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13" Base and 15" Base model available for testing

D

dof250

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 3, 2014
220
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I just picked up the 2018 15" base model from the apple store. I already had the 2018 13" base model but I can't make up my mind on what device I want to keep. So I now have both and are gonna run some test for myself over the weekend and then decide which of the two I'm going to keep. I will update my findings here but if there is anything I can test for to help you out let me know!

Update:

1. The speakers of the 13" are very good and much better than the 13" off last year. I feel they lack some mids, but the bass is way better then last year. But the 15" blows me away... They are even better than the 13" model. Even more bass and the mids are better. Also because of the wider body the stereo effect is much better. You have to hear these in person.

2. The fans on the 13" are completely turned off when its idling or doing some light work. When they kick in it will go to around 1300rpm for both (unhearable). The fans of the 15" model are always on at around 2000rpm (unhearable for me in a silent environment)

3. There is a very annoying bug in the Mojave Beta 4. The screen brightenss of the 15" is stuck on full brightness and the Touch Bar slider isn't working and the slider in the settings is gone... Its also stuck on dGPU. The 13" is working fine. (Apple did state this in the release notes: On 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (2018) models, graphics processes run only on the discrete GPU in macOS Mojave beta 4. Adjusting screen brightness settings might not take effect, and external displays might not light up. (42054488))
 
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Do you have After Effects and could you run this benchmark:
I'd love to compare it with my 2.9GHz i9.
 
Would also like to know which computer are you currently using, before buying the new ones.
 
stringerhye said:
Do you have After Effects and could you run this benchmark:
I'd love to compare it with my 2.9GHz i9.
Click to expand...
I won't be able to test this because I don't have After Effects available... I'm sorry...
[doublepost=1532113429][/doublepost]
jerryk said:
Running Final Cut Pro should tell people a lot about the relative performance. Be sure to use a longish video.
Click to expand...
I also don't have final cut available...
[doublepost=1532113550][/doublepost]
macintoshmac said:
Would also like to know which computer are you currently using, before buying the new ones.
Click to expand...
I am currently using a 2017 15" base model. I also had a 2017 13" base model. In a few hours i will post the Geekbench benchmark for all those machines after the 15" is done indexing.
 
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dof250 said:
I just picked up the 2018 15" base model from the apple store. I already had the 2018 13" base model but I can't make up my mind on what device I want to keep. So I now have both and are gonna run some test for myself over the weekend and then decide which of the two I'm going to keep. I will update my findings here but if there is anything I can test for to help you out let me know!

Update:

1. The speakers of the 13" are very good and much better than the 13" off last year. I feel they lack some mids, but the bass is way better then last year. But the 15" blows me away... They are even better than the 13" model. Even more bass and the mids are better. Also because of the wider body the stereo effect is much better. You have to hear these in person.

2. The fans on the 13" are completely turned off when its idling or doing some light work. When they kick in it will go to around 1300rpm for both (unhearable). The fans of the 15" model are always on at around 2000rpm (unhearable for me in a silent environment)
Click to expand...

I'm actually interested in both machines! I'd prefer the 13" for portability but I am not sure if it will cut it. (I do plan to use an eGpu setup for most things) - I am concerned about the CPU. I would be extremely grateful if you could run this Unreal Engine lighting test for me, on both machines. It's a free download. If you cannot, I understand. If so, instructions below.

https://www.unrealengine.com to download

Follow these steps, your interface might look a bit different than mine since I am showing you from Windows 10.

Click the Learn Tab and scroll to the bottom (or search) for the Project called Realistic Rendering.

ca2b7d0b773928c7d99d3af0588fc2be.jpg


Once you select it, you will be brought to the next page where you can create the project.

e8746807f87ddb33838abfd9d7a1cdd6.jpg


Once you have assigned the project to your directory, you can start it by finding the project in your Library tab.

After the project has loaded, click the arrow next to build, select Lighting Quality and then select Production. After that click build Lighting Only and while that bakes you can record your CPU for throttling.

0859969d167e5eaed2ea3fae5bb65b18.jpg


After that, there is another test you can do which will probably take a few moments longer. On the right hand side you should have 2 tabs, Details and World Settings. Click World Settings, and open the Lightmass Settings dropdown, change Static Lighting Level Scale to .1 and then Build Lighting once again and see if this throttles.

7a8d3d8646caddb1c672db61dcb06ff3.png
 
Standard said:
I'm actually interested in both machines! I'd prefer the 13" for portability but I am not sure if it will cut it. (I do plan to use an eGpu setup for most things) - I am concerned about the CPU. I would be extremely grateful if you could run this Unreal Engine lighting test for me, on both machines. It's a free download. If you cannot, I understand. If so, instructions below.
Click to expand...

Will do this now... Give me a moment :)
 
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The base 15” is 2.2 16gb ram and 555x and base 13” is 2.3 8gb ram right?
 
For me, light usage 15" 2.2 Ghz, 555X 512 SSD (so base model with just 512 SSD option) i get 10 hours and 20 min from 100%-10% For reference, the same light usage, on my 15" base 2016 model with High Sierra on it, i got around 7-8 hours
 
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Abaganov said:
would be awesome to get battery life numbers if you testing that
Click to expand...

Seconded.

fokmik said:
For me, light usage 15" 2.2 Ghz, 555X 512 SSD (so base model with just 512 SSD option) i get 10 hours and 20 min from 100%-10% For reference, the same light usage, on my 15" base 2016 model with High Sierra on it, i got around 7-8 hours
Click to expand...

What about the standby consumption? How fast is the battery drained while asleep unplugged?
 
vaugha said:
Seconded.



What about the standby consumption? How fast is the battery drained while asleep unplugged?
Click to expand...
Battery life is pretty good for both devices. I have to play with them some more to give some accurate numbers but they seem better than last years
[doublepost=1532183099][/doublepost]
Vazza said:
Any update on the tests you were running please?
Click to expand...
I've created some video's and now testing my iMovie skills to get something online. One more moment please :D
[doublepost=1532185804][/doublepost]Okay so here is the video of the UnrealEngine test.
As you can see the 13" took around 2:55 to finish the test and the 15" took 2:15 to complete. When I first launched the test it took a while to open. But when the 15" was done the 13" needed 7 more minutes to complete the test.
Whats also interesting is that after that the engine was "building shaders". Here I observed some weird stuff in the intel power gadget. This is the 13" while building the shaders:
upload_2018-7-21_16-59-50.png

As you can see the frequency is fluctuating between 1.5 and 2.5 ghz but never below that.

Below the 15" while building the shaders:
upload_2018-7-21_17-0-55.png

The 15" is fluctuating between 800mhz (!!) and 2.5 ghz with sometimes even 3ghz. Even with this behavior the 15" completed 4-5 minutes faster then the 13".
 
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dof250 said:
Battery life is pretty good for both devices. I have to play with them some more to give some accurate numbers but they seem better than last years
[doublepost=1532183099][/doublepost]
I've created some video's and now testing my iMovie skills to get something online. One more moment please :D
[doublepost=1532185804][/doublepost]Okay so here is the video of the UnrealEngine test.
As you can see the 13" took around 2:55 to finish the test and the 15" took 2:15 to complete. When I first launched the test it took a while to open. But when the 15" was done the 13" needed 7 more minutes to complete the test.
Whats also interesting is that after that the engine was "building shaders". Here I observed some weird stuff in the intel power gadget. This is the 13" while building the shaders:
View attachment 771957
As you can see the frequency is fluctuating between 1.5 and 2.5 ghz but never below that.

Below the 15" while building the shaders:
View attachment 771958
The 15" is fluctuating between 800mhz (!!) and 2.5 ghz with sometimes even 3ghz. Even with this behavior the 15" completed 4-5 minutes faster then the 13".
Click to expand...

It would be extremely helpful if you can repeat the same test 2 more times

First test using Volta and power limiting the CPU to 45W only. Volta can power limit and undervolt a CPU. It has a 7 days trial then costs $6. (You can read more about the process and how beneficial it is here)

Second test using the same as above in addition to setting the fans to almost max using Mac Fan Control software (Free). (You can learn more about the process here)

I know I am asking for much. This will take a long time so I am only asking you to do it if you have some time to waste. The reason I am asking you to do this is because Apple will most likely take the same measures in a software update assuming they ever do one to resolve this issue.
 
If the amount of throttling is similar it makes sense that the 15" would be a faster. It has 6 cores that the applications can use versus 4.
 
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