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swl7

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 28, 2010
62
0
So I've had my rMBP for about a year. It's been a little slow lately and it showed a geekbench score of only about 5000. So, I went ahead and did a clean install by deleting my harddrive using the Apple Recovery feature and re-installing OS X Mountain Lion.

The problem still existed. My Geekbench score was only about 5000-6000 and I'm not just saying the numbers are bad; the performance directly reflects how slow this is. When I'm on a video or a game, the computer has very choppy spikes... I'm running an external monitor, 2.3 i7, 8gb ram, nvidia gt650m 1gb, OS X 10.8.2

Here's my geekbench score: http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/1662865

I've ran the 64-bit version as well and it's pretty much the exact same score.

Does anyone else have this issue, or is there something I need to look into? I know for sure this wasn't that slow when I first purchased my computer. Also, I take more than decent care of this laptop (I unplug it if it's idle for a long time, I've cycled the battery, I barely have any programs on it, etc). Any help would be appreciated. Thanks a lot.
 

shahin90

macrumors regular
Oct 23, 2012
136
66
So I've had my rMBP for about a year. It's been a little slow lately and it showed a geekbench score of only about 5000. So, I went ahead and did a clean install by deleting my harddrive using the Apple Recovery feature and re-installing OS X Mountain Lion.

The problem still existed. My Geekbench score was only about 5000-6000 and I'm not just saying the numbers are bad; the performance directly reflects how slow this is. When I'm on a video or a game, the computer has very choppy spikes... I'm running an external monitor, 2.3 i7, 8gb ram, nvidia gt650m 1gb, OS X 10.8.2

Here's my geekbench score: http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/1662865

I've ran the 64-bit version as well and it's pretty much the exact same score.

Does anyone else have this issue, or is there something I need to look into? I know for sure this wasn't that slow when I first purchased my computer. Also, I take more than decent care of this laptop (I unplug it if it's idle for a long time, I've cycled the battery, I barely have any programs on it, etc). Any help would be appreciated. Thanks a lot.



Take it to the apple store ASAP and show it to them. My macbook is about a week old, but with almost the same specs and my score is this:

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/1663261
 

joshhedge

macrumors regular
Sep 23, 2012
135
0
Well you haven't had it for around a year, it would be closer to around 6 months if anything.
 

swl7

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 28, 2010
62
0
hmm yes, that's true. This only came out mid 2012, so it hasn't been a year yet for sure. I guess taking it to apple could give me the chance of getting a refurb or maybe a new one, so I can probably try that sometime this week.

Any other suggestions before I go ahead and take it to apple? Kinda sad this machine is scoring as low as my old 2010 macbook pro.
 

GermanyChris

macrumors 601
Jul 3, 2011
4,185
5
Here
hmm yes, that's true. This only came out mid 2012, so it hasn't been a year yet for sure. I guess taking it to apple could give me the chance of getting a refurb or maybe a new one, so I can probably try that sometime this week.

Any other suggestions before I go ahead and take it to apple? Kinda sad this machine is scoring as low as my old 2010 macbook pro.

Take it to Apple..

It sounds like it's throttling, most likely do to a terrible thermal paste job.
 
Last edited:

mrbigglessworth

macrumors member
Dec 5, 2012
33
0
Try a smc reset, i'm getting 12000!

cheers!

What is your real score?

I just got 11,280 on a 2.6/16/512 and based on your signature because of the 300mhz slower processor speed your score should be lower than mine. Ive got all available updates applied and have no problems in gaming, shouldnt I be above 12k then?
 

swl7

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 28, 2010
62
0
Will apple even know what I'm saying if I tell them my geekbench score is a lot lower than other scores of the same model? I just ran it on my work laptop (late 2011 macbook pro 15") and I got 10264 on the 32-bit test.

I feel like Apple will deny my issue because it's sometimes fine when you just go through a web page or some boring stuff like that, but when it's under a pretty heavy load, it just seems to be performing not at an optimal level. I did do a PRAM and SMC reset and it brought my score to 9081. I don't know if 9081 vs 11000-12000 is noticeably different to the user at just browsing a couple web pages.

Either way, I guess I can give it a shot taking it to the apple store.
 

swerve147

macrumors 6502a
Jan 12, 2013
837
114
I can see Apple shooting down service/diagnostics based on a benchmark score. If you can find another performance issue besides a low Geekbench score then you should find it.

12000 on a base rMBP is not unheard of, there is a variance there as benchmarking is never perfect. Just look at the results browser.
 

bill-p

macrumors 68030
Jul 23, 2011
2,884
1,545
Don't bring it to Apple. It's a software problem that they won't be able to solve.

Just reset your SMC.

Here's a discussion thread for this problem:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1452267/

God, I wish someone would just sticky that thread already... so many people ask about performance degradation on their Retina Macs.
 

swl7

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 28, 2010
62
0
Don't bring it to Apple. It's a software problem that they won't be able to solve.

Just reset your SMC.

Here's a discussion thread for this problem:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1452267/

God, I wish someone would just sticky that thread already... so many people ask about performance degradation on their Retina Macs.

Bill, thanks for the link. As others have been frustrated with the same issue, I've also tried resetting the SMC more than once. On the first try, my geekbench results were 8900. I reset the SMC one more time and now it's running at 10600. I would say that's a lot closer to what I should have (although I can probably reset the SMC to squeeze out a little more juice).

But seriously... this manual work to increase performance on a $2,400 laptop? I would've thought that the extra $1,200 branding price and the ridiculous amounts of money that the quality assurance engineers make at Apple would handle this. I guess since we're the < 10%, it's not the biggest priority.
 

shahin90

macrumors regular
Oct 23, 2012
136
66
Those scores aren't comparable because his was 32 bit and yours was 64. Try a 32 bit test and see what the score is.


This is the 32 bit result. It's very close to the 64 bit anyways.

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/1666239

I would say take it to the apple store and explain what you explained here. A benchmark result is just a proof that the system is running lower than expected proving your point.
 

swl7

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 28, 2010
62
0
Hmm. I just finished watching a video clip of about 40 minutes using Google Chrome.

So I ran a benchmark after shutting down the video and waiting about 5 min. The score was 7500.

I shut down the computer, reset the SMC, and now the score is 8900.

This just seems unacceptable and it really does reflect that the performance is an issue. I'll probably take it to the Apple store this weekend.
 

varunsanthanam

macrumors 6502
Dec 28, 2007
459
190
California
Hmm. I just finished watching a video clip of about 40 minutes using Google Chrome.

So I ran a benchmark after shutting down the video and waiting about 5 min. The score was 7500.

I shut down the computer, reset the SMC, and now the score is 8900.

This just seems unacceptable and it really does reflect that the performance is an issue. I'll probably take it to the Apple store this weekend.

Something is definitely wrong. My rMBP, although with slightly higher specs, benches between 13000 and 14000.
 

willgreene99

macrumors regular
Dec 16, 2010
217
16
DFW
Something is definitely wrong. My rMBP, although with slightly higher specs, benches between 13000 and 14000.

Hey Shadow,
I got a similar setup but only getting about 12314 for the x32 score. I am trying to figure out what would make it lower than what you're getting. Although I am running about a dozen apps including vmware workstation with a single win7 vm so maybe that is why some of the resources may be used.

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/1666338
 

mykem

macrumors regular
May 20, 2008
117
0
Mine's a used one bought just this week off an Apple Store manager who's had since August 2012 (he prefers the 13" rMBP). Same specs as the OP except I have 16GB of RAM. My score hovers around 11000, with the latest one here:

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/1666708

I did the 32-bit test while it's running on battery (don't know if it makes a difference). If you get score in the 10 to 11K, it's what you should get with the base model. If you're getting lower, my naive assumption is that you might be running a program in the background that's killing the test score.
 

varunsanthanam

macrumors 6502
Dec 28, 2007
459
190
California
Hey Shadow,
I got a similar setup but only getting about 12314 for the x32 score. I am trying to figure out what would make it lower than what you're getting. Although I am running about a dozen apps including vmware workstation with a single win7 vm so maybe that is why some of the resources may be used.

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/1666338

To get an accurate bench score, ensure that Geekbench is the only application running. An active virtual machine will definitely lower your score.
 

theuserjohnny

macrumors 6502
Jul 7, 2012
450
7
I just bought the App been meaning to get it for a while but this reminded me of getting it.

Ran the test on just battery.

32bit was around 12k
64bit was around 13-14k

I've had the computer for roughly 6months
 

swl7

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 28, 2010
62
0
went to apple today and left my laptop with them. They ran a diagnostic and denied that I had the ghosting problem on my LG display. I could clearly see it but they ran their diagnostics for the IR test and I didn't see the ghosting there... I'm not really sure how to reproduce the issue.

But they said they'll check the performance issues and let me know when to pick up my laptop. I'm not sure what they'll do to it, but I'm just hoping that they can just replace my unit since it has so many issues. I know that they probably don't want to replace any unit if they can fix it, so I guess I'm okay with that too...
 

Corax

macrumors 6502
Apr 27, 2009
266
0
Willemstad - Curaçao
went to apple today and left my laptop with them. They ran a diagnostic and denied that I had the ghosting problem on my LG display. I could clearly see it but they ran their diagnostics for the IR test and I didn't see the ghosting there... I'm not really sure how to reproduce the issue.

But they said they'll check the performance issues and let me know when to pick up my laptop. I'm not sure what they'll do to it, but I'm just hoping that they can just replace my unit since it has so many issues. I know that they probably don't want to replace any unit if they can fix it, so I guess I'm okay with that too...

I'm pretty possitive that they'll replace your machine! You are not "overreacting", there really is something terribly wrong with it.:eek: They can't deny that. My 2,3 GHz rMBP scored 12034 in Geekbench (64-bit).
 
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