Why is the new 17 inch Macbook Pro such a tiny speed bump on my old black macbook?

Hi guys,

I bought a macbook in August of last year, it's the all black model.

It has a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

I am pretty keen to upgrade to the new unibody 17 inch Macbook Pro, mainly because of the extra screen size.

But, considering it is in the "Pro" line, and it's also a much newer model than my black macbook, I would have expected it to be considerably faster.

But it's processors is only a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

What's up with that? That's hardly any faster than my old macbook!

Sure, processor speed isn't everything, but it's pretty important. The 17 inch macbook pro is more than twice as expensive as my macbook, almost 3 times as expensive in fact, and that's the only increase in speed I get? Just about 10% faster processor?

Am I missing something key here? I don't know much about computers, but am I missing out some vital statistic like L2 or L3 cache or something? Maybe the ram's a bit faster, but still, come on.

And yeah you can get a solid state hard drive which is considerably faster, but that's a lot, lot more money.

Because I just can't believe that the brand new top of the range Macbook Pro model is only 10% faster than the 6 month old "consumer" range macbook.

Would really appreciate some advice,

Cheers,

Jake

It's such a tiny speed bump, quite frankly, because Intel and AMD have yet to figure out how to get much past the 3Ghz speed and keep the CPU cooled. This standstill occurred about 6 years ago. (Maybe longer, don't know how far R&D is in front of introduction.) This is why they have moved to multiple cores and it took them 4 years to do that.

It's got nothing to do with Apple or any other manufacturer of computers. It has caused computer manufacturers to look at new ways to entice people into upgrading their systems. The days of doubling processor speed appear to be over. Intel with the new i7's look to have a pretty impressive package there. But, no way to cool them enough yet to put them in a notebook.

There is an upside to this. The upside is that the new computer you buy now, will provide the average user with a 5yr, 6yr or even longer life span. Gone are the days when you had to buy a new computer every 9-12 months just to use the new piece of software that came out.

My wife's P4 2.8 Ghz, now 7 yrs old, still does everything she asks of it. For the things she does on a computer, she wouldn't notice a difference between it and two quad cores sitting in a Mac Pro.

Well, you are not seeing the big picture here.

The MBP has "a tiny speed bump", DDR3 memory, discrete graphic card, more screen state and that just to start with. Don't forget the 4gb of ram and the new 8 hour battery, plus de Alu unibody.

You cant really compare a year old Macbook to the newly released Macbook Pro.

Santino said:

Well, you are not seeing the big picture here.

The MBP has "a tiny speed bump", DDR3 memory, discrete graphic card, more screen state and that just to start with. Don't forget the 4gb of ram and the new 8 hour battery, plus de Alu unibody.

You cant really compare a year old Macbook to the newly released Macbook Pro.

Click to expand...

All of that also. Don't get me wrong, the MBP is a superior machine compared to the Black MB. It's my kind of machine. But, it will be overkill for the vast majority of the average computer using friends that I know.

For the OP, if the only thing you need is the increased screen real estate, I'd suggest looking at an external monitor upgrade for when you're at home. Save you at least $2k.