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White Unibody MacBook Q&A - Published June 4, 2010
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How much faster is the "Mid-2010" MacBook than the MacBook it replaced? How fast is it compared to the 13-Inch "Mid-2010" MacBook Pro?
If one takes a quick look at a comparison between the "Mid-2010" MacBook -- the MacBook "Core 2 Duo" 2.4 13" (Mid-2010) -- and the "Late 2009" MacBook -- the MacBook "Core 2 Duo" 2.26 13" (Late 2009) -- it is clear that they have a great deal in common. Specifically, for these models, the processor speed and graphics processors are the only differences that impact performance.
With a difference in clockspeeds of a little more than 6% between them, Apple instead chose to highlight that the NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor in the "Mid-2010" model is between "1.3x and 1.8x faster" than the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics in the "Late 2009" model when running a selection of increasingly ancient games (Doom 3, Call of Duty 4, Unreal Tournament 2004 and Quake 4). The GeForce 320M graphics processor is notably faster than the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, but it is still an "integrated" graphics processor that shares memory with the system and it is worth mentioning that this negatively impacts performance when compared to a graphics processor with its own memory.
When compared to the 13-Inch "Mid-2010" MacBook Pro models -- the MacBook Pro "Core 2 Duo" 2.4 13-Inch and "Core 2 Duo" 2.66 13-Inch -- the "Mid-2010" MacBook has a great deal in common as well. In particular, the MacBook and the entry-level MacBook Pro both have the same processor, the same "integrated" graphics processor, and even the same hard drive.
For performance, specifically, only the default 4 GB of RAM in the MacBook Pro and default 2 GB of RAM in the non-Pro model has a bearing on performance. Upgrade the RAM in the MacBook model to 4 GB, and the performance of these models essentially should be identical. You also should note that officially, the "Mid-2010" MacBook and MacBook Pro support a maximum of 4 GB and 8 GB of RAM, respectively, but site sponsor OWC discovered that both actually are capable of using 8 GB of RAM.
As the "Mid-2010" MacBook was a minor update (Apple did not even issue a press release), it did not attract a lot of attention across the blogosphere, but MacWorld tested the model with the publication's standard Speedmark 6 benchmark and reported:
We found that the new [Mid-2010] MacBook, with a Speedmark 6 score of 118, was seven percent faster than the 2.26 GHz [Late 2009] MacBook it replaces.
By far, the biggest gain was in our 3D game tests, in which the new MacBook, with its NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics, was able to display 66 percent more frames per second than the older model with its NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics. The new MacBook's faster processor also helped it post a 10 percent faster Cinebench CPU score. . .
Comparing the new [US]$999 MacBook to the entry-level [US]$1199 13-inch 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, we see identical Speedmark scores. . . Our Speedmark tests (run one at a time) show very little benefit from the additional RAM.
As the author notes, the publication's tests were run one at a time and consequently, the default RAM difference in the MacBook and MacBook Pro models was not evident.
In Geekbench 2 results, which more representatively demonstrate the maximum theoretical performance difference between models, the "Mid-2010" MacBook scored 3363 in an average of user-submitted benchmarks to the Geekbench website. This compares to 3214 for the "Late 2009" MacBook and 3390 for the "Mid-2010" 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro.
Ultimately, the performance difference between the "Mid-2010" MacBook and the model it replaced as well as the "Mid-2010" MacBook Pro is quite modest in both real-world use and theoretical maximum performance. Whether or not you would like to purchase the current MacBook, the discontinued "Late 2009" MacBook to save some money, or a 2.4 GHz 13-Inch MacBook Pro for the aluminum case material and enhanced connectivity, is a choice that only you can make.
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