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MacBook Pro 15″ i7 QuadCore 2011 vs MacBook Pro 13″ Core Duo 2009 – GeekBench Test

Posted By Mr.Gadget Published in Apple

Apr

Yesterday I received shipment of my new 15″ Apple MacBook Pro. Why did I decide to upgrade from my 2009 13″ MacBook Pro? I did it because I’m doing a lot more photo (Lightroom) and video editing (iMovie for now) these days. While I’ve grown accustomed to the screen size and portability of the 13″ MacBook Pro, lately I’ve been dreaming of being able to see more on the screen as well as do things faster. As many of you know, I don’t like to do things in halves, so when I went to upgrade, I made sure that I got a fully maxed-out machine.

Here’s what I ended up getting:

Features of Mr.Gadget’s 2011 15″ Apple MacBook Pro:

2.3GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
512GB Solid State Drive
MacBook Pro 15-inch Hi-Res Antiglare Widescreen Display

“Was there a difference in performance?” many of you may be asking. The answer is a resounding “Heck yeah!”

Triple the Performance Anybody?

I ran the GeekBench benchmarking software on both machines and was totally blown away by the results.

For my old 13″ MacBook Pro, it received a total benchmark score of 3525, whereas my new 15″ MacBook Pro came screaming in with a whopping 10469!

That’s just about triple the performance! In terms of actual usage, yes, I do see and feel this machine perform tasks a lot faster than my previous. For more details see the results below.

Not Cheap But Worth It

The upgrade wasn’t cheap. It cost around HKD $30,000 / AUD $3700 but for me the fact that I use it as an important tool to grow the mrgadget.com.au business as well as help me with Hong Kong/ International projects, it’ll pay itself off in no time.

So if you are in a similar situation and wondering if you should make the move, I hope you now have some helpful information to aid you in your decision making.

Apple MacBook Pro 15″ 2011 GeekBench Score