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How is my MBP beating a Thinkpad in benchmarks?

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fate0311

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Original poster
Dec 31, 2015
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so I have been battling between booting windows in bootcamp while still staying within the Apple ecosystem. Alternative is to ditch the MBP and get a Thinkpad p52.

However I’m seeing geek bench scores from newer Thinkpads and they are a bit lower than my spec”d out 2019 15” MBP.

Confused.
 
Thinkpads (and Windows laptops in general) have lower temperature and power limits than Macbooks. In Geekbench you measure essentially the raw power of a CPU (within set power limits) without accounting for heat dissipation, they're very short. So it is entirely possible that a MBP will have higher score than even a large and heavy gaming Windows machine with the same CPU.
 
fate0311 said:
so I have been battling between booting windows in bootcamp while still staying within the Apple ecosystem. Alternative is to ditch the MBP and get a Thinkpad p52.

However I’m seeing geek bench scores from newer Thinkpads and they are a bit lower than my spec”d out 2019 15” MBP.

Confused.
Click to expand...

From my experience with Boot Camp since 2006, and the general, well-regarded consensus of almost everybody.... Boot Camp is just for emergency purposes. The drivers and optimization for Windows that Apple offers on their laptops is the absolute bottom of the barrel. If you need to spend even semi-regular time in Windows, get a PC.
 
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TSE said:
From my experience with Boot Camp since 2006, and the general, well-regarded consensus of almost everybody.... Boot Camp is just for emergency purposes. The drivers and optimization for Windows that Apple offers on their laptops is the absolute bottom of the barrel. If you need to spend even semi-regular time in Windows, get a PC.
Click to expand...

I would disagree in the sense that if you leave the laptop plugged in while working with Windows and with at least a mouse Boot Camp is great. I thought about Parallels but needed to spend at least $70 a year for a VM is nuts.

Windows 10 is not great if you rely on the touchpad and battery life. Otherwise I've been using Bootcamp quite well for gaming on my Mini and for work on my MBP.
 
Spankey said:
I would disagree in the sense that if you leave the laptop plugged in while working with Windows and with at least a mouse Boot Camp is great. I thought about Parallels but needed to spend at least $70 a year for a VM is nuts.

Windows 10 is not great if you rely on the touchpad and battery life. Otherwise I've been using Bootcamp quite well for gaming on my Mini and for work on my MBP.
Click to expand...

Maybe otherss experiences were better than mine, but I would never depend on a MacBook Pro under Windows 10 (in my case it was Solidworks) for anything professional again.
 
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P52 and 15” MBP have more or less the same cooling capability and should perform similarly. Lenovo might TDP-throttle the CPU while Apple seems to use the temperature to set the speed limit so it might explain your results.

Lenovo does throttle their CPUs on battery though, so a MBP will be faster when running unplugged.
 
I owned the Thinkpad P51 and know people who own the P52. There are a couple YouTube videos documenting this problem: the P51/52 have compromised cooling due to a poor cooling solution (only 1 heatpipe for the CPU). Even repasting with liquid metal has minimal benefit: thermal throttling still occurs. If you still want a Thinkpad maybe you should consider waiting a bit for the P53 which is to be released imminently. It, apparently, is a complete redesign with hopefully better cooling.
 
I often work in 3D applications in windows, like autores 3DS max. This is the only time that I boot into windows via boot camp. For all of my other work involving windows, I use parallels because I don’t need the 3D (DirectX 10) capabilities while using Visual studio while programming.
For all of my other work I stick to macOS.

This workflow has worked fine for me and I’m using a maxed out 2016 MBP.
 
Barring any keyboard foibles I think the 2019 MBP is the best laptop on the market (once one accepts that it isn't upgradeable). I would personally stick with it.
 
P52 is old at this point. The P53 release is imminent. Whether or not the heatsink design has changed with the P53 is anybody’s guess right now though. At any rate, better off waiting for the P53.
 
I'm waiting for the P53 for a new work machine. Lenovo is the only PC laptop I would buy. Hopefully the P53 has more TB3 so I can have one dock for P53 and the new MBP.
 
TSE said:
Maybe otherss experiences were better than mine, but I would never depend on a MacBook Pro under Windows 10 (in my case it was Solidworks) for anything professional again.
Click to expand...
No maybe about it. Mine was better than yours.
I use Microsoft Office under parallels at work.
It’s better than the Mac version. (Not nicer, better).
 
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fate0311 said:
so I have been battling between booting windows in bootcamp while still staying within the Apple ecosystem. Alternative is to ditch the MBP and get a Thinkpad p52.

However I’m seeing geek bench scores from newer Thinkpads and they are a bit lower than my spec”d out 2019 15” MBP.

Confused.
Click to expand...

Here's what the Lenovo website shows a guy doing with a P52. It's not a good look, and I pray you have no such tomfoolery in mind.
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Newtons Apple said:
I do not think it would beat my Xeon equipped Thinkpad. It is the fastest laptop I have ever owned. I got rid of the 2018 loaded MBPro 15 and have not looked back!
Click to expand...
I just ordered a P52 with a P3200, 32GB RAM, and the 2.6GHZ 6-core 8850 I am hoping it will be a great workstation for years to follow.

If I wait for the P53's I will end up spending more than I really want haha.
 
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Spankey said:
I thought about Parallels but needed to spend at least $70 a year for a VM is nuts.
Click to expand...

I've been getting my Parallels upgrades or entirely new licenses as part of bundle deals for $50 and I upgrade it every 2 or 3 years. They push you to upgrade every year, but with a couple of exceptions, I've found you're usually fine hanging on to the older edition for a while.
 
maflynn said:
You're comparing 2019 technology 8 core processors with 2018 6 core technology - why would you be surprised that the MBP is faster???

Apples and oranges at this point
Click to expand...
How that point is forgotten on a tech forum is amusing. Not to mention the problems with geekbench itself and comparing results. It does bring the usual responses from the usual corners here ;)
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smirking said:
I've been getting my Parallels upgrades or entirely new licenses as part of bundle deals for $50 and I upgrade it every 2 or 3 years. They push you to upgrade every year, but with a couple of exceptions, I've found you're usually fine hanging on to the older edition for a while.
Click to expand...
I really liked using Parallels for years then they started that subscription foolishness. I don’t see how you could go that long on an old version unless you aren’t updating Windows. Those exceptions that broke functionality is why I left.
 
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