Apple’s New i9 MacBook Pro is Reportedly Slower than the i7

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“ + = ” – David Lee

Apple promised that the new 2018 MacBook Pro would be the most powerful portable MacBook ever. You can get it with a 6-core Intel i9, Intel’s latest and greatest mobile processor. The top of the line MacBook Pro model comes with a 2.6GHz 6-core 8th generation Intel Core i7 processor, with turbo boost up to a whopping 4.3GHz. But, for the techies and professionals, the real star of the show is the 6-core 2.9GHz 8th-generation Intel Core i9 processor. It features Turbo Boost up to 4.8GHz. In a laptop! 6 cores and that clock speed? It’s too good to be true!

Because it is, at least in the MacBook Pro. Apple’s dedication to making computers thin, rather than functional, has lead to our current iteration of super light, super fast MacBook Pro computers. Unfortunately, they also trap a lot of heat. When a modern processor gets too hot, it slows down to keep from damaging itself or the rest of your computer. Because of Apple’s poor design, the MacBook Pro can’t even maintain it’s base speed of 2.9GHz with the i9. In fact, in many tasks, it may be slower than the $300 cheaper i7.

Processor Clock Speeds Explained

Clock Speed = Power

It might be helpful to think of clock speed like the horsepower in a car. It’s not a direct analogy, but it’ll do. Clock speed is the frequency at which the processor is running, expressed in hertz. This is the frequency in which the computer is capable of performing calculations. The higher the frequency, the more calculations per second. Though, thanks to hyperthreading, predictive computing, and, of course, multicore processors, clock speed is only one small part of the processing power story.

Computers run electrical pulses through the processor at a particular clock speed. Those pulses travel through logical gates, which make the computations. It makes decisions like “this or that,” “this and this,” or “anything but this.” That’s an oversimplification, but it may help you picture and understand a processor better. Electricity is flowing along a path. The faster the clock speed, the more pulses of electricity we can pass through that path, and the faster the processor can do computations.

Power = Heat

You might hear about clock speed and think, “Why don’t manufacturers just run as many electrical pulses as they can through the processor, as fast as possible?” There are a few reasons, but, basically, that’s what they’re doing, passing pulses through the processor as fast as they can. There’s a byproduct of all work, there’s no “perfect machine.” In electrical systems, that byproduct is heat. The more electricity you pass through conductive and semi-conductive material, the more heat you produce as a byproduct.

Heat limits processor performance though. If the processor heats up too much, it’ll break down, and can even melt down, causing permanent damage. This is where throttling comes in. By slowing down the pulses of electricity going through the processor—slowing down the clock speed—a processor can cool off enough to keep running. This slows the machine down, but it’s better than allowing it to burn up.

Cooling

 

Processors are kept cool with a variety of cooling solutions. In most laptops, that cooling is done through heat pipes, heat sinks, and fans. Heat pipes and heat sinks pull heat away from the processor using metal, often copper, a fantastic conductor of heat and electricity. The conductor is then cooled, often with a fan. The faster the fan goes, the more electricity it uses, but, it’s able to cool your processor faster.

Some computer manufacturers add liquid cooling to their machines. Water is much better at soaking up heat than air, so a system that pumps water over the processor and cools that water back down to ambient temperature is more efficient. However, these systems are large, and wouldn’t fit in a laptop. Also, since they’re more fragile, and can easily destroy a computer from the inside, a device that is carried around or potentially dropped would not be optimal for a water cooling solution.

Regardless of the method used, all processors need to be cooled, either by air or by water. If they’re not cooled at all, they’d overheat almost instantly, even with clock speed throttling.

The Problem with the i9 MacBook Pro

Overheating and Throttling

Imagine if you had to breathe through a thin coffee straw. You’d probably die pretty quickly. You can’t get the same volume of air through it as you can through a larger straw, your nostrils, or your mouth. When the MacBook Pro becomes thinner, they squeeze down the heat pipes, shrink the heat sinks, and reduce the air flow over those cooling devices. Apple’s choking their MacBooks.

Base Clock Speed

The i9 MacBook Pro has a base clock speed of 2.9GHz. However, to maintain that speed, it needs to be properly cooled. The MacBook Pro isn’t currently properly cooled, and cannot maintain its base clock speed. It sometimes drops as low as 800MHz! That’s a mid-90’s clock speed! This means that, even just performing normal tasks, Apple’s i9 MacBook Pro isn’t performing as advertised. In fact, under load, benchmarks show the i9 MacBook Pro to be slower than the i7 MacBook Pro.

Disappointing Benchmarks

In every way, the i9 should be a faster processor than the i7. However, in David Lee’s video included at the top of this post, you can see how last year’s i7 MacBook Pro outperformed the brand new i9 MacBook Pro. That’s because the Intel Core i9 processor produces a lot of heat. Other laptop manufacturers have struggled to cool the i9 processor, but Apple’s issues seem to be worse than these other manufacturers. Apple’s not optimizing their hardware design for performance. Some reviewers have stated that using a third party fan speed controller like smcFanControl can likely put Apple’s MacBook Pro on the same level of other laptops, and using Apple’s own Final Cut Pro software could help improve results.

In Marques Brownlee’s testing with Final Cut Pro, the new i9 MacBook Pro did render a video clip slightly faster than the 2017 i7 MacBook Pro. However, he points out that the difference isn’t impressive, and wouldn’t be worth the upgrade for even 2016 MacBook Pro owners. He also points out that we should be asking Apple for thicker, better cooled laptops, as these new MacBooks aren’t using the i9 to its full potential. I wouldn’t mind a few extra ports either.

It seems to me that, in apps designed to work well on the Mac, the i9 will barely outperform the i7 MacBook Pro. However, you won’t always be working with software explicitly designed for Apple’s hardware. Furthermore, the difference between Apple’s old MacBook and the new one should be much larger.

Cost

The difference between Apple’s i7 processor and i9 processor is $300. However, due to Apple’s atrocious cooling solutions, the i9 MacBook Pro is barely faster than the i7, and, in many situations, it may actually be slower than the old i7 model. The variability in clock speed and dramatic throttling is unprecedented. That means this new i7 will usually come very close to the performance of the i9. Are you willing to pay $300 for a minimal improvement in speed in some apps, and a step backward in many others? I certainly wouldn’t.

Apple’s Dilemma

The new MacBook Pro is a powerhouse. It’s fast, it’s efficient, it’s thin, and it’s light. However, its best selling points over the i7 model from last year include True Tone displays for the main display and TouchBar, and a quieter keyboard that is slightly less susceptible to dust damage. The speed improvements aren’t consistent with the i9 MacBook Pro, and Apple’s obsession with form over function has once again left professionals disappointed.

I keep hoping Apple will change their ways and listen to the people who actually rely on their products, but time after time, Apple disappoints. Their refusal to meet us in the middle on ports and now cooling is going to continue to drive away their professional user base. Most of the developers and engineers I know have MacBooks, but none are excited about upgrading. I wonder how that will change as Apple continues to disappoint us. I know many cling to their 2015 and older models, myself include. According to these benchmarks and real-world tests, I’m not missing much when it comes to performance, but I get to keep the usability of my MacBook with actual function keys and ports. With each hardware iteration, Apple proves that they’ve abandoned professionals.

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Sources:

• Jeff Benjamin, 9to5Mac
• Mikey Campbell, AppleInsider
• Juli Clover, MacRumors
• Chance Miller, 9to5Mac
• Mike Wuerthele, AppleInsider