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Do the next generation of Intel processors have major benefits?

S

Soundburst

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 4, 2006
691
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Hey everyone,

I've had a 15 inch MBP for 5 years now and I'm due an upgrade. I've been on the fence between a 13 MBA because of its resolution being the same as my current MBP however I've decided on the 13 inch MBP due to the hard drive etc (I do sound design so the resolution is kind of important as I like a lot of room but will have to do withou)

My main question is : the current i5 is 2.4GhZ but I keep reading on here that next years intel processors will give major battery benefits as well as major power benefits.

Is this true?

Will the leap between this years MBP and next years be a massive speed increase?

Thanks in advance :)
 
I don't think it will be massive. From what it sounds like to me it sounds like moderate power savings and moderate speed increases, not something that will blow you away.

The 13" MBP might get an upgrade option to the 13" MBA screen, but that's entirely speculation at this point.
 
The Sandy Bridge line of processors have hyper-threading, so there's two physical cores and two virtual cores that are used with certain applications.

I have a 2.3 GHz Mac Mini with the same processor as the early 2011 MacBook Pro and so far I'm impressed. As people often say around here, if you need it now, buy now. If you can wait, then wait...

There is supposed to be a redesign with the 2012 MacBook Pros so maybe wait until then if you're not impressed by what is on the line now.
 
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Yeah I mean the current MBP's look great and I don't really care about a new design so long as they don't stick a big multitouch display on it haha.

Was just worried that the next gen processors would be twice as fast with half the power or something similar?
 
Soundburst said:
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Yeah I mean the current MBP's look great and I don't really care about a new design so long as they don't stick a big multitouch display on it haha.

Was just worried that the next gen processors would be twice as fast with half the power or something similar?
Click to expand...

it's not going to be that significant. they will be faster and use less power, but that's been happening for years now.
 
Soundburst said:
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Hey everyone,

I've had a 15 inch MBP for 5 years now and I'm due an upgrade. I've been on the fence between a 13 MBA because of its resolution being the same as my current MBP however I've decided on the 13 inch MBP due to the hard drive etc (I do sound design so the resolution is kind of important as I like a lot of room but will have to do withou)
Click to expand...

I congratulate you sir, the first (seemingly demanding) user I've yet to see who holds onto their devices... I'm sick of people who get rid of their one-year-old machines simply because there's a newer model and they think their current machine is slow (when in reality it surpasses all their needs twenty-fold..)

Back to topic, I kind of doubt 13" would see the MBA's option. IMO I think Apple will hold off resolution changes until (if) Retina comes.

For sound design, whether you go i5 or i7, you won't see much of a difference first in performance, and secondly in longevity. You'll be doing things just as quick and replacing the Mac at about the same time. If you're at home or in the studio, an external monitor is your best bet (REAL size, plus good portability when you're on the road). Since you aren't too graphically-intense, a reasonably cheap Samsung would be your best bet.

For 13", Ivy Bridge's main advantages are power consumption. Very minimal increases in CPU, but given the fact 13" runs on integrated GPUs, that will see a good well-deserved bump. Big bump.

----------
Freddy1765 said:
The most significant improvement of Ivy Bridge over SNB (at least for laptops) is the integrated graphics performance, apparently up 60%. CPU performance increase is supposedly incremental.
Check our this link from AnandTech, explains it much more detailed.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4830/intels-ivy-bridge-architecture-exposed/6
Click to expand...


Yeah yeah, 60% in benchmarks for all the losers who spend $5,000 for bragging rights on Geekbench.

You're looking at the vicinity of 30% if anything. THe computer world moves quickly but if Intel releases their absolute latest development, the next increment wouldn't seem so big. It's marketing strategy to stay only a little ahead of the game..
 
This is the "tick" part of Intel's upgrade map. There might be a ~10% upgrade in performance for the CPU, but the true upgrade is the power efficiency increase, and a more powerful integrated GPU. AMD's new HD 7000 series is launching as well, and that should give a significant increase in performance and power efficiency due to the 28nm process being used.

Also if they put in a larger battery due to a DVD drive removal (if they do it), battery life could sail past 9 hours.

Oh, and they'd be able to put a quad-core in a 13.
 
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Well I'm going for the basic 13inch MBP.

Also. Ivy Bridge? What are the current ones called?

Graphics aren't really important to me as I play games on the PS3 an have never played a game on my MBP haha.

Saying that. My 5 year old graphics card....the current integrated ones in the MBP are probably better now anyway wouldn't they be?
 
psykick5 said:
This is the "tick" part of Intel's upgrade map. There might be a ~10% upgrade in performance for the CPU, but the true upgrade is the power efficiency increase, and a more powerful integrated GPU. AMD's new HD 7000 series is launching as well, and that should give a significant increase in performance and power consumption due to the 28nm process being used.

Also if they put in a larger battery due to a DVD drive removal (if they do it), battery life could sail past 9 hours.

Oh, and they'd be able to put a quad-core in a 13.
Click to expand...


Well, Apple did threaten Intel over power consumption and I'm sure other manufacturers would have put pressure on Intel too seeing the (slow) rise of AMD and ARM.

I'd say battery life would come from Ivy and not by increasing the size of the battery. Everyone's working towards reducing form factor for that "Ultrafailbook" anyway.

Quad in 13. Yes. Then 6-8 cores by Haswell time.

AMD 7 series giving huge increase in power consumption? :eek: crazy bastard :D but yeah. I'd be expecting something, but then if my five-year-old GMA950 does fine with stitched 70megapixel images...
 
Spadoinkles said:
Well, Apple did threaten Intel over power consumption and I'm sure other manufacturers would have put pressure on Intel too seeing the (slow) rise of AMD and ARM.

I'd say battery life would come from Ivy and not by increasing the size of the battery. Everyone's working towards reducing form factor for that "Ultrafailbook" anyway.

Quad in 13. Yes. Then 6-8 cores by Haswell time.

AMD 7 series giving huge increase in power consumption? :eek: crazy bastard :D but yeah. I'd be expecting something, but then if my five-year-old GMA950 does fine with stitched 70megapixel images...
Click to expand...

My bad, increase in performance and power efficiency.
 
Soundburst said:
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Well I'm going for the basic 13inch MBP.

Also. Ivy Bridge? What are the current ones called?

Graphics aren't really important to me as I play games on the PS3 an have never played a game on my MBP haha.

Saying that. My 5 year old graphics card....the current integrated ones in the MBP are probably better now anyway wouldn't they be?
Click to expand...

Our current ones are Sandy Bridge, a new architecture using a 32nm process. Ivy Bridge is essentially a die-shrink and a new 3-D transistor technology. Makes things efficient, quicker and probably cheaper to produce.

I have a 5 year old graphics card too :D today's bottom-end trash would probably run circles around it.

You could look at Mac Mini if you aren't anal over portability and have the option of buying a larger, nicer display that will give you good real estate.

----------
psykick5 said:
My bad, increase in performance and power efficiency.
Click to expand...


Haha :D
I love it when car dealers do that too.

"Oh so what's new in this new ___?"
"The new V8 engine gives so much more power and fuel consumption! you'll need to drive it to really feel the difference!!"
:eek:
 
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I need the portability for field recordings :)

Oh really? I thought the graphics on my pro looked nice in some demos. Nice to know I'm not going to have a completely useless graphics chip at least.

Excited. Shall buy it when Argos get some in stock :):)

Thanks for all the help guys.
 
probably not a massive speed upgrade, but usb 3.0 standard is a nice addition
 
Spadoinkles said:
For sound design, whether you go i5 or i7, you won't see much of a difference first in performance, and secondly in longevity. You'll be doing things just as quick and replacing the Mac at about the same time. If you're at home or in the studio, an external monitor is your best bet (REAL size, plus good portability when you're on the road). Since you aren't too graphically-intense, a reasonably cheap Samsung would be your best bet.
Click to expand...

Look at how slow some of the DAWs were to move to enabling their programs to make use of multicore core processing. I just picked up a rather large screen to make up for the small one on my 15". I moved from a MS desktop with 2-3 monitors to this one MBP.

Buy a computer when you need it. With technology, if you wait for the next biggest and greatest, you'll be waiting a long time.
 
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4830/intels-ivy-bridge-architecture-exposed/1

important points:
- small CPU speed increase, 5-10% or a bit more
- reduced CPU power consumption, up to 50% maybe
- faster integrated graphics (60% ?) with OpenCL support

Now the big question is how apple will use this. It offers a few possibilities:

- for MBPs, stick to current design and battery size, 10 hours battery duration with more efficient CPUs
- in particular for the 13'' MBP, a much better graphics performance

or:
- reduce battery size + remove optical drive and produce air-like macbooks (at least the 13'' and 15'') with battery durability and power like the current MBPs.


So, if you're concerned about speed, you don't have to worry about Ivy Bridge. It won't be that much faster. If battery duration and weight/air-like design are important, waiting might be an option. But it's not clear how apple will use the benefits of the new chips.
 
I would have bought a MacBook Air a year ago if it had been capable of 8GB of RAM. Since it wasn't, I bought the 15" MBP with hi res screen.

I replaced a 4 year old Windows laptop.

I am now out of date in everything :) iPad 1, iPhone 4. Mac Pro 2008.
 
I dont think I saw it mentioned here, but IB will also bring USB3, should apple decide to use it. If they dont, bah on them.
 
kevink2 said:
I would have bought a MacBook Air a year ago if it had been capable of 8GB of RAM. Since it wasn't, I bought the 15" MBP with hi res screen.

I replaced a 4 year old Windows laptop.

I am now out of date in everything :) iPad 1, iPhone 4. Mac Pro 2008.
Click to expand...

Unless your needs truly surpass the largely unexplored capabilities of your machines... I wouldn't call them 'out of date', because 99% of our homes would be too if we looked at them the same way..

P.S USB3. You rowdy impatient consumers might as well buy a lil cheapshit Netbook that supports that if that's what you want. It really isn't going to be much of a revolutionary change at all..
 
Spadoinkles said:
Unless your needs truly surpass the largely unexplored capabilities of your machines... I wouldn't call them 'out of date', because 99% of our homes would be too if we looked at them the same way..

P.S USB3. You rowdy impatient consumers might as well buy a lil cheapshit Netbook that supports that if that's what you want. It really isn't going to be much of a revolutionary change at all..
Click to expand...

USB 3.0 is a necessary evolution. USB 2.0 is the bottleneck in HDD/SSD to external transfers, USB 3.0 greatly speeds up that process. Sounds like a pretty good upgrade to me. In 3 years when USB 3.0 is the norm, would you still be happy with USB 2.0 in your $2.5K 3 year old machine? I wouldn't
 
Wattser93 said:
USB 3.0 is a necessary evolution. USB 2.0 is the bottleneck in HDD/SSD to external transfers, USB 3.0 greatly speeds up that process. Sounds like a pretty good upgrade to me. In 3 years when USB 3.0 is the norm, would you still be happy with USB 2.0 in your $2.5K 3 year old machine? I wouldn't
Click to expand...

exactly. Who wouldn't want faster ports at no loss to you? In a year, I'm sure apple will make iphones/ipads sync with usb 3 too.
 
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Isn't Thunderbolt the cure and reason NOT to do USB 3? Someone please enlighten me.
 
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