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iPad Air impressive in early benchmark testing
The reviews of the upcoming iPad Air have been glowing -- so glowing in fact that you'd be forgiven for thinking it was merely a case of Apple fan-boys unable to hide their excitement. Sure, the tech guys are excited, but what are the hard numbers? How does the iPad Air stack up in benchmark testing against previous models? It turns out that the iPad Air stacks up incredibly. Primate Labs tested the iPad Air using the cross-platform Geekbench 3 benchmark tool and the results are impressive: The iPad Air is more than 80 percent faster than the fourth-generation iPad and five times faster than the iPad 2. Given that the iPad Air is only a hundred dollars more than the iPad 2, Apple's decision to keep the older iPad around instead of the iPad 4 is odd. Perhaps they''re hoping customers will look at the specs and price difference, and go for the slightly more expensive, but significantly more powerful, iPad Air. The iPad Air hits stores this Friday.
Primate Labs benchmarks new Retina MacBook Pro models
Apple bumped the processors in the Retina MacBook Pro line last week, pushing the 15-inch model to the 2.4, 2.7 or 2.8 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 and the 13-inch to 2.5, 2.6, 2.9 or 3.0 GHz dual-core processors. As usual, Primate Labs grabbed a handy copy of their "flagship product" -- Geekbench -- and tested each model's performance. The 100 MHz increase in processor speed across the board on the 15-inch MacBook Pros was responsible for a 3 to 5 percent increase in performance as measured by the Geekbench 2 scores. Likewise, the 13-inch models received a bump in both speed and performance. Primate Labs noted, though, that the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro models ship with both old and new processors. The new processors are only available in 13-inch models that start with 256 GB of storage, while the machines that start with 128 GB of storage retain the older, slower processors. John Poole at Primate Labs notes that the new Intel processor architecture, Haswell, is forthcoming later this year, so it's not surprising that Apple decided to outfit the Retina MacBook Pro line with the latest in Ivy Bridge processors. However, he's curious about why the non-Retina MacBook Pro line didn't receive the same speed bump, and speculates that the current line of Retina-free MBPs might be the last.
Primate Labs posts new iMac benchmarks
The company that provides the amazing Geekbench benchmarking software, Primate Labs, has run its tests on the new 21.5-inch iMac and found that it's a pretty impressive piece of hardware. Primate Labs tested all of the configurations of the new iMac, but it's the top-of-the-line unit sporting an Intel Core i7-3770S clocked at 3.1 GHz that tops the speed test for all iMacs. To quote the benchmark post, "The benefits of the new Ivy Bridge processors are clear; the new high-end 21.5-inch iMac is almost 10 percent faster than the old high-end 27-inch iMac." The benchmark score for the high-end 21.5-inch iMac was 12,447, while that of the old (mid-2011) high-end 27-inch iMac was 11,410. A comparison to the high-end 2012 Mac mini shows that it's no slouch, either -- it came in at 11,595. Of course, if you want to kick some serious computing butt, you'll still need to get a Mac Pro -- the fastest 12-core unit weighs in at a Geekbench score of 22,271. It should be interesting to see the results for the 27-inch iMac that will be shipping in about two weeks. The top-end unit features a 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 that will likely leave the 21.5-inch model in the dust.
Early iPad (4th generation) benchmarks posted
If this latest report from Primate Labs is accurate, then customers who snag a fourth-generation iPad on Friday will be pleased with the device's performance. According to a Geekbench result that appeared on Sunday, Apple's latest tablet outperforms all other recent iOS devices, including the iPhone 5. The iPad (fourth generation) scored a 1,757, which is 10 percent higher than the iPhone 5's 1,571 score and more than twice as fast as the third-generation iPad, which scored 791. The results also show that the iPad 4 has a dual-core Apple A6 processor clocked at 1.4GHz, which is slightly higher than the 1.3GHz of the iPhone 5. Customers can buy an iPad (fourth generation) starting November 2 at Apple retail stores. The base 16 GB WiFi model with Retina display will cost US$499. Customers can still pre-order an iPad, but the tablet won't ship for another week.
Apple's A6 CPU actually clocked at around 1.3GHz, per new Geekbench report
As the initial wave of iPhone 5 reviews hit, it looked as if Apple's dual-core A6 processor was sporting a clock speed of around 1GHz. We saw reports (and confirmed with our own handset) ranging between 1.00 and 1.02GHz, but a new Geekbench build (v2.3.6) has today revealed a horse of a different color. According to Primate Labs' own John Poole, the latest version of the app -- which landed on the App Store today -- "features a dramatically improved processor frequency detection algorithm, which consistently reports the A6's frequency as 1.3GHz." In speaking with us, he affirmed that "earlier versions of Geekbench had trouble determining the A6's frequency, which lead to people claiming the A6's frequency as 1.0GHz as it was the most common value Geekbench reported." When we asked if he felt that the A6 was capable of dynamically overclocking itself for more demanding tasks, he added: "I don't believe the A6 has any form of processor boost. In our testing, we found the 1.3GHz was constant regardless of whether one core or both cores were busy." Our own in-house iPhone 5 is regularly displaying 1.29GHz, while a tipster's screenshot (hosted after the break) clearly display 1.30GHz. Oh, and if anyone wants to dip their iPhone 5 in a vat of liquid nitrogen while trying to push things well over the 2GHz level, we certainly wouldn't try to dissuade your efforts. [Thanks, Bruno]
New iMacs 25 percent faster than previous generation
A few days ago, we reported on Macworld's benchmark results for the new Sandy Bridge-equipped iMacs. Macworld found them to be, on average, about 16 percent faster in the Speedmark 6.5 test than the previous generation. Now Primate Labs has put together a report detailing the iMac's speed increases based on user-submitted Geekbench 2 results. According to Primate Labs, the new Sandy Bridge iMacs are up to 25 percent faster than their Lynnfield predecessors. 25 percent isn't earth-shattering, but it's a nice bump for the newest models. When Primate Labs pitted the Sandy Bridge iMacs against the two-generations-old Wolfdale Core 2 Duo iMacs, however, the newest iMacs ran a whopping 70 percent faster. Time for an upgrade, Core 2 Duo iMac owners?
