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The SpeedZone: Can The MacBook Pro Replace A Tower Machine? - Performance Comparison Of The October 2006 MacBook Pros To August 2006 Mac Pro Towers
Updated: Monday, February 12, 2007

Processor Performance
Processor Performance Multi-Processor
Graphics Performance
Game Performance
Drive Performance
Past Results

Below you will find performance results for currently shipping machines. This will, hopefully, give you an feel for the relative performances.

Don't see performance information on the Mac you are interested in? Send a request for a performance comparison between any two Macs.

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"Real World" Tests
For timed scores, lower numbers are better. For the CineBench & Game scores higher numbers are better. Of course the higher the percentage, the better the performance.

Processor

Machine - Power Mac Score Percentage
of Base
 
MacBook Pros Intel - October 2006
MacBook Pro 15" 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo - MA609LL -
Base Machine 		359 100%
MacBook Pro 15" 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo - MA610LL 385 107%
MacBook Pro 17" 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo - MA611LL/A 385 107%
Mac Pros Intel - August 2006
Mac Pros Two 2GHz Dual-Core Xeon - Z0D8-2GHZ250GB 332 92%
Mac Pros Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Xeon - MA356LL/A 440 123%
Mac Pros Two 3GHz Dual-Core Xeon - Z0D8-3GHZ250GB 493 137%

CineBench 9.5 consists of a series of tests. This one, tests basic single CPU processing performance. . You can download the CineBench program to run on your own machine and compare scores. We used the 9.5 version of CineBench. The scores above are actual scores ... not timed tests. Higher numbers are better

Processor - Multiple
Machine - Power Mac Score Percentage
of Base
 
MacBook Pros Intel - October 2006
MacBook Pro 15" 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo - MA609LL -
Base Machine 		653 100%
MacBook Pro 15" 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo - MA610LL 705 108%
MacBook Pro 17" 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo - MA611LL/A 702 108%
Mac Pros Intel - August 2006
Mac Pros Two 2GHz Dual-Core Xeon - Z0D8-2GHZ250GB 1042 160%
Mac Pros Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Xeon - MA356LL/A 1384 212%
Mac Pros Two 3GHz Dual-Core Xeon - Z0D8-3GHZ250GB 1563 239%

This is the same test as above, however it will take advantage of Multiple processors if they are present. The scores above are actual scores ... not timed tests. Higher numbers are better

Processor Saturation


Machine - Power Mac Score
in Seconds 		Percentage
of Base
 
MacBook Pros Intel - October 2006
MacBook Pro 15" 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo - MA609LL -
Base Machine 		158.3 100%
MacBook Pro 15" 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo - MA610LL 146.9 108%
MacBook Pro 17" 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo - MA611LL/A 146.2 108%
Mac Pros Intel - August 2006
Mac Pros Two 2GHz Dual-Core Xeon - Z0D8-2GHZ250GB 94.8 167%
Mac Pros Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Xeon - MA356LL/A 71.4 222%
Mac Pros Two 3GHz Dual-Core Xeon - Z0D8-3GHZ250GB 63.5 249%

Power Fractal Program run at a setting of 524288

** This score seems low to us but it was duplicated in the score above. Use caution.


Graphics Card
Machine - Power Mac Score Percentage
of Base
 
MacBook Pros Intel - October 2006
MacBook Pro 15" 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo - MA609LL -
Base Machine 		3492 100%
MacBook Pro 15" 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo - MA610LL 3645 104%
MacBook Pro 17" 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo - MA611LL/A 3645 104%
Mac Pros Intel - August 2006
Mac Pros Two 2GHz Dual-Core Xeon - Z0D8-2GHZ250GB 3616 104%
Mac Pros Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Xeon - MA356LL/A 4112 118%
Mac Pros Two 3GHz Dual-Core Xeon - Z0D8-3GHZ250GB 4661 133%

This part of the CineBench program relies on the graphics card for graphics rendering. Download the program and run your own test.

Graphics Card Gaming
Machine - Power Mac Score
in FPS		 Percentage
of Base
 
MacBook Pros Intel - October 2006
MacBook Pro 15" 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo - MA609LL -
Base Machine 		50.8 100%
MacBook Pro 15" 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo - MA610LL 51.9 102%
MacBook Pro 17" 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo - MA611LL/A 51 100%
Mac Pros Intel - August 2006
Mac Pros Two 2GHz Dual-Core Xeon - Z0D8-2GHZ250GB 49.9 98%
Mac Pros Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Xeon - MA356LL/A 53 104%
Mac Pros Two 3GHz Dual-Core Xeon - Z0D8-3GHZ250GB 57 112%

The scores above are actual scores (frames per second) ... not timed tests. Higher numbers are better. Scores based on Quake 4

Hard Drive Performance - Multi-File

Machine - Power Mac Score
in Seconds 		Percentage
of Base
 
MacBook Pros Intel - October 2006
MacBook Pro 15" 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo - MA609LL -
Base Machine 		125.1 100%
MacBook Pro 15" 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo - MA610LL 129.7 97%
MacBook Pro 17" 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo - MA611LL/A 127.1 98%
Mac Pros Intel - August 2006
Mac Pros Two 2GHz Dual-Core Xeon - Z0D8-2GHZ250GB 68.5 183%
Mac Pros Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Xeon - MA356LL/A 70.5 177%
Mac Pros Two 3GHz Dual-Core Xeon - Z0D8-3GHZ250GB 71.4 175%

The copy folder test not only stresses drive performance but also takes advantage of faster processing capability & caching schemes. A 900MB folder full of files is copied.

Hard Drive Performance Single File
Machine - Power Mac Score
in Seconds 		Percentage
of Base
 
MacBook Pros Intel - October 2006
MacBook Pro 15" 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo - MA609LL -
Base Machine 		73.2 100%
MacBook Pro 15" 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo - MA610LL 75.3 97%
MacBook Pro 17" 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo - MA611LL/A 63 116%
Mac Pros Intel - August 2006
Mac Pros Two 2GHz Dual-Core Xeon - Z0D8-2GHZ250GB 40 183%
Mac Pros Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Xeon - MA356LL/A 43.3 169%
Mac Pros Two 3GHz Dual-Core Xeon - Z0D8-3GHZ250GB 46.7 157%

In the single file test the the processor & caching capability of the machine is less of a factor. Single 1.2GB file is duplicated

Don't see performance information on the Mac you are interested in? Send a request for a performance comparison between any two Macs.
Disclaimer performance benchmarks are only a guide to relative performance, and to a certain extent limited. The only performance benchmark that will have full meaning for you, will be the one you run, on your new machine, using your applications and employing your work flow. Given this, while we believe that the information we will provide you will give a general guide to relative performance, and we will endeavor to make sure that it is as accurate as possible, we offer no implied or actual guarantee that this is so. People who need mission critical data, should be doing performance testing in-house.
Results for previous machines

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