Hands-On Report--New 2.33GHz 15" MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo, How Fast is It?

2004–09November 2, 2006Bill FoxReviews
We ordered a new 2.33GHz 15" MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo last Thursday evening and it arrived Tuesday morning by FedEx from Shanghai, China. It was ordered stock except for a 160GB hard drive, an upgrade from the stock 120GB model. The larger drive was ordered because with Boot Camp or Parallels Desktop for Mac with Windows Vista and a lot more music and photos, the 100GB drive on our original 2.16GHz 15" MacBook Pro was filing up. It took about 1:45 to transfer our Home folder and applications, about 55GB, using FireWire 800 between the two MacBook Pros. The new MacBook Pro has a FireWire 800 port and our older one has a FireWire 800 ExpressCard 34.

At this point, we have used the new MacBook Pro for just two days so our impressions are just initial but, after waiting for Spotlight to finish indexing, we ran it through its paces to see how much faster the new top-end Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro is relative to the former top-end Core Duo MacBook Pro.

It's much faster

To test the speed of the two Intel-based MacBook Pros, we used our standard suite of speed tests. Here are the results:

15" MacBook Pro Speed Tests (average* scores or secs).
Test 15" MacBook Pro
2.33GHz
Core 2 Duo
2.16GHz
Core Duo
Perf. Chg. %
Benchmarks:
Altivec Fractal 1.3+ (GFLOPS)
9.8
4.2
+133
Cinebench 9.6 - Rendering (2X)
707
627
+13
- OpenGL Hardware Lighting
3588
2998
+20
Let1kWindowsBloom 1.0+ (sec)
9
11
+18
Xbench 1.3 - CPU
121
84
+44
- Threading
231
214
+8
- Memory
127
118
+8
- Quartz Graphics
140
116
+21
- OpenGL Graphics
184
163
+13
- User Interface Graphics
360
269
+34
"Real World" Tests:
Startup (sec)
24
25
+4
Shutdown (sec)
8
10
+20
Dup. 500 MB Folder of Files (sec)
40
39
-3
Scroll 144p Document+ (sec)
46
60
+23
Export QT FQDV in iMovie HD 6.0.3 (sec)
46
49
+6
3D Game Tests
Quake III Arena 1.32-Intel (frames/sec)
624
429
+45
Halo 2.0 (frames/sec)
55
42
+31
Call of Duty 1.5+ (frames/sec)
44
36
+22
Doom 3 1.3A MQ (frames/sec)
89
67
+33
Quake 4 MQ (frames/sec)
65
50
+30
*Average of 3 runs. +Non-Universal. Red is more than 8% faster.

The new MacBook Pro with a 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo CPU is faster in every test but one as expected, if for no other reason than its CPU is 8% faster. However, for 15 of 20 tests the new 2.33GHz MacBook Pro is much more than 8% faster, up to 133% faster. Particularly pleasing is the greatly improved graphics performance, especially in 3D games of 22-45%. This performance is partly due to the faster CPU, partly due to the ATI Radeon X1600 graphics chip possibly being revved up a bit and partly due to the Core 2 Duo's better OpenGL performance.

For those interested in the new optional 160GB 5400rpm drive in our MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo, it is a Hitachi with perpendicular data recording. It seems quieter than the 100GB 7200rpm Seagate as might be expected. It also lacks the bouncing ball bearing sound of the Seagate when it parks the head. Our tests above indicate it is generally just as fast as the faster spinning Seagate.

It's a bit cooler

The new MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo seems to run about 5oC cooler with the AC adapter plugged in than the previous Core Duo model according to the CoreDuoTemp 1.0 and TemperatureMonitor 3.6 utilities. However, neither the bottom area near the back nor the top area above the F-keys feel really cooler.

It's a bit noisier

We can hear the new MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo's fans in a quiet room even when it is basically at idle while plugged into the AC adapter. According to smcFanControl, the minimum fan speeds are both 2000rpm while Core Duo model's are 1000rpm. This may account for the temperature difference during "normal" usage. Both rev to a 6000rpm maximum but the Core 2 Duo's fans seem to rev up sooner to 3000-4000rpm when doing heavy graphical work. It may be just our new MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo but its fans seem to have a more high-pitched whine that makes its fans somewhat more annoying at mid-range speeds (3700-4200rpm) than those in the Core Duo MacBook Pro. We are sure that there is some variation among individual machines and ours is not so annoying as to be a deal killer anyway.

In summary

The new 15" MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo has real value over its predecessor with a faster, higher performing Core 2 Duo CPU, 2GB RAM vs 1GB, a FireWire 800 port, a larger capacity hard drive and a 6x SuperDrive that will burn double-layer DVDs at the same price point. Its performance is significantly improved. It certainly runs no hotter than its predecessor and it probably runs a bit cooler. We will provide an update on the features of the new 15" MacBook Pro, other than performance, when we've had more of a chance to use it. [Bill Fox]

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