Just How Fast Are The New MacBook Pros? Really, Really Fast

Apple introduced new MacBook Pro models packing Intel's latest Sandy Bridge processors, which means it didn't take long for them to be put on the bench and speed tested -- by which we mean GeekBench, of course!

MacRumors is reporting that the new MacBook Pros have already gotten their first speed benchmarks, courtesy of PrimateLabs, who fired up GeekBench to collect some "impressive results" for all three models, ranging from 5900 to 10164. That makes Apple's latest notebooks the faster ever produced.

"What makes this particularly impressive is that the new low-end 13" MacBook Pro (2.3GHz Dual i5) scores near last year's top-end 15"/17" MacBook Pro (2.8GHz Dual i7)," MacRumors notes. As you can see from the graph below, five variations of the new models easily smoke last year's MacBook Pros (longer bars are better).

"The performance of the new MacBook Pros is amazing," PrimateLabs exclaims. "The slowest MacBook Pro performs on par with the fastest previous-generation MacBook Pro, and the fastest MacBook Pro is 80% faster than the fastest previous-generation MacBook Pro. In fact, if you look at our Mac Benchmark charts, you'll see that the fastest MacBook Pro is faster than a lot of Mac Pros (including the current generation of Mac Pros). The new MacBook Pros truly are portable workstations."

While there's no doubt that the new notebooks are speed demons, MacRumors cautions that benchmarks aren't everything -- such numbers "primarily reflect CPU/Memory performance and don't take into account differences in graphics hardware," which will no doubt be put to the test themselves in the days to come.

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(Benchmark graph courtesy of MacRumors and PrimateLabs)

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