Next-Generation 13-Inch MacBook Pro Benchmarked with Modest Performance Gains

[Eidorian]

Welcome to the world of how Apple updates its products. They could have given you an Air with 16gb RAM. They could have given you a Quad Core Ivy Bridge 13" rMBP last year. Why didn't they?

Rule of thumb, best not to get over generous in making your wish list when waiting for ucoming Apple products. Some kids here are already dreaming of Thunderbolt 2, Quad Core + HD 5200 Iris Pro in the 13" and not to mention IGZO for all Pros. I'm not saying I wouldn't love those. I'd be ecstatic if those will happen. But I've seen how Apple moves through these years. One example is the little kiddos dreaming of Retinas in the Airs a few months ago.

And the best thing to do is not to play if Apple is just going to dangle a carrot in front of its customers like that. That is where you get people owning 6-7 year old Macs.

In before "but that's longer than some lame PEECEE!".

 

[polymersayb]

Welcome to the world of how Apple updates its products. They could have given you an Air with 16gb RAM BTO. They could have given you a Quad Core Ivy Bridge 13" rMBP last year. Why didn't they?

Rule of thumb, best not to get over generous in making your wish list when waiting for ucoming Apple products. Some kids here are already dreaming of Thunderbolt 2, Quad Core + HD 5200 Iris Pro in the 13" and not to mention IGZO for all Pros. I'm not saying I wouldn't love those. I'd be ecstatic if those will happen. But I've seen how Apple moves through these years. One example is the little kiddos dreaming of Retinas in the Airs a few months ago.

Guilty upvote

...but maybe 16GB of RAM please?

 

[Serban]

i think is going great. So for the rMBP 13" we will have 9-10h battery life and for the 15" up to 12h.

But nice to have at last a little more power for graphics between air and pro
HD5000 vs HD5100 i think is kind of 5-10% so its ok.

 

[yeah]

You guys do realize that the chips that end with U are technically designed for ultra books (like the MacBook Air)?

But anyways they look to be the same horse power or even more powerful than the Ivy Bridge U processors, but I'm sure that Intel will release normal mobile i5 chips.

 

[arctic]

Guilty upvote

...but maybe 16GB of RAM please?

Guiltily wishing for that as well. Put me in the kiddos list who'll be pissed if this little option isn't included in the 13" BTO.

 

[jrswizzle]

Nope. People buying Macbook Pro wants power over battery. People buying Macbook Air wants battery over power.

You can have both.....

That's the point. It's not like the new rMBP has DECREASED power, just not some huge gain.....

Apple is making it so you don't have to choose. They all will have great battery life - then its up to the consumer to decide if extra power and a retina display is worth the extra money.

 

[jmpnop]

If there is anything I would demand, it would be removing the proprietary ram and ssd and reducing the price. Removing proprietary components would naturally drive down the price anyway. It's no secret this will be apples new direction, lets make it more accessible. SSDs no longer cost $1 per mb..

Using proprietary battery, RAM and SSD is the key to thinner design. It also happens to favour their greed. If anything Apple should stop their obsession with thinness.

 

[Viking2]

Give me more battery

nonsense? it's the truth

I have a rMBP 15 that I use as my main computer. This computer I need to be powerful (at least until I buy the new Mac Pro). FCP and such demands power!

Then I have rMBP 13 that I use when traveling and running workshops using Keynote. This computer I want to have (and need) way longer battery life. I can not even run 4 hours Keynote connected to a projector before the battery drains.

I hate to carry around the charger - Please give me a rMBP13 that last at least 7 hours running Keynote! I don't need more power. I need battery life!!!!

 

[AppliedMicro]

Going from 35W TDP to 28W is a considerable change. The new MBA only dropped 2W and look at the kind of battery life increase we've had.

I wouldn't read too much into these Watt numbers. The TDP numbers don't really mean much in terms of battery life.

Those are "maximum" numbers, relevant in regard to the design of the cooling system, but rather irrelevant in terms of actual power consumption, especially when the CPU will be idling most of the time anyway...

 

[TheKDub]

I was thinking of buying an MBA, but if this new Pro gets a better screen (at least 1680px1050p) then this will be my next laptop.

Guess i'll just wait a little longer.

You know that the current retina versions of both the 13" (2560x1600) and 15" (2880x1800) already beats that by a fair margin right?

And I have a feeling that the non-retina versions of the macbook pros will be phased out.

 

[nexusrule]

Wow... soon they will begin making less-powerful computers just to accommodate design.

The new Haswell CPUs (that are made by Intel not Apple privilege graphics performance and battery while cpu will only see a modest increment. Any Haswell notebook from any company will be the same.

 

[Serban]

i think for now the cpu are strong enough for nowdays , so a better battery is nicely welcome for laptops, graphic card is welcome too. so we have a perfect laptop, the screen is beautiful, the cpu is strong, battery as well will be and graphic card too. design always flawless from apple...one last thing remains..the heat..but..

 

[tgi]

I'm excited to see some 13" MBP news!

 

[57004]

This is good news.

Leftmost bars are the old HD 4000 graphics.

Middle bars are the new HD 5000 graphics like those in the 2013 Air.

Rightmost bars are the HD 5100 graphics that will probably be in the new 13" retina.

That graph compares to the HD4000 in the 17W Ivy Bridge part though, not the 35W that was in the MacBook Pro. I'm not sure if there is a performance difference between those? If so the difference to the new Haswell chip probably won't be as big as pictured here.

 

[tgi]

Just to note than my 15" MBPr rates 500 higher on Geekbench under Mavericks compared to ML...

That's awesome and it's only in beta. Do you think it will increase more once the final version is released?

 

[57004]

I was really hoping for the Iris Pro Graphics 5200, not HD 5100 Graphics
They could have a great differentiation between the Air with battery life and the Pro with power

The mobile chips with the Iris Pro 5200 won't be released until Q3 so that would increase the wait for the new pro. Maybe they will update to it later?

 

[devilcm3]

The mobile chips with the Iris 5200 won't be released until Q3 so that would increase the wait for the new pro. Maybe they will update to it later?

Q3 is....july?

 

[57004]

Q3 is....july?

Oh yeah I was more thinking it would be the end of Q3. But you're right, it could well be much earlier.

 

[polymersayb]

That graph compares to the HD4000 in the 17W Ivy Bridge part though, not the 35W that was in the MacBook Pro. I'm not sure if there is a performance difference between those? If so the difference to the new Haswell chip probably won't be as big as pictured here.

Pretty sure HD4000 graphics are the same no matter which chip they are included with. Wikipedia link?

 

[57004]

Pretty sure HD4000 graphics are the same no matter which chip they are included with. Wikipedia link?

Yes but they're not clocked the same in every chip. The ULV ones were clocked lower. I just don't remember how much the actual performance difference was.

 

[MrNomNoms]

The Iris 5200 is looking pretty damn good to the point that it is going to be a pretty difficult case for GPU vendors to justify pushing their product unless they have something that really offers the OEM's and in turn the end user with something compelling over what Intel is offering. For me I'm holding off till DDR4 becomes mainstream but it is a good upgrade if you're sitting on a Core 2 computer and looking for something that'll be a big leap forward.

 

[Djlild7hina]

So looks like no quad-core option again for the 13. that's to be expected though. I'm guessing there will be a BTO option for the i7 4558U.

 

[Serban]

i dont think 13" pro will have iris pro,because that mean to have quad core i7..
but i love to have an option..
base model i5 with hd5100 and if you want i7 to have hd5200

 

[PeteJames]

Poor benchmarks. Not even double my 2008 laptop. I thought performance was supposed to double every 2 years?

 

[kazmac]

...

If the battery life is 10 hours, I may jump. And if the price goes down on the 15" version, sold.

In retrospect, glad I wasn't able purchase a current 13" rMBP yesterday. I was meant to have the Haswell model - I hope by the time I am ready to get one they still offer the Adobe CS6 suite for $349. I'd rather not go through other educational discount resources and pay $100-200 more for the Adobe suite.