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    Macbook pro 13 question

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by Briju, May 13, 2011.

  1. Briju

    Briju Notebook Guru

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    is there a significant difference in performance between the two versions of Macbook pro 13 available right now (with respect to the processor used in them)?
     
    Briju, May 13, 2011
    #1
  2. ronnieb

    ronnieb Representing the Canucks

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    Sandy bridges (newest model) is 2 generations ahead of the core 2 duo processors found in the older version MBPs.

    Now the Intel HD 3000 is similar in theoretical benchmarks, but in gaming it appears to fall below the 320m. It should see some improvement from drivers
     
    ronnieb, May 13, 2011
    #2
  3. kornchild2002

    kornchild2002 Notebook Deity

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    I think they were asking about the Core i5 13" MBP vs the Core i7 13" MBP. So far, there hasn't been much difference between the two models in general though the Intel HD 3000 IGP can come in at a faster clock rate when it is stressed (just as the processor does). I don't think I have come across any benchmarks with the Core i5 and Core i7 overclocked.

    That being said (and I don't believe this is what you asked for), the Intel HD 3000 in either the Core i5 or Core i7 2011 13" MBP can outperform the Nvidia 320M in some games and generally performs on par with it. There are actually only a handful of titles that the 320M is better at and that is due to the way they were programmed to take advantage of Nvidia's architecture. We would be in the same boat comparing the 320M to a ~5400 AMD IGP. So the HD 3000 doesn't always fall below the 320M in gaming. Starcraft II is an example of a game that runs at a higher FPS when using low, medium, and high settings.
     
    kornchild2002, May 13, 2011
    #3
  4. Augusta

    Augusta Notebook Consultant

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    The hd3000 only draws even when the game in question is bottlenecked by cpu, not the gpu, relative to 320 equipped mba and mbp. Sc2 is such an example. In contrast, most popular fps are gpu limited and show poor performance on the hd 3000.

    The two major issues with the hd3000 are intel has proven to be very slow with driver support and more importantly, many of the current gen games will not run at all due to an inadequate levelmof shader support.
     
    Augusta, May 14, 2011
    #4
  5. kornchild2002

    kornchild2002 Notebook Deity

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    As apposed to current generation games running at 10 fps on the 320M? Even other FPS titles (Portal, Modern Warfare) aren't that much slower (if at all) on the HD 3000 compared with the 320M. Comparing 35 to 32 fps is nothing.
     
    kornchild2002, May 14, 2011
    #5
  6. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    Nick, May 14, 2011
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