MacBook Air, Pro Benchmarks (March 2015)

Geekbench 3 results for the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models have arrived on the Geekbench Browser. I've generated some charts that compare the new Broadwell-powered laptops with their Haswell- and Ivy Bridge-powered predecessors.

Keep in mind that Broadwell is a "Tick" in Intel's "Tick Tock" model. Generally speaking "Tick" processors improve efficiency while "Tock" processors improve performance. As a result I do not expect the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro scores to increase significantly.

MacBook Air

Single-Core Performance

Multi-Core Performance

Single-core performance has increased 6% from Haswell to Broadwell, and multi-core performance for the i5 model has increased 7%. However, quite surprisingly, multi-core performance for the i7 model has increased an impressive 14%.

If you're thinking of buying the new MacBook Air I would strongly recommend the i7 processor. It has 20% faster single-core performance and 25% faster multi-core performance for only a 15% increase in price.

MacBook Pro

Single-Core Performance

Multi-Core Performance

Single-core performance has increased between 3% to 7% from Haswell to Broadwell, depending on the model. Multi-core performance has increased 3% to 6%. These sorts of increases are in line with what I would expect from a "Tick" processor.

I have no recommendations regarding the processor for the new MacBook Pro. The performance differences and the price differences between the processors are roughly equivalent.


 
John Poole is the founder of Primate Labs and lives in Toronto, Ontario with his wife Deborah. You can find John on Twitter or .