The MacBook Pro Review (13 & 15-inch): 2011 Brings Sandy Bridge
by Anand Lal Shimpi, Brian Klug & Vivek Gowri on March 10, 2011 4:17 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Mac
- Apple
- Intel
- MacBook Pro
- Sandy Bridge
6Gbps Performance
I installed the Intel SSD 510 in a 15-inch 2011 MacBook Pro as well as a 15-inch 2010 MacBook Pro to put together a 3Gbps vs. 6Gbps performance comparison. I turned to Xbench for some quick and dirty performance data:
| SATA Performance—XBench 1.3 | |||||
| Intel SSD 510 250GB | 3Gbps (2010 15-inch MBP) | 6Gbps (2011 15-inch MBP) | 6Gbps Advantage | ||
| 4KB Sequential Write | 157.8 MB/s | 192.2 MB/s | +21.8% | ||
| 256KB Sequential Write | 182.0 MB/s | 257.1 MB/s | +41.3% | ||
| 4KB Sequential Read | 32.5 MB/s | 32.7 MB/s | 0.0% | ||
| 256KB Sequential Read | 197.3 MB/s | 315.6 MB/s | +60.0% | ||
| 4KB Random Write | 47.8 MB/s | 49.0 MB/s | +2.5% | ||
| 256KB Random Write | 186.4 MB/s | 260.9 MB/s | +40.0% | ||
| 4KB Random Read | 14.5 MB/s | 13.4 MB/s | -7.6% | ||
| 256KB Random Read | 149.7 MB/s | 207.3 MB/s | +38.5% | ||
As you'd expect, there's no real benefit to the new 6Gbps interface for random operations (particularly at low queue depths). Sequential speeds are much improved however. Xbench shows up to a 60% increase in performance in sequential operations.
You'll note that the absolute numbers are pretty low to begin with. A 128KB sequential read of the Intel SSD 510 on our desktop Sandy Bridge SSD testbed pulls nearly 400MB/s. On the new MacBook Pro we can't get more than 320MB/s.
Our sequential Iometer tests are run at a queue depth of 1 so there's no advantage there. The only explanation I can come up with (assuming Xbench's test is accurate) is that Apple may be aggressively implementing SATA controller power management under OS X. Capping the link's performance or aggressively putting it to sleep could reduce performance at the benefit of increasing battery life.
The other thing I noticed was that performance on the 13-inch MBP using Xbench was a bit lower than the 15-inch MBP. Take a look at these numbers:
| SATA Performance—XBench 1.3 | |||||
| Intel SSD 510 250GB | 13-inch 2011 MBP | 15-inch 2011 MBP | |||
| 4KB Sequential Write | 155.3 MB/s | 192.2 MB/s | |||
| 256KB Sequential Write | 184.8 MB/s | 257.1 MB/s | |||
| 4KB Sequential Read | 30.4 MB/s | 32.7 MB/s | |||
| 256KB Sequential Read | 201.8 MB/s | 315.6 MB/s | |||
| 4KB Random Write | 49.6 MB/s | 49.0 MB/s | |||
| 256KB Random Write | 183.9 MB/s | 260.9 MB/s | |||
| 4KB Random Read | 13.9 MB/s | 13.4 MB/s | |||
| 256KB Random Read | 144.9 MB/s | 207.3 MB/s | |||
I only noticed this with the Intel SSD 510, the Crucial RealSSD C300 and Vertex 3 both performed identically between the 13 and 15-inch MBPs. I'm not sure what's going on here at all, although I suspect that it's somehow related to the issues users have been having with some of these drives (more on this below).
SSD Recommendations
Where does all of this discussion about SSDs leave us? Unfortunately recommending an SSD for the new MacBook Pro today is pretty difficult but I'll try my best.
If you're the conservative type and just wants something that for sure works with little to no concern about absolute performance, the Apple SSDs are probably the safest bet. You'll get a drive that's much faster than a hard drive, fully supported by Apple and with TRIM support. Yes, that's right, OS X finally has TRIM support but Apple only enables it on it's own branded SSDs. To Apple's credit, given the number of problems I've seen with SSDs over the past couple of years it makes sense to lock down and only support drives you've validated. On the flip side however, Apple should be validating and working with controller makers to ensure all drives work under OS X. Making as much money as Apple does, I don't buy the "we didn't have the time/resources" argument.
If you are going down the Apple SSD path, at least the 128GB drive isn't super ridiculously priced, although I'm less comfortable recommending the 256GB version unless you can get it at $500.
Now if you want to get a faster SSD or actually take advantage of the 6Gbps interface, things get more complicated. I've heard reports of users having issues with the Intel SSD 510 and Crucial RealSSD C300. I've tested both drives as well as the OCZ Vertex 3 in three different MacBook Pros, and in all cases the drives worked perfectly. They were all detected as 6Gbps drives and all performed well. I should note that while I couldn't get the Vertex 3 Pro to work in the 2010 MacBook Pro, the Vertex 3 worked just fine in the 2011 MacBook Pro.
| SATA Performance—XBench 1.3 | ||||||
| 13-inch 2011 MBP | Crucial C300 256GB | Intel SSD 510 250GB | OCZ Vertex 3 240GB | |||
| 4KB Sequential Write | 239.0 MB/s | 155.3 MB/s | 319.9 MB/s | |||
| 256KB Sequential Write | 217.2 MB/s | 184.8 MB/s | 257.8 MB/s | |||
| 4KB Sequential Read | 35.1 MB/s | 30.4 MB/s | 33.3 MB/s | |||
| 256KB Sequential Read | 248.3 MB/s | 201.8 MB/s | 311.8 MB/s | |||
| 4KB Random Write | 175.0 MB/s | 49.6 MB/s | 247.8 MB/s | |||
| 256KB Random Write | 226.6 MB/s | 183.9 MB/s | 290.0 MB/s | |||
| 4KB Random Read | 19.1 MB/s | 13.9 MB/s | 21.1 MB/s | |||
| 256KB Random Read | 239.0 MB/s | 144.9 MB/s | 304.0 MB/s | |||
| SATA Performance—XBench 1.3 | ||||||
| 15-inch 2011 MBP | Crucial C300 256GB | Intel SSD 510 250GB | OCZ Vertex 3 240GB | |||
| 4KB Sequential Write | 239.3 MB/s | 192.2 MB/s | 316.5 MB/s | |||
| 256KB Sequential Write | 218.8 MB/s | 257.1 MB/s | 282.0 MB/s | |||
| 4KB Sequential Read | 34.8 MB/s | 32.7 MB/s | 34.2 MB/s | |||
| 256KB Sequential Read | 245.1 MB/s | 315.6 MB/s | 306.7 MB/s | |||
| 4KB Random Write | 160.5 MB/s | 49.0 MB/s | 240.5 MB/s | |||
| 256KB Random Write | 227.5 MB/s | 260.9 MB/s | 311.3 MB/s | |||
| 4KB Random Read | 18.7 MB/s | 13.4 MB/s | 20.9 MB/s | |||
| 256KB Random Read | 238.2 MB/s | 207.3 MB/s | 303 MB/s | |||
The Vertex 3 is the fastest drive out of the aforementioned three, but its availability and firmware maturity are both unknowns at this point. If you have to buy today and are ok with the chance that the drive may not work (given other experiences online, although I haven't seen problems), Intel's SSD 510 is likely a good runner up (at least for the 15-inch, the C300 seems to perform better on the 13).
As far as the reports of incompatibilities with these drives are concerned, I'm not really sure what's going on. I've been hammering on all of the drives, putting the system to sleep/waking it up, and haven't encountered any failures or high latency IO operations (stuttering) yet. That's not to say that these problems won't appear over time (I'm currently doing long term testing to figure that out now), but just that I haven't seen them yet.
If you are having issues with the Intel SSD 510, Crucial RealSSD C300 or anything else please email me (link at the top of the page) the following information:
1) What are the full specs of your MBP? Any upgrades?
2) Tell me about your SSD. Is it new out of box? Have you done anything to the drive? What model, firmware revision, etc...
3) Describe the symptoms of the issue—beachballs, data corruption, etc...? What do you have to do create the issue?
4) Is the drive detected as a 6Gbps drive or a 3Gbps drive?
5) Take me through your drive installation procedure, did you just pop it in, partition and install OS X?
6) Any visible damage to the SATA flex cable when you installed the drive?
7) Have you tried exchanging the SSD or MBP? Any difference in behavior?
We haven't seen any issues on three different 2011 models that we've been testing here extensively with the Intel SSD 510, Crucial RealSSD C300, OCZ Vertex 3 and OCZ Vertex 2. I realize a number of you are having issues so the more details I can get the better.
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brettski - Thursday, November 10, 2011 - link
Total NYC sales tax is 8.875%.NY state tax is only 4.5%
brettski - Thursday, November 10, 2011 - link
i'm sorry... state is 4%, city is 4.5%, plus Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District surcharge of 0.375%= 8.875% sorry... mixed up the city and state rates.gstrickler - Thursday, March 10, 2011 - link
What are you talking about? Most of us non-gamers don't even need a dedicated GPU, much less 256MB of graphics memory. I'm currently running on a late 2007, 15" MBP which has an 8600M GPU with 128MB of graphics RAM, and I only use it because there is no IGP on this machine. Once you get to the level of the Nvidia 9400M, IGP is plenty for a non-gamer, and even 32MB allocated to graphics RAM is more than adequate. The exception is if you need OpenCL support, since Intel's IGPs don't support OpenCL.I wish Apple offered a 13" MPB with a higher resolution (1440x900) matte display or a 15" with AES-NI and without a dGPU. I could use the faster CPU and HT, but I don't really need quad-core (but it's nice to have it available when on AC power), and battery life is far more important to me than a GPU or maximum CPU speed.
In fact, what I would really like is a 15" with matte display, no dGPU, Core i7-2720QM (for AES-NI support) with the ability to disable 2 cores/4 threads when on battery power. The 2011 15" lets me get close, if I use gfxcardstatus to disable the dGPU. If I can get software to disable 2 cores when on battery, it'll give me everything I'm asking for, but at a fairly hefty premium ($+150 for the matte display, $+400 for the Core i7-2720QM and Radeon 6750M + 1GB that I'll never use). Of course, what that means is that I'll either get the entry level 15" without AES-NI support and use gfcardstatus to disable the dGPU, or I'll wait for the next update and see if the options are any better.
Notes to Apple:
1. Make a matte screen an option on all machines, for no more than a $50 premium (no forced upgrade to a higher resolution)
2. Offer a 15" without a dGPU (e.g. make the dGPU a separate plug-in module)
3. Offer a 1440x900 screen for the 13" MPB.
I doubt I'll see any of those, but it doesn't hurt to ask.
tipoo - Thursday, March 10, 2011 - link
"Most of us non-gamers don't even need a dedicated GPU"Most people don't need a truck, that doesn't mean no one does. This is branded as a pro machine, and at nearly 2 grand the GPU doesn't fit the bill.
alent1234 - Friday, March 11, 2011 - link
MAcbooks are thin, long battery life, nice screen and good build quality first. specs second. until sandy bridge came out laptops with long battery life cost just as much as a macbook or more.a lot of the people that buy these are mobile pro's who need to use a laptop for hours while away from a power source
sync216 - Thursday, March 10, 2011 - link
256MB is fine for the 64xxM series GPUs. The performance improvement going to GDDR5 and a faster GPU is much higher than the improvement from 256 to 512 would have given. For customers who really need the additional graphics performance (and corresponding graphics memory) apple is offering the very fast 6750M with 1GB.Demon-Xanth - Thursday, March 10, 2011 - link
...Apple is more like Sony than Acer? Their core buisness is no longer computers, but gadgets.michael2k - Friday, March 11, 2011 - link
Um, this was evident in 2001 when the Titanium PowerBook was first unveiled, then the iPod later that year, then the music store in 2004, etc.Also, you have it backwards, their core business is computers, they just happen to know how to turn computers into gadgets. They treat the iPod like a computer (firmware updates on a regular basis), which means they aren't disposable. Contrast that to the average phone OEM with Android who won't see updates for longer than 6 months, where Apple pushes updates to their iPhone for over 29 months.
jameskatt - Friday, May 6, 2011 - link
Nearly all of Apple's products are computers:Mac Pro = desktop expandable computer running OS X
iMac = all-in-one desktop computer running OS X
Mac Mini = non-expandable desktop computer running OS X
MacBook Pro = high end laptop computer running OS X
MacBook Air = high end netbook computer running OS X
MacBook = basic laptop computer running OS X
iPad = tablet computer running OS X
iPhone = handheld tablet computer with phone running OS X
iPod Touch = handheld tablet computer running OS X
AppleTV = multimedia appliance computer running OS X
OS X has two variations - Mac OS X and iOS. The core operating system is the same for both.
Apps for both are written using Apple's XCode Development System.
quiksilvr - Thursday, March 10, 2011 - link
I'm surprised SSD isn't standard to begin with. $1199 for a 13" laptop and you don't even get dedicated graphics? Seriously? The HDDs aren't even 7200rpm. This is insulting to the nth degree.If you want a solidly built, well-spec'd, thin and fairly priced system, get the Envy 14. You get 7200rpm HDD, dedicated graphics, an HD webcam with TWO microphones (necessary for sound cancelling), a backlit keyboard and even Photoshop and Premiere.
Until Apple drops their prices to a realistic and reasonable level, avoid it completely.