgrade the RAM on his macbook to 800MHz. I did on mine and I get instant wake-ups. The way sleep works, it does have a lot to do with the RAM, so it doesn't surprise me that newer/faster RAM handles it better.
Click to expand...

interesting! thanks! i guess this does make sense. so you put 800 mhz ram into the older macbook and it worked??
 
harry20larry

harry20larry

macrumors 6502a
Aug 14, 2008
574
14
I know its far fetched but it could be something to do with the display:
Apple bragged a lot about the new MacBook having an instant-on display, maybe the old one didn't have this so it doesn't respond until it knows the display is on and working
 
brent0saurus

brent0saurus

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 16, 2006
228
1
harry20larry said:
I know its far fetched but it could be something to do with the display:
Apple bragged a lot about the new MacBook having an instant-on display, maybe the old one didn't have this so it doesn't respond until it knows the display is on and working
Click to expand...

but that's the thing. the display did come on instantly. but there was no mouse on the screen and you couldn't do anything for a few seconds. like it looks like it's awake, but you can't do anything.
 
S

Skeletal-dæmon

macrumors 6502
Apr 27, 2008
369
1
relativist said:
Yes, I have the 2.0GHz nVidia white Macbook, and have 4GB of 800MHz ram in it, and yes it runs at 800MHz.
Click to expand...

Apple regularly bends the official maximums for RAM speed and capacity in their machines. Any MacBook with an nVidia card and a 800FSB is capable of running 800MHz RAM.

Flopticaltube also has a point. iSync, Bluetooth, AirPort and occasionally .Mac (MobileMe) will sync when a computer wakes from sleep, increasing the time it takes for the machine to become responsive.

Harry20Larry; Instant on is in reference to the new LED backlighting system that instantly turns on when applied with a current, CCFL backlit screens take considerably longer especially if turned off for several days.

Most likely it is simply because Finder quickly re-scans its Index and other pieces of software re-sync when the machine wakes up. An older computer will have more files to index, more software to bring back from memory, and this tied with the combination of older hardware and 667MHz RAM will cause the computer to take longer to wake up.
 
R

relativist

macrumors regular
Jan 13, 2009
179
0
FYI the FSB of the nVidia Macbook is 1066MHz. It is the same FSB speed as the board that uses DDR3 RAM. So far I have not seen any direct comparisons between a 2.0 using DDR2 800MHz and one using DDR3 1066MHz, but obviously they will both be faster than using DDR2 667MHz. The important thing to remember is that the video RAM is shared, and that is going to be something most may not think of, that upgrading their RAM speed is actually upgrading their VRAM speed, which improves video performance.
 
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