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.

Related posts:

1. New Macbook Air Shows Slight Speed Improvements, Comparatively
2. SSD vs. HDD, 15-inch Unibody Macbook Pro Benchmarks
3. Early Macbook and Macbook Pro Benchmarks Come In

The Macbook Air that Macworld tested was a standard configuration, 1.86Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 6MB of L@ cache. The frontside bus has been boosted to 1066Mhz in the new Macbook Air, and the SSD storage options have been doubled to offer an 128GB drive.

In Macworld’s lab tests, both models of the new Macbook Air eek out better graphics than the original Air, largely due to the new, more powerful NVIDIA GeForce 9400M GPU. This is the same GPU that can be found in the new Macbook and Macbook Pro models, only in order to conserve power and reduce heat, the GPU runs slower in the Macbook Air. In their Speedmark 5 benchmark results, the new 1.86GHz Macbook Air produced a 51% higher speedmark score than the previous generation 1.6GHz Macbook Air. “…the most impressive individual results being the Quake 4 frames per second score and the Zip Archive test, which took nearly 10 minutes on the older Air and a less painful 6 minutes on the 1.86Ghz MacBook Air.”

More telling were the new system’s results compared to our build-to-order Air from earlier this year, the model that featured the optional 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo processor, but kept the standard 120GB Parallel ATA hard drive. The new high-end Air posted a 39 percent higher Speedmark 5 score than that old CTO Air. It was also 28 percent faster in our Photoshop tests and 22 percent faster in our Cinema 4D testing. Compressor, iMovie and iTunes were faster on the new system, but not by as big of a margin. Again, the biggest gains for the new Air were in our game frame rate tests. The new Air was able to display 24.8 frames per second in our Quake 4 tests, as opposed to the older CTO Air’s 3.9 fps – that’s more than a 6x improvement.

Interestingly, when compared to the lowest end standard $999 Macbook, the new high-end Macbook Air still clocks in at slower overall speeds. The white entry level Macbook runs 13% faster that the new high-end Macbook Air. In nearly every single test, the white Macbook edged out the Macbook Air, except for the unzipping of a 2GB folder, where the solid state drive in the Air did the heavy lifting for the task.

Additionally, when stacking up the new high-end Macbook Air to the high-end unibody Macbook (2.4GHz, same GPU), there’s a much more drastic difference. The Air had an 18% slower Speedmark 5 score, 25% slower Photoshop test score, and a staggering 71% slower score in MPEG encoding tests.

Benchmark tests done by Macworld.

Comparatively, if you’re in the market for a new Apple notebook, unless the slender form factor and light-weight of the Macbook Air is explicitly what you’re after, you’ll generally find better performance in most of Apple’s other notebooks, for nearly a fraction of the price.

Related posts:

1. 2.8GHz Macbook Pro Benchmarks, Improvements Across the Board
2. Early Macbook and Macbook Pro Benchmarks Come In
3. SSD vs. HDD, 15-inch Unibody Macbook Pro Benchmarks

The benchmarks test the performance of the same 15″ unibody Macbook Pro, both with a hard disk drive, and with a solid state drive. Barefeats ordered the 2.8GHz 15″ Macbook Pro with the 7,200rpm hard disk drive (Hitachi Travelstar 7K320), and then installed the OCZ 128GB Solid State Drive (SSD) for the tests.

The green bar represents the HDD, and the red bar represents the snappier SSD.

We ordered our 2.8GHz lab “rat” with the 7200rpm 320GB drive option (which happens to be a Hitachi Travelstar 7K320. We obtained the OCZ Core Series 128GB Solid State Drive (SSD) to test against it.

We put the factory drive in FireWire 800 enclosure to boot from and tested an identical empty 7K320 against the empty SSD. We wanted to measure the maximum speed when empty as well as simulate a full drive with the help of DiskTester 2.

As we can see, the SSD is faster than the HDD when it comes to “both large sustained and small random Reads.” The tests delivered mixed results on small random Writes. Additionally, large sustained Writes were faster with the SSD. Overall, the tests determine that the significantly pricier SSD improves booting time, waking, launching and overall snappiness, but when saving small and large amounts of data, there is no real improvement over the HDD.

Below are some of the more dramatic results from the Read/Write tests.

Back in July we first heard that Apple was planning to include built-to-order solid state drive options throughout their entire notebook line. By doing so, they continue to bring high technology to the masses, who can afford it. While these particular comparisons may be some of the most interesting, the tests generally deliver expected results. SSD is both faster in startup times, and snappier to actual user input, but it won’t decrease your overall computing time when dealing with large files. The added stability and data loss prevention an SSD brings is very appealing to many, and the added speed is essential for others. Apple now offers a built-to-order Solid State Drive in all of its new notebooks, except the lower end Macbook.

Read – Barefeats Benchmarks
[MacDailyNews]

Related posts:

1. 2.8GHz Macbook Pro Benchmarks, Improvements Across the Board
2. Early Macbook and Macbook Pro Benchmarks Come In
3. New Macbook Air Shows Slight Speed Improvements, Comparatively

PrimateLab’s benchmarks.

Gizmodo also put the new machines through some tests.

To test out the CPU and GPUs, we put the new MacBook, last generation MacBook Pro, the new MacBook Pro with power savings and the new MacBook Pro running at full speed through XBench and Geekbench performance tests.From a CPU standpoint, the metal MB really is just a tiny MBP (our tested processors have nearly identical clock speeds). So unsurprisingly, performance gains between our MB and MBP test systems were negligible. GeekBench confirmed that basic and floating point processing were pretty much the same across the board.

ArsTechnica has also posted some exciting new gaming benchmarks. Additionally, PCMag has published a separate set of benchmarks.

Related posts:

1. SSD vs. HDD, 15-inch Unibody Macbook Pro Benchmarks
2. 2.8GHz Macbook Pro Benchmarks, Improvements Across the Board
3. New Macbook Air Shows Slight Speed Improvements, Comparatively