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New Retina MacBook Pro Models Showing Up in Benchmarks

As the owner of an 8 month old early-2013 rMBP 15", and especially as someone prone to new product envy, it's nice to see that the new models don't blow the old ones away in performance. I'm generally quite satisfied with the battery life on my existing computer, and Mavericks not only seems to have improved on this slightly (pending more extensive testing) but fixed a lot of the annoyances with this computer under Mountain Lion.

I'd ordinarily head straight for the "Waiting for Broadwell!" camp, but I'm happier with this computer than I have been with any other computer for quite some time.
 
stockscalper said:
All well and good - we got faster Macbooks. But, Apple still hasn't done squat in terms of introducing any new products since Steve Jobs passed. They're just drifting along aimlessly just like they did the first time after Jobs left.
Click to expand...

This argument comes up in nearly every thread - No, Apple hasn't done anything really "new" since the iPad. But let us remember, the iPad was Apple's fastest "new innovation" being 3 years apart from the iPhone launch. iPhone was 6 years after the first iPod. Everything in-between those years was incremental.

We are still in the third year from the iPad launch. If there isn't anything new next year then I would be concerned - but Apple never was one to release new products in new categories every year (Or even every 3.)
 
Glad I bought the haswell air. I was wondering how the retina battery life would get bumped. I sold a 15" retina to get the 13" air and while the screen took some serious adjustment time the battery life is amazing
 
stockscalper said:
All well and good - we got faster Macbooks. But, Apple still hasn't done squat in terms of introducing any new products since Steve Jobs passed. They're just drifting along aimlessly just like they did the first time after Jobs left.
Click to expand...

But look at how much time and effort is put into introducing new products! It takes a very long time to create something new, especially with the standards Apple have to meet.
 
john123 said:
For people interested in the performance of the base model, this is in line with expectations, but no real bump at all. Compare it:
http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/136061

To the June 2012 model:
http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/136196

Obviously the February 2013 model does slightly better, putting it on par with the new base model.
Click to expand...

Ya base models are pretty much identical in CPU performance.

This is definitely not a great update in terms of raw CPU performance. But solid none the less.

Mike
 
My now almost 3 year old early 2011 MBP will be getting replaced with the 2.6 GHz 15" configuration with the Nvidia 750M :)
Can't believe my battery is completely shot in my 2011 laptop already.

mfqEKJo.png
 
jclardy said:
This argument comes up in nearly every thread - No, Apple hasn't done anything really "new" since the iPad. But let us remember, the iPad was Apple's fastest "new innovation" being 3 years apart from the iPhone launch. iPhone was 6 years after the first iPod. Everything in-between those years was incremental.

We are still in the third year from the iPad launch. If there isn't anything new next year then I would be concerned - but Apple never was one to release new products in new categories every year (Or even every 3.)
Click to expand...

+1. Every 3-4 years for a "game changer" product is normal based on apple's history. If 2014 goes by without anything new, then I'd be concerned as an investor.
 
GoCubsGo said:
Do I read it right that the 15" base performs twice as well as the 13" base?
Click to expand...

In multicore scenarios. There aren't that many multicore applications outside of video compression and gaming.

Browsing, listening to music, watching videos, all the simple tasks are virtually the same.
 
jclardy said:
This argument comes up in nearly every thread - No, Apple hasn't done anything really "new" since the iPad. But let us remember, the iPad was Apple's fastest "new innovation" being 3 years apart from the iPhone launch. iPhone was 6 years after the first iPod. Everything in-between those years was incremental.

We are still in the third year from the iPad launch. If there isn't anything new next year then I would be concerned - but Apple never was one to release new products in new categories every year (Or even every 3.)
Click to expand...

Apples shift away from discs and never adopting bluray is kinda screwing them in the TV market. Its the perfect time for them to enter as the 4K transition is just beginning, they could release a 4K set, charge their normal high markups and it may slow their competitors race to the bottom and give them a couple of years of high market share like the iPad has enjoyed. Unfortunately all the talk of an Apple 4K TV is ruined by the bandwidth that would be required for their streaming model to work. When it comes to TVs streaming will always be a few years behind as they wait for network speeds to catch up to the bandwidth requirements which is too far for Apple to be behind to succeed as a new entrant to the market. I have the feeling iWatch may come in the spring, seems like they can get that to market if they wanted to and with all of the updates today it will be awhile before they will get a lot of news again if they don't release something new in the spring and Apple loves free publicity
 
I wonder when we will see either quad core processors in the 13" retinas or dual cores that are able to get over 10,000 in geekbench. Still the current generation is pretty impressive.
 
jclardy said:
This argument comes up in nearly every thread - No, Apple hasn't done anything really "new" since the iPad. But let us remember, the iPad was Apple's fastest "new innovation" being 3 years apart from the iPhone launch. iPhone was 6 years after the first iPod. Everything in-between those years was incremental.

We are still in the third year from the iPad launch. If there isn't anything new next year then I would be concerned - but Apple never was one to release new products in new categories every year (Or even every 3.)
Click to expand...

Thank you. I came to say that. Apple wisely times it's product launches years apart. You can't release a new product every year and expect them to all be successful. Also I don't care if it takes them ten years to release a new product as long as they get it right and make sure it's ready. I don't want some half baked piece of crap like the galaxy gear.
 
stockscalper said:
All well and good - we got faster Macbooks. But, Apple still hasn't done squat in terms of introducing any new products since Steve Jobs passed. They're just drifting along aimlessly just like they did the first time after Jobs left.
Click to expand...

They also haven't produced a failed product that has made them easily mocked as irrelevant.
 
Aluminum213 said:
will wait for retina Macbook Air next year, also the battery life on these are nice but not impressed with the slight increase in benchmark scores
Click to expand...

Probably not a bad move, particularly if you like the 11.6" design. Note that we saw the same with the MacBook Air this year. Haswell is all about extending battery life and improving graphics. CPU performance is on par with last year.
 
Mike07335i said:
Ya base models are pretty much identical in CPU performance.

This is definitely not a great update in terms of raw CPU performance. But solid none the less.
Click to expand...

You really think that? Why? Given that you could get an Ivy Bridge off Amazon yesterday for $2000, and there are plenty of people who would rather have the 650M dGPU, I see a strong argument for the older model. Sure, if you care about the extra hour (less in real world) of battery life, or the extra features like TB2 and 802.11ac, then I can see the argument...but for many people, the older model seems pretty compelling, especially if you can get a deal on it.
 
newdeal said:
I wonder why the single core benchmarks are higher on the 15" when comparing i7 vs i7 when the clock on the 13" is higher
Click to expand...
Even though the i7 in the higher-end 13" model has a higher clock speed (2.8GHz) than the i7 in the base 15" model (2.3GHz), the 15" model CPU has a slightly higher turbo clock speed:

2.8GHz i7-4558U in the high-end 13": http://ark.intel.com/products/75992/Intel-Core-i7-4558U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz

2.3GHz i7-4850HQ in the base 15": http://ark.intel.com/products/76086/Intel-Core-i7-4850HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_50-GHz

The clock speeds are 2.8 vs 2.3, but the turbo speeds are 3.3 vs 3.5. The turbo almost absolutely kicked in during the Geekbench tests, hence the slight edge in the 15" model.

The 15" CPU also has 6MB of L3 cache, compared to 4MB in the 13" i7. I don't know how much that helps during a benchmark scenario, but it's worth noting as an additional advantage.
 
I think there won't be huge Benchmark increases for a while now.

Any future processor performance increase will be used as a way to further decrease the clock speed to save energy and make devices even thinner and lighter.

Comments?
 
stockscalper said:
All well and good - we got faster Macbooks. But, Apple still hasn't done squat in terms of introducing any new products since Steve Jobs passed. They're just drifting along aimlessly just like they did the first time after Jobs left.
Click to expand...

Wow, you have access to Apple's R&D labs and know what they're working on? Amazing.

You do realize that there were many years between new product launches in the Steve Jobs era as well, right? The iPhone came almost five years after the first iPods if I recall correctly, and the iPad wasn't introduced until another three years had passed. Meanwhile, MacBook Pros and iMacs have actually been changing at a faster pace than they did under Jobs.
 
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