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New 13" MacBook Pro w/o Touch Bar keeps pace with higher clocked 2015 Retina model

Benchmarks of Apple's new MacBook Pro lineup are making their way online just hours after Thursday's unveiling, with initial tests putting the entry-level 13-inch model without Touch Bar at performance levels equivalent to last year's 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display.

Out of three tests submitted to the Geekbench 4 test suite database, the highest single-core score achieved by the new bottom tier MacBook Pro — designated "macbook13,1" — comes in at 3,589 points, while the highest multi-core score is listed as 7,229 points. On the low end, an identical configuration reached single- and multi-core scores of 2,400 points and 5,702 points, respectively.

Primate Labs founder John Poole shared the results in a tweet late Thursday.

The machine, or machines, tested were equipped with a sixth-generation 2GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor running 8GB of RAM, Apple's baseline configuration. By comparison, recent Geekbench 4 scores for early-2015 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro models equipped with fifth-generation 2.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 CPUs hover at around 3,500 points for single-core and about 6,800 points for multi-core.

Graphical processing benchmarks for the new 13-inch MacBook Pro were unavailable at press time.

As noted by Apple earlier today, the redesigned MacBook Pro line is powered by Intel's power efficient Skylake family of processors. The $1,499 13-inch model comes standard with a dual-core CPU clocked at 2GHz, with Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz. Customers can swap the chip out for an optional 2.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz for an extra $300.

While not a particularly fair comparison, Apple is targeting the entry-level 13-inch Pro variant at potential MacBook Air upgraders. For early-2015 13-inch MacBook Air models running standard 1.6GHz Core i5 CPUs, recent Geekbench listings reveal single- and multi-core scores of 3,200 points and 5,700 points on the high end. Apple discontinued the ultraportable 11-inch version with the introduction of today's hardware, but continues to sell the 13-inch MacBook Air for $999. B&H, an Apple authorized reseller, is discounting models further with configurations starting at $899 per our Mac Price Guide.