Benchmarks: Upgraded graphics boost new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro
The first of the new MacBook Pros unveiled on Tuesday are in the Macworld Lab, and the results show that the internal updates in new pro laptops help to increase performance in nearly every application.
The new line of MacBook Pros consists of five standard configurations, three with 13-inch displays and two 15-inch models. All use Intel’s fourth generation Core processors, dual-core Haswells in the smaller models and quad-core Crystalwell processors in the larger laptops. All five of the portables take advantage of Intel’s new Iris integrated graphics. Only the $2599 high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro adds discrete graphics, in the form of Nvidia’s GeForce GT 750m with 2GB of dedicated video memory.
We have two 13-inch Retina models, the entry-level $1299 system with a 2.4GHz dual-core Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of flash memory, as well as the high-end $1799 13-inch model with a 2.6GHz dual-core Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and 512GB of flash storage. (Apple sells a $1499 model that we didn’t test that has the same processor as the $1299 laptop and has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of flash storage.)
The new Retina MacBook Pros are the first computers to ship with OS X 10.9 Mavericks. Macworld Lab is in the process of updating our Speedmark overall system performance benchmarking suite to version 9, which takes advantage of Mavericks and includes updated versions of the many applications included in Speedmark. With Apple releasing brand new versions of iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and Aperture on the same day as Mavericks, we’re still in the process of updating Speedmark. For this report we’ll be relying on the results of 12 individual applications and not an overall Speedmark score.
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