There is so much discussion about the likelihood of Penryn MBP's in January. While this is far from a sure thing, my question is what would be the real life performance difference in Penryn MBP's over the current lineup? I'm not a gamer, but I do a fair amount of photo and video editing. With so many people trying to decide whether to "buy now or wait and see" until MacWorld San Francisco in January, this would be good to know!
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
MBP Penryn?
- Thread starter jameskohn
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Penryn is basically just a die shrink from 65nm to 45nm. There's no major architecture changes, but knowing Intel they'll add some extra SSE instructions for multimedia and bump the cache up so they can claim it's x% faster. The main benefits will come from increased clock speed and lower power consumption.
... not to mention a 1600Mhz Front Side Bus
I think the Penryn in the MBPs will have a limited FSB due to the lack of RAM that can move that fast, or so I am sure. I am no wiz at remembering processor and chip specs but I have to know about my tools and what they can do. I am on the wagon for a new Penryn MBP with 4GB worth of 800MHz RAM... I do know that the desktop chips will have a 1600MHz FSB and the RAM to go with it.
As for the upgrade... it is worth it to wait. The SR MBPs didn't tickle my fancy, and weren't really an update, they should have come out to begin with. Being able to put a Dual Core 2.8 instead of a 2.4 GHz processor is enough of a wait. As well as being able to possible get a 2.4 or 2.6GHz on the low end and maybe even a bigger HDD standard. It's my hopes for a better GFX card, hopefully but not likely with 512MB vRAM, and the option for the Hi Def screen on the 15" just incase I decide to stick with the screen size and not move up to the 17" which isn't that much bigger or heavier.
I would love to see Apple take away the third USB port and add a second FW400 port or an eSata port on the left side of the 17" as well. And the design of the book could use a minor refresh. The current design is perfect, and Apple shouldn't stray too far from it, but I would love to have the magnetic latch from the MacBook, NOT the consumer keyboard though, and the ability to swap HDDs from the bottom of the case.
I wouldn't mind seeing them cut the Full sized DVI down to a mini DVI port, or a new type of mini port that can use DVI and HDMI and give more room to add another FW port or USB or eSata port to the right side.
All the other stuff was just dreaming... but really, all I could ask for is the Dual 2.8GHz option in the high end and new GFX cards. I can get the HDD I want now so that is the only thing holding me back from relieving my current machine from it's duties.