Mac Book Pro Benchmarks

Well, I think you have to ask yourself, how much do you plan on actually gaming with it, and if so, how much gaming do you plan/need to do at the native resolution of 1440x900. On the Windows side at least, at 256MB of VRAM it starts to pull away more, and there is a much more noticeable performance difference. At lower resolutions though, performance between the two isn't that different.

 

Zadillo, where did you hear about the tax-free part at MacMall.com? I called one of their sales reps and they said that it would 8.5% tax for me because I live in California, at which point it would be better to go through a local apple store because you don't have to wait for it to be shipped to you, and the iPod though increasing the tax will also yield more income if you sell it...

Is there something I missed on the website about this "no-tax" thing, or is there no sales tax in Virginia or something?

Also, I think I figured it out for me, I know that the 126 ram will be enough for me now, but with something this expensive I don't want it to be obsolete before I'm ready to replace it, so in the long run the extra cost will be worthwhile, especially if the new OSX ends up being a real VRAM sucker (though I haven't researched this at all so I don't want to put that down as a huge issue)

 

Sorry, I meant tax free as long as you aren't living in the state where MacMall actually operates. Since MacMall is based in Torrance, CA state residents do have to pay sales tax.

You could try MacConnection; they don't have any operations in California so it should be tax free from them, and I think they have a similar $150 mail-in rebate.

Regarding VRAM; the only thing that is going to maybe utilize a lot of VRAM would be if you hooked it up to a large external monitor to run dual desktops, and then ran something like Spaces and Expose with a ton of open windows. That MIGHT tax it a bit. Beyond that, OS X Leopard is designed frankly to run OK even with integrated graphics, so I wouldn't worry about a 128MB VRAM 8600M GT being able to handle any of Leopard's Core Animation effects.

-Zadillo

 

hi all, i'm pretty new here... i am looking at the new macbook pro wif 8600gt and a Asus A8JS which offers a geforce 7700... i have been considering the price for this 2.. the mbp cost 3.1k while the A8JS cost 2.5k in my country.. the thing i like about mbp is because of its large screen and lightweight and good battery life... i have been a window users all my life but i don mind using mac... i have seen my classmate using bootcamp for window work and using mac os x for his normal stuff... btw, is there a large performance difference between the 7700 and 8600gt? i read from another thread comparison that the 8600gt is better than the 7700 even thou its a 512dedicated graphic card..

(is asus quality good? they look pretty ugly to me =X)

the irony is that i will be finishing my college in 6 mths time before i have to go for compulsory national service -______-" therefore i am looking for a laptop that is able to last me for the next 2 yrs or so while i serve the army... budget wise for the mbp is abit tight... budget wise which is better? i plan to wait until September to get 1...

which 1 shld i go for? pls advise!!

 

You cannot beat a Macbook Pro in design, looks, feel. Imo, besides a few selected PC laptops (Dell's xps 1330 perhaps), most look crap when you put it next to a Macbook Pro.

The 8600GT 128meg will still beat the 7700 512meg hands down, Vram does not come into play much until you do intense graphics/gaming (which is rare), it's really the GPU that matters the most. For a comparison, take a look at this site:
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=457&card2=513

I'm in a similar situation and I decided the extra premium in price is well worth it because you are getting a quality product.

Asus produces good quality laptops overall, however they are not the only ones offering similar specs, some have even lower prices if you are on a tight budget. Have you visited the Dell site? Perhaps Zepto? Honestly speaking, most PC designs all look the same to me, so if I was to get a PC laptop, I'd get one thats reliable, good service and as cheap as possible ;p

Bottom line is, if you can squeeze out some extra cash, definitely go for the Macbook Pro, you won't regret it.

 

i do autocad 3d rendering.. i heard dat 3d max utilize cpu instead of gpu... is dat true? if dat is, den the mbp would have a weaker processor than the A8JS in term of 2.0ghz vs 2.2ghz... will dat be of concern in terms of performance difference?

i have nv heard of zeto in my country... and i tink dell is a cheapo company
the 1420 has a weak 8400gs which cant even beat a simple ati x1600 performance... if u do add up the cost i tink dell wuld be of the same cost as other brands...

shld i wait for mid sept or shld i just get 1 now? u guys tink there will be ani drop in price? wif the quad core rolling out dat is...

 

Huh? Where you find mbp with only 2.0ghz? The standard version is 2.2 and the delux version is 2.4. We are talking about the Santa Rosa mbp's right? not the old ones with X1600.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...se&mco=74284FCC&node=home/macbook/macbook_pro

Anyway are you looking for a 14.1" or 15.4" laptop? Dell's 15.4" lineup has the 8600GT with 256meg Vram.

www.zepto.com

They are an upcoming Notebook company that is in Denmark and spreading quite fast in different parts of the world, mainly Europe, Australia and USA.
Actually, they have the 'only' 14" laptop that I know of with a 8600GT 512meg Vram. If you are looking for performance in a compact notebook, definitely worth taking a look.

 

my bad haha... other brands other than apple wif a 15.4 will have a 3kg load... which is extremely heavy... yea the dell 15.4" has the 8600gt wif 256mb vram but wouldn't it be heavy coz its not apple? my fren's pavilion notebook 15.4" weights a hell load like a rock... =x

does zepto offer international warranty? how do i import it from AUS lol.. its pretty cheap for this brand rite? i went to the website to check out their products.. the nearest products i can compare to the current mbp is the Znote 3414W which specs are similar to a A8JS when u upgrade it.. a 8400gs graphic =( i heard 8400gs is hell lot weaker than a old X1600 ati

btw the Zepto has no OS @_@.. the os are not valid in my country haha

 

http://de.zepto.com/Shop/Notebook.aspx?notebookid=644

This is the one I'm talking about. Znote 6224W. With the 8600GT. I'm not sure about the warranty issue for Austria, perhaps email them some questions.

And yes, Zepto does not come with OS, as not everyone likes Vista. If you have a spare copy of XP lying around might be good.

 

hmm HP is swapping my old v3005au for a new Pavilion DV2501TX...

Pavilion DV2501TX
1.8ghz 7100
2gb ram
8400gs ( 64 mb dedicated wif up to 800+mb shared)

shld i stick back to this or upgrade to a macbook pro? i heard the 8400gs is extremely weak and that there is alot of performance difference to a 8600gt?

 

It really depends on what your needs are. Yes, an 8600M GT is going to be significantly more powerful than an 8400M GS.

But what do you need your laptop for? There is certainly going to be a major difference in price between the two laptops, and the MBP might be overkill depending on what your needs are.

-Zadillo

 

i mainly use it for my autocad, 3d max rendering of pictures which i am not sure takes up gpu or cpu power... i do occasionally play some games like CNC3 on it... so do you think i shld upgrade?

 

Are there any other MBP users who use Vista primarily out there?

I'm trying to decide between the MBP 17" and an HP 8710w. The MBP is thinner and lighter - geez the MBP 17" is as light as the HP 15" and thinner!

But, I'm a Windows user and still prefer it to Mac OS, a number of programs I rely on for work only work well on Windows. So, I think I'd love to move to the MBP hardware, but I'd love to hear from at least a few other folks who actually run Vista on MBP regularly...

Thanks!

 

its not perfect by any means. the performance is perfect, but the drivers and usability are not there yet for windows as a main OS.

possible that the final release of boot camp with leopard will resolve that issue.

 

The website you listed does not show the Go 8600GT, only the desktop model. And no realworld benchmarks are given. Does anyone know the benchmark differences between the 7700 and 8600GT, say between the a8js and upcoming f8sv?

I don't know how realistic the following benchmarks are (how similar the laptops were) but the following shows between 10% and 25% increase in GPU benchmark numbers:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

This is significant, but not an a$$ kicking. The 8400 for example shows a 25% to 50% drop from the 7700, depending on the benchmark.

 

yea.. i am now looking at the asus a8js or the macbook pro haha.. duno which 1 to get coz the price difference is a large 800 bucks... if the performance is a little like let's say 10% i don mind getting the a8js

 

Well...i got my first Apple computer the Macbook Pro 2.2Ghz with the 128Mb Nvidia 8600GT card. I am very impressed by the overall buid quality. The 15.4" LED screen(matte) is the best i've seen in terms of color and brightness. I have only one little concern about this laptop: it seems to get quite warm(70-75degrees after playing a game for the CPU and GPU)..is it ok?
Here are some benchmark scores(bootcamp 1.4 drivers on vista ultimate 32):

3dMark2006 1280x800 - ~3700points
PcMark2005 - ~5100points

HL2 Episode 1 (1440x900 with everything at maximum -4xAA,16xAniso-) runs perfect with no lagging, same for the NFS Carbon but with 1024x768(highest rez the video options)
...dont know how to measure the FPS in these games...any ideea?

 

Use FRAPS, free to download. How'd you manage 3700 points on 3dmark06? I could only get around 3200 on vista. The resolution is 1280x854 but 54 pixels shouldn't be a difference of 500 points....

 

I have the 2.4GHz/256MB VRAM MBP and here's some screenshots of Carbon, since you mentioned it. I use Windows XP Pro SP2, however and Boot Camp Beta 1.4.

4x Antialiasing + 8x Anisotropic Filtering at 1024x768x32.

Max options in Carbon minus "Blur" effects, which in my opinion make the game look washed out. I wonder if double the video ram makes a noteable difference?

PNG to preserve quality.

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/2851/nfsc2007082005001845qo5.png

http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/1523/nfsc2007082005005118rk9.png

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/2723/nfsc2007082005014253br5.png

 

I didn't do anything...i installed BootCamp 1.4 and Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit.

 

I'm now installing Windows XP Sp2 with the 1.4 Bootcamp driver and i'll test NFS Carbon with Fraps to see the differences!!!

 

Well, i ran NFS Carbon(1024x768x32 4xAA) and FRAPS and the fps range was between 20 and a 32 maximum FPS!
Next i'll be running 3dMark2006!

 

Lemme know what score you get for 3dmark06 under xp. I'm still getting 3200 for my stock score =|.... Although I did manage 3550 OC'ed.

 

What's the max resolution the MBP 8600M GT 256MB can support on external monitors? I have a 19" LCD with a 1920x1200 native resolution I'd like to game on but I have a feeling the 8600M GT wouldn't be able to keep up with that high of a resolution, even with the GDDR3 Vram. Anyone actually tried this?

 

It's supposed to be able to support up to 2560xsomething

 

The maximum external resolution on an MBP is 2560 x 1600. So the unit should support a 1920x1080 resolution. I hope so, since I've ordered a 47" Westinghouse TX Series LCD TV (1920x1080/4HDMI) to go along with my MBP.

As for playing at such a high resolution, it'll heavily depend on the game you're playing. I can easily play Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, Driver: Parallel Lines, FlatOut, FlatOut 2, and Midnight Club 2 at 1440x900x32 with 4xAA/8xAF with 30fps+. However, newer games like Test Drive Unlimited and Colin McRae DiRT at the same resolution with max options and HDR plays in the single-digit FPS range. So, if the game is dated and less advanced playing at 1920x1080 shouldn't be too big a deal as long as you disable AA. However, I'm not entirely sure as I haven't had a chance to test mine, yet.

Edit: Added some screenshots of Test Drive Unlimited. PNG to preserve quality.

Test Drive Unlimited, 960x600x32, NVidia 4xAA/8xAF forced, Max options+HDR.
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/5020/testdriveunlimited20070gn2.png
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/6893/testdriveunlimited20070aw1.png
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/3613/testdriveunlimited20070np3.png
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/5824/testdriveunlimited20070pm1.png
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3001/testdriveunlimited20070bx9.png
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/7532/testdriveunlimited20070pg8.jpg (JPG due to imageshack limitations)

Test Drive Unlimited, 1440x900x32, NVidia 4xAA/8xAF forced, Max options+HDR.
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/7370/testdriveunlimited20070cu1.jpg (JPG due to imageshack limitations)

Test Drive Unlimited, 1280x800x32, NVidia 4xAA/8xAF forced, Max options+HDR.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/457/testdriveunlimited20070qy3.jpg (JPG due to imageshack limitations)

As you can see, it's still pretty and enjoyable at 960x600x32. It'd be nice to play it at 1440x900x32, but 5fps is painful and honestly it feels more like 1FPS as... it... stutters... severely... Same goes for 1280x800x32 which improved by 1 whole FPS at 6fps total. *laughs*

Edit again:

Test Drive Unlimited, 960x600x32, AA/AF disabled, Max options+HDR
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/845/testdriveunlimited20070ft6.jpg (JPG due to imageshack limitations)

Test Drive Unlimited, 1440x900x32, AA/AF disabled, Max options+HDR
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/4122/testdriveunlimited20070dg4.jpg (JPG due to imageshack limitations)

Frame rates improve and 1440x900x32 is actually playable at 23fps. However, I like AA/AF. :X

 

I barely got 3736 on my 2.4GHz Pro, but that was on default resolution, settings and drivers.

 

I have a question regarding my new macbook pro. I purchased an exernal hard drive so i wouldnt bog down my memory and it came with a smaller cd than normal. I can put the disc in as far as my fingers can hold it and the macbook pro doesnt read it and zip it in. Do i shove it in and hope it doesnt get stuck or can i trust that the macbook pro will read it and eject it?

[email protected]

Brett Hubler
Current student at Iowa State University

 

Pretty sure CD's like that won't work in slot loading drives used in the MBP, XPSM1330, etc.

Is there something on the CD that can't be downloaded from their site? If not, I would suggest maybe making a copy of it with your desktop computer's CD burner, and making the copy on a normal CD.

-Zadillo

 

Well...after i installed WinXP SP2 with 1.4Bootcamp i got only 2200points in 3Dmark2006...WTH...i'll try other video drivers???
And i have one big problem...my video card temperature sensor reports 65-70degrees constantly, even on battery with power saving on...is it ok???...could you please post your temperatures!!!

 

Given that my unit is in an air conditioned room that hovers between 68F and 72F and has a ceiling fan above it on high constantly, my temperatures will be lower than average, I assume.

60C Idle
70C/75C Heavy load

 

<thread revival>

What drivers are you guys running to get decent 3dmark06 scores?

I just got 3065 which is a little low, I think:

15.4" 2.4GHz MBP
Boot Camp 1.4 default drivers (ForceWare 101.34)
WinXP sp2, dx9.0c
3dmark06 score = 3065 @ 1280x1024

I would have thought this score would be over 3700 given some of the other scores around?

 

Okay, seeing as it was thread revival, I thought I better put something constructive in here.

I managed to fix my super-low 3dmark score.

I installed GPU-z v0.07 and it reported that my GPU clock speed was 375MHz. WTF. The native speed is supposed to be 470MHz. Have Apple underclocked them even further now?

Anyway, I installed Forceware 163.71 XP32 (over the top of the existing). 3dmark06 went from 3065->3223. Still ****ty. And GPU-z still told me it was 375MHz. So I thought about overclocking up to the 'normal' speed.

I installed RivaTuner and surprisingly, it disagreed with GPU-z and said that the clocks were running at 405/500. Still low – stock is supposed to be 470/635. And the 163.71 drivers wouldn't let me overclock. I read in another thread that overclocked BC1.4 drivers were faster than stock 163.x drivers. So I installed the BC1.4 drivers over the top again. Just to be sure, I told RivaTuner to reset everything to default. After a reboot, I noticed two things:
1. idle clocks had dropped to 100/5 or something ridiculously low.
2. The Powermizer setting had changed from "No mgmt" (what I set it to) back to "Optimal battery".
Okay then, let's see how Powermizer deals with Counter strike running in a window... *boom* the clocks to go up to 500/632.47 (yeah I dunno about the second number). That's more like it! 3790 on 3dmark06. GPU temp never even hits 80ºC. Beautiful.

Moral of the story:
If your 3dmark06 score on a 2.4GHz MBP is less than 3700, install RivaTuner and check your clock speeds. Factory default is 470 (core) / 635 (memory). If your clocks are running less than these, go back to BC1.4 drivers (if you tried a newer driver) and use RivaTuner to clock up to the proper speed.

There is also a whole other thread here that talks about how much further you might be able to go.

Okay, I'll STFU now.

 

As far as I know, you won't see 470/635 on any mbp as it uses a technology similar to SpeedStep which downclocks gfx card while not used heavily. nTune shows smth very low for me when I check it, but I get around 3950 in 3dmark06

 

Probably most of you already know this, but there is an openmark benchmark for mac

http://www.giofx.net/GioFX/OpenMark.html

 

Yeah, but it's not like you can compare it with 3dmark or anything =) The point of benchmark is comparison, not the value itself

 

Double post, sorry

 

Here's how I got more than 5000 3D marks in 3D Mark 06 with my 17" Macbook Pro.