A couple of months ago an interesting result appeared in the Geekbench Browser that appeared to be from an unreleased MacBook Pro with a Core i7 processor. This result generated a lot of discussion and excitement (as most Mac rumors do); people wanted to know if this result was real or not.

It turns out the result was real! When Apple released the updated MacBook Pro lineup on Tuesday the lineup included a Core i7 MacBook Pro. Now people are asking how does this new lineup perform compared to the previous lineup? I’ve gathered some Geekbench results to find out!

Setup

Performance results were gathered from user submissions to the Geekbench Browser. Each MacBook Pro listed below was running Geekbench 2.1.5 on Mac OS X 10.6.3 and had at least 4GB of 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM installed.

Keep in mind Geekbench only measures processor and memory performance; systems with the same processor but different video cards will score the same in Geekbench! Also, with Geekbench, higher scores are better.

Interested in seeing how your current machine compares? Download Geekbench here and run it on your own system.

Results

Overall Performance

MacBook Pro (17-inch 2010)
Intel Core i7 M 620 @ 2.67GHz
5423
 
MacBook Pro (17-inch 2010)
Intel Core i5 M 540 @ 2.53GHz
4974
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2010)
Intel Core i7 M 620 @ 2.67GHz
5422
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2010)
Intel Core i5 M 540 @ 2.53GHz
4994
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2010)
Intel Core i5 M 520 @ 2.40GHz
4806
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2010)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8800 @ 2.66GHz
3739
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2010)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 @ 2.40GHz
3390
 
MacBook Pro (15/17-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo T9900 @ 3.06GHz
4214
 
MacBook Pro (15/17-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.80GHz
3904
 
MacBook Pro (15/17-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8800 @ 2.66GHz
3719
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
3570
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
3561
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz
3137
 

Integer Performance

MacBook Pro (17-inch 2010)
Intel Core i7 M 620 @ 2.67GHz
4185
 
MacBook Pro (17-inch 2010)
Intel Core i5 M 540 @ 2.53GHz
3787
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2010)
Intel Core i7 M 620 @ 2.67GHz
4186
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2010)
Intel Core i5 M 540 @ 2.53GHz
3812
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2010)
Intel Core i5 M 520 @ 2.40GHz
3639
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2010)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8800 @ 2.66GHz
3033
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2010)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 @ 2.40GHz
2701
 
MacBook Pro (15/17-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo T9900 @ 3.06GHz
3540
 
MacBook Pro (15/17-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.80GHz
3250
 
MacBook Pro (15/17-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8800 @ 2.66GHz
3017
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
2897
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
2904
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz
2518
 

Floating Point Performance

MacBook Pro (17-inch 2010)
Intel Core i7 M 620 @ 2.67GHz
8574
 
MacBook Pro (17-inch 2010)
Intel Core i5 M 540 @ 2.53GHz
7817
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2010)
Intel Core i7 M 620 @ 2.67GHz
8572
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2010)
Intel Core i5 M 540 @ 2.53GHz
7850
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2010)
Intel Core i5 M 520 @ 2.40GHz
7472
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2010)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8800 @ 2.66GHz
5530
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2010)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 @ 2.40GHz
4890
 
MacBook Pro (15/17-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo T9900 @ 3.06GHz
6389
 
MacBook Pro (15/17-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.80GHz
5831
 
MacBook Pro (15/17-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8800 @ 2.66GHz
5537
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
5266
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
5264
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz
4493
 

Memory Performance

MacBook Pro (17-inch 2010)
Intel Core i7 M 620 @ 2.67GHz
3284
 
MacBook Pro (17-inch 2010)
Intel Core i5 M 540 @ 2.53GHz
3131
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2010)
Intel Core i7 M 620 @ 2.67GHz
3288
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2010)
Intel Core i5 M 540 @ 2.53GHz
3127
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2010)
Intel Core i5 M 520 @ 2.40GHz
3069
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2010)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8800 @ 2.66GHz
2745
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2010)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 @ 2.40GHz
2695
 
MacBook Pro (15/17-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo T9900 @ 3.06GHz
2815
 
MacBook Pro (15/17-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.80GHz
2741
 
MacBook Pro (15/17-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8800 @ 2.66GHz
2693
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
2651
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
2629
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz
2534
 

Stream Performance

MacBook Pro (17-inch 2010)
Intel Core i7 M 620 @ 2.67GHz
3012
 
MacBook Pro (17-inch 2010)
Intel Core i5 M 540 @ 2.53GHz
2873
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2010)
Intel Core i7 M 620 @ 2.67GHz
2998
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2010)
Intel Core i5 M 540 @ 2.53GHz
2872
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2010)
Intel Core i5 M 520 @ 2.40GHz
2838
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2010)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8800 @ 2.66GHz
1932
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2010)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 @ 2.40GHz
1949
 
MacBook Pro (15/17-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo T9900 @ 3.06GHz
1762
 
MacBook Pro (15/17-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.80GHz
1781
 
MacBook Pro (15/17-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8800 @ 2.66GHz
1871
 
MacBook Pro (15-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
1830
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
1774
 
MacBook Pro (13-inch 2009)
Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz
1772
 

Conclusions

It’s no surprise the new laptops are faster. It’s interesting to note, though, that the slowest Core i5 is faster than the fastest Core 2 Duo processor despite running at a much lower frequency (2.40GHz vs 3.06GHz). This is a result of the architecture improvements in the i5 and the i7. For example, Turbo Boost and Hyper-Threading provide a nice boost to processor scores; single-threaded workloads benefit from higher processor frequencies while multi-threaded workloads benefit from extra hardware threads. Memory scores (especially Stream scores which measure raw memory bandwidth) are higher due to the integrated memory controller on the i5 and i7.

What people have been asking me, though, is whether they should get the i5 or the i7 MacBook Pro. Personally, I think the low-end i5 is more than sufficient for most tasks (it’s about 15% slower but costs 25% less). Granted, it’s got less drive space and less video card memory but it’s still zippy. If, however, you want the fastest MacBook Pro available then go ahead and get an i7; you are paying a premium for the performance but at least it’s not a steep premium!

Personally, if I were to buy a new MacBook Pro today, I’d get one with an i5 processor and spend the money I saved on upgrading the RAM to 8GB.