2.4 Penryn VS 2.4 Merom - What is the definitive answer?

[lauph]

The title's debate never had a definitive conclusion, did it?

Geekbench says 2.4 Merom is faster than 2.4 Penryn, while Macworld says 2.4 Penryn is faster than 2.4 Merom.

I'm not asking for "performance per price" ratio here, but just a "A to B" comparison.

I only found geekbench and macworld benchmarking them. Anyone have more findings?

 

[katejones]

I believe it depends on the Task your doing.

 

[wk127001]

Yeah if your task utilizes the new instruction sets (SSE4.1 I believe) then penryn is the way to go. Also less heat and better battery life with penryn, but you probably knew that. I don't see why you would go merom unless money was a huge issue.

 

[cmm26red]

The title's debate never had a definitive conclusion, did it?

Geekbench says 2.4 Merom is faster than 2.4 Penryn, while Macworld says 2.4 Penryn is faster than 2.4 Merom.

I'm not asking for "performance per price" ratio here, but just a "A to B" comparison.

I only found geekbench and macworld benchmarking them. Anyone have more findings?

Considering that geekbench only benched the systems with their own software, Mac worlds benchmarks should be favored in making a decisions as to which model is more powerful. Granted, the performance gains are small, but I believe the Penryn is a more powerful machine overall. I am basing this on Mac worlds results, specifically, how the Penryn outperformed the 2.6GHz Merom in the CS3, MPEG encode, and Zip Archive Finder. Also noted is how close the lower spec'd Penryn came to the 2.6GHz Merom in Speedmark 5 and it actually tied in ITunes MP3 encode.

Once applications start utilizing the new instruction set, the gap will widen. As a former 2.4 Merom owner (for all of 1 week), I can say that my 2.5Ghz Penryn runs much much cooler and the battery lasts anywhere from 30 - 45 minutes longer.

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

Since the conclusion is inconclusive I will take a shot in the dark and say that there's a negliable difference between the two.

 

[shoppy]

There is also the difference in cache, hard drive size and also the trackpad between A and B. I had previous generation 2.4 and new 2.4, I found the new 2,4 slower in my own usage. So I returned with a restocking fee and ordered a 2.5.

The penryn was simply slow in contrast to my 17" 2.6. We will see how the new 2.5 fairs.

 

[John.B]

Yeah if your task utilizes the new instruction sets (SSE4.1 I believe) then penryn is the way to go.

Are there any real world applications designed to make use of SSE4.1 yet?

 

[wk127001]

Are there any real world applications designed to make use of SSE4.1 yet?

I believe certain media encoding applications do. I have read these video codecs use them: DivX 6.7 and TMPEG Xpress 4.4