Mhackintosh blog

If you read my blog carefully, you know that I think that simple hard-drives are just too slow for modern computers:

• I installed 3 x 1TB hard-drive (RAID-0) on an original Mac Pro, at my work, to make it litterally fly. It’s original 320GB hard-drive was just like a brake for the system!
• I use 2 x 1TB hard-drive (RAID-0) on my hackintosh (4×3.4Ghz/8GB/GeForce GTX260), but still I find it not as fast as it may be. I tried a 1st generation 64GB SSD (Kingston SSD V Now) but wasn’t faster really.
• I swapped my 500GB 5400rpm hard-drive of my MacBook Pro to a 500GB 7200rpm and finally a faster 1TB 5200rpm. Before going to SSD

MacBook Pro 17″ Unibody Core2 Duo 2.8Ghz upgrade

I expected mobile Core i5 and mobile Core i7 to be really faster, but as MacWorld show, mobile Core i7 is marginally faster than Core2 Duo 2.8Ghz and slower on major tasks (as launching Windows in VM for example!). I will wait to change my MacBook Pro that there’s a real-world speed gain of at least 25%! Nobody will see difference when a computer is just 10% faster!

Instead, I tried the Kingston SSD V Now 64GB, a 1st generation SSD, that is theorically not faster than hard-drives. I discovered a world where my fan stop making noise, where all launch (including boot and shutdown, or sleep mode) where real faster, and a 2×2.8Ghz laptop that is more reactive than my 4×3.4Ghz desktop! hot!

So I decided that it,s the way to go, upgrading my MacBook Pro instead buying the new model, and I decided to have room to spare and take a real-fast SSD (a 3rd generation) with SATA 6Gbps to be able to use it on future laptops and desktop, that will have this connection. SATA 3Gbps limit this SSD to 250MB/s approximately, but with future 6Gbps-enabled laptop or desktop, it’s given to deliver up to 315MB/s, 25% faster on future computer!

So how does it perform on my actual laptop, compared to hard-drives I installed, 1st generation SSD, and how does it show up on a full-system bench as XBench?

Benchmark of hard-drives and SSD on my MacBook Pro

I forget to bench the 500GB 5400 rpm hard-drive that was shipped on my MacBook Pro. Anyway it’s not interesting, the 500GB 7200rpm was visibly faster as well as the 1TB 5200rpm. And Apple is well known to put the less-expensive drive into their “Pro” computers, that translate to under-performing hardware in many case (same for videocard/GPU).

This chart is clear, the CRUCIAL C300 256GB is just astonishing compared to 1st generation SSD (KINGSTON SSD V Now 64GB), and still beating hard-drives by a 5X performance-ratio! (1.8X for sequential access, 21X for random access! ouch!)

There’s 2 points that the chart doesn’t show:

• Even with it’s score near the hard-drive, the 1st generation KINGSTON SSD V Now 64GB is far faster in daily use, increase autonomy (real-world!), and the laptop feels more reactive than a 4×3.4Ghz desktop! (1.7X faster random access explain it)
• the 317 XBench subscore is astonishing for an storage system, but in fact toally in range with other subscores, from 190 (OpenGL and memory) to 340 (User Interface test), so the performances are better balanced, and it shows…

Whole system XBench performance

As said previously, with all susbsystem scores ranging from 190 to 340, except hard-drive (under 60), the system is not well-balanced, you are waiting for it to boot, waiting when launching application, waiting when using demanding applications, and screaming when using LightRoom because the thumbnails take so much time to be at least corrects! It is no more the case when disk subsystem cope with the CPU, Memory, OpenGL, User Interface, … A modern Core2 Duo laptop just fly, and it translates to XBench global score:

Notice that I put Mac Pro XBench average score, to put this in perspective. I won’t say that my laptop is faster than an average Mac Pro, it’s better to say that on some tasks, that demand disk IO, my laptop will beat them all, hands up! And I used a Mac Pro at work, I know the feeling I had with it, it just underperforms on heavy-io tasks, compared to my upgraded laptop! Seriously!

In short…

Changing from hard-drive to 1st generation SSD (KINGSTON SSD V Now 64GB) was an interesting experience, score doesn’t change, SSD is slower on most test, but user experience was impressive, beating my 4×3.4Ghz desktop with my 2×2.8Ghz laptop, giving me envy to use it more for demanding tasks! Score don’t tell the whole story when it comes to SSD, these benchmarks have been devised for hard-drives, and SSD instantly change your system responsivness!

And upgrading to a 3rd generation SSD (Crucial C300 256GB) is more impressive, but even if score is far over everything I saw or used, even on our server farm, this drive is faster than I need actually, will probably be used until it’s death, because it could give up to 25% more performance on future laptop or desktop, and you see how it pushes the XBench global score, showing how a balanced modern laptop could perform against powerful desktop equipped with under-performing hard-drives!

For myself, I love the CRUCIAL C300, but the experience started with the Kingston SSD V Now 64GB, and I think that you should avoid 1st generation SSD (except Intel’s that are probably the best SSD on the market, but don’t offer 256GB at this time), and go for 2nd generation or 3rd generation SSD, of any size. The firsts minutes you will use it, you will rediscover your computer, you will even launch the most-demanding application, just to see them fly on screen!

SSD is the way to go, it deserve a test, you might be surprised by what YOUR computer might do with one inside

I just compiled results of Core i3 to Core i7 Mobile GPU, with Geekbench benchmark, comparing them to actual flagship of the Mac laptop, Core2 Duo T9600 2×2.8Ghz (2 threads). And results are astonishing!

The graphic just to have an overview on 32bits (blue) and 64bits (green) :

Core i3 Mobile

The Core i3 mobile cpu is available in 2×2.13Ghz and 2×2.26Ghz, with 2 physical cores and 4 threads (hyper-threading) but only 3MB cache. They offers approximately the performance of Core2 Duo 2×2.53Ghz and 2×2.66 Ghz respectively, that is speed of mainstream actual MacBook Pro in 13″ and 15″, at the entry-level of the new Mobile lineup!

Core i5 Mobile

The Core i5 mobile cpu is available in 2×2.26, 2×2.4Ghz and 2×2.53Ghz, with 2 physical cores and 4 threads (hyper-threading) with 3MB cache as Core i3, but they add Intel Turbo-Boost technology, with respectively 2×2.53, 2×2.93 and 2×3.06Ghz. Latest model (Core i5 540M 2×2.53 to 2×3.06Ghz) have not been tested on Geekbench, so there’s no result at this time.

Turbo-boost enable the entry-level Core i5 Mobile processor to largely outperform the Core i3 Mobile of same frequency, offering performance between actual Core2 Duo 2×2.8Ghz and 2×3.06Ghz! First Core i5 Mobile equal the best Core2 Duo Mobile CPU, at only 2×2.26Ghz so needless to say, Core i5 is the way to go, if possible to upgrade your laptop.

2×2.4Ghz with Turbo-boost up to 2×2.93Ghz just outperforms any existing Mobile Mac CPU…

Core i7 Mobile

The Core i7 Mobile CPU will be available on 2×2.66Ghz on Mac laptops with 2×3.33Ghz Turbo-boost, as other Core i mobile cpu, it integrates 2 physical cores and 4 threads with hyper-threading, it have the more impressive Turbo-boost, and sports 4MB cache instead 3MB.

This is a real fast processor with 4900 GeekBench score on 32bits and 5500 on 64bits, offering a 12% boost on 64bits due to it’s larger cache, and 20% faster than 2×3.06Ghz Core2 Duo Mobile.

Which one of these you will find on February 16th, 2010 MacBook Pro?

The early-2010 MacBook Pro lineup is expected this next tuesday, and we won’t be sure of which one will sport which processor, but some choices are obvious:

MacBook Pro 13″ will be offered with Core i3 Mobile processor in 2×1.13 and 2×2.26Ghz, offering same cpu performance-level of actual MacBook Pro 15″ 2.53Ghz and 2.66Ghz. For thermal reason we might not see the Core i5 on 13″ MacBook Pro.

MacBook Pro 15″ will sport the Core i5 processor at 2.26Ghz, 2.4Ghz and 2.53Ghz, offering performance level on a par with 2×3.06Ghz actual customized MacBook Pro, and over! Core i7 maybe offered as a custom option.

MacBook Pro 17″ will probably sports Core i5 2.53Ghz and Core i7 2.66Ghz as custom option, maybe 2.8Ghz if Apple overclock the Core i7 as it did for some previous generations. The 17″ will probably offers 4 DDR3 DIMM support to be upgradeable up to 16GB DDR3 RAM!

Depending on the configuration the CPU performance-level will increase from 10% to 25%, for same price-level… Considering Apple pricing, it’s a gift of $200 to $300! So wait until tuesday to discover the new Mac lineup, and probably new ATI Radeon Mobile GPU too

A last word: with these dual-core 4-threads cpu, the MacBook Pro will reach the performance-level of original Mac Pro, sporting 2 dual-core server-grade CPU! And I find it exciting!

Apple will unveil new MacBook Pro lineup with Core i3 and Core i5 mobile cpu. Maybe Core i7 mobile CPU if we are lucky, but it will be an built-to-order option on MacBook Pro 15″ and 17″ if it ever appears on a MacBook.

On the GPU side, as nVidia seems to be unable to launch new GPU since 2007 and G80, GeForce 8800, for the gamer or fot he mobility market, just trying to hide evolutions of this old chip with marketing rebranding, and Apple choose ATI GPU for the iMac, it seems nVidia wont be the next generation MacBook Pro choice.

Obviously, the new Radeon HD 5830 Mobility seems to be the best GPU for MacBook Pro, with 24W TDP, compatible with actual design and cooling fan, it offers up to 800 Gflops raw processing power for OpenCL and 3D, and 25.6GB/s memory bandwidth, it might be a great choice for OpenCL but a bad one for 3D.

Effectively 3D performance will be just a little better than last-generation 8600M GT or actual 9600M GT (nVidia rebranded the 8600M GT to hide it’s inability to create new chips) with same 25Gb/s memory bandwidth, but will shine on the raw processing side for OpenCL software, such as video encoding, photo processing, antivirus, compression, encryption, raid management… In OpenCL the Radeon HD 5830 Mobility could deliver up to 6.5X the raw processing power of actual MacBook Pro GPU while keeping same TDP.

Radeon HD 5750 Mobility might be a better choice for OpenCL and games, with “only” 500 Giglaflops of raw processing power because of it’s memory bandwith of 51 GB/s, that will help for both games and applications. This will be my GPU of choice, even if the name seems to imply that it is less performing than the 5830!

I suspect there will be two choice, as in the iMac lineup, with probably the HD 5650 Mobility as entry-level GPU, with same raw processing power but only 25.6GB/s GDDR3 memory.

My guess will be Apple offered Radeon HD 5650 Mobility with 512MB DDR3 or GDDR3 on all MacBook Pro and HD 5830 with 1GB GDDR3 on 17″ or built-to-order configuration. But alas we won’t see the really interesting HD 5770 on MacBook Pro.

PS: with same TDP, nVidia offers the GT 240M, that is marginally faster than the 8600M GT and the n-th evolution of GeForce 8xxx G80 chip, with only 25GB/s memory bandwidth (same as GeForce 8600M GT), and 178 Gflops, so Radeon HD 5770 offers 2.5X memory bandwidth and 3X raw processing power, nVidia is totally out of the mobility market!

Here it is, Silicon Images posted Snow Leopard 10.6 SIS3132 ExpressCard eSATA Drivers. These drivers are beta, and supports PIC-express SATA SIL3132 cards too.

I am copying 834GB from a 2TB FAT32 SATA drive to a 1TB HFS+ SATA Drive on my MacBook Pro, and the speed is impressive, around 100MB/s, 4X faster than USB 2.0 real-world speed

Beware that these drivers are beta, without any warranty, and should not be considered at this point as production drivers, but still this is a solution for those like me that have a MacBook Pro w/ ExpressCard eSATA SIL3132 controller (real MacBook Pro have ExpressCards, other are just MacBook in disguise )

Go to Silicon Image download page for SIL3132 Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Drivers (second one)

PS: Finally was 90MB/s thouput for hard-drive copy on eSATA with 25$ eSATA ExpressCard/34! 3X time faster than fastest USB 2.0 hard-drives!

The actual MacBook Pro 2×2.8Ghz is on average as fast as the first MacPro 4×2.66Ghz, and faster on Photoshop tasks, as stated by MacWorld SpeedMark benchmark!

Yesterday night I just finished Lightroom 2 transition, iTunes migration, I put music and photos on their own partition to have a small boot partition at the beginning of the 500GB hard-drive. I modified LightRoom 2’s infos to launch in 64-bits mode instead default 32-bit. And finally calibrate the screen using Spyder 2 Express. Better rendering.

One dawback with the gorgeous screen on the 17″ is that background pictures doesn’t cope with it’s 1920×1200 resolutions and every jagged part or compression block is too visible, so do your background image by yourself