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The Penryn 2.6 Macbook Pro...slow?

F

fliprotate

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 19, 2008
1
0
Hi!

I received my Macbook Pro 2,6 Ghz Penryn, 4 Gig Ram 7200 Hd yesterday and installed nothing but my Audio software Ableton Live and Reason i also use on my IMAC 2.8Ghz, 4 Gig Ram (the one released in August 08).

But the thing is:

The completely same file uses the CPU on my:

*) IMAC up to 25-30%
*) MacBook Pro up to 71%

How can this be??? I thought the Penryn has an optimized architecture..... and the difference between my Imac and my MAcbook are 0.2 Ghz....

Thats bad bad bad for me.... or could it be broken somehow?

Greetz, Flip
 
absolutely without question you have an issue somewhere..

did you completely reinstall when you received the machine?
always recommended when using audio apps...my previous powerbooks ran soooo much better after i ripped it apart and installed everything manually from scratch.

are u repairing permissions and running weekly scripts?
if youve installed apps without doing this, it will grind your system down until you do it then reboot.

v
 
no. the imac cpu in this circumstance is CONSIDERABLY more powerful than just the 0.2ghz jump. the imac 2.8 cpu are the intel extreme line. while the penryns are great and really optimised compared to the previous generation, the imac 2.8 extreme CPU would eat it for breakfast without a doubt. only reason why the 2.8 extreme chips arent in the mbp is the heat issues surrounding that chip, but yeah... that chip is a screamer
 
I would do a clean install of OS X to see if this clears the problem, I have the Santa Rosa 2.6 GHz MB Pro (purchased 2 months ago), and it's fine. If this doesn't solve the problem, I would suggest bringing it into the Genius Bar at your local Apple Store or call customer support.

Good luck.
 
zgnoud said:
no. the imac cpu in this circumstance is CONSIDERABLY more powerful than just the 0.2ghz jump. the imac 2.8 cpu are the intel extreme line. while the penryns are great and really optimised compared to the previous generation, the imac 2.8 extreme CPU would eat it for breakfast without a doubt.
Click to expand...

I don't think that's right... but if you have a link for that assertion, I'll happily eat crow. :)
 
QCassidy352 said:
I don't think that's right... but if you have a link for that assertion, I'll happily eat crow. :)
Click to expand...

x2... I could be way wrong, but I believe the "extreme" moniker has to do with the chip being overclocked, and thus simply a GHz bump.

OP: Sounds strange, but are you using the MBP plugged in, but with the battery removed? If so, that would explain it.
 
fliprotate said:
Hi!

I received my Macbook Pro 2,6 Ghz Penryn, 4 Gig Ram 7200 Hd yesterday and installed nothing but my Audio software Ableton Live and Reason i also use on my IMAC 2.8Ghz, 4 Gig Ram (the one released in August 08).

But the thing is:

The completely same file uses the CPU on my:

*) IMAC up to 25-30%
*) MacBook Pro up to 71%

How can this be??? I thought the Penryn has an optimized architecture..... and the difference between my Imac and my MAcbook are 0.2 Ghz....

Thats bad bad bad for me.... or could it be broken somehow?

Greetz, Flip
Click to expand...

Well it is a desktop vs. laptop kinda deal and I'm pretty sure what your seeing is normal.
 
jjahshik32 said:
A 2.5" hdd vs. 3.5" hdd is a HUGE difference, maybe thats the bottleneck that your seeing.
Click to expand...

I think that would explain a gap in overall performance, e.g. how long it takes to complete a certain task, but I doubt that would affect CPU usage much, that being how big of a burden/strain it is for the processor.

Again, I could be wrong.
 
The extreme edition cpu is faster per mhz. If truely the iMac has an extreme edition cpu, then it will be a faster chip than the laptop version, even if they were the same GHZ rating. Look at cache amounts in megabytes. The extreme edition probably has four or six MB and the laptop probably has between one and three MB.

This is how much data can sit right on the cpu and not have to be fetched from memory, which makes a good speed difference if lots of different things are being processed (audio mixing for example).

Also look at memory speeds, the laptop is 667mhz memory and the imac is... ? Usually desktop componentry is faster, that's all.


EDIT: I'm looking up the numbers... the iMac has DDR2-667 ram, which is the same as the laptop, so nevermind the memory speed. The iMac has 4MB of cpu cache, and the MBP has either 3 or 6, it isn't clear from the store website. Probably 6. Anyway, these statistics invalidate my above points.

There should be another reason for your speed issues. Is it being measured differently? 71% on one core, versus 25-30% spread over two is actually no difference at all.
 
I always wondered, is the imac an core 2 duo extreme?? I always thought it was since the higher clock mhz. And if it is a core 2 duo extreme then that's the HUGE difference and that is what your seeing compared to the mbp.

If not the hdd is the limiting factor anyway, if the hdd is bottlenecked then the cpu has to do alot more work.

Thats why my dream machine will be a quad core mbp with 500gb SSD drive.
 
jjahshik32 said:
I always wondered, is the imac an core 2 duo extreme?? I always thought it was since the higher clock mhz. And if it is a core 2 duo extreme then that's the HUGE difference and that is what your seeing compared to the mbp.
Click to expand...

According to store.apple.com the top of the line iMac that fliprotate has is indeed an extreme edition.
 
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