Our 17 - inch MacBook Pro has arrived , and we have initial results to go with the 15 - inch laptop we tested last workweek . Like those machines , this MacBook Pro outperform its herald in most chore that make up our Speedmark run . Unfortunately , this 17 - inch MacBook Pro , like the 15 - inch models last calendar week , fares poorly in our game examination — a surprising outcome return the promote graphics card inside the new laptop — and we still have n’t been capable to figure out why .
As we noted last workweek , the 15 - column inch MacBook Pros were posting lower score in our 3 - five hundred biz test , which uses Unreal Tournament 2004 . The depressed scores came despite the fact that this new round of MacBook Pros come with an Nvidia GeForce 8600 M GT graphics bit , an improvement over the ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 found in the older laptops . In mental testing involving other games — namely , Doom 3 and Quake 4,the new MacBook Pros showed the kind of improvements we ’d gestate . But neither of those game constituent into a system ’s overall Speedmark grudge — artificial Tournament does . So we eject a Speedmark mark from last week ’s effect .
As you may see in the chart below , the 17 - inch MacBook Pro , powered by a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor showed the same sort of behavior in our plot test that we note a calendar week ago . The older 2.33GHz MacBook Pro outdo the Modern MacBook Pro models in our standard examination ( 1,024 - by-768 resolution , DM Antalus Botmatch at highest options ) , although when we tested at a 1,440 - by-900 resolution , the results were more even . In test involving Quake and Doom , however , the new 17 - inch 2.4GHz MacBook Pro turned in the best results among laptop computer ; it even bested a 2.66GHz Quad Core Mac Pro in the Doom 3 and Quake 4 mellow - resolution tests .
MacBook Pro: Game Tests
Best results inbold . Reference organization initalics .
All systems were play Mac OS X 10.4.9 with 2 GB of RAM . We used Unreal Tournament 2004 ’s Antalus Botmatch intermediate - frames - per - second scores ; we test at solution of 1,024 - by-768 pixels as well as 1,440 - by-900 pixels at the Maximum context with both audio and graphics enabled . Doom 3 was set to use radical mellow video setting , 1,024 - by-768 resoluteness , volt - sync No , Antialiasing Off and all other configurations determine to Yes . Quake 4 was set to 1,024 - by-768 resolution as well as 1,280 - by-800 answer , high quality video , full screen , multiprocessor on , V - sync No , antialias Off and all other modern preferences set to Yes.—MACWORLD LAB TESTING BY JERRY JUNG AND JAMES GALBRAITH
All involved parties — ourselves , Apple , and Unreal Tournament Lord MacSoft — retain to look into the situation . But it ’s possible that , as Unreal Tournament is getting quite long in the tooth , the biz just is n’t as optimized for newer graphic placard as games like Quake and Doom may be . We do design on changing up our secret plan trial run when we update Speedmark in October to cooccur with Mac OS X 10.5 ’s dismission , but in the interim , we ’ll continue to ply these outcome as well as termination from other game .
Now to the rest of our trial results . Apart from its larger screen and resolution , the new 17 - inch MacBook Pro is near indistinguishable to the 15 - inch example . Both have 2.4GHz C.P.U. , 2 GB of main store , 256 megabit of video RAM fertilize that Nvidia card and 160 GB of knockout - parkway place . As you ’d expect , the performance numbers are also nearly selfsame between the two , with the 17 - inch model just edging out the 15 - inch 2.4GHz modeling in a couple of our tests .
MacBook Pro: Speedmark results
Speedmark 4.5 scores are relative to those of a 1.25GHz Mac mini , which is assigned a grade of 100 . Adobe Photoshop , Cinema 4D XL , iMovie , iTunes , and Zip Archive gobs are in minutes : seconds . All systems were running Mac OS X 10.4.9 with 2 GB of RAM , with central processor performance congeal to Highest in the Energy Saver preference pane when applicable . The Photoshop Suite test is a hardening of 15 written task using a 50 Bachelor of Medicine file . Photoshop ’s memory was set to 70 per centum and History was set to Minimum . We immortalize how long it took to render a scene in Cinema4D. We used Compressor to encode a 6minute:26second DV file using the videodisk : Fastest Encode 120 minutes – 4:3 setting . In iMovie , we apply the Aged video issue to a 1 - minute flick . We convert 45 minute of AAC audio files to MP3 using iTunes ’ High Quality setting . We created a Zip archive in the Finder from a 1 GB folder . To compare Speedmark 4.5 scores for various Mac organisation , shoot the breeze our Apple Hardware Guide .—MACWORLD LAB examination BY JAMES GALBRAITH , BRIAN CHEN , AND JERRY JUNG
As you could see , the newfangled 17 - in form edged out the likewise equipped 15 - inch model in our Photoshop test entourage . The 17 - inch example was also a couple of second quicker at some of the Finder tests that we do n’t report , like startup times , Indian file duplicate , single file unzip , and so forth . Overall , these saved mo helped the 17 - inch poser turn in a Speedmark scotch that was about 2 - percent higher than the 15 - inch 2.4GHz MacBook Pro . Both 2.4GHz models beat out the previous , 2.33GHz MacBook Pro by a second or two in most tests , with the exception being the aforementioned Unreal Tournament score and our Photoshop test suite .
We included a Mac Pro as point of reference system in our tests to offer another data point for users trying to choose between a laptop computer or a screen background . In terms of carrying into action , the desk - tie Mac continues to outpace the fastest - usable laptop in all our trial , particularly C.P.U. - intensive tasks , such as Cinema4D and Compressor .
MacBook Pro: Battery Tests
We played back a movie from DVD in full screen mood with all Energy Saver preferences set to highest performance.—MACWORLD LAB TESTING BY JERRY JUNG
Our battery liveliness testing found improved performance in the new MacBook Pros over their predecessors . A combination of the unexampled chipset and light-emitting diode backlit displays helped the new 15 - column inch manikin squeeze out 17 more minutes of DVD playback time from a full charge . We ’re currently run battery tests on the 17 - in model ; those results will appear in our final review article , hightail it on Macworld.com next hebdomad .
[ James Galbraith is Macworld Lab manager . ]
This clause was reposted at 5:10 p.m. PT to correct a information entry error on the Speedmark answer .
