Intel's Iris Graphics Boost 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro GPU Performance by 50% or More

[MacRumors]

Apple's new 13-Inch Retina MacBook Pro has seen some impressive performance gains with its new Intel Iris integrated graphics, according to several benchmarking tests performed by Macworld. The site compared both the entry-level and high-end versions of the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro to an early 2013 Ivy Bridge model, which utilizes Intel's older HD 4000 graphics.

In the Cinebench r15 OpenGL test and the Unigine Valley Benchmark, the new Retina MacBook Pros saw frame rate improvements of 45 to 50 percent, and in the Unigine Heaven Benchmark, gains were even more impressive, at 65 percent.

The GPU gains are in line with performance estimates provided by Intel in May, which suggested Iris graphics offered double or triple the performance of the Ivy Bridge Intel HD Graphics 4000.

Macworld also did several CPU benchmarks, finding an eight percent improvement with MathematicaMark 8 and a five percent gain with Cinebench CPU on the higher-end Retina MacBook Pro. The lower-end model saw just a one percent improvement on both tests over its Ivy Bridge predecessor. These improvements mirror early Geekbench results published earlier this week, which saw minor speed enhancements with the Haswell processors.

Finally, Macworld took a look at the PCIe-based flash storage that was included with the newest Retina MacBook Pros, finding that the higher-end Haswell model with 256 GB of flash storage was 33 percent faster than the older Ivy Bridge model when copying 6 GB of files from one folder to another. The lower-end Retina MacBook Pro didn't fare quite as well, seeing no speed gains.

To triple-check our findings, we ran Blackmagic's Disk Speed Test on all three 13-inch Retina MacBook Pros and found that the 500GB flash storage in new 2.6GHz model was more than twice as fast in the write test as the 120GB flash storage in the new 2.4GHz system, 710 MBps versus 315.9 MBps.

The read speeds were closer, with the new 2.4GHz's flash storage reading at 700 MBps and the new 2.6GHz reading at 733.9 MBps. The early 2013 2.6GHz Retina system had a write speed of 393.1 MBps, faster than the new 2.4GHz model, and a read speed of 451 MBps, significantly slower than the new low-end model.

Apple's newest Haswell-based 13-inch Retina MacBook Pros debuted on Tuesday and are currently available from both the online Apple Store and retail locations. Apple offers three different models, at varying price points that start at $1,299.

Article Link: Intel's Iris Graphics Boost 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro GPU Performance by 50% or More

 

[Rudy69]

And probably decreases performance for the 15" :/

 

[ob81]

It had to be a lot for them to take the card out of the Base 15" Retina. I was curious about that.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Impressive... Most impressive.

 

[cclloyd]

The new integrated graphics is great. For the 13". I wish they kept the 1GB card in the 15" baseline, for when 50% more integrated graphics just isn't enough.

 

[q64ceo]

Intel has gotten much better at integrated graphics.

They are trying and they are succeeding.

 

[obamtl]

It had to be a lot for them to take the card out of the Base 15" Retina. I was curious about that.

Eagerly awaiting the 15" benchmarks. Still can't believe they dropped the dedicated graphics from the base model.

 

[nunomoreira10]

Still, 4Gb on the base 13-inch Retina is ridiculous.

 

[Lindberg]

But if you utilize the high resolution of the 13MBPr games would run poorly compared the 13MBA.

 

[cube]

Seriously?? $3000 for a 13" dual-core machine? More expensive than an expensive mobile workstation?

 

[john123]

Eagerly awaiting the 15" benchmarks. Still can't believe they dropped the dedicated graphics from the base model.

That much was inevitable since the leaked benchmarks this summer...

 

[nilk]

The new integrated graphics is great. For the 13". I wish they kept the 1GB card in the 15" baseline, for when 50% more integrated graphics just isn't enough.

Note that the 15" has the Iris Pro, which is a different GPU than the Iris (non-Pro) in the 13". The Iris Pro should perform better, but I'm not sure by how much.

 

[pscl]

omg! nice benchmarks! i cant wait to get my maxed out rmbp 13"!!!!

only few days till arrival

 

[HishamAkhtar]

Note that the 15" has the Iris Pro, which is a different GPU than the Iris (non-Pro) in the 13". The Iris Pro should perform better, but I'm not sure by how much.

It'll be about the same as with the dedicated graphics of the 2012 version. If you remember, there was a report about this a couple of months ago on MacRumors detailing that and they speculated about a drop in dedicated graphics for the 15 inch.

 

[tuartboy]

The controller in the SSD reads and writes the flash memory chips in parallel. The more chips, the more parallel it is and the faster the SSD can transfer data. That's probably why the 512GB drive is outperforming the 128GB.

Another reason to spend a little more on the BTO.

 

[cirus]

"Synthetic IGP scores are accurate"

- said no one ever


Please give actual game performance

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6993/intel-iris-pro-5200-graphics-review-core-i74950hq-tested

Nearly on par in synthetics but loses significantly vs the 650m in the rmbp 15" in actual games.

Haswell showed a great jump in synthetics (3dmark 11 HD 4000 vs HD 4600) yet that doubling is never seen in a single game.

 

[ka-spot]

Nothing special... I just don't like games.

 

[paul4339]

Seriously?? $3000 for a 13" dual-core machine? More expensive than an expensive mobile workstation?

is it really $3000?? I thought it started around $1300... how are you configuring it?

 

[Klae17]

Still, 4Gb on the base 13-inch Retina is ridiculous.

It's better now with Mavericks.

 

[9947273]

iris is a lot better than i expected. i went with a risk and got the 15" without a dedicated GPU, but so far I'm finding iris pro is managing fine

 

[cube]

is it really $3000?? I thought it started around $1300... how are you configuring it?

With i7, 16GB, and 1TB, barely passable for temporary use NOW.

 

[gotluck]

"Synthetic IGP scores are accurate"

- said no one ever


Please give actual game performance

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6993/intel-iris-pro-5200-graphics-review-core-i74950hq-tested

Image

Image

Nearly on par in synthetics but loses significantly vs the 650m in the rmbp 15" in actual games.

Haswell showed a great jump in synthetics (3dmark 11 HD 4000 vs HD 4600) yet that doubling is never seen in a single game.

Intel drivers are to blame I bet

 

[macduke]

Seriously?? $3000 for a 13" dual-core machine? More expensive than an expensive mobile workstation?

What are you smoking? They start at $1299. Even the most maxed out ridiculous model with 16GB of ram and 1TB of flash storage is only $2699.

Anyway, is it just me or does it not seem like laptop/desktop performance has gone up very much in recent years? These don't bench much higher than machines from a few years ago. I know they have better battery life, but you'd think there would be just a little bit more in terms of CPU performance. I thought by now 13" machines would have received quad-core chips. I'd be all over a quad-core 13" retina. It seems like iPads are catching up really quick to the speed of these machines. The late 2013 base-model 13" retina has a Geekbench of 5362 and the iPad Air should bench around 2800, or about 10-15% faster than the iPhone 5S. So the iPad Air is about half as fast as a MacBook Pro 13". Pretty crazy to think about!

 

[adildacoolset]

Intel drivers are to blame I bet

Some games just don't scale perfectly with synthetic benchmarks.

Still, the iris pro hammers the 650 in opencl, which is impressive for an iGPU

 

[cube]

What are you smoking? They start at $1299. Even the most maxed out ridiculous model with 16GB of ram and 1TB of flash storage is only $2699.

Maxed out model only fit for temporary usage, inexpensive non-US price: $3000. Normally worse to much worse in other places.