Malcolm Owen
An initial benchmark of Apple's updated 15-inch MacBook Pro with an eight-core processor indicates the 2019 revision of the highest-specification model offers considerable improvements on the 2018 equivalent, especially in multi-core performance.
On Tuesday, Apple updated the MacBook Pro lineup with 8th and 9th-generation Intel Core processors, including changes to the 13-inch and 15-inch lineups. The highlight change is a 15-inch MacBook pro that uses the Core i9-9980HK, an 8-core processor clocked at 4.8GHz.
Benchmarks published to Geekbench on Thursday for the "MacBookPro15,3," believed to be the new model, reveals the new processor has given a significant boost to overall system performance. According to the results, its single core test score was 5879, which is a 9.9% gain from the 5348 of the Mid-2018 15-inch MacBook Pro, which used the six-core Intel Core i9-8950HK.
The increase from six cores to eight also made a predictable improvement to the multi-core test results, with the new model achieving 29,184 versus 22620 for 2018, a boost of 29% year-on-year.
According to the system information of the published results, the Mac in question was running macOS 10.14.5, and was equipped with 32 gigabytes of 2400MHz DDR4 memory.
The refreshed high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro starts from $2,799, and is equipped with 2280 by 1800 P3 Wide Color Gamut displays offering 500 nits of brightness and TrueTone support. Options are available for 16GB or 32GB of RAM, between 512GB and 4TB of SSD storage, and either Radeon Pro 560X or Vega 20 graphics with up to 4GB of HBM2 memory.
AppleInsider will be testing the thermal environment of the new high-end MacBook Pro in the next week.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Oliver Haslam
William Gallagher
24 Comments
Impressive speed for sure...
...and yet still holding out at this end for such (basic?) 'pro' features as...
- lower cost non-touch bar option (the mac I actually use)
- user adjustable non-proprietary storage (benefitting every mac I've owned)
- user adjustable non-proprietary ram (benefitting every mac I've owned)
- an HD screen I don't have to squint at (17")
I know, I know - I'll likely be waiting a long time...
Such killing performance is all good for professionals, video editors,corporate development users but for college and high school students what is needed is lower priced GOTO Macbook Pros.
Nice machine and specs, but real-life throttling will bring those numbers back to reality. Guess it's too much to ask for a properly ventilated desktop with any of these modern i9 processors and RX580 or Vega64 or VII GPU? Seriously, put it in a multi-colored or rose gold iPhone painted plastic box for all I care. Shouldn't take 7+ years do that...
I bought the i7 MacBook Pro 15" 2018 rather than the i9 knowing that the i7 would likely do as well for volumes of work with minimal throttling.
I would not buy an 8 core knowing that the i9 with 6 cores does not achieve its performance capabilities except for a few seconds until it throttles down due to excessive heat. The i9 and the new 8 core both require a revised platform to achieve their performance potential. I consider these upgrades a waste of money under the present configurations.