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Quad-core 13 inch MacBook Pro?
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Probably not soon, as in the next release due to battery life and cooling issues. I would imagine as the industry get more advanced and can get a quad core into a 13" form factor without it melting or diminishing battery life then, it will come.
They would need to either increase battery efficiency, or lower power requirements for the CPU.
I'd jump on a quad-core 13" system. It will give me everything I want in a laptop: 1. More than 2 CPU cores (because I run enough VMs to warrant it), and 2. More portable than the 15". I'm not that hung up on graphics and display size like I used to be when I gamed a bunch in my earlier years. I do more work (VMs) than gaming these days.
I hope we're probably a year or two away from seeing it (probably two.)
I'd jump on a quad-core 13" system. It will give me everything I want in a laptop: 1. More than 2 CPU cores (because I run enough VMs to warrant it), and 2. More portable than the 15". I'm not that hung up on graphics and display size like I used to be when I gamed a bunch in my earlier years. I do more work (VMs) than gaming these days.
I hope we're probably a year or two away from seeing it (probably two.)
Yeah, they will definitely put quad-core processor in 13" MBP once octo-core becomes mainstream for 15 MBP.
Many of the poster of those replies seem to forget that there is already 35W Quad Core 3612QM which is a TDP the 13" rMBP & cMBP can handle just fine. The 3520M is also 35W and both CPUs reach that TDP at some point due to the Turbo mode. There isn't really any difference.
The only reason I can think of why Apple doesn't is because they want to keep a bigger performance gap between the 13" and the bigger margin much more expensive 15". The socket is no different and the cooling can handle 35W TDP. If those chips were exchangable you could just swap the CPUs yourself.
The only reason they didn't do it is because they don't like how it looks in their portfolio.
I doubt they can escape it in the next release with Haswell. I would guess it is marketing. They wanted people to focus on the great display of the rMBP and keep the notebook cool and the standard MBP not be too much competition for its more expensive brother. They kept the Quad Core out so they have a new killer feature for the uninformed at the next iteration. Next iteration there will almost definitely be a Quad Core in both 13" MBPs as an option at least.
The Air on the other hand definitely won't see a Quad Core until 14nm Broadwell at the earliest, when there are single SoC Quad Cores around. Not only because of heat but also because the chip needs the right kind of packaging.
The only reason I can think of why Apple doesn't is because they want to keep a bigger performance gap between the 13" and the bigger margin much more expensive 15". The socket is no different and the cooling can handle 35W TDP. If those chips were exchangable you could just swap the CPUs yourself.
The only reason they didn't do it is because they don't like how it looks in their portfolio.
I doubt they can escape it in the next release with Haswell. I would guess it is marketing. They wanted people to focus on the great display of the rMBP and keep the notebook cool and the standard MBP not be too much competition for its more expensive brother. They kept the Quad Core out so they have a new killer feature for the uninformed at the next iteration. Next iteration there will almost definitely be a Quad Core in both 13" MBPs as an option at least.
The Air on the other hand definitely won't see a Quad Core until 14nm Broadwell at the earliest, when there are single SoC Quad Cores around. Not only because of heat but also because the chip needs the right kind of packaging.
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Not until intel broadwell comes out at the least. That's when the architecture would be small enough, at 14nm. Not to mention that the power consumption would be less in it too, so there should be no need for a bigger battery; however it would be a good idea of apple could squeeze some more power off it though
My old Sony Vaio 13" from three years ago has a quad core i7 in it. The battery life on it is about half what my 13" rMBP is, but the battery is also much smaller than the one in my Macbook. I would have figured Apple would have found a way to make this happen by now. I could live with less battery in exchange for more power.
+1 to 13 inch Quadcore
this thread is a bit old now but I came across it in my search after looking at the new rMBP 13". I never had any interest in them before but they have done such a nice job with it that if it did have a quad core I would have bought it.
However I need very low latency audio for live performance and that brings most computers to their knees and given my current 2011 mbp 15" is running at least one of its cores at 50% already I don think its wise to get anything less powerful.
I am one of those people who doesnt really care about discrete graphics. But weight and battery life along with power IS an issue and given apple like to call the 13" a 'pro' I really think it should be a true quad even if at lower clock speeds..
this thread is a bit old now but I came across it in my search after looking at the new rMBP 13". I never had any interest in them before but they have done such a nice job with it that if it did have a quad core I would have bought it.
However I need very low latency audio for live performance and that brings most computers to their knees and given my current 2011 mbp 15" is running at least one of its cores at 50% already I don think its wise to get anything less powerful.
I am one of those people who doesnt really care about discrete graphics. But weight and battery life along with power IS an issue and given apple like to call the 13" a 'pro' I really think it should be a true quad even if at lower clock speeds..
Or.. as the rumor ever persists, will Apple stick with Intel until Skylake??
Quad Core ARM's?
As someone else pointed out - Intel already makes a chip that would be very much suitable for a 13" quad core MacBook Pro. My guess is that the reason they don't want to do this is just to keep some kind of differentiation between the 13" and 15" MacBooks aside from the screen size.
In all honesty though, both the dual and quad core chips are very capable processors - I think most people would be very happy with the performance of either, especially when you factor in the flash memory which is included.
In all honesty though, both the dual and quad core chips are very capable processors - I think most people would be very happy with the performance of either, especially when you factor in the flash memory which is included.
Or.. as the rumor ever persists, will Apple stick with Intel until Skylake??
Quad Core ARM's?
I doubt that ARM can catch up with Intel in performance until then. But who knows.
Indeed, one could even ask - is a 13" truly a "pro" machine having only dual core, compared to a 15" machine with quad core.
Add me to the list of quad core 13" dreamers. Would be the perfect machine for me.
Of course it is. I can do my professional work on a dual core machine.
A professional writer could do their job on a machine that's 15 years old. So this "professional" tag is a load of BS.
Obviously. My point was that even thought the 13" and 15" are both labelled as professional - they are in fact quite different beasts. Arguably the 13" pro is closer to the 13" Air than it is the 15" pro
The professional tag just basically means 'premium'. As the Pro line is the premium range from Apple, you get a better class of processor, more RAM & storage options, a retina display and an overall better package.
The 'Pro' does not mean what most people still think it does.
The 'Pro' does not mean what most people still think it does.
Right now Intel offers Haswell 27W Quad Core CPU.
Its clocked at 2 GHz and has no GPU.
Broadwell will presumably bring 28W Quad Core CPU with Iris Pro 2, thanks to new process.
13 inch with that CPU(2 GHz, Iris Pro 2 which would be faster than GT750M) would be EPIC machine.
However - 15 inch, with 4 cores, 16 GB of RAM, 768 GB SSD and GTX 860M would be even more epic.
Its clocked at 2 GHz and has no GPU.
Broadwell will presumably bring 28W Quad Core CPU with Iris Pro 2, thanks to new process.
13 inch with that CPU(2 GHz, Iris Pro 2 which would be faster than GT750M) would be EPIC machine.
However - 15 inch, with 4 cores, 16 GB of RAM, 768 GB SSD and GTX 860M would be even more epic
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Perhaps but by the same token, Apple wants to differentiate the 13" machine a more low end product and if you want power and performance they want you to spend the bucks on the 15" model.