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Next-Generation 13-Inch MacBook Pro Benchmarked with Modest Performance Gains
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5-10% every generation is average fare. The transistor count is to double every 18 months. Years ago that would have been solely devoted to the CPU portion of the die alone but now you have to take into account things like the memory controller, IGP, and PCIe controller sharing that transistor budget.
The 13" Haswell MBP will be dual core, probably the 2.4MHz 4258U i5 and the 2.8MHZ 4558U i7. I expect the 13" Haswell MBP to offer a 16GB BTO option.
- Major increase in battery life is likelyMacBook Pro wishlist:
- Major increase in battery life
- Slight CPU performance increase
- Significant discrete GPU increase (the nVidia one)
- Thunderbolt 2.0 and/or support for external 4K displays
- Quad Core + 16GB option for the 13" version
Nice to have:
- Slightly thinner/lighter
- Slight increase in Retina resolution
- Slightly cheaper
- CPU performance increase is a virtual certainty
- Discrete GPU maybe
- Thunderbolt 2.0 won't be ready
- 13" quad core will have to wait another year for Broadwell chips
- Thinner/lighter maybe (top of my wish list)
- Increase in Retina resolution -- no way unless Apple release a 17" MBP
- Good chance for cheaper as Retina display yields are improving
The 13" will have 5100 graphics and the 15" will have 5200 graphics.
That's true for many people, but some of us face a hard constraint every week about the total weight of our carry on bag.
Got an idea what to do with all that abundant computing power?
Apple started using it to emulate physical RAM by the means of compression, which happens to be an insanely great idea but also a fancy way to say that the MBPs are getting so powerful that you can sit out a round of ever-increasing performance in favor of increasing the battery life instead.
Not to mention that if the 2.4GHz doesn't provide enough power for you, take the 2.8GHz. If that still doesn't please your fancy, get a 15" with a quad-core whose top-of-the-line model will likely have a higher Geekbench score than a 2012 27" iMac. Still not enough? 12-Core Mac Pro. More? Amazon EC2. However, to access Amazon EC2, you need something preferably portable, with a nice retina screen and a long battery life. How about a 2.4GHz 13" rMBP?
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For the MacBook Air, by all means, sure, increase the battery life, and don't really mind the performance.
But the MacBook Pro? You mean the computer that you use to render video and do Photoshop on all day? Sure it's nice to have a few hours of battery life, but the main reason you buy it is to do engaging work on it, which requires you to sit at a desk for long periods of time, so you won't really care about battery life will you?
Yes, increase the battery life as far as possible, make the computer as nice and slim as you can, but if I get the choice between A: a 7 hour battery and fantastic performance, or B: a 10 hour battery and decent performance, I choose A, when considering a MacBook Pro. There are priorities, and computers go obsolete fast. Releasing a one-year-old performance pro computer is not a great idea.
My current (late 2008) MacBook Pro's battery never lasted more than an hour or two, mainly because the work I do on it is very demanding. It never bothered me, as I always do demanding work at a desk, with tons of peripherals plugged into the computer (tablet, external HDD, etc ) so the charger will be plugged in anyway.
But the MacBook Pro? You mean the computer that you use to render video and do Photoshop on all day? Sure it's nice to have a few hours of battery life, but the main reason you buy it is to do engaging work on it, which requires you to sit at a desk for long periods of time, so you won't really care about battery life will you?
Yes, increase the battery life as far as possible, make the computer as nice and slim as you can, but if I get the choice between A: a 7 hour battery and fantastic performance, or B: a 10 hour battery and decent performance, I choose A, when considering a MacBook Pro. There are priorities, and computers go obsolete fast. Releasing a one-year-old performance pro computer is not a great idea.
My current (late 2008) MacBook Pro's battery never lasted more than an hour or two, mainly because the work I do on it is very demanding. It never bothered me, as I always do demanding work at a desk, with tons of peripherals plugged into the computer (tablet, external HDD, etc ) so the charger will be plugged in anyway.
I agree with you and to an extent I think Apple does too.
Apple is going to make more concessions to battery life with the Airs than with the MacBook Pros. But they will still make concessions for battery life with the MBP's because it's a portable computer and battery life is a big marketing point.
I don't think you should bet a lot of money on that.
I expect Apple to replace the current 4 models of 15" MBP (two traditional, two retina) with three models of retina. In order to keep the entry level price close to where it is today Apple will not include a discrete GPU in the "good" model rMBP. They can get away with this because Iris Pro 5200 performance is in the same ballpark as the nVidia 650M currently found in all 15" rMBPs.
I expect the "good" model will use the 4750HQ with integrated Iris Pro 5200.
I expect the "better" model will use the 4700MQ and a discrete GPU from AMD or nVidia.
I expect the "best" model will use the 4800MQ and a discrete GPU from AMD or nVidia.
The release date is the leak I'm interested in.
What does it mean when a pre-release Macbook Pro is running OS X 10.9? It means that the machines will be released on the day (or after) OS X 10.9 is released - in Fall.
Er, not sure how take that from the article. It seems Apple is trading off power for battery. Personally I think this is an excellent strategy. Our computers are plenty powerful now for the vast majority, but you can never have too much battery life. And if they made the new rMBPs thinner and/or lighter... well, that would be Sprinkle cupcakes icing on the Apple cupcake.
As for those super power users, I'm sure Apple will release their top model with a stonking CPU and GPU. It's all good I reckon!
Yeah, 2 hours would be great. If they can offer more then I will be one happy camper.
Apple is being really aggressive lately it seems. I think they have woken from their slumber and are going to push hard for the next couple of years.
The 2.4GHz is the upgrade to the 2.5GHz Ivy Bridge, and it's an 8% increase in performance. 8% faster and more battery life? Sounds great to me, especially when you're factoring in that Geekbench doesn't measure the PCIe SSD.
It may or may not look completely different when you compare the top-of-the-line Haswell rMBP to the 3GHz from the last generation. It doesn't have to sport a 2.9GHz Dual-Core Haswell CPU, but who can tell?
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Perhaps you need a desktop computer...
It's more than a marketing point, it's a fact of a laptop computer life! It's been the curse of the laptop for a long time. This isn't a stunt. Apple increasing the battery life of the MBPs AND increasing the power of the CPU is a great thing. Come on people, stop finding things to complain about when there are legit things that Apple have stuffed up to complain about! Like not god damn releasing a new ipad yet...
It weighs what....six ounces? Why on earth would you leave it behind?
Transistor count. And even if it did, software requirements would increase too.
I'd think they'd aim for the back-to-school season.
hmmm, i think that the fact that only one model's scores surfaced could be taken as evidence that the 13 cmbp will not be receiving an upgrade. this would make sense since it's education price dropped significantly, too. it's doubtful apple would lower the price so much and continue to give it cpu upgrades. that would be too much of an incentive for shoppers to continue choosing the 13 cmbp over the air and retina.
That's what people said about quad core and Haswell for 13''.
There's way too little information to say things like that.I can't wait for all rage-fueled rants around here when the rMBP 15 comes with Iris Pro and no discrete.
Trivially similar gaming performance? Better compute performance? Ridiculously higher perf/watt? Less PCB space? Longer battery life?
Yea, hell will freeze over if Apple doesn't abandon Nvidia/AMD in mobile.
Trivially similar gaming performance? Better compute performance? Ridiculously higher perf/watt? Less PCB space? Longer battery life?
Yea, hell will freeze over if Apple doesn't abandon Nvidia/AMD in mobile.
