This week, in addition to new iPads, Apple also launched the long-awaited Retina display MacBooks Pro equipped with Intel’s “Haswell” processors.
A good news of these fourth generation chips is that they bring much more robust graphics, capable of improving the performance of the machines – after all, only the top-of-the-line model (15 inches) has a second graphics card (an NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB of memory).
THE Macworld tested some of these units and the results are encouraging. First, however, a warning is worthwhile: the benchmark of them (Speedmark) is being upgraded to the ninth version in order to take advantage of OS X Mavericks. Therefore, the results of this study were based on individual tests with 12 applications and not something “global”.
Message given, let’s go to the results:
Compared to HD 4000 graphics, which equip MacBooks Pro Retina released in mid-2012 / early 2013, Iris graphics managed to achieve 45-50% better frame rates in tests Cinebench and Unigine Valley Benchmark. At the Unigen Heaven, gains were up to 65% in the frames!
Already in MathematicaMark 9, the new machines performed 8% better; in the CPU test (Cinebench) the result surpassed the old MacBooks Pro Retina with “Ive Bridge” processors by 5%. Using the HandBrake app (video converter) as a comparison, the new machines were 5% faster (MathematicaMark 9); interestingly, in the CPU test (Cinebench), they were worse (1%) – perhaps because of HandBrake’s own optimizations.
And the new PCIe SSDs, are they much faster even as Apple promises? According to Macworld, the gains are approximately 33% in the simple test of transferring folders and heavy files (6GB) from one side to the other. This is in the 256GB model, since interestingly the 128GB did not achieve a result above the machines of mid-2012 / early 2013. On the contrary, in tests of compression / decompression of files, the old generation fared even better – you will understand …
Regardless of some equal / worse numbers, in general, we can consider that Apple made a good upgrade.
MacBook Pro with Retina display
Price: from R $ 5,999.00 (or 12x interest-free R $ 499.92)Sizes: 13 and 15 inchesCurrent generation: end of 2013 |