Apple’s 45nm Refresh: New MacBook & MacBook Pro
by Anand Lal Shimpi on February 29, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Mac
6MB L2 vs. 3MB L2
Apple offers two CPU options for the MacBook and three for the MacBook Pro. The MacBook comes with a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo with a 3MB L2 cache shared between both cores, or a 2.4GHz model also with a 3MB L2. The MacBook Pro comes with the same 2.4GHz/3MB part or a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo with a 6MB L2 cache. The question is: how much benefit does the extra 3MB L2 cache give you?
Unfortunately Intel doesn't offer the same clock speed CPU in both 3MB and 6MB flavors, so we're left comparing two differently clocked CPUs. In this case we took a 2.4GHz/3MB Core 2 and stacked it up against a 2.5GHz/6MB part, the chart below shows the performance improvement of the 2.5GHz/6MB core over the 2.4GHz/3MB part:
The performance increase due to the clock speed and cache size increase varies from 0% all the way up to 11.7%, with a maximum of around 4% of that being due to the clock speed increase alone - the added L2 cache does have a benefit.
How much does Apple charge for the average 5% improvement in performance? Unfortunately you can't just purchase the CPU upgrade, you have to buy the $2499 model instead of the $1999 model. You get another 50GB of hard disk space (250GB vs. 200GB) and 512MB of video memory along with the CPU upgrade but you're paying an extra $500. Note that Intel only charges Apple an additional $75 for the faster CPU ($316 vs. $241), but since the CPU is soldered onto the motherboard you can't swap chips yourself.
If all you care about is the larger cache, the $500 upgrade cost is a tough pill to swallow. Even the increase in drive space isn't all that attractive for the money. The increase in video memory is nice but 256MB should be all you need for smooth Exposé performance on the 15" 1440 x 900 display.
Our recommendation? If you're going to upgrade your notebook in another 1.5 - 2 years anyways, pocket the $500 and don't bother with the added cache. It's not going to do much for you today.
This performance comparison also means that the base MacBook can offer very similar performance to the MacBook Pro, just as you'd expect. The only reasons to buy the Pro are, as we mentioned, mostly feature-based.
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tayhimself - Friday, February 29, 2008 - link
I really like the chicklet keyboards. I like the Vaios that have the chicklets too. Different strokes and all that....LoneWolf15 - Friday, February 29, 2008 - link
Ward...Wash the Beaver's mouth out with soap, would you?mmntech - Friday, February 29, 2008 - link
Lol. Only morons need to swear to get their point across. I do partially agree though. I didn't like the MacBooks keyboard compared to my old iBook G4's.Looks like the Penryn offers a small but decent improvement in battery life. When you're on the go, every little increase counts. These are very respectable numbers. With DVD playback, you can actually watch movies like the Godfather and Lord of the Rings on a single charge and still have some to spare. Apple has always been good with battery life, which is the primary reason I bough my iBook. Looks like there are also some small performance increases too. I suppose the iMac line will be receiving an update soon to include these processors. It will be curious to see if the add DDR3 as an option for them.
Phlargo - Friday, February 29, 2008 - link
What a horrible thing to say. He is certainly permitted his preference. I think you might be the tool for blankly assuming that his opinion is unjust.A good article, Anand. I'm not a Mac guy, but I know they lead the way in design and feature integration. I really agree with the comment below about it being more of an impression than a review. I always like your articles for that reason!
Kitsune - Friday, February 29, 2008 - link
MacBooks have a very limited multitouch capability. They can do some of the tricks that the Pros and Air can do (right-click by putting two fingers on the pad, scroll around by rubbing two fingers in the desired direction, zoom the screen in and out by holding the control key while moving fingers on the pad) and can't do some of the other things (rotate and zoom selected objects). Or if they can, Anand found some trick that I'm not aware of, as I have the new 2.1 gHz MacBook sitting next to me now and can't get it to perform the latter functions.Devo2007 - Friday, February 29, 2008 - link
That is correct (I was just about to update my comment stating this). I believe the two-finger scroll feature and such aren't new though -- I believe my friend's Merom-based Macbook has that feature as well.tayhimself - Friday, February 29, 2008 - link
This is the case yes.Devo2007 - Friday, February 29, 2008 - link
You caught the one later in the article, but currently page 3 still shows this:2) Multi-touch Track Pads: Both the MacBook and MacBook Pro now get the same multi-touch functionality as the MacBook Air.
Gary Key - Friday, February 29, 2008 - link
That is corrected now.Devo2007 - Friday, February 29, 2008 - link
On Page 3, you indicate that both the Macbook and Macbook Pro have the multi-touch trackpad. Isn't it just the Pro model that has multi-touch? (all the news articles I read about the launch of these portables indicated it was just the Pro model).