15-inch vs. 13-inch speed/performance difference?

[stanw]

Besides the obvious screen difference, are there any other differences with speed/performance with a high end 13-inch MBP vs. a high-end 15-inch MBP?

Thanks.

 

[zhenya]

13" uses a dual-core 28w TDP CPU while the 15" uses a quad-core 45W TDP part. GPU differences as well.

 

[kat.hayes]

Does the quad core only work with certain software?

 

[maflynn]

Does the quad core only work with certain software?

Its two fold imo.
First quad cores allows more active applications running at once with less of a perceived slow down. Then there's certain applications that will take advantage of the cores, like Photoshop, or Vmware.

If you're just using Safari, then email, or just one app at a given time, say Excel, then the performance difference will not be that much.

 

[whiteonline]

Does the quad core only work with certain software?

Yes. Applies to any multi-core processor. The software must be developed to run multi-threaded (parallel processing). Multi-core architecture is really useful in video rendering.

 

[kat.hayes]

I am looking also. I think it would be nice to have more power, though I'm not sure about the extra weight vs. the 13-inch. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Thank you.

 

[matt_on_a_mtn]

Even the base model 15" outperforms the absolute maxed spec 13" by twofold. There's no comparison.

This isn't just a small boost. It's literally two times the performance, and any benchmark will reflect that.

 

[PTLove]

There is a significant difference in certain applications. Video editing, for instance, is pretty much a straight up 2x increase.

Day to day web browising? Zero.

 

[RoboWarriorSr]

The graphics on the entry 15" is approximately 2x faster. Having the extra bandwidth helps a lot.

 

[jerwin]

Its two fold imo.
First quad cores allows more active applications running at once with less of a perceived slow down. Then there's certain applications that will take advantage of the cores, like Photoshop, or Vmware.

If you're just using Safari, then email, or just one app at a given time, say Excel, then the performance difference will not be that much.

Safari is multithreaded throughout.

 

[stanw]

Is the 15-inch MBP using the same internals as the 27-inch iMac?

 

[leman]

The 15" is faster than the 13" in any workflow. Disregarding number of cores, the quad-core CPU is simply clocked faster (3.4 Ghz vs 3.1 Ghz) and has more cache, so it will perform higher in both single-thread and multi-thread configurations. You are very unlikely to notice the difference in normal workflows though.

Is the 15-inch MBP using the same internals as the 27-inch iMac?

No. The 27 iMac uses desktop-class CPUs.

 

[Asmarty Pants]

It depends on which year they were made.

For example macbook pro 15" mid 2010 can only have max upgrade of 8gb of ram but the 13" bought out at the same time can have 16gb ram upgrade.

This definitely makes a difference.