June 2007 — News

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Apple 13-Inch MacBook Benchmark Results

by Dave Nagel

We recently posted our review of Apple's latest generation of entry-level notebook computers--the 13-inch MacBook. In it, I promised we'd provide a more detailed look at the machine's performance in a battery of CPU-intensive benchmark tests. We now have those benchmarks ready to go, and the results should surprise you.

Based around a dual-core, 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, the 13-inch MacBook (third generation) is entry-level only in the sense that it's the least expensive of the notebooks offered by Apple. By performance measurements, it holds its own against some fairly serious competition. We put it up against two G5s, including the G5 Quad, as well as other MacBooks and some Windows-based systems as well.

For these benchmarks, we've conducted tests based on processor-hogging applications running CPU-intensive operations, including rendering video, motion graphics, particle effects, and 3D scenes and performing a wide range of operations in 2D graphics apps. Applications tested include some fairly unlikely candidates for those who choose to go with a MacBook rather than a MacBook Pro or a workstation system, but the results are telling nonetheless. They include Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects; Apple Final Cut Pro and Motion; Maxon Cinema 4D; NewTek LightWave; and Autodesk Maya.

Few K-12 schools will ever need to put notebook computers through this level of processor torture, but some with programs in animation and video certainly will. For those that do not use these specific applications, these tests should at least give you an idea of the relative performance of the MacBook versus earlier Macs and some other systems when used for digital content creation--which is, of course, the main reason you'd use a Mac.

Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects
We'll start things off with a look at its performance when running applications from Adobe's Creative Suite, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects.

With Photoshop, the MacBook beat every single system we tested in terms of the time it took to complete three sequences of operations, including two quad-core workstations that are not exactly the pinnacle of computing power today but that are nevertheless formidable machines. Here are the test results. Descriptions of the tests follow.

And here's an explanation of the tests.

  • Test 1: A 4,000 x 4,000-pixel document was created, and on this document I applied 47 commands, including 28 individual filters and 19 image adjustments, layer and canvas transformations, and various other actions.
  • Test 2: A 2,000 x 1,500-pixel document was created, with a variety of commands applied, including several canvas- and layer-based transformations in succession.
  • Test 3: An 800 x 600-pixel document was created, and to that document every filter that ships with Photoshop was applied, with the exception of Reduce Noise and Displace. The test also included transformations, selections, fills, and the manipulation of text.

The story was similar with Adobe Illustrator. The MacBook fared well against other systems except in the case of the second test.

  • For the first test, I ran a series of transformations on an object that had a gradient applied to it. This included duplicating, rotating, and moving the object so that, in the end, I wound up with 3,721 gradient-filled objects spiraling out from the center of my canvas. Almost needless to say, this is an extremely taxing sequence of operations.
  • Test 2 involved 3D objects with complex shading. The objects were transformed, aligned, rotated, and duplicated multiple times.
  • For the final test, I created and duplicated more simple objects, then aligned and transformed them several times, rasterized them, and finally applied some Photoshop filters to them.

With After Effects, I ran the latest Intel-native version of Adobe's motion graphics suite on the latest MacBook and compared it with performance on other systems running After Effects 7 in their native environments (Windows on Intel-based Macs and on the quad Opteron system and Mac OS X on PowerPC-based systems). All tests gauge rendering and encoding (QuickTime) performance only, not GPU performance.

  • Test 1 was a cel-style animation that involved a PICT file and tracing paths.
  • Test 2 was a composite scene using several effects. Some systems could not complete this test, and I have indicated that in the results with an "NA."
  • Test 3 used Photoshop and Illustrator images in an animation and used 3D effects and random sequencing of numbers across the screen.
  • Test 4 is a 2D composite from an Adobe Illustrator document rendered out at 720 x 486.
  • Test 5 used a 3D composite comprising various 2D shapes undergoing transformations over time.
  • Test 6 used a 3D environment created entirely in After Effects from 2D images, animated and rendered to the QuickTime format.