Macworld has put a custom configured 2.8GHz Macbook Pro through their standard suite of benchmark tests. The results are impressive with performance and speed gains across the board.
The machine they tested was a custom configured 15″ Macbook Pro with a 2.8GHz processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 320GB 7,200-rpm hard drive, with a price-tag of $2,849. In Speedmark 5 (which is a set of benchmark tests used to measure performance), the custom Macbook Pro posted a 12% higher/better score than the standard configuration Macbook Pro with a 2.53HGz processor, and 320GB 5,400-rpm hard drive. The addition of a Solid State Drive would be expected to boost overall snappiness and responsiveness as well.
The custom 2.8GHz system was 13 percent faster than the 2.53 GHz MacBook Pro in our Photoshop test suite and 15 percent faster than that model in our Cinema 4D test. The 7,200-rpm hard drive also helped the custom MacBook Pro create a Zip archive of a 2GB folder 16 percent faster than the 2.53 MBP; it was 20 percent faster when unzipping the file.
We also compared this latest CTO MacBook Pro with another specially-configure laptop, a 15-inch model with a 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo chip from June 2007. The 2.6GHz MacBook Pro featured 2GB of slower DDR2 RAM and a 160GB hard drive. The new CTO model posted a 26 percent improvement in Speedmark scores, with faster results across the board highlighted by a 36-percent faster Photoshop score and a 22-percent faster Compressor score.
Unfortunately, they don’t inform us of how hot (thermally) the new Macbook Pro gets when used. With previous models, frying an egg on the battery was common practice. Perhaps you’ll wait and see how this machine performs under hunger demands. Macworld has however, put the new Macbook Air through its paces, which showed slight improvements as well.
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3 Comments to “2.8GHz Macbook Pro Benchmarks, Improvements Across the Board”
wow, i didn’t know the GPU would have such a big impact on these suckers. well, i did. but i dind’t know it would be so drastic
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Obviously SSD would just make that much more of a difference. I LOVE that they made them so swappable. the hard drive that is.
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That’s kind of hard to believe the Mac Pro 8 core tied the 2.8 macbook pro in a Photoshop Test. Actually ridiculous! Your test must not be indicative of real world performance?
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