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MacBook Pro Q&A - Revised November 19, 2006
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How much faster is the MacBook Pro "Core Duo" 2.16 15-Inch compared to the other MacBook Pro "Core Duo" 15-Inch models?
Please note that all systems mentioned in this Q&A have been discontinued. The MacBook Pro "Core Duo" models were replaced by the "Late 2006" MacBook Pro "Core 2 Duo" series on October 24, 2006.
The MacBook Pro "Core Duo" 2.16 15-Inch has the same internal architecture as the other MacBook Pro "Core Duo" 15-Inch models. Each MacBook Pro "Core Duo" system has an Intel "Core Duo" processor with two independent processor "cores" on a single silicon chip, 2 MB shared "on chip" level 2 cache, 667 MHz frontside bus, 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300) RAM, 5400 RPM Serial ATA/100 hard drive (any model can be upgraded with a 7200 RPM drive), and ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics processor with 256 MB of GDDR3 SDRAM. The primary difference, as the name implies, is that the 2.16 GHz model has a faster processor.
MacWorld tested the MacBook Pro "Core Duo" 2.16 15-Inch using their Speedmark 4.5 benchmark, Adobe Photoshop CS2, Cinema 4D XL 9.5.21, iMovie 6.0.1, iTunes 6.0.3, Unreal Tournament 2004, and by creating a Zip archive, and concluded that "the new system was faster across the board when compared to the 2 GHz MacBook [Pro], with the extra megahertz of processing power squeezing between 4 to 10-percent improvements in performance."
However, MacWorld also configured the MacBook Pro "Core Duo" 2.16 15-Inch with a faster 7200 RPM hard drive, which as one would expect, increased the speed of disk-intensive tasks.
Perhaps an even better series of tests was conducted by the always excellent CreativeMac. The website tested the performance of Final Cut Studio 5.1, Motion 2, Compressor 2, Photoshop and Illustrator CS2, After Effects 6.5 and 7.0, Cinema 4D, Lightwave 8, and Maya 7 on a MacBook Pro "Core Duo" 2.16 15-Inch compared to the same applications running on a Power Macintosh G5/2.0 DP. Both systems were upgraded to 2 GB of RAM.
The in-depth article is fantastic for anyone interested in more information about the performance of the MacBook Pro "Core Duo" and absolutely should be read in its entirety.
Regarding the performance of Final Cut Studio 5.1, Motion 2, and Compressor 2, which are available as "Universal" binaries to provide native performance on the Intel-based MacBook Pro "Core Duo" 2.16 15-Inch, the author concluded that:
When I set off to benchmark the MacBook Pro, the question I wanted answered was how close the MacBook Pro could come to matching the performance of a common G5 tower. That it matched or exceeded the performance of the G5 in the vast majority of tests was quite surprising to me. Even though the MacBook is rated slightly higher in GHz than the G5, it does use a mobile chip, which you wouldn't expect to match the chip in a desktop system.
Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects, which are not available as Universal binaries and instead rely on the "Rosetta" translator, do not perform nearly as well:
In the case of Photoshop and Illustrator, the numbers show dramatic differences in the performance of native versus non-native software. But in actual use, the differences really aren't very noticeable, except for transformations, which can be pretty slow. After Effects is a different story. You lose 40 percent or more of your rendering horsepower on the MacBook compared with a dual 2 GHz G5.
The 3D applications -- Cinema 4D, Lightwave 8, and Maya 7 -- likewise provide dramatically different performance depending on whether or not the software is native for Intel systems:
The 2.16 GHz MacBook Pro is, without a doubt, good to go as a mobile platform for 3D work. It's certainly not as strong as the highest-performing workstations out there, but it's a match for mid-range desktop systems, at least when the software is written natively for it.
If you work in LightWave or Maya, [which are not currently "native" for Intel-based Macs], the MacBook Pro clearly isn't for you, at least not at this point. But for Cinema 4D users looking to go with a laptop system, the MacBook Pro is clearly viable.
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