Expert’s Rating
Pros
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Our Verdict
Based on Macworld Lab ’s bench mark results , the raw Mac miniskirt model leave a nifty leap in processor execution over the previous generation . The unexampled Mac miniskirt was uncover on Wednesday , and Macworld Lab has been prove the raw machines that add up with Lion and Core i5 processors .
The new Mac mini is available in two standard shape : a $ 599 model with a 2.3GHz Core i5 processor , 2 GB of RAM , a 500 GB hard drive , and an unified Intel HD Graphics 3000 C.P.U. ; and a $ 799 model with a 2.5GHz Core i5 processor , 4 GB of RAM , a 500 GB hard crusade , and distinct AMD Radeon HD 6630 graphic . These two modelling replace a single $ 699 Mid-2010 Mac mini ( ) mannequin that had a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo central processing unit , 2 GB of RAM , a 320 GB hard private road , and Nvidia GeForce 320 M integrated nontextual matter .
We ’re meddling putting together a new version of our Mac system performance suite , Speedmark , but its not quite quick yet . The current version , Speedmark 6.5 , was created using Snow Leopard and uses older versions of lotion . New Macs ship with Lion , so instead of downgrade the raw Macs to try and hightail it Snow Leopard ( if that ’s even possible ) , we have updated 10 of our tests to run on Lion using the later versions of the applications that make up Speedmark .
It should come as no surprise that the unexampled Core i5 Mac minis beat the pant off the 2010 Core 2 Duo Mac miniskirt in C.P.U. test . WithHyper - ThreadingandTurbo Boostin the Core i5 , the new 2.5GHz Core i5 Mac mini was more than twice as tight the 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo Mac mini in our Cinebench CPU test and HandBrake MP4 encode . The novel 2.3GHz Core i5 Mac mini was 46 percent faster than the senior 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo Mac mini on our Cinebench CPU and 45 percent faster in our HandBrake encode test .
Our iTunes AAC to MP3 encode tryout also showed substantial improvements , with the 2.5GHz Core i5 Mac mini 37 pct faster and the 2.3GHz Core i5 Mac mini 30 percent faster than the 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo Mac miniskirt . When exporting an iMovie task using the iTunes Mobile presets , the 2.5GHz Core i5 Mac mini was 47 percent quicker than the 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo Mac mini ; the 2.3GHz Core i5 Mac miniskirt was 30 pct faster .
import a large Word text file into Pages was also much faster on the new Mac minis , with the novel high- and low - end models besting the older Mac mini by 43 and 31 percent , respectively . Compressing a 4 GB booklet was 32 percent faster on the mellow - closing modeling and about 30 percent faster on the grim - oddment example .
Benchmarks: New Mac minis (Mid 2011)
Call of Duty 4 and Cinebench art termination are based on framerate ; higher results are good . All other run result in the above chart are in seconds ; lower results are good . References models initalics . better result inbold .
We duplicated a 2 GB file , created a Zip archive in the Finder from the two 2 GB files and then unzip it . In iMovie ’ 11 , we import a photographic camera archive and export it to iTunes using the Mobile Devices define . We convert 135 minutes of AAC audio filing cabinet to MP3 using iTunes ’ High Quality circumstance . We used Handbrake 0.95 to encode a single chapter from a videodisk antecedently ripped to the hard drive to H.264 using the app ’s Normal setting . We record how long it need to render a scene with multiprocessor in Cinebench and ran that applications programme ’s OpenGL , frame per second test . We ran a timedemo in Call of Duty 4 at a resolution of 1024 x 768 with 4X anti - aliasing turned on.—Macworld Lab examination by James Galbraith , Mauricio Grijalva , and William Wang .
Graphics test results were a bit surprising , however . The 2.3GHz Core i5 Mac miniskirt , with its integrate Intel HD Graphics 3000 , was n’t as tight as the onetime 2.4GHz sum 2 Duo Mac mini and its integrated GeForce 320 chiliad graphics . The older mini was able-bodied to expose 42 percent more flesh per second in Call of tariff and 7.5 pct more frames per second gear in Cinebench OpenGL exam . The 2.5GHz Core i5 Mac miniskirt , with its discrete AMD Radeon HD 6630 art , showed a vast improvement ; compared to the old 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo Mac mini , it was able-bodied to display nearly twice as many frames per second in Cinebench ’s OpenGL test , and 53 per centum more frames per second in our Call of Duty tests .
Hard drive - intensive tests showed the new Mac miniskirt to be faster than the old Mac miniskirt . But since both new Mac minis use the same 5400 - rpm 500 GB severe movement , their results were similar to each other , and not that far off from the result of the 5400 - rev 320 GB gruelling drive in the older Mac mini .
Comparing the new Mac minis to the entry - layer 13 - inch 2.3GHz Core i5 MacBook Pro ( ) , we see both of the new Mac minis outperform the laptop in hard drive tests and iTunes MP3 encoding . The MacBook Pro ’s iMovie test final result set ashore directly in - between the results of the two new Mac mini , while its Cinebench , Call of Duty and HandBrake outcome were nearly identical to that of the 2.3GHz Core i5 Mac miniskirt .
When comparing the new Mac minis to a $ 1499 2.7GHz nitty-gritty i5 iMac ( ) with 4 GB RAM , a 7200 - revolutions per minute 1 TB heavy drive , and AMD Radeon HD 6770 M distinct artwork ( we are working on Lion test results with the entry - horizontal surface $ 1199 iMac ) , the results show the iMac beating the raw Mac minis in every test . On the iMac , parallel the 2 GB folder was about 30 percent quicker , zipping the 4 GB pamphlet was 21 pct quicker , and unzip the compressed file was 43 percent faster than the novel high - death Mac mini . import the Word document into Pages was 16 percent faster on the iMac than on the 2.5GHz Core i5 Mac mini , while import a camera archive into iMovie was 34 per centum quicker . Exporting the iMovie project to the iTunes Mobile preset was 21 percent quicker on the iMac than the new 2.5GHz Core i5 Mac mini , 38 percent quicker in our HandBrake encode , and 33 percentage faster in the Cinebench CPU test . Graphics tests also designate the iMac to be superior , with 48 percent eminent frame rates in Call of Duty and near twice as many frames per second in Cinebench ’s OpenGL test .
check out back shortly for more exam including all of thenew MacBook Airmodels . And if you have hint for tests you ’d like to see be included in Speedmark 7 , we ’d love to hear them .
[ James Galbraith is Macworld ’s research lab managing director . ]
