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Early Benchmarks Put Retina MacBook CPU Performance in Range of 2011 MacBook Air

Wednesday April 1, 2015 4:02 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Though the Retina MacBook isn't officially launching until April 10, an early 64-bit Geekbench benchmark of the entry-level machine was spotted this afternoon, giving us our first glimpse at how the new ultra thin MacBook measures up to existing products in Apple's notebook line.

The 1.1GHz entry-level Retina MacBook with an Intel Core M-5Y31 processor was benchmarked twice, giving two single-core scores of 1924 and 2044, and multi-core scores of 4038 and 4475. Comparatively, the 2015 entry-level MacBook Air with a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 processor has seen scores in the neighborhood of 2881 (single-core) and 5757 (multi-core), so it's a good bit faster than the new MacBook.

macbookbenchmark
Performance wise, the Retina MacBook CPU seems to be par with the higher-end 2011 MacBook Air with a 1.8GHz Core i7 processor, but graphics performance on the new MacBook, which Geekbench does not measure, should be far superior to the 2011 machine. Taking into account the Intel HD 5300 graphics and an improved SSD, the Retina MacBook will outperform the aforementioned 2011 MacBook Air even though the CPU speeds are similar.

Apple offers two additional processor upgrade options for the Retina MacBook, at 1.2GHz in the higher-end machine and at 1.3GHz as an optional build-to-order upgrade, both of which will see somewhat better performance results than the entry-level 1.1GHz processor.

The new Retina MacBook, which is Apple's thinnest and lightest notebook to date, will go on sale on April 10. Prices start at $1,299 for the 1.1GHz/8GB/256GB model and $1,599 for the 1.2GHz/8GB/512GB model.

Update 8:34 PM: The original Geekbench results have been deleted, but a Google cache is available.

(Thanks, David!)

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Tag: benchmarks
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SilianRail
46 months ago
what a joke
Rating: 69 Votes
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spectrumfox
46 months ago
Say what? :eek:

Rating: 65 Votes
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Liquorpuki
46 months ago
Apple Inc...

Kills $400 netbooks by creating iPad

Turns existing product lines into $1300 netbooks

:D:D:D
Rating: 50 Votes
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Klae17
46 months ago
Haha macrumors! Great APRILS fools joke! No..wait.. Really?
Rating: 49 Votes
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unobtainium
46 months ago
Between the high pricing, lack of ports, and poor performance, this Retina MacBook is no longer even slightly tempting to me.
Rating: 40 Votes
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DavidBlack
46 months ago
So, an iPad Air 2 is basically the same speed as the Macbook
Rating: 37 Votes
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Codyak
46 months ago

Am I the only one left who wants CPU horsepower over battery life?


Then maybe this isn't the machine for you and one of the other faster ones is?...
Rating: 36 Votes
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Naimfan
46 months ago
That looks like reasonable performance for what the machine appears to be designed for.

It's never going to be the fastest - get a Pro if you need speed.

For most, this will be fine.
Rating: 34 Votes
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spectrumfox
46 months ago
For those of you who are claiming this is no big deal because the new MacBook is not for professionals... keep in mind that this machine is priced exactly the same as the 13" MacBook Pro.

And it has less ports, less options, less CPU power...

But hey, comes in more colors!
Rating: 34 Votes
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Liquorpuki
46 months ago
lol

but at least it's the thinnest macbook ever and comes in rose gold right?
Rating: 32 Votes

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