Despite having received some internal changes not commented on by Apple, the main recent innovation in MacBooks Pro with Retina display was the 100MHz increase in their processors – and the price reductions, of course.
But it’s worth noting that Apple didn’t just change the clock of the chips. According to Primate Labs, all are now newer versions of Intel’s “Ivy Bridge” line. The 15 ″ input MacBook Pro Retina used to use a 2.3GHz Core i7-3615QM, now went to a 2.4GHz Core i7-3635QM; the top-of-the-line had a 2.6GHz Core i7-3820QM, moving to a 2.7GHz Core i7-3840QM.
As shown in the graph below, this provided an average 3-5% performance gain for laptops:
In the case of 13 ″ models, the people at Primate Labs found more or less the same thing using their benchmark (the Geekbench). The entry model had a 2.5GHz Core i5-3210M processor, moving to a 2.6GHz Core i5-3230M; the best used a Core i7-3520M of 2.9GHz, jumping to a Core i7-3540M of 3.0GHz.
Here is their chart:
Apple did not make a big fan out of what these figures show: the difference was not resounding and little should be felt on a daily basis. A more significant leap is expected in the next upgrade of the machines, when the chips are expected to move to Intel’s new “Haswell” line.
Anyone who wants can compare these with other results in the Geekbench Browser.
