So the MacBook Pro with Core 2 Duo is officially out now, on the Apple website. Apple is claiming a 39% speed boost, and offering twice the memory and a FireWire 800 port on the new machines. I’ve been wondering if these new machines will have that much of a jump in speed from the 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo model I currently have….gonna have to go visit the Mac Store and find out….when they get them, of course.
Pricing starts at $1,999 for the 15″ 2.16 GHz model, and $2,499 for the 15″ 2.33 GHz model, which are a available today. 17″ model is available next week for $2,799.
via Gizmodo
The 2.16 GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $1,999 (US), includes:
— 15.4-inch widescreen 1440 x 900 LCD display with 300 cd/m2 brightness;
— 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
— 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 3GB;
— 120GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion
Sensor;
— a slot-load 6x SuperDrive(TM) with double-layer support (DVD+R
DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
— PCI Express-based ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 128MB GDDR3 memory;
— DVI-out port for external display (VGA-out adapter included,
Composite/S-Video out adapter sold separately);
— built-in Dual Link support for driving Apple 30-inch Cinema HD Display;
– built-in iSight video camera;
— Gigabit Ethernet port;
— built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
— ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
— two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and one FireWire 400 port;
— one audio line in and one headphone out port, each supporting optical
digital audio;
— Scrolling TrackPad and illuminated keyboard;
— the infrared Apple Remote; and
— 85 Watt Apple MagSafe Power Adapter.
The 2.33 GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:
— 15.4-inch widescreen 1440 x 900 LCD display with 300 cd/m2 brightness;
— 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2Duo processor;
— 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 3GB;
— 120GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion
Sensor;
— a slot-load 6x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD+/-RW/
CD-RW) optical drive;
— PCI Express-based ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB GDDR3 memory;
— DVI-out port for external display (VGA-out adapter included,
Composite/S-Video out adapter sold separately);
— built-in Dual Link support for driving Apple 30-inch Cinema HD Display;
— built-in iSight video camera;
— Gigabit Ethernet port;
— built-in Airport Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
— ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
— two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and one FireWire 400 port;
— one audio line in and one headphone out port, each supporting optical
digital audio;
— Scrolling TrackPad and illuminated keyboard;
— the infrared Apple Remote; and
— 85 Watt Apple MagSafe Power Adapter.
The 2.33 GHz, 17-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $2,799 (US), includes:
— 17-inch widescreen 1680 x 1050 LCD display with 300 cd/m2 brightness;
— 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor;
— 2GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 3GB;
— 160GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion
Sensor;
— a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD+/-RW/
CD-RW) optical drive;
— PCI Express-based ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB GDDR3 memory;
— DVI-out port for external display (VGA-out adapter included,
Composite/S-Video out adapter sold separately);
— built-in Dual Link support for driving Apple 30-inch Cinema HD Display;
— built-in iSight video camera;
— Gigabit Ethernet port;
— built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR;
— ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
— three USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and one FireWire 400 port;
— one audio line in and one headphone out port, each supporting optical
digital audio;
— Scrolling TrackPad and illuminated keyboard with ambient light sensor;
— the infrared Apple Remote; and
— 85 Watt Apple MagSafe Power Adapter.
WHY has no one noticed that this is not a 64 bit upgrade? Useless in the next operating system upgrade 10.5. Bacically obsolete out off the box!!!
It’s already 64 bit compatible(with OSX). You’re not talking Windows or AMD. Besides…how many apps take advantage of it yet?
While the Duo 2 is a 64-bit cpu, its supporting chipset (Napa) is 32-bit, therefore the Duo 2 runs as a 32-bit cpu. The Duo 2 won’t open up to 64-bits until April 2007 with the release of the Santa Rosa chipset.
But ummm is correct: apps will have to be re-written to take advantage of the 64-bit capability.
While 64-bit architectures indisputably make working with huge data sets in applications such as digital video, scientific computing, and large databases easier, there has been considerable debate as to whether they or their 32-bit compatibility modes will be faster than comparably-priced 32-bit systems for other tasks.
Check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64_bit#32_vs_64_bit
x86-64 code is generally faster than x86-32 code because more registers become available when running in 64 bit mode. The memory controller on the MBP motherboard only allows 3GB of ram max, but it would be extremely pricey to put more than 4GB in a laptop right now anyway. Because of the register issue, though, you’ll still see benefit from using a 64-bit CPU even with only 2 GB of ram.
You *may* see a benefit, or you may not.
A disadvantage of 64-bit architectures is that, relative to 32-bit architectures, the same data occupies slightly more space in memory (due to swollen pointers and possibly other types and alignment padding). This increases the memory requirements of a given process and can have implications for efficient processor cache utilization.
But, at the present, all of this may be academic. As mentioned, pumping up the ram in a laptop is currently very costly. Also, most commercial software is currently built as 32-bit code, not 64-bit code. These factors will undoubtedly change in the future, but for the present, beware the “64-bit hype” reality distortion field.