Macbook Pro 15" Mid 2010 vs Late 2011

[techman28]

I'm trying to figure out the speed/performance difference between the Mid 2010 Macbook pro 15" (2.66 i7) and the current Late 2011 15" Macbook Pro.

The specs of the mid 2010 model I want to compare are:

15" 1440x900 screen
2.66Ghz dual core i7 CPU
4GB 1067mhz DDR3 ram
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 MB GPU

I would like to know the speed/performance difference between that one and the current low end 15" model which specs are:

15" 1440x900 screen
2.2Ghz quad core i7 CPU
4GB 1333mhz DDR3 ram
AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512MB GPU

Since the screens are the same and the RAM and HDD are user changeable, the main things to compare are the CPU and GPU.
So basically the question is whether the low end late 2011 model is a step up from the mid 2010 model in terms of speed/performance? Is the 2.2ghz quad core i7 faster/much faster than the 2.66ghz dual core i7? If so, how much? And is the AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512MB gpu faster/better than the NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 330M 512mb GPU? If so, how much faster/better?

Can anybody help me out with this? Thanks.

 

[warvanov]

http://www.macworld.com/article/157893/2011/02/2011macbookpro_benchmarks.html

"The 15-inch 2.0GHz quad core Core i7 MacBook Pro was 33 percent faster overall than the 15-inch 2.4GHz dual core Core i5 system introduced last April. ...

... Overall, the new 15-inch 2.2GHz quad-core Core i7 MacBook Pro was 38 percent faster than last year’s fastest 15-inch model and the new 17-inch model was 53 percent faster than last year’s largest Mac laptop."


In this case, newer = better and faster. These benchmarks are for the early 2011 MBPs but they should hold true for the late 2011 MBP.

 

[techman28]

http://www.macworld.com/article/157893/2011/02/2011macbookpro_benchmarks.html

"The 15-inch 2.0GHz quad core Core i7 MacBook Pro was 33 percent faster overall than the 15-inch 2.4GHz dual core Core i5 system introduced last April. ...

... Overall, the new 15-inch 2.2GHz quad-core Core i7 MacBook Pro was 38 percent faster than last year’s fastest 15-inch model and the new 17-inch model was 53 percent faster than last year’s largest Mac laptop."


In this case, newer = better and faster.

Although the 15inch 2.2ghz quad core i7 macbook pro they're talking about in what you quoted is the early 2011 2.2ghz i7 model not the late 2011 2.2ghz i7 model. The CPU's may or may not be the same but the GPUs definitely have different amounts of dedicated memory.

The early 2011 2.2ghz model had 1GB GPU memory and the late 2011 2.2ghz model has 512mb GPU memory (because its the lower end model). So is the low end late 2011 2.2ghz model with only 512mb GPU still faster/better than the mid 2010 model with the NVIDIA GEFORCE 330M 512mb GPU? Thanks.

 

[warvanov]

I haven't seen any benchmarks for the Late 2011 MBP yet.

It stands to reason that the 15" 2.2ghz quad core i7 macbook pro from early 2011 would compare similarly to the late 2011 2.2ghz i7 model in everything other than graphics intensive tasks, which would still put it ahead of the mid 2010 model in question.

As far as graphics intensive tasks, the late 2.2ghz probably won't perform as well as the early 2.2ghz MBP due to the difference in GPU memory, as you mentioned. I suspect that it will still outperform the 2010 model from a year and a half ago with an older video card and the same GPU memory but I'll have to see some benchmarks before that can be said definitively. I don't know exactly how the AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512MB GPU compares to the NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 MB GPU.

 

[techman28]

I haven't seen any benchmarks for the Late 2011 MBP yet.

It stands to reason that the 15" 2.2ghz quad core i7 macbook pro from early 2011 would compare similarly to the late 2011 2.2ghz i7 model in everything other than graphics intensive tasks, which would still put it ahead of the mid 2010 model in question.

As far as graphics intensive tasks, the late 2.2ghz probably won't perform as well as the early 2.2ghz MBP due to the difference in GPU memory, as you mentioned. I suspect that it will still outperform the 2010 model from a year and a half ago with an older video card and the same GPU memory but I'll have to see some benchmarks before that can be said definitively. I don't know exactly how the AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512MB GPU compares to the NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 MB GPU.

heres the macworld link for the new late 2011 macbook pros. I'm not really sure how to decipher the benchmarks to compare them to the mid 2010 model but maybe you can.
http://www.macworld.com/article/163...updates_that_boost_performance_and_value.html

 

[warvanov]

Ok, according to that link, the 15-inch MacBook Pro/2.2GHz Core i7 (Late 2011) benchmarked a Portal 2 framerate of 160.0 vs the 15-inch Macbook Pro/2.2GHz Core i7 (Early 2011) with a framerate of 160.9, not a huge difference there. Also, the Cinebench OpenGL scores of the two machines are 38.7 and 38.8, respecictively (nearly identical). It seems as though the increased GPU memory doesn't make a huge difference after all.

Other benchmarks are comparable between the two machines, with the Early 2011 edging out Late 2011 in some tests, and vice versa. For instance, the Early 2011 MBP was faster at the Import iMovie '11 Archive test (82.2 vs. 73.7 seconds), but the Late 2011 fared better at the iMovie '11 Share to iTunes: Mobile test (65.0 vs. 60.8 seconds).

So it would seam the late 2011 2.2ghz 15" MBP roughly equals the early 2011 2.2ghz 15" MBP, both of which are superior to mid 2010 MBP in question.

Edit: Upon further consideration, it does seam like the early 2011 2.2ghz 15" MBP does edge out the late 2011 2.2ghz 15" MBP in most tests. But the two machines seem close enough that either one is faster than the mid 2010 MBP.

 

[techman28]

Ok, according to that link, the 15-inch MacBook Pro/2.2GHz Core i7 (Late 2011) benchmarked a Portal 2 framerate of 160.0 vs the 15-inch Macbook Pro/2.2GHz Core i7 (Early 2011) with a framerate of 160.9, not a huge difference there. Also, the Cinebench OpenGL scores of the two machines are 38.7 and 38.8, respecictively (nearly identical). It seems as though the increased GPU memory doesn't make a huge difference after all.

Other benchmarks are comparable between the two machines, with the Early 2011 edging out Late 2011 in some tests, and vice versa. For instance, the Early 2011 MBP was faster at the Import iMovie '11 Archive test (82.2 vs. 73.7 seconds), but the Late 2011 fared better at the iMovie '11 Share to iTunes: Mobile test (65.0 vs. 60.8 seconds).

So it would seam the late 2011 2.2ghz 15" MBP roughly equals the early 2011 2.2ghz 15" MBP, both of which are superior to mid 2010 MBP in question.

Edit: Upon further consideration, it does seam like the early 2011 2.2ghz 15" MBP does edge out the late 2011 2.2ghz 15" MBP in most tests. But the two machines seem close enough that either one is faster than the mid 2010 MBP.

Now looking at the specs closer, does the high end early 2011 15" macbook pro have the exact same CPU as the low end late 2011 15" macbook pro? And do they also have the exact same GPU with the only difference being 1GB gpu memory vs 512mb gpu memory?

If so, does that mean the ONLY differences between the early 2011 high end and the late 2011 low end are the 512mb gpu memory difference and the hard drive size (early 2011 has 750GB, late 2011 has 500GB)? Are they really the same in EVERY other aspect???

 

[Naimfan]

Now looking at the specs closer, does the high end early 2011 15" macbook pro have the exact same CPU as the low end late 2011 15" macbook pro? And do they also have the exact same GPU with the only difference being 1GB gpu memory vs 512mb gpu memory?

No.

The CPUs are different, though I don't have the model numbers handy. The GPU is the same except for the VRAM.

 

[techman28]

No.

The CPUs are different, though I don't have the model numbers handy. The GPU is the same except for the VRAM.

Ok but is the late 2011 2.2ghz quad core i7 CPU better than the early 2011 2.2ghz quad core i7 CPU? And because of the extra 512mb GPU memory, is the high end early 2011 macbook pro 15 overall better than the low end late 2011 macbook pro 15?

Thanks.

 

[Naimfan]

, is the high end early 2011 macbook pro 15 overall better than the low end late 2011 macbook pro 15?

Thanks.

Yes.

You're welcome!

 

[anonymousdr555]

I'm trying to figure out the speed/performance difference between the Mid 2010 Macbook pro 15" (2.66 i7) and the current Late 2011 15" Macbook Pro.

The specs of the mid 2010 model I want to compare are:

15" 1440x900 screen
2.66Ghz dual core i7 CPU
4GB 1067mhz DDR3 ram
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 MB GPU

I would like to know the speed/performance difference between that one and the current low end 15" model which specs are:

15" 1440x900 screen
2.2Ghz quad core i7 CPU
4GB 1333mhz DDR3 ram
AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512MB GPU

Since the screens are the same and the RAM and HDD are user changeable, the main things to compare are the CPU and GPU.
So basically the question is whether the low end late 2011 model is a step up from the mid 2010 model in terms of speed/performance? Is the 2.2ghz quad core i7 faster/much faster than the 2.66ghz dual core i7? If so, how much? And is the AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512MB gpu faster/better than the NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 330M 512mb GPU? If so, how much faster/better?

Can anybody help me out with this? Thanks.

Im looking at these specs myself and can't really get my head around the difference between the actually processor.. the 2010 model has i7 Dual core? Some claim that there is no such thing as a "dual core i7"... all i7s are quad core according to other forums I've seen... does anyone know more about this?

cheers

 

[yjchua95]

Im looking at these specs myself and can't really get my head around the difference between the actually processor.. the 2010 model has i7 Dual core? Some claim that there is no such thing as a "dual core i7"... all i7s are quad core according to other forums I've seen... does anyone know more about this?

cheers

There are dual core i7s and there are quad core i7s.

Both have hyper threading, whereby the dual core i7 would have 4 threads, and the quad core i7 would have 8 threads.

The early-generation mobile i7s were dual core only. It wasn't until 2011 when the Sandy Bridge generation of i7s introduced quad core mobile i7s.