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Early Benchmarks Put Retina MacBook CPU Performance in Range of 2011 MacBook Air

sracer said:
But does it really?

What was the price of a 15" MBP in 2008? What did it include? What does one go for now and what is included?

I paid $1500-$1600 for mine back in '08, they now start at $2000. Based on one's priorities and needs a case could be made that the current model is a better "value", but the entry price has not come down, but gone up.
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First computer I had at home (purchased by my father) was a IBM PC - DOS 1.1 - 64 kb memory, CGA video card, Electrohome monitor, dot-matrix printer... and 2 floppy drives...... (hard drives were not supported, and even if they were... DOS 1.1 did not have the concept of directories :p ).

Price..... $6,400 (that was with a 20% educational discount).
 
gnasher729 said:
Here's the difference: I have been many years in this forum, and I totally accept that there will always be people who attack Apple or its products or its users at all cost, no matter how stupid the attack is. For example, attacking one out of five very different Apple laptop models because it is different from the other four. As if anyone would have been served by adding a copy of one of the four existing products.

Your reference to "killing whales" is just plain stupid. It's what I referred to: In this case, you are attacking Apple users in the most stupid way possible. Again, here is the difference: I'm not defending Apple for killing whales. They are not killing whales. However, I am indeed attacking you for making the most unreasonable claim about Apple users, and you _did_ indeed make that unreasonable claim.
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Sure I did mister. And I made an stupid "metaphor"/reference. Sorry for your time and for all I have done. And sorry to me as well because I am also an Apple user who attacked himself.
 
I expected the rMB to score bit more on the benchmark :(. Now these results have really made me to rethink about buying the rMB, Its better in all departments than my mba but the only thing worrying me is the processor.

Do you guys think it will perform better than my base 11" 2011 ??
 
tejeshwarsekhon said:
I expected the rMB to score bit more on the benchmark :(. Now these results have really made me to rethink about buying the rMB, Its better in all departments than my mba but the only thing worrying me is the processor.

Do you guys think it will perform better than my base 11" 2011 ??
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Complete specification would be helpful.
 
tejeshwarsekhon said:
I expected the rMB to score bit more on the benchmark :(. Now these results have really made me to rethink about buying the rMB, Its better in all departments than my mba but the only thing worrying me is the processor.

Do you guys think it will perform better than my base 11" 2011 ??
Click to expand...

Depends what your usage scenario is.

if it's the "Base" 11", than it's the 2gb ram / 64gb SSD version (same one I have been using)

I would imagine that your usage will determine if this is better or not

this should feature a better GPU, Faster storage, more RAM, which overall, as an average user, should equal a much better experience.

if you're just using more CPU intensive tasks, than until we get some real tests, the i5 in the MBA still might be better in some tasks.

the display is going to be better in this by leaps and bounds.

I cannot attest to keyboard or trackpad experience, since those will be subjective.
 
sracer said:
But does it really?

What was the price of a 15" MBP in 2008? What did it include? What does one go for now and what is included?

I paid $1500-$1600 for mine back in '08, they now start at $2000. Based on one's priorities and needs a case could be made that the current model is a better "value", but the entry price has not come down, but gone up.
Click to expand...

...But that's not equivalent technology.

You're description is basically arguing (without realizing it I think) that the MBP product line is the same technology and should be coming down in price. That's not the same technology from 2008.
 
The geekbench 3 marks for the i5 Macbook air on average are lower than the new Macbook will be (likely). That said, take benchmarks with a grain of salt.

As mentioned combined with 4x the memory and a much higher speed SSD and better graphics processor.... and I think the new Macbook will be a fair bit more powerful.
 
bkkcanuck said:
Complete specification would be helpful.
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LordVic said:
Depends what your usage scenario is.

if it's the "Base" 11", than it's the 2gb ram / 64gb SSD version (same one I have been using)

I would imagine that your usage will determine if this is better or not

this should feature a better GPU, Faster storage, more RAM, which overall, as an average user, should equal a much better experience.

if you're just using more CPU intensive tasks, than until we get some real tests, the i5 in the MBA still might be better in some tasks.

the display is going to be better in this by leaps and bounds.

I cannot attest to keyboard or trackpad experience, since those will be subjective.
Click to expand...

My main usage is surfing, Youtube, Mail & syncing iPhone once a week. I don't use the ports much, Once in a month i might use HDMI. So lack of ports is not a problem, My main concern is will it be able to handle all those task without heating up, Like my current mac which now heats up quite often when used for longer period of time & hangs while syncing my iPhone or Browsing more than 5-7 windows in safari..
 
tejeshwarsekhon said:
My main usage is surfing, Youtube, Mail & syncing iPhone once a week. I don't use the ports much, Once in a month i might use HDMI. So lack of ports is not a problem, My main concern is will it be able to handle all those task without heating up, Like my current mac which now heats up quite often when used for longer period of time & hangs while syncing my iPhone or Browsing more than 5-7 windows in safari..
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it should be fine handling those tasks with absolute ease.

Cannot tell you about heating up or what kind of thermal throttling is going to be in place as real detailed reviews are not available yet.
 
sracer said:
But does it really?

What was the price of a 15" MBP in 2008? What did it include? What does one go for now and what is included?

I paid $1500-$1600 for mine back in '08, they now start at $2000. Based on one's priorities and needs a case could be made that the current model is a better "value", but the entry price has not come down, but gone up.
Click to expand...

Well, I meant the same technology starts high and comes does. A 2015 MBP is vastly different than a 2008 with a much higher resolution screen, new design, expensive SSD and RAM. Honestly, I feel like all it shares with the 2008 models is the name.

I think a more applicable example is just looking at the Retina MBPs. The 15" started at $2,199 and is now $1,999.
 
I don't know how anyone can put a positive spin on a brand new computer costing over 1,300 dollars is as fast as 4 year old computer :eek:

Other then the screen, why would I really want to buy this over the current MBA lineup?

I think the performance numbers may cause this product not to be as successful as Apple had hoped.
 
NT1440 said:
...But that's not equivalent technology.

You're description is basically arguing (without realizing it I think) that the MBP product line is the same technology and should be coming down in price. That's not the same technology from 2008.
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Of course and I even mentioned that.

From a customer's perspective, it costs more today to buy a 15" MBP than it did 7 years ago. (even if the hardware offered is greatly improved over what was available)

To point to the technology as the sole driver in pricing is not looking at the entire picture. There is the marketing/financial component as well.

Apple has to sell the new Macbook at this pricepoint because the MBA pricing was dropping. The price of the new Macbook "resets" the pricing. MBP prices were declining right before the release of the retina 15" MBP and have never dropped to the pre-retina pricing.

In the end, "value" of an item is based on a person's willingness (or not) to pay the asking price.
 
maflynn said:
I don't know how anyone can put a positive spin on a brand new computer costing over 1,300 dollars is as fast as 4 year old computer :eek:

Other then the screen, why would I really want to buy this over the current MBA lineup?

I think the performance numbers may cause this product not to be as successful as Apple had hoped.
Click to expand...

It's 2011 performance at a mere fraction of the power, which is impressive. This isn't the computer for everyone, but Apple has a crazy good battery life line with the MBA and a high performance line with the MBP. This is just a portability line of computers for those who value portability over all else.

Yes, I think it's a little overpriced, but not incredibly since it is the new kid on the block.
 
Why are new cars with only 100horse power (same as 50 year old car) still so expensive? They should be cheap since they don't increase in power.

Analogy holds, we are already at the point where CPU is not the issue for the average user anymore, storage space by far was the biggest bottle neck.

This laptop still boasts half the power of 2008 Mac Pro, thats still used in some production studios and it works. Seriously, can someone tell me why do you need so much CPU power for watching youtube?

Its like buying a 500hp car for driving in traffic jams all the time.

Lets face it, CPU is at the point where you buy what you need, not better every new model. Because most of users don't really need it.
 
LordVic said:
it should be fine handling those tasks with absolute ease.

Cannot tell you about heating up or what kind of thermal throttling is going to be in place as real detailed reviews are not available yet.
Click to expand...

I would expect there to be some level of throttling, mostly to prevent the casing from getting too hot.

Will it be as aggressive as Toshiba's implementation? (they only allowed like 4w of tdp before severely throttling) who knows....
 
Ploki said:
Why are new cars with only 100horse power (same as 50 year old car) still so expensive? They should be cheap since they don't increase in power.

Analogy holds, we are already at the point where CPU is not the issue for the average user anymore, storage space by far was the biggest bottle neck.

This laptop still boasts half the power of 2008 Mac Pro, thats still used in some production studios and it works. Seriously, can someone tell me why do you need so much CPU power for watching youtube?

Its like buying a 500hp car for driving in traffic jams all the time.

Lets face it, CPU is at the point where you buy what you need, not better every new model. Because most of users don't really need it.
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Granted that 2008 Mac Pro can't run Yosemite...right?
 
bkkcanuck said:
Bzzz, wrong. Yes the ARM processors use an entirely different architecture but the operating systems underlying them are basically the same... multiple streams. Most of the code is C, C++, and Objective-C.... all compiled through CLang/LLVM which supports both ARM and OS X (LLVM is basically a portable assembly language translation layer). Any customer assembly code would take a mere weeks to merge back into the main branch of "OS X".
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1) It's not really that simple and converting assembly code wouldn't just take a few weeks. Months... years maybe?
2) Binary compatibility would be a huge issue if OS X were compiled for 2 architectures. You could probably do a Rosetta style thing... but why?
3) ARM CPUs started surfacing in 1985... same year as 32-bit x86 CPUs became available, so eeerk wrong. It's not like ARM is new and x86 is ancient. Both are mature architectures designed for different purposes.

It's good to see other options being explored, but end of the day people seem to be missing the point. Today's slowest/cheapest Intel CPU is faster than the most expensive CPU from 2011. And it's... yeah, comparable to the absolute fastest ARM offering that Apple has (in lab-based raw CPU tests... real-world applications... no way!)

Is ARM going to replace x86? I doubt it. Why would you want a 'Macbook' that isn't binary compatible with apps built for every other Mac? Sure... lots are made using portable code and you'd just compile a UB. But... why have 2 binaries in the same bundle? Waste of space...
 
Traverse said:
It's 2011 performance at a mere fraction of the power, which is impressive. This isn't the computer for everyone, but Apple has a crazy good battery life line with the MBA and a high performance line with the MBP. This is just a portability line of computers for those who value portability over all else.

Yes, I think it's a little overpriced, but not incredibly since it is the new kid on the block.
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But you get nearly the same amount of power from a current model MBA don't you?
 
CIA said:
The faster ones aren't much faster....
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Then go buy yourself a machine from another manufacturer. Problem solved.

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Liquorpuki said:
This is not a new product. Macbook was and still is Apple's entry level notebook line

Entry level now costs $1300
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I don't think you understand what entry-level means, or you haven't actually looked at the Apple site/store for quite a few years.
 
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